This article was written by Brandon Smith and originally published at Birch Gold Group
Alternative economists have been predicting a long list of instabilities in the US economy and for some time. We’ve been proven right in the last few years on most of those predictions and, as usual, corporate media economists are now scrambling to pretend as if they “saw the danger coming” all along. They now suddenly have their own ideas on how to fix the very problems they used to call “conspiracy theory.” The vital question is, who do you trust?
You can’t trust someone to offer you a valid solution if they’re too dense to understand the source of the crisis. You also can’t trust someone to give you valid solutions on the economy if their job is to lie to you about how great things are.
The alternative media’s accuracy about our nation’s dire circumstances has put us in a position to be right which should at least win us some trust points, but being right is only the first step. There will always be government shills that seek to undermine truth-tellers by claiming we serve no purpose because we aren’t actively fixing the problems that we warn about.
Frankly, that’s not our job. However, it’s true that our movement has a tendency to focus on diagnosis of a problem rather than prevention or treatment.
There are a few reasons why this is the case. I’ve noticed that whenever I write about solutions I get far less article traffic. Is it because people just don’t care? Or, is it because solutions are hard and require vast coordination of people and resources to ever be possible?
National solutions require millions of Americans get off their couches, go outside, and take extensive risks. This is why human beings in general tend to adapt to the worst conditions until things are so bad society snaps. We wait until we can’t stand it any longer, and then finally, we take action.
Another road block is that liberty movements are made up of people who all have their own ideas on what should be done. Most of us agree on the causes of the chaos, very few of us agree on what exactly to do about them. It’s funny because black-pill critics often accuse conservatives and patriots of falling into the echo chamber trap. The reality is quite the opposite; we can’t seem to ever shake hands on anything and it’s holding us back.
The thing is, time is running out and debate is a luxury. I believe Americans today are close to the breaking point economically with stagflation continuing to crush the middle class and those already in poverty. The future is bleak; housing costs have spiked to levels beyond what the vast majority of people can afford. All necessities including food and utilities have seen a 30%-50% minimal price increase since 2020, and inflation continues to rise.
Wages are stagnant and profit margins for employers are shrinking, which means the jobs market will be next to see cuts. By the end of 2025 and under current policies, I suspect we will be witnessing a combination of serious deflationary and inflationary crisis events simultaneously. A crash in employment and GDP combined with incessant price jumps on goods and services. This crash has been decades in the making and might be unavoidable. That said, I do believe there is a way out, but it requires dramatic changes in the way our government and society operates.
The policy measures I suggest are a kind of fiscal time machine – A way to turn back the clock on collapse. Some might consider them “radical” but they are only policies that America USED TO value and that we have been pressured to forget. Can the modern American brain with its steady exposure to big government and socialist programs handle such a shift? It’s hard to say.
I think if people are desperate enough they’ll accept any solution that they feel works. And for now the elites that created the crisis are the only group offering a way out (a false way out). If I could snap my fingers (or if I was king for year), this is the list of actions I would undertake to save the American economy before the end of 2025 (or at least set it on the the path to resurrection).
End Income Tax For The 99%
My very first step would be to end income taxes for individuals and small business owners outside of the top 1% of earners (those who make more than $800,000 per year). The permanent income tax was never supposed to exist. It started in 1913 as a tiny 1% rate on net personal incomes over $3,000, and a 6% surtax on incomes over $500,000 (the super rich at that time).
In the past century it has ballooned into a 15%-20% monstrosity that is crushing middle class buying power. It also feeds bigger government which wastes money and leads to less and less freedom. There is no reason for the tax to exist for average citizens other than to act as a slave tribute to the Federal Reserve Bank. Shutting it down would immediately alleviate financial pressures on middle class families and getting rid of the IRS would certainly help shrink government spending.
How would the government pay for services and national security? Well, right now they print most of that money from thin air anyway, but tariffs on foreign trade used to be the main source of income for the federal government. Why not go back to that model? Because some biased Keynesian economists claim it can’t work? It already has worked.
End Property Taxes On Single Family Homes
Property taxes are supposed to act as a fiscal buffer for local infrastructure and services. They are also meant to dissuade major buyers from hoarding homes and cornering regional markets. The problem is, the taxes are doing the opposite of that. With high property taxes most US families can’t afford to own even one home, while corporate buyers snatch up distressed mortgages and drive up rents.
This scenarios is going to create mass homelessness, mark my words. It’s already starting in some areas of the country. Inflation in housing is bad enough but the high interest rates on mortgages and the high property taxes on top of that is enough to break most middle class buyers.
Fixing rates and inflation is complicated, but property taxes could be ended tomorrow. By extension, high property taxes on corporate buyers like Blackstone might force them to release some of their holdings back onto the market and help lessen the ongoing housing shortage.
How else can communities pay for local infrastructure and services? A fair sales tax should be more than sufficient to fill the gap, or, a tourism tax.
Remove All Illegal Immigrants From The US
The illegals need to go, there’s no way around it. All the data shows they are a drain on national resources and welfare programs, but worst of all, they receive subsidies from the government that allow them to snap up housing and eat into welfare programs. In some cases, landlords are enticed to rent to illegals over native born citizens because they get more money (or tax breaks) for renting to migrants instead.
Estimates from 2023 indicate there are at least 16.8 million illegal immigrants in the US today with a net fiscal drain of over $150 billion per year. That’s also millions of homes taken off the market by people who should not be in this country. US housing availability is currently in the negative by 5 million to 7 million homes (officially). Removing most illegals could be accomplished in a single year and would immediately solve housing shortages while bringing prices down by adding more supply.
Beyond housing, the money that goes to welfare spending on migrants could be better utilized for American citizens, including a better emergency response for those that lose their homes during natural disasters.
Incentives For Married Couples With Children
The western world has a population decline problem that is likely to hit us hard in the next decade. The elites claim that’s why we need mass immigration, but fixing our population problem with cultural replacement from the third-world is not the answer.
A major factor is the decline in stable relationships and nuclear families (marriage between men and women). This same lack of family stability is causing unprecedented social issues. Single mother homes are statistically more likely to produce children with criminal behavior and mental health problems. Children from fatherless homes are 20 times more likely to end up incarcerated. This is an insidious drain on our culture and our nation’s wealth.
Many men point out that marriage is a huge financial risk under current divorce laws and this has made the practice untenable. But even removing unfair divorce laws would probably not solve the greater conundrum. Eliminating feminism from our society would be a good start, but that’s an elusive goal requiring many years of social healing.
One thing that could be done in a single year is to create incentives for married couples that want to have children. Easy access to home loan programs would be a start, along with educational subsidies for viable careers in STEM or technical fields so they can get higher paying jobs that actually serve national needs. Eventually, a return to financially stable single income families could be possible.
Business And Technical Apprenticeships
America’s economy used to thrive due to the old standards of apprenticeship. This was a way for those that could not afford a higher education to still learn and obtain a valuable trade. George Washington, Benjamin Franklin and Paul Revere were ALL apprentices at one point in their lives. We need to bring this tradition back.
Specifically, we need apprenticeships in business operations, medical, manufacturing, engineering, the sciences, technical (repair and fabrication), construction, as well as computer and software fields. The US has a self sufficiency problem when it comes to production that needs to be solved immediately.
Revitalizing America’s worker base and small business base is the key to stopping our exponential slide into oblivion. We need to show people there’s a light at the end of the tunnel or they might give up completely. In particular, the trend of young western men dropping out of the workforce is worrying. Most of them want assurances that they’ll be able to one day do a job that actually means something.
Yes, some of them are spoiled overgrown children that have delusions of becoming YouTube stars and there’s no way to help those people. But, many others are good men that are willing to work hard as long as they’ll get a fair chance for something better in return. They have no direction because all the doors have been shut. Men make the world go around, and when a society abandons their young men the way the west recently has, only disaster can follow.
The above measures are all items that can be adopted in a very short period of time. In a single year every one of them could be instituted by a proper government, federal or state. And yes, I’m aware that government officials with the balls to enact these policies are likely few. That’s not a revelation, but that doesn’t mean we abandon the effort. Even with a Harris presidency, individual states could save themselves with these solutions without federal assistance.
Other actions would have to be long term. Reversing inflation, shrinking the size of government, ending the central bank and reverting money creation back to the Treasury, shifting the dollar to a commodity backed system, rebuilding America’s manufacturing base, etc. – All of these efforts will take many years to succeed.
Getting off to the right start is essential. I argue that the above list could be implemented quickly and create a resurgence in economic optimism. This is the launch point by which all other solutions will unfold. It’s not enough to declare our high-minded ideals and goals, there has to be a plan.
Our economy is on a decades-long path to total collapse. And no election can completely stop what is coming! Which is why protecting your 401(k) or IRA is more critical than ever. With a physical gold IRA, you get an easy and tax-deferred way to safeguard your wealth with tangible assets. To learn more, click here to get your FREE info kit on Gold IRAs from Birch Gold Group.
“I’ve noticed that whenever I write about solutions I get far less article traffic. Is it because people just don’t care? Or, is it because solutions are hard and require vast coordination of people and resources to ever be possible?”
Yet your articles on economics are just as important as your articles on geopolitics. The 2 issues are complementary.
…
“National solutions require millions of Americans get off their couches, go outside, and take extensive risks. This is why human beings in general tend to adapt to the worst conditions until things are so bad society snaps. We wait until we can’t stand it any longer, and then finally, we take action.”
INDEED!
..
Another issue to watch, main western currencies collapse i.e USD, EURO and …Swiss Franc(CHF).
I’ve just read this relevant news: “Gold Breakout in CHF: UBS Recommends Allocating 5% of Your Portfolio to the Yellow Metal”.
…
Are we approaching “The Fourth Turning”?! (cf “The Fourth Turning: What the Cycles of History Tell Us About America’s Next Rendezvous with Destiny”, by William Strauss and Neil Howe).
This seems to be the case.
We aren’t “approaching” it, we’re in it!
All excellent and solid ideas, “HOWEVER” we are dealing with politicians and they use money as a bargaining chip and for bribes to the general public. When it first started out, the federal income tax was a tiny fraction of what it has become. Now the income tax, feeds the “Blob” in Washington DC and that’s why they use the income tax to their benefit. Such as “buy a house” and you can use that as tax credit. The other problem is the entire system on a Federal level has become “too complex and corrupt”.
The only way out of this mess, unfortunately is a crash and burn which means a breakup of the United States, such as what the Soviet Union went through in the early 90’s. Career politicians are the problem and in a government style Republic it just begs for corruption as politicians are usually the first to benefit. We have become like “Rome”.
Look no further than Nancy Pelosi. If any of us did what she has done regarding insider trading, we’d all be in jail. And yet her husband benefited from her being in CON-gress.
Like I said in the article, that’s not a revelation. Americans always use politicians as an excuse for why something can’t be done. But there are in fact many people in leadership even now that want to change things for the better. Despite the claims of blackpillers, they are not all controlled. The fact that half the states in the US passed legislation to block the globalist vax passports proved that. So, the situation is not as dire as it seems.
One thing that I think is very important that you did not address which MUST be addressed and gotten rid of is the option for the chronic welfare class to remain on welfare. (We all know WHO THAT CLASS IS, by and large.). It should be mandated that anyone receiving public assistance work in a job , ( and there are always many available undesirable jobs) at a wage and for the umber of hours required to pay back in real time, the money and assistance they receive. As well, I do not think we should rescue any women who elect to have children as a single parent…..period. There are many available forms of birth control that will PREVENT pregnancy, and I think that birth control should be provided FREE to anyone who wants it. It is high time we as a nation put our foot down and say that we are fed up with parasites. Now, I do understand that people lose a job and need short term help or become extremely ill leading to untoward consequences. We can address that issue pre-emptively, and write it into law. Any state that deviates from a policy of “ EVERYONE WORKS” is barred from further federal funds. States like Minnesota and others that have created a massive welfare state, including becoming the transgender surgery state of the nation, for kids, and illegals, need consequences sufficient to force voters to hold their state reps accountable.
My motto….no more free loading….by anyone, unless there is a crisis, and then only until that person either finds or is directed to employment.
Certainly, there’s probably hundreds of other items that need to be fixed within our economy and our government in order to have a truly functional system. I only focused on those that could be achieved within a year in this article, though, because otherwise I would have to write a book on the subject. One thing I wanted to include in this essay was the development of more social charity. Instead of taxing people, let them give what they want to give to help the people they want to help. This was how Christian nations helped the needy for centuries. Socialism has tried to take that spirit of giving away.
Find a Constitutional Sheriff and use your Citizens Arrest
We also need to stop producing so many lawyers and especially keep them out of lawmaking. They make laws that invite litigation which keeps them busy sucking wealth from the economy while producing nothing.
>>We have become like “Rome”.<<
Last year the "Philadelphia Trumpet" magazine dedicated an entire issue to the parallels between the US and the Roman Empire. Now add aspects of the USSR and Third Reich, and the picture is even clearer. The Yankee Empire has passed its "shelf life," and therefore must join those others on history's dustbin. Per Ecclesiastes 3 (and The Byrds), there is a time to build up and a time to break down. Ron DeSantis would make an outstanding first president of either the Dixie Republic (the original CSA plus KY & OK) or the fully sovereign Republic of Florida.
“National solutions require millions of Americans get off their couches, go outside, and take extensive risks.” I must of missed something because I do not see the risks.
You don’t see the risks of completely upending the status quo and the chaos that could cause?
Not ‘could cause’ WILL CAUSE!
These globalist greedy money printing demons will NEVER understand, or be willing to help We the People!….period!…they DO NOT CARE if we live or die, quite frankly, they prefer the later since they now have all the money.
Very sad to say, but I really think there are very few options left.
I am not and never will promote violence in any way, but remember the words of Brezinski, ‘it used to be easy to control a million people, now it is much easier to kill a million people!
We the People are not pushing that agenda, they ARE
I knew of the found out about ‘theIRS’ scam in 1978 and have been fighting big government ever since…..THERE is the real problem, like you stated…the bigger the government, the more problems created.
I have ALWAYS said, the illegals NEED TO GO, NOW!!…..I could go on for hours here, but all this is foretold in Prophecy and Revelation
2 Peter 3
Thats a great list. When I mention deporting all Illegal Aliens to people I always get the defeatist response of ‘no way we can deport “fill in the blank” millions of people.’ Self deportation would be quick and easy. In the spirit of compromising with the left, Illegals could be given sixty days to pack up, and leave. They can take what they can carry, untaxed back across the border. After sixty days, when they get caught, they get stripped of everything but the shirt on their back, maybe even given a brand on the forehead and never allowed in here again. Those that cooperated would still be eligible for legal entry in three years after the moratorium on all immigration ended.
As for the feminist mind virus, and the lack of family creation. Easily solved. In addition to tax incentives for family creation, and in a grand compromise on immigration both, we allow in only unmarried females (real not fake)between the age of 16 and 25. If they marry anAmerican male
Sorry about the wonky computer.
f the newly arrived females marry an American, and make a new American, that could be their path toward citizenship, along with learning our language and history. This would end the scourge of boxed wine cat lady-ism in short order. It would also greatly reduce abortions as many, at least from Latin America have traditional pro family values. Eliminating all male immigration would straighten the imbalance in the workforce as well. The lie of the elites, that its jobs Americans wont do would would be exposed as most American males would be happy to work if the wages weren’t artificially repressed by Illegal Alien completion. Win Win all around. One last thing I think you forgot, is stripping NGOs of their tax free status and banning every single one of them from operating within the meets and bounds of the US.
Getting rid of NGOs would take far longer than a year…
Probably true, but Trump could outlaw them day one, by EO. if he learned anything from the first time, that would be an excellent way to show it.
Trump doesn’t have that power, nor does any president. Unless we’re talking about a complete political coup, which is another matter entirely.
All Trump or any other POTUS need do is veto any Congressional funding. The same applies to any other federal agency or department. IMHO Trump should have taken a page from the Milei playbook and publicly listed those he would abolish.
NGO’s aren’t only funded by government, that’s just their side gig. You greatly oversimplify the process required to eliminate these entities. Unless we are talking about using physical force to tear them down. Otherwise, using legal or economic means will take years. The is a common fallacy extolled by people within the liberty movement – They think it’s a simple matter of a presidential executive order or veto, which is just not true.
Without honest money, there is no rule of law. Unless you remove the banksters ability to print money out of thin air there are no solutions!
Incorrect. There are plenty of solutions that get us to the point where we can end the Federal Reserve, but that’s a process that will take YEARS. In this article I’m talking about things that can be accomplished right now. So tired of people talking about the goal without talking about a PLAN.
The plan is easy. It’s called gold. As JP Morgan said gold is money. Everything else is credit!
Sure, a gold standard would be great, but that’s not a solution by itself. Also, it would take years to implement without completely crashing the economy in the process.
I agree but I don’t see any other way unless God intervenes.
How do you know he’s not intervening right now?
With all due respect, Brandon, you are incorrect on this one. With the ability to create money out of nothing, they can own the entire planet, and buy off any thing and anyone they want. This should absolutely be #1 (Job One).
Wrong. They can only crash the currency through printing. They own the entire planet IF they’re allowed to introduce a new GLOBAL currency system, which is why they’re trying to collapse the system deliberately. The dollar is irrelevant – It’s chaos that they want because it forces the public to beg them for solutions. Ending the Fed at this stage solves nothing because they STILL get the the chaos they need from the inevitable currency collapse. Why you’re not able to understand this simple reality is beyond me.
Removing illegals can be done right now? Dont think so.
It absolutely can. Take away the welfare subsidies. Most will leave on their own. Those that don’t could be easily rounded up and kicked out of the country in a year.
You published an article long ago I wanted to reference but it’s not longer working. Do you still have this in your archive you can provide?
https://alt-market.com/articles/3431-global-elitists-are-not-human
Likewise we could remove most of the illegal’s in less than 90 days. 1) Announce the deportation program with a 90 day self deport (grace period) option. 2) Bounties, equal to 1 years welfare, paid for all illegals identified and turned into ICE. 3) Asset forfeiture (split between ICE and bounty hunters) for all illegals right down to their cell phones. 4) Open the outbound border posts, no questions asked. Pretty sure that would work.
Brandon, I’ll tell you that I can’t recall how I found your articles…I want to say it was through ZeroHedge. I found your perspective very interesting, entertaining and genuine. But I can tell you without a doubt is that what really drew me in the most was that you’re a man with a plan. Many people online b!tch and moan, but never offered any actual solutions — solutions that would be fair and actually work — which you often have done. Anyway, I doubt you will, but if you ever do run for office, I hope you win and make a positive change. Wish you the best!
I appreciate that. The movement really needs to start focusing on solutions because time is running out. Under current political conditions you have to have significant money to run for any meaningful office independently (millions in most cases). I’ve seen many liberty people try and not get anywhere despite having excellent policy ideas. Maybe as the social environment changes I would be willing to give it a shot.
“A Radical Plan To Save America’s Economy In One Year”
.
We also need a radical plan to save the Nation as an entity as well (and SOON). If things continue to go as they are now… that long-rumored fracture into regional areas is going to proceed due to We the People being so divided and Government being so unnresponsive to legal Citizens instead of their total devotion to those who are here illegally.
.
“… whenever I write about solutions I get far less article traffic. Is it because people just don’t care? Or, is it because solutions are hard…”.
.
People have become negative in their thinking. We have been so propagandized into despondency and feeling powerless that we have lost our ability to think positively and the worth the trouble of putting out effort and with a real belief in a prosperous future. Not only has the general population been ‘dumbed-down’ by the (mis)education system and America’s State Media… we have been drained of our spirit. This is not irreversible ny any means. All we need to do is start thinking right again and stop being polluted by the Dark State’s endless messages of doom.
.
“Property taxes are supposed to act as a fiscal buffer for local infrastructure and services.”
.
Property taxes are a way that people can NEVER own property. That’s right. You might think you own your home or vacant lot but you don’t – and you can’t. This belongs to The Government through their primary and fundamental lien of taxation. If you don’t pay your tributes to Government – They will promptly cancel ‘your’ Title (myth that this is) and take over ‘your’ property. The government has another prevailing claims on ‘your land’ as well such as the right to take it anytime through eminent domain… and other powers reserved to Them. Private land ownership in America is a long-running mythology. All private ‘land owners’ really have is perpetual Land RENTAL and the ‘right’ to get their name on a tax bill every year. Land ownership by The People is a pleasant fantasy.
.
“The above measures are all items that can be adopted in a very short period of time. In a single year every one of them could be instituted by a proper government…”.
.
There is one very key word in the above statement. Know which one it is?!
The only area in which property taxes make sense to me is in preventing corporate buyers from gobbling up so many home mortgages that they control the market and drive up prices. The thing is, that’s happening anyway. So, we should at least get rid of property taxes for all individual home buyers.
Brandon Smith: “… area in which property taxes make sense to me is in preventing corporate buyers from gobbling up so many home mortgages that they control the market… that’s happening anyway… we should… get rid of property taxes for all individual home buyers.”
.
There is one other big prime motivation behind property taxes besides that fact that we can never actually own property. And that is – by taxing us every year for the right to hold a (virtual) temporary leasehold on the property and not actual title – paying taxes to Government sends the psychological message to We the People to always know who is ‘above’ them and who must always be catered to. That is a powerful mind-warp that serves to disempower We the People.
.
You identify good reasons why property taxes should be eliminated. In doing so, this would take away a big mental sledgehammer being used upon The People. People have such an emotional attachment to their homestead and they actually want to think they are protecting something by paying property tax – again, a pleasant mythology for us.
Corporations absolutely need to pay taxes, substantial taxes and I think it should be a percent of REVENUE. Corporations can’t be treated better than citizens, but they are. Indeed, since corporations carry huge benefits — notably ease of capital access, infinite life, and minute liability for harm caused to humans — they need to be heavily constrained. Either that, or every citizen should automatically be gifted a “corporate shell” which will make nobody responsible for anything…including paying their bills to corporations.
Corporations need to be tax donkeys, and tightly controlled, in order to escape the actual Fascism* we now live under.
* Mussolini, or rather Mussolini’s Marxist economist, apparently created the word. People who throw the word around as if it means anything other than the definition it was given by its creators are grossly ignorant or complicit. At this point we live, by definition, under melding of Government+Corporate governance. By definition, the current US corporate-government fusion IS Fascism. Definitionally, Fascism is not jackboots, nor authoritarianism, nor any of the other characteristics which came with it in Italy . . . and now in the US. Jackboots, authoritarianism, lack of privacy, and lack of human rights preceded and now follow Fascist Italy. They appear to be intrinsic to ALL government. Fictitious entities are, intrinsically, psychopathic; they don’t have a human brain, so they can’t have a human conscience. They need to be put back on choke-chains of razor wire and be used far more sparingly. And they should pay through the nose for the right to exist; if you wan’t protection from lawsuits, you should buy better insurance, not corporate shells.
I agree whole heatedly about property taxes. The county/state own it all ! and if you comply with the building codes, they will ALLOW you to put a structure on it and then tax you to have it there every year for eternity. So, are we so fortunate to pay property taxes (RENT) to retain the privilege to live on our “own” piece of “rented” land in a structure/home they approved of as by the “International Building Codes” ?
PS, who is the US to set the standard as “International Building Codes” anyway ?
Hey Brandon, I just saw this. https://www.birchgold.com/don-jr-gold-company/
..
What are your thoughts? Will Trump be pushing for a gold-backed currency if he’s elected?
“…is it because solutions are hard and require vast coordination of people and resources to ever be possible?”
Honestly, I think it is normalcy bias. The devil you know is better than the devil you don’t? Most people are so afraid of change that even if Trump were to propose and proceed with this short list we might hear negativity rather than sighs of relief.
I love this list due to its simplicity and common sense. Yes, all these things can be done quickly where there is a will to do so. But I think that people will NEED to be staring in the dark hole before stepping out to get it done.
Also think that there is a lack of leadership at all levels of this society. Perhaps real leaders understand right now that any effort to right the sinking ship might be fought against so hard that it will take a burning crash to enable common sense ideas to be heard?
Thanks for this posting. The first one I’ve seen that makes sense.
Fourth Amendment: “The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.”
I see property taxes on single family homes as a violation of the fourth amendment since these taxes directly place the government in a position where they can seize your home if you don’t or can’t pay the ransom. Since homes are not liquid assets, governments in many localities have seen fit to coerce high taxes from homeowners for many years; this forces many people on fixed incomes to involuntarily surrender their rights to their private property through forced sale due to their inability to pay the property tax. Property taxes are also a pathway for communists to legally seize homes in their quest to abolish private property rights. All that they have to do is make the taxes so high that they are not payable.
Their is no such thing as taxes on businesses and corporations. Any taxes paid by these entities are passed onto the consumer in the cost of the goods or services they produce or through a reduction in workforce. These taxes are a hidden consumer tax.
I am always amused by people that want to stick it to businesses and corporations via higher taxes when they actually are the ones that will pay the tax.
Eh…that’s not entirely true. They can only pass on tax costs to consumers to a certain point, until they are no longer competitive and people look elsewhere for their products. Corporations and businesses pay around 60% of the total tax base. Corporations should definitely be taxed since they are essentially chartered by governments and are socialist creations. Small businesses and individuals should not be taxed.
Save Our United States, “Their is no such thing as taxes on businesses and corporations. Any taxes paid by these entities are passed onto the consumer ” is absolutely not true. Not only can it be logically shown to be not true (using supply demand curves) but if you ever had a business, and had taxes raised on it, you would know from personal experience that it is not true.
What will happen is the business with the taxes will struggle, will lay off employees, may try to make things more efficient or discontinue product lines. But, at the end of the day, this shows up in fewer businesses, fewer jobs, lower wages, higher other taxes, less choice in consumer products, less competition in the market, and — finally — in higher prices for products, as competition is extinguished.
A Radical Plan To Save America’s Economy In One Year – Lock The FED & Banksters Up.!!
Bank Fines, In Billions – For Fraud, Corruption & Manipulation of Financial Markets – After
08/09 Bankster’s Sliced & Diced Mortgage Collapse – 29 Trillion Bailout – R. Paul Audit –
Bank of America $76.1, JP Morgan Chase $43.7, Citigroup $19, Deutsche Bank $14, Wells
Fargo $11.8, RBS $10.1, BNP Paribas $9.3, Credit Suisse $9.1, Morgan Stanley $8.6, Goldman
Sachs $7.7, UBS $6.5.!
Locking up the fed bankers doesn’t save the economy, it just punishes those that have already ruined it. I’m all for that, but this article is about an actual PLAN to undo some of the damage. Revenge is another matter.
‘It’s not enough to declare our high-minded ideals and goals, there has to be, a plan.’
Indeed
1. A method/strategy/invention to ensure
a. no election (no matter the office) is rigged, and
b. only living citizens, vote.
2. get a bill passed, for automatic recall of a public servant, the very moment, a major platform plank of his/her is reneged.
Brick by brick, they’ve erected our cell walls.
And brick by brick, we shall tear them,
to break on through, to the other side,
where the freedom to build
and the happiness of pursuit,
await us all.
Why do you think Keynesian economists oppose the idea of funding the government strictly through tariffs?
Because they oppose tariffs constantly, and because the money from tariffs limits how much the government can spend elsewhere. Keynesians believe government spending solves everything, so limiting spending would be limiting the government’s ability to act in their minds.
What if it is not just about funding the gov, but defunding us?
Most of the $25K in property tax I pay annually on my home goes to pay teachers salaries. I’m pretty sure there will be a problem eliminating that.
You have no idea where that money goes. Also, teacher salaries can be paid with a local or state sales tax just as easily as a property tax. How much do you think teachers make? And, how many of them do you think are grooming the children to be leftists? Maybe they shouldn’t be getting your tax dollars.
?!? How about letting people who use a service pay for said service?
.
Why should Peter’s money be taken to pay for Paul’s children’s indoctrination?
.
What if Peter does not have children? What if Peter takes his children to a private school? Must he pay double?
.
This is pure socialism/communism.
Great stuff Brandon. Glad people like you are thinking about it. I haven’t been. I have been stuck on the what’s coming next for a long time. I want to believe, and I want to be hopeful we get to the point where we can use ideas like the ones outlined in this essay to correct course.
Will keep my fingers crossed. I think myself, along with so many others have come to realize, we must try to stay away from SHTF scenarios if we can. I don’t mean thinking about and preparing for them. Humanity’s existence depends on it IMHO.
God Bless all of you boys.
I guess Ayn Rand had it nailed decades ago. Read her non fiction book “capitalism” or even her fiction “Atlas Shrugged”. Atlas , the personification of the men who carry the world on their shoulders, is now shrugging. If you chain down productive men in order to steal their production in the name of equality, they will produce less. When you reward parasitism, and punish production, what do you expect the outcome to be? Google “ the money speech from atlas shrugged” or “Ragnar’s speech to Rearden”. Both are but small parts of the book which give insight to the matter we are now discussing. She was hated by he left because she knew their methods and gameplan, but exposed it to her readers. She was hated by the right for her atheism. But she was right, and always will be. I learned more from her and from observation of reality than all of those years of schooling.
SPOT ON, Johnny! Spot on!! Thanks for this comment.
I’m all for solutions but I think the US eCONomy is too far gone to save. You have The Fed printing endless amounts of money. You have a centralized federal government spending money like drunken sailors. The US economy has been offshored. To top it off as George Carlin used to say, forget about the politicians because it’s the owners of this country who run things.
Those owners are the Deep State who’s actually running the US government. There’s no one I can think of who can defeat the Deep State. The Deep State, is protecting its interest and will not let go of its control of power, the economy be damned.
If anything as Brandon has written in the past, a global centralized currency is where this is all heading with the IMF or the UN in control. I just have SO little trust in politicians today even if they have good intentions. That’s why, I think the best solution is for a crash and burn, a breakup of the US and revert back to local economies. History has taught us, this is what typically happens to Empires when they get too big, they self destruct.
Just because the situation looks dire does not mean you stop trying. Waiting for the system to crash is not a solution, nor a plan. Even if a collapse ends up being inevitable, you still have to rebuild from the ground up and you better have a well thought out solution to offer people or the elites will do it for you.
I don’t question your ideas and the effort you make, to make a difference, I applaud that. I am just looking at people running/ruining the country for their benefit. Ron Paul tried to make a difference and was marginalized, so is his son Rand. RFK Jr tried to make a difference and the Democrat Party got rid of him, the same for Tulsi Gabbard. I have little faith in anyone going to Washington to try and make a difference. For that matter it’s also a problem on the local and state level when you have individuals like George and Alex Soros, undermining the very fabric of a free society. They vision of an open society is based on communism as they want a top down one world government controlling everything.
The underlying issue becomes and this is based on thousands of years of recorded human history, that every Empire eventually collapses from within. Sure we can kick the can down the road but eventually the road ends. The entire American system that was built into greatness after WWII has been brutally scavenged by those in power, for their benefit. That includes our financial, economic and industrial way of life. They are all in their endgame and that’s because those in power have created a bloated and bureaucratic system that benefits the few at the expense of The Plebs.
We are at a point where the snake has begun eating its own tail. The average consumer is now dealing with out of control housing, insurance, and vehicle ownership, while we import illegal aliens and the taxpayer is burdened with the costs.
The best solution would be to let the Empire crash and burn, and rebuild with a breakup of the US which would give us a much smaller government. And hopefully we can look back and learn from our lessons.
Sitting back and waiting for collapse is never a solution. Never a plan. That’s what people do when they have given up.
I think we should also drastically cut military spending and exit NATO and end all foreign interventionism, but no idea how quickly that could be done.
The core of me longs for freedom, I do not recall it’s feeling as the burden of debt has long weighed heavily on my heart. Nonetheless the want to return to liberty spurs me through, if not in this life then perhaps in death.
It is no coincidence that the Federal Reserve Act and the Income Tax were passed at the same time. One goes hand in glove with the other. Correct me if I’m wrong: does the government’s receipts from the income tax actually fund the federal government? Did I read somewhere that the personal income tax was needed by those who devised the Federal Reserve system to pay the interest on the monies that went to the private entities who actually own the Fed?
The Fed funds itself through printing, but it’s long been suspected that the income tax is simply a tribute payment from us (the serfs) to the banking elites.
Income tax is the most obvious theft.
Say, I need a job done ( plumbing, whatever). We agree on $100. So this is the fair value of the labor ( because we make a contract). So I swap my $100 for the job I need done, he sells his labor to me for that amount. So in fact it is just a swap. And he kas to pay 20%. For the job he has done! He has to pay tax just to be allowed to work!
Brandon, your observation that people skip solution surprises me. I know more or less about all that ijustice, so I do not read much about that. I select my read mostly based on the keyword: solution, suggerstion etc. I have read the article because I read all you post for quite a time, and I was glad to see the word SOLUTION in the title.
Thank you!
I am from EU, but the problems we face are more or less the same.
“End Income Tax For The 99%”
I work 40 hours a week in NYC and my gross pay is $1,509 for two weeks, $1,147 after deductions. That’s 24% taken out, much of which is taxes.
End the income tax and could perhaps afford to rent an apartment.
In order to fund the government solely by tariffs, you’d need to first shrink the government sector back to the about 3% of GDP, where it was 120 years ago.
Dan Mitchell had an interesting post about this back in June:
https://danieljmitchell.wordpress.com/2024/06/18/tariffs-and-americas-early-economic-history-a-primer-for-president-trump-part-ii/
But that is certainly not a bug; rather a very desirable, even necessary feature. There can be no revival of anything without total evisceration of the public sector first.
I’d go for a 97% cut any day!
In fact, this applies not only to the USA, but even more so in Europe, AUS/NZ and Canada.
The next step in your list should include moving to a free market money system. As others have pointed out, having the Fed, or the government itself, in the position of a monopolist in this area, with their ‘legal tender’ laws and the ability over the past decades to create money from thin air, is a crucial part of the current predicament. And such a change could certainly be implemented within one year, with the added bonus of making the Fed irrelevant.
For reasons that are too complex to go into in a short comment, I do not believe we will see another gold standard in our lifetimes, if ever, but that’s not in itself an issue. If the public can simply abandon the government monetary system for something better, then the swamp creatures can ‘print’ to their hearts’ content, and it won’t get them anywhere.
Keep in mind that almost anything can serve as money – from gold coins to sea shells to crypto currencies. As long as it is the people’s free choice and the government can’t control it, because once they do, that is the moment the road to serfdom – to paraphrase Hayek – starts.
Yes, that’s essentially the end game. The shift to tariffs instead of income taxes would force the federal government to shrink to a manageable size, and that’s a good thing.
There’s an old saying: “When poverty walks in the door, love flies out the window”.
The time was when one income was sufficient to keep a family together. This gave women the opportunity to look after a family while men provided the where-with-all to do it.
Today’s financial pressures wreck marriages, limit the size of families and generate a reluctance to participate. Nay-sayers will claim that women want to be liberated from the traditional family structure. I say that not all women want that kind of liberation.
In my own experience I recall single girls with moderate incomes from office jobs being able to afford to rent or buy their own flat or apartment without having to share with a friend – but they still had a positive view of a traditional long term relationship. That’s what I call freedom of choice, the kind of liberation that many of the feminine activists of recent times may find difficult to attain.
The traditional family unit within a stable community promotes a concept of decent shared values and responsibility, whereby the need for law enforcement is obviously greatly reduced.
By contrast, in centers where anonymous transients prevail, the checks and balances of shared community values are largely absent or ineffective, leading to increased lawlessness and increased costs in the many areas associated with that.
My conclusion: if it is made possible for people to live responsibly within caring family structures and communities, without overbearing government interference, the majority will be happy to live productive lives that add to the general well-being of the population, leading to greater stability and a stronger economy which is of benefit to all.
With one exception, all of these proposals are excellent. Ditch the 4th one, for the following reasons:
* Enacting the others is all the incentive couples need to make kids affordable again. No education or home loan subsidies needed. Taxation and inflation created the need for two-income families. Be sure to discourage single parenthood by scrapping the welfare state.
* The current population decline was inevitable after the huge post-World War II explosion. Things that cannot continue indefinitely won’t. The answer to any labor shortage is increased mechanization, which Japan has been doing for decades.
* Government demands to procreate are just as immoral as China’s one-child edict. Leave the people alone, and they will make the best decisions for themselves.
You’re projecting your own assumed conclusions onto the idea. Every one of these plans works in tandem with the others.
1) No, it’s not enough. The economic fixes do not solve the engineered social indoctrination against marriage and the family unit. Incentive is required to kick start such a change. Also, if you want to revert your economy into a self sufficient production hub, you’re going to need a healthy population replacement rate.
2) False. The current population decline is ENGINEERED. To say otherwise is a complete fallacy ignoring all the evidence to the contrary. Also, Japan is collapsing, so, not a great example. Mechanization is the globalist “solution” which does not work and is designed to justify their population control agenda.
3) Where in this article do I encourage government to “demand procreation?” Rewarding people is not forcing people. Don’t put words in my mouth.
HI Brandon! I love your plan. Bits of this were floated at Trump’s Madison Square Garden rally, last Sunday, as I imagine you know. Maybe there were hints before, but I still want to thank you for the article.
I’ve been thinking along different lines: how to clean up the government and help keep it clean. Since government is, by definition, the opposite of liberty, you want to keep it as small as possible while keeping bad guys in check and providing stability for small business enterprise to flourish. My thought is that pretty nearly the whole of government could be run by citizens serving, say, five year stints, ideally at the trailing end of high-school. So, sort of a Peace Corps idea. Or, if you want a better model, consider the Swiss conscription system: (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conscription_in_Switzerland).
The only thing is, I wouldn’t make it a conscription of men but – rather – open to all, with significant lifetime benefits, ideally useful skills training, maybe including university and life-time emergency medical care. In an ideal world, I would have it be that only those who honorably served would be eligible to vote. For leadership and perhaps extended roles, I would have ONLY those who had honorably served, and left, eligible to s/elect a handful of people to be offered a five year extension at a leadership level.
So, what’s the real point of this? The point is that government “work” attracts the worst humans: the lazy, those who want a sinecure, and — especially — the pathological and criminally inclined. You can look at every society through all of history and you see the same pattern: capture the bureaucracy and milk it. My plan would provide a broad-based, intimate knowledge of how the government systems actually work. It would also, automatically, cull those who *want* to encamp permanently. Everyone gets ejected after five years, or earlier if they misbehave or don’t work hard. Only those who have served, and left, under honorable terms, in the eyes of their peers, are eligible to be honored with an additional five year leadership position.
I’m guessing 99% of every necessary government function could be handled by those between the ages of 16-21, in their five year stint. and probably 99% of the 1% could be handled by the most talented individuals who are honored — and somehow equitably compensated — with a second five year top leadership position.
I think it would work brilliantly. But, what we can be very sure of, is it would work infinitely better than continuing to do the same stupid thing of hiring “bureaucrats” for permanent government and “leadership” work.
It should cost. very small fraction of what the current systems cost, provide young adults with a – very – useful start in life, bring ownership of the government into the hands of the people, and make it extraordinarily hard to corrupt anything for long — because nobody stays for long, so the “water” can’t really get stagnant. As I said, only those who have served most honorably, and displayed their intelligence and moral fiber, would be considered eligible for a second stint. And, it is not mandatory for anyone to serve, but if you don’t serve you will have little credibility, and maybe be missing out on some valuable extended benefits: like a “GI” bill for more extended training.
What do you think?