By nationalizing the banks I meant that the final responsibility should be the state's. The state should employ managers who get bonuses according to the success of the bank. This means the profit element would not be eliminated. The difference would be that in the end the banks don't aswer to the shareholders, but to the people. (I am aware that this is an oversimplification)

Tax code: The American tax code is already very different from the tax code of other countries. Most countries have a value added tax (vat) of well more than 10%. If I'm not mistaken Greece is currently raising theirs to 22%. The reason that this doesn't generate an enormous amount of tax is that they still have cash and thereby possibilities to get around paying taxes. Without cash it would be impossible to avoid paying your taxes, as soon as you receive or spend (depends on how you look at it, as I said for every financial transaction,including getting paid for anything) any money. This number is a vat that can easily be enforced and it would lead to a situation where gangsters, prostitutes, junkies and people who don't even have a residency permit pay taxes. The tax would still be much lower than the current taxes and far away from the 90% for rich people some users of this forum demand. Lower taxes would only create distortions in favour of the country in which you have to pay less. I can't stress enough that this would mean getting rid of all other taxes, except dterrent taxes for anything that's disproportinatly bad for the environment (Like fossil fuels ore extreme waste production)or the health (basicly: drugs).
This would support entrepeneurship on a gigantic level. If you start your own company you don't have to worry about taxes or health care for your employees and if the company fails you still have the basic income to fall back on, which minimizes the risk.

Global currency: you are right that America currently borrows its money in $ and could in theory just print enough money to pay its debts, but that would only work once and after that the $ would be all but worthless and America would have to pay enormous interest for further credits that it wouldn't be able to afford. You are right that America would have to set the interest rates in accord with all other states, but that would create a currency stability that would encourage real business instead of speculation. this security would very probably be good for international economy.
America can not set the interest rates or the amount of money without considering the reactions of other countries. A little to much insecurity and the speculators and China would be over the $ like crazy. Other countries (and speculaters) have nearly as much power over the $ as the US government. It is by far not as secure as you might think.
Just assume new credits and oil prices would be swapped to the €. within months America would see the worst inflation in its history. The US economy would collapse. This is just one additional danger that the $ faces, another one, about as dangerous would be Credit Default Swaps. If China would use its $ reserves to invest in American CDS they could ruin the economy within the blink of an eye.

"The first thing Fascists usually try to do is silencing the opposition."

by opposition on 03/10/2010 07:33:26 AM EST

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