Okay, so clearly, I've thought about this idea for awhile, but it was also my submission for a scholarship:
My Plan to solve the foreclosure crisis is even broader than just the foreclosure crisis itself. I plan to solve the entire credit crisis, and class division, all in one solution. The solution I propose is merely a new way of imposing wages upon the masses. If America truly is the land of opportunity, where you are free to do whatever job you so choose, then we should have the ability to live off of any job we so choose. A simple mathematical calculation shows that minimum wage for a forty hours per week, fifty-two weeks per year, employee needs to earn just over eight dollars and forty-one cents per hour just to meet the three person family poverty level of seventeen thousand, five hundred dollars annually. Thus, our minimum wage is below federal poverty level even with the recent increase to seven dollars and fifteen cents.
The best way to help the entire nation is to have people do a job they love, and therefore, will be most productive at. If we quit having people do jobs they hate, for example, teenagers working fast food, and gave them jobs they love we could have a twofold benefit. One, the people would be more productive, and spur innovation as well. Two, they would be happier at work, and as a result be nicer to others, lowering our nations constant level of anger towards each other. The only way to get people to look for a job they love, instead of a job that merely pays the bills, and drives them deeper away from their joy.
The way to do this is to impose a federal wage, not a minimum wage, but rather a set wage. This mandated wage would be able to correct many of our nation's problems. First, we would no longer have those amongst the poorest having to bear the stress of working three jobs to pay the bills, or working more hours simply to put food on the table and a roof over their children's heads. By setting a standard forty hour wage for any employee, they would only have to work one job to support their family, and anymore would be up to the family unit, for example, if the mother and father both worked to have dual incomes, they would have two forty hour paychecks. Second, we would keep inflation in check by controlling the amount that any one person would make in a year, thus, their budget would be set. Third, all parties being equal, there would not be the tension between the classes, especially the uppermost and the lowest.
The next step to make the plan work is to reset the credit rating system for everyone. If you give everyone the same platform to start from, then every persons decisions are theirs to make, and cannot be blamed on situational issues. If we capped every salary, and companies traded that excess income for new willing hires, their companies would also do much better with the influx of new talent. However, the compensation scales would also have to be adjusted to make this system fair and just. To do this we do require all businesses to carry health insurance, as well as dental and vision insurance. The catch being, that all employees must have the same plan benefits. Again, this helps to remove the divide between different classes of income whether factual or perceived. Then, we allow all who have income saved previous to keep it, with a few exceptions.
The exceptions would have to be on certain financial documents. First, all loans would have to be modified to show the new income allowed of each person. This should also reset all interest rates as well. This will allow both the small business and the large business to compete on equal terms for a time. Then their competitiveness in the marketplace can adjust their ratings from there. Also, all low income and high income earners would be on the same scale. For the low income earners this means the ability to keep their homes, and for the high income earners this too means the ability to keep what they already have. Otherwise, the high income earners would swap places with the low income earners as their income to debt ratios would skyrocket.
The next benefit of initiating the system of one wage, is that if we cap of any extra compensation for individuals, then all congressmen would no longer be allowed to accept any gifts whatsoever. This has the dual effect of allowing even more dedicated women and men to serve in the congressional capacities, than would previously be able to. With a more dedicated government staffing, the benefits would again be multifold to the people. Also, with all excess compensation taken out of the picture, greed would lose its allure as a motivating factor, and this would assist in keeping companies honest. With everyone being in the same tax bracket the law would be simpler, and give the Internal Revenue Service the ability to more scrupulously audit those that have wishy-washy tax returns, and very questionable off-shore investment write-offs.
By resetting the credit to zero, we also can give those who had no hope of ever coming out on top a real chance to do so. They would be able to see the possibilities of sending all their children to school, as schools would have to adjust rates to make them affordable for all qualified students to enter. They would be able to have money set aside to deal with emergencies, and with retirement. The government would be able to focus on helping its citizens over its businesses as businesses making money would be the bearers of most taxes, and the government could be a better regulatory body for this with a new narrower focus. Those who chose to fulfill their dreams would no longer have to worry about falling down so far they could never get back up. Volunteer organizations would see increased enrollments as more families were able to donate the most valuable resource of time to them. All and all the resetting of everyone to square one, would enable the nation to move forward together.
As a wise teacher once said, "When leading a student down the path, if the student's path should veer off from the teacher's path, a good teacher will bring them back to the path. However, a great teacher will take the student back to the beginning of the journey, and lead them back down the entire path." America's crisis is above and beyond that of just a foreclosure crisis, it is a moral crisis. Without a reset of the country to square one, there will always be those who can throw the entire nation, nay the entire world, into chaos with their greedy, and selfish ways. These ways may be somewhat legal at times, but are always under reviewed by those who should be watching. By resetting, we also allow these watchdogs the ability to better do their jobs, instead of being worried about the big picture, the can focus on all the little pictures. Then the nation can be more prosperous than it ever was, and truly the land of the free, filled with opportunity to succeed at one's dreams.
