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I think the key to a good economy is the education system. It sounds stupid but hear me out, and follow these steps:
1) From the time they start school, encourage kids to enter and appreciate specializations like engineering, biochemistry, science, architecture. Outstanding students, upon finishing high school, will receive a 4-year free-ride at a good institution of higher-learning in these areas. Instead of starting college funds at the child's age of 3, start a general push for intelligence. Instead of putting kids in pageants and little league at ages they don't understand the sport, foster an appreciation for learning. Cut in half the priority that high schools have given to their sports programs, and allow kids to see the light at the end of the tunnel (free college with good grades and in certain subjects). Use the money from the new top-of-the-line football stadium to begin these programs. Let high school students get a taste of architecture, engineering, and interesting science. And most of all, make teachers' salaries competitive with everyone else's. High school coaches getting more than teachers, that's a disgrace. An independent plumber can make more than the average teacher, another disgrace. Make that an enticing job, to be a good teacher.
2) At the age of 18, the aspiring engineer, architect, or scientist, who worked hard in high school gets a grant to enroll in one of these programs for free. Under the condition that he/she follows through with the program, five years later, the trained worker is released to get a job, with no student debts to pay, and a great salary: money that goes back into society through taxes and obviously spending of that good salary.
3) Most important of all is the role that these certain areas of study play in our economy and our society. Instead of relying on Asian/Indian engineers and architects to design our country's bridges and tunnels, instead of relying on Asian/Indian scientists and doctors to move to this country and rule those trades, the American engineer, scientist, doctor, architect, is making money on his country's projects. People are put to work on these projects, jobs are made, our damaged infrastructure is ameliorated. Doctors and scientists are released and very well trained to develop new drugs, and medical breakthroughs. These are things that will sell at home as well as overseas. This = money for American companies and goes right back into our country in tax dollars.
4) What happens to the people who don't get into those fields? Nothing. Someone who wants to major and PHD in photography can pay the $30,000 a year he/she's paying now. Someone who wants to get into P.R., something our country is not in a shortage of at the moment, they can pay the $30,000 a year. Ideally, our government should make college stop being a big business, but that's another more monumental task, and besides the point. Less scholarships for athletes will help more scholarship for the people I mentioned before, and if colleges aren't willing to make that sacrifice, we tap into our national budget (which at this point hasn't been touched, because it's all self-sufficient up til now).
5) What happens to people who don't want to go to college or don't show signs of really having any drive to? Increase by three times the amount of technical institutes or trade schools in this country. Certain kids aren't made for college, liberal arts, or things like engineering or biochemistry. Allow kids to leave high school at the age of 16 to pursue a career in a trade schools or technical institute (by tech. inst., I mean a 2-year program for things like mechanics, etc., like Devry or ITT), after a two year program of training. There's no reason an 18 year-old who is taught well can't be a good mechanic or lay pipes or build things. Because he/she is so young, allow some of his taxed wages and his complete Social Security (until he reaches 22, which would be his graduation year in college if he went) to support the aforementioned college system. An 18 year-old making wages and getting a jumpstart on other professions is a benificiary in his own way, of this lenient 16 y/o training system, so his money tax money (an 18 year-old before this system wouldn't have to pay many taxes anyway with their part-time jobs, so $20-30,000 at age 18 is a lot for their first four years of work).... Let that support the system.
6) Just stressing again that this country doesn't have to rely on the cutthroatedness and exploitation of its corporations to bring it ahead. By filling certain necessary roles in our workforce (that we import from other countries) and doing away with others (that we export), it affects everything from our real estate to our infrastructure. Hiring a Japanese engineering team because of the lack of an American one being trained to a certain specialized structure; multiply that by thousands of projects that go to American firms when they are better trained; American firms hire and train better-trained American construction workers, which there are more of. Instead of fearing Chinese and European advances in medicine, the more numerous scientists work harder and bring about more advances, which ultimately means a new medicine, or machine, or technique that can be sold in another part of the world. What if the (more numerous and better-trained) United States' scientists discovered an immunization to cancer or AIDS. Sell that to the billions of people in India and China and that, my friends, is how this country starts seeing money again.... Gold rush. More funding and more scientists means more breakthroughs. Thomas Edison invented more and more when this country funded him. The European explorers established more and more trading posts in Canada and the US when their country funded them.
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http://thesoundofeco.com
Last edited by DJ Eco on Jan-25-2008 at 04:25
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