If I were King - Ways to end inequality in America

[packman]

America has a wealth problem, the top 5 percent has captured 74 percent of the wealth created in this country since 1982 — the situation is only growing more extreme.

What could or can be done to level the field? Imagine yourself having the power to do something-anything. Twelve "experts" were asked what they would do given that power.

Article fleshes out the brief answers given below:

I. Massive expansion of local housing stock (Will Wilkinson, Niskanen Center);

II. Universal access to child care, funded by a tax on capital (Heather Boushey, Washington Center for Equitable Growth);

III. Ship the 1 percent to Venezuela (David Azerrad, Heritage Foundation);

IV. A big boost to union rights, universal social wealth fund (Matt Bruenig, People's Policy Project);

V. Create a trust for every American baby (Darrick Hamilton, the New School);

VI. Pick up the antitrust stick and wield it (Marshall Steinbaum, Roosevelt Institute);

VII. Dramatically expand Social Security (Valerie Wilson, Economic Policy Institute);

VIII. Give every American a federal savings account (Ernie Tedeschi, former Treasury economist);

IX. Rein in Wall Street, crack down on white-collar crime (Stephanie Kelton, Stony Brook University);

X. A national infrastructure program, funded by the 1 percent (Robert Frank, Cornell University);

XI. Get government out of the way, repeal rules and regulations (Grover Norquist, Americans for Tax Reform);

XII. A federal tax credit for first time house buyers (Signe-Mary McKernan, Urban Institute).

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2018/04/06/how-12-experts-would-end-inequality-if-they-ran-america/?utm_term=.cf2fe6a96353

[Anon-C]

1. Some great ideas. nt

[NCTraveler]

2. Talk about some horrifying ideas.

Some right wing extremism on crack with some of them.

Others are pretty good but no where near the comprehensiveness one would think considering the verbiage the article uses.

"Ways to end inequality in America" It didn't rise to the level it was sold at.

[NewJeffCT]

3. it's hard to fix with just 1 bullet point

some good ideas in the article, though.

For me:
1) Raise the minimum wage to $15 nationwide, but higher in high cost areas (West Coast, Northeast, etc)
2) Repeal the Trump/Ryan tax scam in its entirety
3) A $4 trillion infrastructure plan to rebuild America over 20 years. (Power grid, roads, bridges, dams, airports, ports, expand rail, green energy, water supply, WiFi and Info Security, etc)
4) Repeal the income limit on Social Security Tax
5) Vigorous review of overseas military bases and close unnecessary ones.
6) Vigorous review of tax breaks for large corporations and/or highly profitable corporations and reduce or eliminate most.
7) And, of course, open up Medicare to everybody and also expand services.

[KPN]

5. EDIT (if you don't mind my doing so) --

Change "5) Vigorous review of overseas military bases and close unnecessary ones." to:

5) Vigorous review of overseas military bases and close most of them!

[oasis]

4. Yup. The 1% should fund the infrastructure.