Tuesday, December 2, 2008

Foreign Lunacy


That title is in no way intended to insinuate that foreign countries are crazy. It is a play on the term, "Foreign Policy." See what I did there? Eh?? Nudge nudge.

Though this doesn't have to do with the way foreigners are, it DOES have a lot to do with our borders. No, don't shut our borders to them.

Shut our borders to their businesses.

Yes I understand this would cause many worldwide businesses to be up in arms at the anti-competitive American capitalist policies but we are dangerously close to a depression here.

The U.S. is a great consumer. Most of what U.S. citizens consume happen to be foreign products. We really need to match that balance or perhaps even surpass it.

How do we go about doing this?

  1. Tax the crap out of foreign companies that want to sell products in the U.S. Most foreign countries do the same to ours which is one of the reasons why American businesses fail on foreign soil. *coughJapancough Tax the import, sale and even production of these brands here in the U.S. Money is being sucked out of the country by these corporations. We need to slow it down before they bleed us dry.
  2. Tax the crap out of our own companies that want to look to foreign countries for employment. American companies should NOT legally find it financially feasible to hire cheap labor. Make it MORE expensive for them to do so. This would FORCE them to hire American workers who would keep the money in the U.S. and spend it here feeding the Economy beast.
  3. Give tax breaks to those companies who abide by those policies quickly and provide affordable alternative energy vehicles ready for mass production. Not "in the works" plans or other B.S. delays that GM has tried in the past.
  4. Give tax breaks to citizens who purchase American products.
  5. Readjust purchase tax. Readjust? The most dramatic of all changes would be this one for the tiny little products you buy every day. COMPLETELY REMOVE ALL GOVERNMENT, CITY AND STATE TAXES OF ANY AMERICAN MADE PRODUCTS. How could you possibly compensate for the loss? Toss the difference onto the already lower price of the foreign products. Its not as much as you think, less than a dollar for every 10 but it might just be enough to make a difference.


...and so on. I'm sure you can imagine many similar perks along this same train of thought.

7 comments:

Dawn Marie said...

great post! I like your stuff!

I'm sooo uneducated about this kind of thing..to be honest I just work and go about my daily life. this is how I'm learning how things work and things we could do to improve our country's finances and our lives as well.

I do know I'm tired of China's "crap" products and japan as well. I also think we need to encourage American made products and that would be a good way to support our own businesses as well as our own people.

for years I've thought these countries sit back and laugh at our financial stupidity.

Unknown said...

Good points BUT the problem is many economies around the world are suffering as well, not just America's.

I think Obama has some of the same ideas in his economic plan. I doubt he's using the term "tax the crap out of" though, but it would really be funny if his policy stated it that way.

My dad always said buy American. Now I'm finally understanding why. Dad knows best.

Leah Friesen said...

This is a great post with excellent ideas but Washington would never go for it, it sounds too easy.

ryan said...

i've heard that there are actually cheaper, more efficient sources of energy, but many of the inventions have been bought up by the companies that depend on fossil fuels for making money. i wonder how much truth there is in it?

i'm reading a book called "microtrends" that talks about minority groups in america that have great potential for political and economic power. one of the examples was "young knitters"... apparently it's become a very popular thing among young people to knit. this has fueled various websites, fashion yarn stores, clubs, etc... maybe we should start exporting hand made yarn products to help our economy... :)
~braticas

Douglas said...

One should be careful about letting emotion rule in the face of economic hard times. While these seem to be satisfying remedies, they may well have unforeseen, and adverse, effects. Some have been tried in the past and have led to deeper recessions (ie Great Depression) and even wars.

HektikLyfe said...

>Dawnie: I think it is a desire to please the requests of all the angry countries. We consume their products, sometimes our companies take over their local industries and leave when the money runs out. Think Wal-Mart times a million. I would imagine the U.S. government tries to appease them by allowing certain leniency. This should stop. At least until we recover and our own businesses get back on their feet.

>Marcy: The world economy is suffering, true, but one could argue that it is suffering directly as a result of the largest superpowers suffering major financial troubles. We must resolve the problems within our own border first before we go back to solving the rest of the world's.

>Leah: Really? I thought the ideas I posted would be impossible for them to agree to. Foreign investors would have a fit not realizing that they could only stand to benefit in the long run.

>Ryan: Quite a bit of truth in that. GM itself has been known for some interesting practices. It is a bit dramatic but you could watch "Who killed the electric car?" for a certain perspective. Yarn... never thought that would be a great economic powerhouse.

>Douglas: Granted, any action may have unforeseen effects. The result of which would even be the bankruptcy of entire countries. Wars have been fought for lesser reasons. Any country in power is always threatened with war. We should not let our fear guide or influence our direction into a lethargic attitude of inactivity. What I am suggesting is not extremely selfish of a country. I am suggesting that we put our own companies on a level playing field as opposed to simple bail outs that will be blown on cocaine and fake media visible policies.

I would like to teach our countrymen to fish.

The Diva on a Diet said...

Completely off topic, and I apologize for that, but I've tagged you in a meme today, Hektik. No worries if you're not into it and no pressure to comply!

Which reminds me, did you tag me with something that I forgot to put up?!? I know someone did and I can remember when ... this is what happens when you get old! LOL ;)