Comments on: What You Should Know About Economic Stimulus and Job Creation http://www.theprosperitymandate.org/blog/job-creation/ A Sustainable Solution To Our Current Economic Crisis Fri, 12 Mar 2010 02:32:39 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.7 hourly 1 By: Joseph & the Amazing Technicolor Economic Bailout « Marking Time http://www.theprosperitymandate.org/blog/job-creation/comment-page-1/#comment-27 Joseph & the Amazing Technicolor Economic Bailout « Marking Time Tue, 10 Feb 2009 21:42:53 +0000 http://www.theprosperitymandate.org/blog/?p=82#comment-27 [...] Mandate (with a good model for incentivizing job creation, hop over and check it out), I ended up ranting in their blog’s comments section  . I ranted about the challenge of changing the dominant (and inaccurate) Western mindset when it [...] [...] Mandate (with a good model for incentivizing job creation, hop over and check it out), I ended up ranting in their blog’s comments section  . I ranted about the challenge of changing the dominant (and inaccurate) Western mindset when it [...]

]]> By: Neal Katz http://www.theprosperitymandate.org/blog/job-creation/comment-page-1/#comment-26 Neal Katz Tue, 10 Feb 2009 20:09:53 +0000 http://www.theprosperitymandate.org/blog/?p=82#comment-26 Mark - Thank you for your comments and insights. Points well taken. Ideally the entire Fund America Program using The Prosperity Mandate financial model will serve as a guided tutorial for the Banks and other Financial institutions on Wall Street to UNlearn bad practices and RELEARN constructive ones that can provide a profit. For example, we would establish Master Limited Partnerships on the major exchanges that aggregate the funds for CD deposits from individuals who want to invest $5,000 and up and direct that investment into a designated Fund America Program. Instead of the 12% they make on an underwriting -- the MLP will be allowed to make 25% or 25 basis points on the large volume transaction -- for the public good. Of course, it will be difficult to generate $20 Billion in bonuses, but, they'll learn to make do!!! Thanks for sharing your thoughts. Neal Katz, The Prosperity Mandate Mark -

Thank you for your comments and insights. Points well taken.
Ideally the entire Fund America Program using The Prosperity Mandate financial model will serve as a guided tutorial for the Banks and other Financial institutions on Wall Street to UNlearn bad practices and RELEARN constructive ones that can provide a profit.
For example, we would establish Master Limited Partnerships on the major exchanges that aggregate the funds for CD deposits from individuals who want to invest $5,000 and up and direct that investment into a designated Fund America Program. Instead of the 12% they make on an underwriting — the MLP will be allowed to make 25% or 25 basis points on the large volume transaction — for the public good.
Of course, it will be difficult to generate $20 Billion in bonuses, but, they’ll learn to make do!!!
Thanks for sharing your thoughts.
Neal Katz, The Prosperity Mandate

]]> By: Mark Nielsen http://www.theprosperitymandate.org/blog/job-creation/comment-page-1/#comment-25 Mark Nielsen Tue, 10 Feb 2009 19:57:47 +0000 http://www.theprosperitymandate.org/blog/?p=82#comment-25 An interesting model. It would certainly work better than the present, unfairly tilted one, and the deeply flawed tax code. However, I'm not entirely certain the banks, or even private investors, can be trusted to act on their own in any way other than their own self-interest/profit margin --even with assurances and government payback promises. They're just so out of practice at it. Doing permanent good costs real time and money, plain and simple. And we need to get more leveled, realistic expectations in place, re-learn to downshift sometimes on the personal or local level, in favor of the common good. Is a new but mostly empty strip mall, instead of low-rent but functional and well-planned apartments, the best way to go for a real-estate developer? Who benefits from the gentrification push? From planned obsolescence? From the constant bigger-better-faster consumption mindset of Western business models? Yes, one can still make money by investing in future-oriented, sustainable efforts. But that difficult, narrow opening we have to squeeze through, of investing with little or no SHORT TERM payback, *that* is where businesses and banks refuse to go. It's uncarted territory. To go there enthusiastically is counter-capitalist, in a way. Their fear of the new holds them back. Businesses, banks, investors, and economists think and act in monthly and quarterly chunks, ...not so much four-year, ten-year, or fifty year periods. They "play" the markets. They play the odds. Immaturely, with little attention to *improving* the jobs and/or products that already exist, or expanding the ability of a working class customer/employee base to actually enter the next tax bracket. But that doesn't mean we shouldn't try. Institutional resistance to change, to adopting new paradigms, is a famously difficult problem known to those who study mass communication, psychology, and sociology. But if we move toward a more firmhanded governmental approach, not just an incentivized, optional, "change if you want to" approach, then we might be able to get unstuck. Enforcement, regulation, and removal of competing/outdated portions of the tax code are required. Plus, we don't live in a dictatorship like China, where government policies reach deep into peoples' lives, so that when the government shifts, everyone else is forced to follow suit. An interesting model. It would certainly work better than the present, unfairly tilted one, and the deeply flawed tax code. However, I’m not entirely certain the banks, or even private investors, can be trusted to act on their own in any way other than their own self-interest/profit margin –even with assurances and government payback promises. They’re just so out of practice at it.
Doing permanent good costs real time and money, plain and simple. And we need to get more leveled, realistic expectations in place, re-learn to downshift sometimes on the personal or local level, in favor of the common good. Is a new but mostly empty strip mall, instead of low-rent but functional and well-planned apartments, the best way to go for a real-estate developer? Who benefits from the gentrification push? From planned obsolescence? From the constant bigger-better-faster consumption mindset of Western business models?
Yes, one can still make money by investing in future-oriented, sustainable efforts. But that difficult, narrow opening we have to squeeze through, of investing with little or no SHORT TERM payback, *that* is where businesses and banks refuse to go. It’s uncarted territory. To go there enthusiastically is counter-capitalist, in a way. Their fear of the new holds them back. Businesses, banks, investors, and economists think and act in monthly and quarterly chunks, …not so much four-year, ten-year, or fifty year periods. They “play” the markets. They play the odds. Immaturely, with little attention to *improving* the jobs and/or products that already exist, or expanding the ability of a working class customer/employee base to actually enter the next tax bracket.

But that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t try. Institutional resistance to change, to adopting new paradigms, is a famously difficult problem known to those who study mass communication, psychology, and sociology. But if we move toward a more firmhanded governmental approach, not just an incentivized, optional, “change if you want to” approach, then we might be able to get unstuck. Enforcement, regulation, and removal of competing/outdated portions of the tax code are required. Plus, we don’t live in a dictatorship like China, where government policies reach deep into peoples’ lives, so that when the government shifts, everyone else is forced to follow suit.

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