Bailout Solution Update

In the shower a couple of days ago, I realized the missing element of my bailout solution (which should pump $375 billion back into the U.S. economy, while loosening the shackles on America's best educated, most responsible citizens).

This is probably why Mr. Paulson has not yet contacted me, but now he's pretty much got no choice but to pass my blog address onto Tim Geithner.

Here's the New New Deal:

Instead of pure loan forgiveness, the U.S. treasury offers compensatory service hours. Essentially, you freelance for debt reduction. If you're willing to make this your full-time pursuit, then you get a decent stipend, and work off your debt much faster.

If you are something particularly useful, like a civil engineer, you get an above-market hourly "wage" in debt reduction for time spent on redesigning our road infrastructure.

If you're less skilled, then you get a lower hourly return in debt reduction, but still a better "wage" than you could make at your run-of-the-mill fresh-out-of-college job.

This complicates the matter, and will require some fine tuning to make it an attractive option, but it needs to be generous so that the best and most indebted people will choose it.

So, let's review. Money is pumped into the economic system, not at the top, where we hope it will create solvency through a Rube Goldberg spit-and-hope trickle-down process, but at the bottom where it will directly affect the piston of the economic engine, i.e. the workers.

In exchange for this money, U.S. education and infrastructure get competent boosts from educated, hungry professionals. And then a bunch of dumb shit pork doesn't have to get funded.

Yuh huh, we can.