Imagine You Had Their Ear

["John Gelles" <johng@xxxxxxxxxx>]

    Imagine you had the President (and his top
    economic and military advisors) seated at
    your kitchen table -- listening to what you
    want them to do:

        You say: win the war on terror, finance
    Marshall Plans around the world to make
    global markets work as promised, and do
    for the environment ahead of time all the
    repair and protection necessary.

        You say the money for all the above
    will pay for itself -- as spending circulates
    both the products made here and all over
    the world and the purchasing power to see
    that they're used.

        Your guests will ask about taxes. Won't
    we have to ask the American taxpayers to
    front the spending? Won't they have to take
    all the risk?

        They will aks: If the non-defense items
    we pay for to end poverty and turn the world
    green turn out to be the end-products of
    waste, fraud and mistake, who will make
    good to those taxpayers your promise of
    circulating returns?

        Answer that. If you can't, stop asking
    your government to listen to your advice.

        My answer: Do it without up-front taxes.
    Their only purpose is to prevent counter-
    productive inflation. The war production
    board rules that will be necessary to ensure
    winning the war can include all the tools
    necessary to effectively combat inflation.

        As every American finds work and
    earnings from the spending that will be
    unleashed, the guys who listened to you
    at the table will wonder why we had not
    done all this before. (Of course we had.
    We called it WW II.)


    and use of