Firstly, I believe in earning your keep. This is how I grew up and this is how I continue to live my life.
I’ve studied my butt off my entire life, worked since I was old enough to (most of my adult life has been 2-4 jobs at a time) and I have never allowed myself to be lazy. I am lucky to have been educated enough and driven enough to never back down.
I don’t believe in rewarding others for laziness or misguided choices.
BUT – maybe it’s the teacher in me – I also believe that we should help each other to make those choices and to learn and grow from the poor choices that have been made (which we ALL do at some point in life, whether it be financial or personal).
I’m definitely no expert on politics, or finance, or anything of the like, but I am very observant of what goes on around me and the various situations I see other people in.
I am a rule follower, for the most part. I hate the fact that people abuse the system just as much as anyone out there, and I do think it is important to point out that I believe it is happening all over the place, not necessarily just by the “1%.”
The business person in me likes to think about how to change things to be better for everyone in order to run things smoother, and here are a few things I would change, if I was in charge…
No Handouts
- Drug testing for those recieving assistance. No exceptions.
- Food stamps should only be valid for nourishing food. If you can afford cigarettes or junk food, then you should not be on food stamps.
- People on welfare should not be given a check each month. They should be given specific vouchers for food, rent and electricity. They should have to report everything they spend their money on.
- No financial assistance to illegals. Zero. None. No free Healthcare. No food stamps.
Better Healthcare
- Make privatized healthcare accessible to EVERYONE, even if in differing price/care levels
- Make it easier on the doctors (no idea how, but every doctor I have spoken with seems stressed out about the system and not being able to spend appropriate amounts of time with their patients – the problems lie in the higher ups… not the medical professionals themselves)
- Re-evaluate the pharmaceutical industry entirely.
- Cap the pay of CEOs of healthcare and pharmaceutical related businesses.
- Do not allow for exorbitant financial benefit by higher ups while denying care.
Allow for More Employment
- Stop allowing companies to outsource. Give Americans jobs – or make stricter requirements about outsourcing.
- By all means, allow educated non-citizens to be employed here
- Discourage the hiring of unskilled illegal immigrants
- Have legal consequences for fraud by people who are here illegally (many illegals use SS#’s that do not belong to them, for example)
- Make less rules for small business loans, so we can hire people!
Banking/Financial
- Make interest rates on loans and credit cards fair and equal for all income brackets.
- Make reasonable credit limits for young people based upon their income, so they aren’t able to get into debt at a young age.
- Get rid of 0% interest rates. Everyone should pay some interest on money borrowed, unless it is paid back within a month.
- Remove fees for automated services. For example, my bank charges me $10/month just to be able to do direct deposit for my contractors, and then $1 for each deposit I make to each of their accounts. I’m a programmer, I understand that a computer does the legwork for this in seconds. Why am I paying that much every month for something no human has to actually interact with? Where is that extra money going?
- Remove instant overdraft fees. They are exorbitant. If it takes 24 business hours for money to go in to an account, they should allow 24 hours for the customer to “right” the overdraft, before charging one overdraft fee (perhaps per day, not multiple fees per day).
Housing
- Put a cap on rent, make it reasonable
- For purchasing houses, I’m not very well versed on this, but I’m sure improvements can be made. I bet it mostly has to do with making people aware of the terms of their loan, and having more transparency.
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