How to fix the financial crisis

The financial markets are in crisis. Banks, especially investment banks, are failing. The federal government is proposing to buy all of the bad decisions from the financial sector at a cost of “hundreds of billions of dollars” to you. Banks and governments have faced this same problem in the past, and they have responded with the same solution: give more money to the banks. Why are we surprised that we have a crisis when we keep giving money to the system that produces the crisis?

Yes, we need a strong economy, but giving more money to the institutions that created this crisis is not the solution. To have a strong and growing economy, we need strong, innovative, productive companies. Which plan will produce the best companies? A) The government’s proposal: have taxpayers spend hundreds of billions of dollars to reinforce weak companies that made terrible decisions. Or, B) reinforce the workers that form companies by providing better education, better job training, and a fair salary? Asked differently, do we create a strong economy by starting with weak companies and giving them tax dollars, or do we make a strong economy by investing in an effective workforce that will work to create strong companies?

The first problem with the proposed solution is that it gives money to the people that created this problem so that they can continue the problem. To make strong companies, we need to invest hundreds of billions of dollars in the workforce. Invest in education and training at all levels. Fifteen percent of adults do not have a high school diploma! Research and innovation is moving to Europe and Asia. Research in the US is largely conducted by foreign students. Education of the workforce is the key to fixing this current crisis and avoiding it in the future. We also need to stop the needless drug war. It creates a permanent underclass of unemployable convicts and it does not affect drug abuse: the people we convict for smoking marijuana are a drag on the economy. Three percent of the US population is in jail, on probation, or on parole, and it hurts the economy to have so many workers in jail because some people think they should drink alcohol instead of smoking pot.

The second problem with the proposed solution is that it concentrates even more wealth than is currently concentrated. Some people believe that since the corporations and richest Americans own all of the money, if they go bankrupt, no one will have money. If that is true, do we fix this wealth-concentration problem by taking more money from the taxpayers and concentrating more money with the wealthy? That is absurd. The solution is to end the unfair concentration of money. Increase the minimum wage, apply overtime laws to everyone, allow more legal immigration, and bring the illegal immigrants into the regulated workforce.

The third problem with the proposed solution is that it ignores another role of government: tackling collective action problems by providing infrastructure. We need a better railroad system. We need better mass transportation. We need less subsidies for the oil industry and a real solution for climate change. Just like we work together to protect all Americans from foreign invaders, fires, and criminals, we need to work together to protect Americans from viruses and bacteria by providing health care to all Americans.

The current crisis is not new. The current financial system has produced this crisis multiple times. Each time the crisis happens, we have given more money to the institutions that created the crisis. Break the cycle: give money to train workers, end the unfair concentration of wealth, and invest in infrastructure.

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