Really interesting book. Go read it.
Some suggestions from the end:
- "Earnings insurance" - people who get a sudden, substantial (30%? 50%?) rise in income would pay part of that into a fund. People who have a corresponding bad year (30 or 50 percent loss in earned income) would get some money from the fund, maybe half their loss, to smooth out the shocks in the fast-moving new economy.
- "Community insurance" - corporations who want to move to a new location would pay into a fund that would help the old locations re-train/re-tool/recover from the shock.
- Invest in education of course, but even further, hand everyone a nest-egg of $60,000 at a certain point (age 18 or age 21), funded by a tax on the very rich. Or, my idea, phase back in the estate tax to create this endowment.
- Raise the pay of the "caring professions" (nurse's aides, home health-care aids, child-care workers, schoolteachers, social workers) so that more people will be attracted to those professions.
- (Possible danger here- why not allow parents themselves to do this) Create preschools for 3- and 4-year-olds, and create more after-school care for school-aged children.
- Encourage businesses to give people more flexibility to care for their children or elderly.
- Staying home with a child under three would be subsidized.
- Fund schools through other means than property taxes. Perhaps a national net-worth tax.
- Break the cycle of poverty by requiring a certain percentage of low-income housing in upscale developments.
Three conversations we are currently having (that probably need to be brought together):
1) how wonderful technology is - we are all getting terrific deals
2) the fear of unfettered capitalism, greed of corporations, and global problems (this book was pre-9/11 and pre-Enron)
3) creating balance in our lives
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