Al: This is Al Robinson with my special guest today, Presidential candidate Joe L. Buckett. Welcome to the show Joe. Some of our listeners have heard about your candidacy, and others have not. But since we only have twenty short minutes here, let me get right to the point and ask you the question that our listeners would most like to ask. I want to know, if I vote for you, Joe L. Bucket, what's in it for my family and me?
Joe: Great place to start Al, and I'd answer by telling you that, in accordance with section 13 of the Federal Reserve Act of 1913, we plan to extend to every American citizen, an annual credit for at least $3,000 designated solely for the purpose of purchasing stock or productive capital of some kind, in qualified business ventures. It'll be called a Capital Homesteading Account and will function similarly to the way an IRA or a 401K function today.
Over the years, every citizen will develop an ownership stake in the American economic pie, that's sufficient enough to produce an income in addition to their current wage or salary, which is designed to compliment that salary or wage, and to provide a solid retirement nest egg on which every American citizen can retire with dignity, and actively avoid ever becoming dependent on the U.S. government, i.e. social security...which we all know is mathematically destined to crash and burn under the weight of retiring baby boomers within the next three decades anyway.
Financial dependence, whether it's on a government or a corporate entity, is economic slavery to be avoided if at all possible. If we really want to let freedom ring, that can happen...but not if we elect either one of these mainstream party candidates, both of whom are hopelessly lost in 19th and 20th century economic paradigms. In order to come up with 21st century solutions to 21st century problems, you must have both feet planted firmly in the 21st century.
By the way Al, before we go any further, I need to confess that this entire 21st century recipe for success was purloined directly out of Dr. Norm Kurland's ingenious new book entitled Capital Homesteading for Every Citizen. To get a copy listeners can visit his web site at http://www.cesj.org.
Al: Sounds good to me Joe, but I have one minor problem with what you've said so far. That sounds like a $3,000 dollar loan to me and I want to know how my friend Johnny Paycheck to Paycheck is going to pay for this loan when he can't even keep up with all his credit card bills? That looks like one gigantic problem to me.
Joe: Yes Al, despite the fact that we're talking about a zero interest loan, from inside the 20th century paradigm that is an insurmountable problem. But let's step outside the box for a moment so I can tell you that the credit I'm talking about is going to bypass Wall Street and travel directly to Main Street from the Federal Reserve, through local banks, to Johnny Paycheck. And these local banks have a vested interest in the health and welfare of the local community, and they will help guide the investor toward qualified companies who, among other things, have proven themselves to be solid, predictable growth companies.
Now one of the ways a company must be qualified will be according to its willingness to pay dividends out to their stockholders, which we'll encourage by making all paid out dividends, tax deductible to the company. Johnny Paycheck's loan will then be repaid, in approximately seven years using those paid out dividends, not his salary or wages. When the loan is paid off, the dividends will keep on coming and will go directly to Johnny in order to supplement his wage or salary, and to help him to earn a solid retirement nest egg and avoid government dependence. This is effectively a leveraged buyout for individual citizens instead of multinational corporations.
Al: OK Joe let's back up one more step here and ask...where's all this money going to come from in the first place? Are you planning to jack up taxes on the wealthy and redistribute back to the less fortunate? If so, are you a communist, or a socialist?
Joe: OK Al. Now you're getting down to the real nitty gritty. You've just asked the $64,000 question when it comes to our $3000 plan. And the answer is, like all money, these funds will originate in the Federal Reserve, go directly to local banks, then into Johnny's Capital Homesteading account so that he can buy his annual piece of the rock. So that's where it comes from.
But that's not really what you're asking is it? What you, and most people want to know is, will the American taxpayer be stuck paying the bill? Who's going to pay it back? How will it be paid back? And how long will that payoff take? These are what I call banker's questions, which makes them very legitimate in my view.
So, the answer to the first question is that it won't cost the American taxpayer a dime. In fact in the near future this plan will shrink the size of government and offer American taxpayers the only legitimate reason to ever reduce taxes...a smaller government. The loan will be paid off with the tax-deductible dividends generated by the stock purchased by the CHA participant, and it will take a predictable average of seven years to pay it off. At the end of that seven year period, the tax deductible dividends being generated will begin to go directly to the CHA participant to compliment his or her wage or salary.
Because they're so worried about their taxes going up, the one question that most people fail to ask about the plan is "what's the net result of this program?" But it's an incredibly important question that needs to be answered, so let me do so right now.
The net result will be millions of people from coast to coast, many of who have never had the chance to participate in the American economy as a property owner before, who will become property owners. That is to say, they will become capitalists in a free market economy, and as the result of their ownership portfolio they will enjoy capital generated incomes designed to augment their wage or salary, which, in the long run, will eliminate the need for things like minimum wage laws and welfare because it eliminates poverty!
In the long run it will also eliminate the nearly bankrupt social security system and replace it with financially independent citizens from sea to shining sea who are no longer dependent on government for their livelihood. In short in will replace financial dependence with independence...WAGE SLAVERY WITH FREEDOM!
Al: That sounds great so far Joe, but won't all this new found purchasing power, all this new DEMAND in the market drive inflation up, reduce the value of the dollar, and eventually undermine all good that you're trying to accomplish here?
Joe: Your questions continue to be right on the mark Al, but the answer to this one is no, it won't drive inflation up. You see the classic definition of inflation is too much money chasing to little product. In other words it's too much demand chasing too little supply, so inflation is actually the result of an imbalanced economy.
In our $3000 plan, supply and demand are related in such a way that when production goes up, the income generated automatically goes up. And when production goes down, the income generated automatically goes down. So this system features it's own built in antidote to the imbalances in our free market economy.
As such it eliminates not only inflation, but also the infamous bust boom cycles that wreak havoc on the people of this nation every decade or so, as well as the problem of concentrated wealth/power which is the cancerous root cause of social unrest, or as we like to call it today, CRIME and TERRORISM. Yes Al, in this new, 21st century, free market system, a rising tide really does lift all boats...not just the few privileged ones.
Al: OK Joe, I'm following so far, but I'm still going to play devil's advocate and ask, what happens when that company who receives some of this capital credit investment, is poorly managed, and it goes belly up like say Enron or Worldcom? What happens to the second income and the nest egg? And who pays the loan off? Is it the American taxpayer by any chance?
Joe: Of course in our current system that's exactly what happens. Tax payers are always bailing out poorly managed big businesses from Chrysler back in the 70's, to Silverado Savings and Loan back in the late 80's, to major banks, United, and Delta Airlines in the wake of 911...just to mention a few.
In our case however, there will be an insurance mechanism, much like when you or anyone else buys a house with an FHA mortgage where for a small premium the FHA underwrites the purchase, insures the individual, and the bank against the risk of default, so that neither is ever held directly liable if the loan can't be repaid. By the way, one of the individual's investment choices will be to purchase the stock in this insurance company, so that won't require raising taxes either.
The other answer to this question though is that since the capital credit will be traveling through local banks that will have a vested interest in the health and welfare of the local community, investors will avoid Wall Street altogether, and lots of these funds will end up in the hands of local business enterprises that people in the community know personally, and often work for, who are up front and transparent about their books and the future of their business, who local bankers know well, and will have a unique ability to predict future success. In short, the capital credit investor will get guidance from knowledgeable locals, who have a vested interest in the advice they hand out.
Al: Joe, please allow me throw one more wrench into your system here. This all sounds like so much theory to me because it's never been tried, tested, and proven, right? What empirical evidence is there that this wild ass theory of yours has any real world viability?
Joe: Al you keep coming up with these wonderful questions and I really appreciate the opportunity you're giving me to answer them. And on this last question, you're half right and half wrong. While it is true that it has not been tested in the municipal, state, or federal sector, it has been tested in the business community all over the nation.
I'm here to tell you that this 21st century ownership model to our 21st century economic problems has been tested in well over 10,000 business enterprises around the country who've implemented Employee Stock Ownership Plans (ESOPS).
Several years ago a group called the Center for Employee Ownership conducted a study of the nation's 2000 best ESOPS businesses, and among other things they discovered that companies who are organized around employee ownership, GROW 10% FASTER EVERY YEAR than conventional, autocratically organized companies grow. Try slapping an annual 10% growth increase into a staggering economy and see what it does for a nation!
And for my money that's sufficient empirical evidence to at least roll out a test at the municipal level. And if that works, let's roll it out at the county level. And if that works, let's roll it out at the state level. And if that works let's roll it out at the national level, after all the bugs have been worked out. And there will be bugs.
Al: We're almost out of time here Joe, so would you kind of wrap this thing up in a summary for our listeners out there in WAVG AM/FM talk radio land?
Joe: Sure Al, I'll be happy to do that. I'd say that the key thing to recognize is how this strategy disrupts our nation's current systematic tendency towards concentrating wealth and power (it used to be referred to as monopoly) in a few hands. Instead it actively spreads the ownership of wealth producing capital out among individual citizens so that power is defused. This in turn underwrites (instead of undermines) justice, freedom, democracy, and a dramatically smaller government...of the people, by the people and for the people.
Now can you imagine a family of four in which each member has been investing minimally $3,000 annually over a substantial number of years, without using wages or salaries to do it? Can you fathom what kind of demand that scenario would generate in our economy? By the same token can you believe that all this can be accomplished while reducing the role and size of government, lowering and simplifying taxes (actually we'll endorse a simple flat tax), and eliminating inflation because supply and demand are finally both working in harmony, on the same wave, moving in the same direction?
That is to say, when production (supply), including sales, increases, then income (demand in the form of paid out dividends) automatically follows in its wake, which will automatically soak up the production/supply, and eliminate the "excess demand chasing too little supply" recipe for inflation. And when you keep supply and demand in balance, on the same wave, you also eliminate the troublesome bust and boom cycles that conventional economists accept as "just part of the free enterprise system." Done right, we contend that bust boom cycles aren't an inevitable part of a free market system at all.
Finally, understand that this plan is designed to gradually phase social security out, while rescuing it from pending bankruptcy. It's also designed to gradually phase out welfare as we know it, to reform health care and education, and to enthrone individual citizens over corporate autocrats and government bureaucrats so that they (autocrats and bureaucrats) are once again subservient to financially independent (i.e. FREE) citizens. In other words we're showing citizens how to actively avoid becoming financially dependent on, and thus subservient to the government bureaucrats or corporate autocrats.
Al: We have officially run out of time here, but I must confess that you've won my interest, and you've probably won the interest of many people out there in the listening audience. By the same token there are still many details that we've left uncovered in this twenty-minute session. So my last question is, can you give our listeners a book or a web site, or both where interested parties can learn more about this fascinating, outside the box, 21st century vision for the future of America's free enterprise system?
Joe: Sure Al. There are several places for your listeners to go. The first and probably the simplest is my own web site which is http://www.joelunchbuckett.com . The second is http://www.americanrevolutionaryparty.us . And the third and most important is http://www.cesj.org which is a virtual cornucopia of information when it comes to the concept of binary economics, which is the official name for the concept that we're talking about today.
And once you're on the http://www.cesj.org, click on the book entitled Capital Homesteading For Every Citizen written by Dr. Norman G. Kurland, his extremely capable colleagues Dawn K. Browhawn, and Michael D. Greaney. Norm is the single most knowledgeable human on planet earth today when it comes to the subject of binary economics. His book is a wonderfully written, and user-friendly commentary, which provides all the details that you'll need in order to understand this incredibly innovative concept. If you really want to see what free enterprise economics is going to taste like in the future, this book is absolutely a MUST READ!
Al: Thanks Joe, and to all you listeners out there in WAVG land, check out Joe's web site at http://www.joelunchbuckett.com where you will find references to all the other references that Joe just mentioned. Until next week this is Al Robinson for WAVG AM/FM talk radio saying adios for now.
The Top 12 Benefits Of The $3,000 Plan...
1. It will rescue the Social Security System and other government entitlement programs from pending financial doom at the hands of the aging baby boomer generation.
2. It will provide new investment capital for businesses whose expansions are held back due to lack of funding
3. It will provide an opportunity for employees to become partners in the businesses they work for
4. It will eliminate the us VS them mentality and create an all for one, one for all, team mentality which will in turn make the business more efficient and more profitable
5. It will provide a second income to heads of families who are under financial stress from raising kids
6. It will minimize the need to have two parents working
7. It eventually rescues individual citizens at all levels from becoming wage slaves or industrial sharecroppers
8. It will generate unprecedented demand in the economy
9. The unprecedented demand will create many new jobs
10. Many new jobs means that employers will have to compete for employees which in turn will increase wages
11. In the not too distant future, it will eliminate poverty
12. It will attack social unrest, crime, and terrorism at their roots by democratizing the free market economy and eliminating concentrated wealth and power in the hands of a few, at the expense of the many, all while legitimately reducing taxes by reducing the size, and thus the cost of government!
Joe Lunch Buckett is a Chicago based, freelance writer who in 2004, was our nation?s first virtual candidate for the Presidency of the United States. If you're interested in learning more about Joe Lunch Buckett?s common sense solutions to 21st century problems, ranging from the war in Iraq, to Social Security, and Immigration, check out his book entitled "The Big Idea," which you can order on either Barnes and Noble or Amazon.
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