I am beginning to think the terms “Stimulus” and “bail out” will soon be those on most people’s banned word list.  There was a cartoon in our local paper a while back that had a sea of people as far as you could see surrounding the Capital with a guy standing with a megaphone asking the question “Is there anyone here NOT looking for a bail out?”.  That is about what has happened, it is a new gold rush, but on government money which we do not have.  Do you think we have reached a level of stupidity greater than any other in our history when even Porn kings such as Larry Flint as asking for bail outs?

The USA has become a joke among the nations now, it is hard to imagine anyone would look at our country with any thoughts of financial security.  But wait, there is more and more and more..  When do we, the consumers, get our own money printing presses?  Will they be made in China?

So, at this time, the talk is about another $700 billion ($700,000,000,000) up to $1.2 trillion dollar stimulus package.  And for what?  Think of the trillions of dollars we do not have that have already been spent and at this time it has done no visible good, they still are spending more.

Stimulus that would work!

Okay, they want to have a Trillion dollar stimulus package.  Why not make one that really works for the country and its future.  The following idea may not work to shoot up the economy in weeks or even months, but over the next 12-18 months, could provide to provide a great deal of jobs and give us long term stability without just short term solutions requiring even more money to be spent later.  Not only does this plan help us in a relative short term, but also helps to pay for it over the years through new manufacturing sector.

Okay, the plan is simply to invest into what people claim this country has going for it, innovation!  They plan to throw away 1,000 billion dollars.  Let’s break that up into 900 $1 billion dollar grants and another 100 $1 billion dollar grants.

The first 900 grants will be awarded to companies or individuals who come up with a substantial (no $2 products, must be something that can make a substantial impact on exports) product or products that currently do not exist and are desirable globally.  The person or company that has a winning product will be granted $1 billion dollars to spend based on their winning business plan to keep the company solvent, manufacturing and distributing the product for at least five years.  Of course, for the business plan to win, it would be evaluated on many different fronts including global marketability of the product(s).

There is another catch to obtain a grant (this should be a condition for any government loan or grant of any kind) , the company shall not ever be able to be sold to a foreign entity.  In addition, they cannot outsource any of their work or materials which are available domestically.  This guarantees the company will be producing domestically and never allow jobs or production to move outside the nation.  One other limitation is that they should be required to pay their employees at least say $20 per hour to afford them some livable wage.  The wage minimum should also be automatically adjusted annually for cost of living so it rises with inflation.

Just imagine if even half of those succeed and we have 450 new domestic businesses that manufacture and export products to a world market.  And those businesses will always be domestic!

What about the other 100 grants?  I would have those go to domestic energy.  Perhaps 50 new billion dollar geothermal plants, another say 25 billion dollar solar farms and the rest for other alternative forms of energy production and distribution.  It may even be desirable to put a few of those grants to work for companies who will produce new forms of solar cells to drop the cost of production to make them a resource for export.  With that small investment it could make huge step toward energy independence!

What does a billion dollars buy?

When you think about it, how big of business could you build with a billion dollars?  If you broke that up over ten years time, you still have $100 million dollars per year to keep your company growing and moving globally.

With that kind of money you should be able to have a large workforce of quality people that are not being hammered with hardships.  There should be enough money to pay them a good wage giving them and their families a decent quality of life.  Remember, those employees are consumers as they will be consuming.

Just look around and see the size of businesses that are trying to be sold right now for under $100 million.  There are national retails stores chains going for less than that.  What about all those old manufacturing plants that were closed when greedy corporations decided to move manufacturing overseas?  You would think those plants would be available for chump change which would provide a great startup area for a new billion dollar manufacturing company…

The long term

So far, I really do not hear any long term solutions.  The government is spending trillions but it does not seem to be going anywhere.  Their long term plan is, they will come up with that later…

Here is a long term plan that works for everyone.  Innovation opens great export markets, building a new manufacturing sector in the USA which provides us long term jobs and cuts the trade deficits.  It also gives back some patriotic pride where people can be proud to work for an all American company without fear of losing their jobs to overseas workers.

Yes, this plan takes a little while to get moving, but just the gesture of the plan moving forward in the media would generate confidence back into the economy  and make people have hope that the USA can once again become a producing not just a consumer!

Do you really want to see the next 100 years of tax revenue thrown away in failing stimulus plans or put America back to work as a producer once again?