For the past few years, our family has been making the trek from the West side of Madison, downtown to see an Irish dance troupe perform. On Saturday we attempted to do the same, only to get stuck in a massive traffic jam caused by loopy leftists that have been protesting (and not working…) for the past month. We’ve all heard the details by now. They are demanding that the government maintain the status quo with regard to public unions…blah blah. Obviously, since Wisconsin is almost $4 billion in debt, that cannot happen! Thankfully Governor Walker has the balls to take on the unions. We’ll see what happens in the rest of the country.
Anyway, we couldn’t find parking anywhere near the performing arts center near the capitol, so we decided to try out a new burger place a few minutes away. As we were walking down State Street. which is a pedestrian-only thoroughfare near the capitol square, we saw quite a few protestors making their way to the protest. I was absolutely amazed by the level of lunacy of some of these signs! The one that sticks in my mind was the family, whose 5 or 6 year old son was carrying a sign that read “Republicans put the ASS in assembly.” My kids (they’re 8) both picked up on this and commented that they saw a kid with a swear word on his sign. How pathetic that you would impose your vitriolic, irrational beliefs on your little kids! Did this family actually believe that this display would be beneficial to their cause? Not from my perspective.
That same evening, my wife and I also went to dinner very near the square at one of our favorite restaurants. From the window of the restaurant, we could see the protest as it wound down, but there were a hardy group of loyalists still there marching around the capital banging their drums and chanting. It occurred to me that they must have been very upset that the horrible Japanese earthquake/tsunami had stolen their press!
Somehow, all of this led me to a wonderful idea! We need another quantitative easing (QE3 perhaps)! The difference between this one and the previous two you ask? This one would be incredibly effective for one! Here are the details: The 50% of the workers who actually pay taxes wouldn’t have to this year! That’s right, no income taxes would be paid for 2010! What about the government you ask? How would we pay for all the interest on the debt? How would we fund all the fraud in Medicare and Medicaid? How about all the benefits for those wonderful civil servants? All good questions. The fed could just print the money! Wow! What is the difference between the fed printing the money to buy government bonds and just printing the money and sending it directly to the bureaucracies? There is no real difference, is there?
And here’s the best part – the money that we don’t pay to fund the government would go directly into the economy, where it would be used in a rational, efficient manner that would directly stimulate the economy! Can you imagine the boost in GDP if there were no income taxes? What if that money was actually used to buy cars, electronics, and furniture, pay off debt, or go to dinner? What a concept!
Think about it Bernanke.
P.S. We have a limited number of new 1 0z gold bars, (OPM on web site), wrapped in plastic and serial numbered, just like the Credit Suisse, only they are $7.50 over spot, rather than $19 over for Credit Suisse, or $57 over for Gold Eagles.