Towards a Greater Prosperity for Everyone

A Green, Prosperous and More Beautiful America

Trump’s Promises Versus His Performance

Trump promised lower prices, better incomes, more manufacturing, more jobs, factories moving back to America, a growing economy, and lower federal and trade deficits. All his promises have been broken. His Tarif wars and resulting taxes have increased inflation and caused big uncertainties for businesses. Inflation has increased to 3.8% and his Iran War has caused gasoline prices to rise by more than a dollar. His Defense budget request is insane and will further expand the national debt most of which is being spent on a ruinous war.

MY PROPOSED SIX POINT ECONOMIC PLAN FOR THE US

So, we describe how we can achieve and economy of abundance and green prosperity for everyone caused by expansions in businesses, employment, and good living and environmental conditions for everyone. Increasing incomes and decreasing prices for everyone. The five parts are:

1. Creating abundance (supply) and providing affordability (demand)

2. Creating green prosperity through a new green economy

3. Manufacturing and Tax strategies that favor more employment

4. Enhanced safety net – expanded Social Security and Healthcare

5. Minimum opportunities for everyone – A Points System for Betterment

6. Beautifying America – Restored Ecosystems on land and sea.

COMMON STRATEGY FOR 1 AND 2 – INNOVATE AND BUILD INDUSTRIES

For both first two, the strategy will be to rev up the national innovation machine in federal research labs, universities, companies, and private individuals, to create new technologies and businesses. As we did at the start of World War II, government and industry will cooperate to create internal abundance, global competitiveness and widespread increases in the supply of everything people need and with widespread prosperity. Federal Departments including Energy, Transportation and Education will be revamped to meet this challenge in an aggressive way. We will emphasize greater export competitiveness and use it as a better way to solve the trade deficit.

Funding: All the programs and strategies proposed here will be implemented by restoring the tax cuts of the Trump Administration, stabilizing the defense budget, and by small fees like fees on financial transactions, fossil fuel vehicles, and airline flights.

The organized effort here will be the total support for the Incubation and Acceleration of thousands of new businesses, that are helped to get started and then help them through all the stages of business plan development, help with manufacturing, and then financing and marketing.

1. CREATING ABUNDANCE AND PROVIDING AFFORDABILITY

As Ezra Klein and Derek Thompson say in their book, “Abundance”, this is a strategy to create more of what we really need – Housing, transportation, energy, health. But here we go one step beyond and do this by helping create many new businesses to meet the needs in each area, so that the abundance makes plenty available in each area.

The flip side of this is to create and provide AFFORDABLE housing, transportation, energy and healthcare, using this abundance and policies. Start with small affordable homes for first time buyers and ethne increase the sizes so they can move up as they accumulate equity.

This will be combined with cost and price reductions by all government and fiscal methods – housing, healthcare, childcare, transportation, food, etc.

2. CREATING GREEN PROSPERITY FOR EVERYONE

“The energy transition needed for climate change is the biggest economic opportunity of the twenty-first century”.

A parallel strategy is to transform the entire US economy to a Green Economy, where all the energy is renewable I either direct or stored forms. For Solar Energy, the fuel is free as the sun shines everywhere, so the strategy will be to use this to make it affordable. About 2.5% of the US total land area worth of solar panels can produce ALL the energy the US needs – so It’s a question of storing this energy. There is enough renewable energy for the EXPANDING energy needs of the US. All of it clean green energy.

This part calls for a total re-industrialization of the US economy, to transform it totally to green electrical power, transportation, housing, buildings, industry, recycling and even disaster management. So, here the process will be to create new companies in each of these sectors. The main points are:

a. Replace fossil fuel power plants with renewable energy (Solar-Battery-Hydrogen) power plants

b. Replace all fossil fuel vehicles with zero emissions battery and fuel cell vehicles, and with massive increases in innovative affordable solar powered transit and freight (including rail), and high-speed rail.

c. Retrofit all homes and buildings with higher efficiency items and make them net zero in terms of solar energy and use.

d. Replace all fossil fuel use in industry with solar, wind, battery and hydrogen.

e. Industrialize all recycling to achieve 90% recycling rates for paper, aluminum and cardboard.

f. Industrialize all aspects of disaster management: Early warning systems, tornado, hurricane and wildfire proof emergency shelters and rapidly deployable housing for evacuees from disasters. The “Build Better Back” for replacement housing and buildings.

“We will also start industries for making all aspects of disaster management and help to people before, during and after disasters”. The US will become the world leader in making and selling such hardware and systems.

3. PRO-EMPLOYMENT STRATEGIES – FAVORING EMPLOYMENT

In this part, we ensure that we favor increases in employment through tax reform, and through investing in technologies and ways of doing things that can employ more people. So, tax reform will provide businesses deductions for skills training, and payroll tax deductions so it is more profitable for them to employ more people. Next, instead of having fully automated factories, these are designed to be semi-automated so that they employ more people. This needs to be done with innovation and by using AI in a way to make up for the loss of jobs it is causing in other sectors.

A Big Boost to Rural and Depressed Areas: For these locations that were hurt by de-industrialization and by companies leaving, there will be a comprehensive investment in family farms, agriculture, food processing, green energy, electrification, digital connections and generally more local production for local use.

4. STRENGTHENING THE ECONOMIC SAFETY NET

· Social Security Solvency: The tax cap for Social Security tax deductions will be released enough to ensure that the program will be solvent forever.

“The Social Security tax cap will be raised enough to make it tonally solvent forever”

· Healthcare for All: All options will be explored and the best 1 implemented: Medicare for all, Single Payer healthcare system, universal healthcare, etc. All cuts to Medicaid will be restored.

· SNAP Benefits: Nutritional Assistance will be restored to ensure that there is no malnutrition in the population.

· Housing Assistance: The entire strategy coming out of Strategy 1 (Abundance) will be to provide affordable housing to all who need it, especially young and new homeowners.

5. MINIMUM OPPORTUNITIES FOR EVERYONE

Here it is proposed that there will be an Economic Opportunities organization with all people can register which will provide a minimum of opportunities in terms of education, skills training, apprenticeships, and work experience, with each person accumulating points and having to earn to get to the next step. This program will ensure that anyone who is willing to work hard has a path to rise in the ladder to better himself or herself.

This will be a good time to consider programs like FDR (Roosevelt) had created like the Civilian Conservation Corps, Work Progress Administration, etc.

6. RESTORING US LAND AND COASTAL ECOSYSTEMS

This strategy will implement large scale expansion of forests, and of coastal ecosystems like oyster reefs, salt marshes and sea grasses. This will be combined with a restoration of the biodiversity and habitats for fisheries and ocean life for all fisheries along the entire coast. All activities will have industrial, jobs, tourism and earnings aspects, along with more local democratic local control of resources, with the benefits mainly going to local residents.

This is my proposed blueprint for a US that has shared prosperity, and which solves climate change through green economic activity, and solves the trade deficit through more exports and beautifies the land and coasts.

Hari Lamba