As a politician, you should probably read this or; I see above in your future...
Someone asked me for a viable, and doable, suggestion (or two)
that politicians actually could do already today without too much fuzz in order
to, at least, soften the approaching blow of our financial apocalypse.
So, let me suggest a few things with my birth nation of Sweden as
example. Although this is Sweden specific, it could potentially be applied to
your country as well.
First off, let us strengthen the armed forces (not needed in the
U.S. that rather should cut their defense budget in half) at the same time as
we strengthen our currency reserve and lower our public debt and do so with
mostly applauds from the general public.
Can´t be done? Of course it can.
First off, cut politician salaries with 1/3. Secondly lower the
number of politicians from 365 MP´s to 301. Also fire a few administrators and
2 ministers so the total number of Swedish ministers goes down from todays 21
to 19, and of course get rid of their respective departments. Also the
political contributions to each party, paid for by the state, should be cut in
half during 2013, and completely phased out before the election 2014. To
further enhance how much effort our bellowed leader does, they should also lose
their cushy pension scheme and their double living i.e. no more free
apartments. And then it should be argued that all money saved (about 3-4bn SEK
/year) should go to the defense budget. Why? Because firstly the Swedish
military is a laughable entity and in desperate need of extra founding, and our
masters can argue that they are cutting themselves in order to protect the country.
Second thing that easily can be done is to sell off a huge bunch of publicly owned businesses. SAS, SBAB, Nordea, Svenska Spel, and a lot of
others can easily be sold today and could bring in lot of necessary extra
funds.
I believe that during 2013 government entities for about 150bn SEK
could be sold – probably a lot more. Only a few communists and a few union
leaders would complain about this if the cash is used in a correct manor.
I would suggest the following on the basis of 150bn;
20bn = pay of public debt, could argue for more, but not necessary
since Sweden currently is very financially stable and has a shrinking public
debt.
20bn = to strengthen the currency reserve, preferably through
purchase of gold. A stronger currency is, contrary to what mainstream
cornflake-economists argue, a great thing for both the country and its
inhabitants.
25bn = to Defense purchases. Both increase the number of and
earlier buy the new fighter Jet of JAS Gripen, also instead of only having two
units of surface-to-air missile groups, it should be three, or rather four.
55bn = much needed infrastructural investments. The Swedish
train-track system is obsolete and horrible. Several roads need an upswing. We
need a few more international airports. Also the government has promised a lot
of future investments, which will never happen since the crisis will stop those,
but they can instead be put to use during 2013 if they sell off a bunch of
companies as is suggested. This big investment would be a great argument to
throw around during election time.
The rest = to be put into a municipal rescue/support found and to
be combined with the next step below.
This far, they can do it. Easily and fast. And if the political
group of misfits currently leading my homeland would do what I just mentioned,
they would almost surely be re-elected in 2014. It’s a win-win. They lowered
their own income from being super rich and very well off, to become just
slightly above rich. And while doing so they increase the safety of the people
and country, created lots of military- and construction jobs, they have strengthen
the purchasing power of the krona and increased the cushion in case of
financial emergency. If they cannot use this together with the 55bn of new and
better railways, upgraded airports and better roads to win the election of
2014, they are the most incompetent idiots ever seen.
This is however only the first step - what they can do right now
and would be perceived as positive by almost all inhabitants.
These next two steps are not as popular, but just as important.
Firstly they should cut all subsidies to companies, secondly all
subsidies to municipalities and local authorities, thirdly all subsidies to
media and all other extra funded in society. Also they should cut foreign aid in
half, or completely.
Especially the middle one, the so called “robin-hood”-tax that
takes from the government and put it out into local branches, will be faced
with very stiff opposition. Not a single local political will like this because
it means they will need to cut things or raise taxes locally which are not so
popular among local inhabitants.
This would save the government circa +120bn SEK / year
(conservative number).
I would suggest that 80bn of that should be used to lower the VAT-
and gasoline taxes. The VAT tax (Moms) is a taxation of consumption and is
really something that hurts the little guy and the poor, lowering that should
win a lot of points with the people. Gasoline taxes will of course get some
tree-hugging Marxists to scream about destroying the planet, but if such idiots
can be ignored almost every person in the country would love a government that
lowered their gasoline costs.
The remaining 40bn should be divided up between the military, higher
education and pensioners. Sweden is lacking in educational quality and we need
more people with higher education, also the defense budget is ridiculously low
as already mentioned. We need a proper military able to at least defend the
country for more than a few weeks. Pensioners should, if possible, be
completely excluded from paying taxes.
But what about the municipalities? And healthcare etc.?
Remember the fund from above? That will be the buffer they need.
The rest they need to take care of themselves. It is time that people
understand how crappy their local screw-ups are, and this is one way of showing
them. Whether local politicians increase taxes or cut costs or a mix of the two
in order to meet their criteria, is up to each local bunch of elected frauds.
The final thing that could be done in order to save the country
and can be done easily is to increase the cost of borrowing and lower the excess
amount of money circling the Swedish system. I.e. we need much higher interest
rates and a much tighter grip on banks and their lending practices. This is the
thing that most mainstream pundits and moronic Keynesian fools will complain
over like crazies, which of course also tells you how important it is. We need
to cut the total debt of Sweden by half, at least, and we need to “force”
people to repay their loans instead of taking new ones.
So, there you have it. Suggestions that would lower public debt and
make Sweden more lucrative and better equipped to handle any crisis, at the
same time as we make it a safer, healthier and better place to live without
cutting ANYTHING on healthcare, schools or hospitals. In fact if you read
above, there´s actually more money going to those priorities.
PS. leaving the European Union would save an additional +25bn,
which also is something to strive for... ds.
Why are we not doing this? Oh, that’s right, because we have a
semi-socialist and semi-fascist government and not a single person within the
elitists wants to change anything. They have it just fine, why change something
that they are happy with? Nah, let the people starve… or, they can always have
cake…
And above is not really what I would suggest, I would do a lot more
and really take this further and truly change things, but it’s a start and if
the current government did this or at least took it in this direction, we could
perhaps survive The Greatest Depression.
