Affordable public transportation is great, but this isn’t about that.  This is about taxes (bad) and deficits (real bad) and banks (oh my  god, what is up with these guys?) and government entitlements (hey, I like my entitlements!)  This is about finding a way to lower taxes, fund entitlement programs, eliminate budget deficits and stop allowing ourselves to be strong-armed into bailing out Wall Street and the rest of Corporate America whenever their greed or incompetence takes them over the edge. Capitalism is great.  I propose that We the People embrace it wholeheartedly.  We need to incorporate and start investing in ourselves.

USE stands for “United States Enterprises”, an umbrella corporation to be held in trust by the federal government of the United States for the citizens there of.  The BUS (Bank of the United States) would be one of several wholly owned subsidiaries of USE.  General Motors could be another one, but let’s focus on something that could make some money right away.  While filling out my tax forms the other day I noted that I paid over $12,000 in mortgage interest last year.  Itemizing my deductions lowered my tax bill, but you know what could have lowered it even more?  What if I had paid that interest into the US Treasury instead?  I’m going to have a mortgage anyway, so I would really prefer that the profits generated went to fund those entitlements that I love so much.  According to the US Census Bureau, home mortgages topped $11 trillion in 2008.  If you figure conservatively at an average annual rate of 5% (mine is higher), that works out to over 550 billion dollars minus expenses.  Now don’t misunderstand me, I’m not suggesting that the government take over all of the banking industry, or even all of the mortgage market.  I’m espousing unabashed capitalism; I think We the People can compete in the open market and garner around a 30% share.  That’s over 150 billion dollars from home mortgages alone!  Then you have another 2.5 trillion in consumer credit at an average interest rate of 13.4%, which could yield another 100 billion in annual revenue.

Are you thinking yet?  How much more is there to be gained in the financial markets?  What about the insurance industry?  US Federal Power and Light?  Health Care anyone? I’ve heard there’s a lot of money to be made there!  The numbers I’ve quoted are gross values, so the net profit could be significantly smaller.  And as We took market share from other corporations tax revenues from those sources would decline somewhat as well.  Still, no one is paying 100% of their profit into the Treasury, so the net gain would be both positive and substantial.  President Obama’s proposed budget for 2010 has government outlays at 25.4% of projected GDP, with a budget deficit of over $1.5 trillion.  Establishing a profit motivated federal corporation (USE), with particular interests in the consumer finance markets (BUS), would go a long way toward reducing the deficit in the short run and federal taxes in the long run.