Our Proposal for Ongoing Financial Security in the United States
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The National Debt
As of the time this article is published, the national debt will be just shy of 32 trillion dollars. That’s $32,000,000,000,000.00, or roughly $96,000 per citizen.
This isn’t free money. We are selling our children’s futures to make our present slightly more comfortable. At some point, the bill will be due, and someone will have to pay it.
Instead of “taxing the rich” even more than we already do, we could explore other sources of tax revenue. This is the best decision, for several reasons.
Taxing our upper echelons more isn’t a viable long-term solution
- The rich already pay most taxes
- If we tax people too aggressively, we risk destroying the economy by removing the incentive to work
- We are spending trillions of dollars per year on other areas
- We are missing a very lucrative tax opportunity.
I have a plan that would reduce our debt by $200,000,000,000 (two hundred billion dollars), within two years, and we would be on track to have it paid off within our lifetime, instead of just pushing it back until our children inherit a debt so large that their economy crumbles and they live in poverty.
Our Proposal to Reduce Debt
1.) Immediately decriminalize personal amounts of all narcotics – this single action would save us at least* 150 billion dollars per year.
2.) Restructure the DEA and the ATF – to bring about lasting change, we will have to find other areas to focus our already overfunded DEA and ATF. For fiscal year 2022, almost three billion dollars was spent between these two organizations. This is a drop in the bucket compared to the amount of money citizens spent on drugs (more than 370 billion dollars).
3.) Release all individuals currently incarcerated for drug use charges, or charges stemming from any drug-related violations. 85% of people currently incarcerated are doing time for drug-related offenses. After a psychological evaluation, they should be released. The prison budget would be reduced by more than half.
4.) Take a national survey to determine the amounts of narcotics that will be needed for recreational use each year – We don’t truly know how many people would choose to do opiates, cocaine, etc. if they were legal. We should conduct a poll to estimate the amounts of natural substances we will need to meet demand each year. The government should subsidize some of the funding necessary to begin production. Many of the people released from prison during step three will need jobs. Win-win.
5.) Begin domestic production of opium, marijuana, and other natural substances (mescaline, psilocybin, cocaine) – after we have conducted the poll to determine how much of the natural substances we will need, we should begin farming opium, cocoa, and other substances (like Psilocybin and Peyote)
6.) Begin setting up production facilities for refining substances – many substances require secondary, tertiary, or even quaternary phases of production. All of this needs to be done safely by experts. We will build refineries and employ thousands of people in them.
7.) Begin selling our cleanly, safely, and domestically produced substances to our citizens and other nations if they allow it – a flat tax rate of 15% would generate at least 40 billion dollars per year. However, it would likely be much more, for reasons that we will explore later.
8.) A portion of the funds generated should be apportioned for rehabilitation services, and work training programs for addicts and returning citizens.
This is our proposal to help the country get back on track financially. It’s not perfect, but it’s a step in the right direction. The best part? It ends the senseless “War on Drugs” which has been an abject failure. Even if it did nothing for the deficit, we would support it on moral grounds alone. The money matters are incidental but substantial. Remember, a lot of money is on the line. But, it’s our money. Not theirs.
It’s high time for change.™
Comment below to let us know what you think. Should the United States continue to miss out on massive tax opportunities while continuing to imprison people for having verboten substances? Or should we try something else?
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