Question a day

Today's question comes to us from Distributor Cap. D-Cap, or as he is known to his friends, "Mr. Excitement," sent in this question: We are heading into severe economic turmoil, what do you suggest the country and individuals do to soften the blow and make life as palatable as possible during this rough economic era?

Excellent question sir! And you are indeed correct, we are heading for a prolonged down turn in our economic fortunes. The "boom" years of the Bush Junta are about to come to an ignominious end due in part the funding the endless wars of terror in Iraq and Afghanistan, the sub prime housing crisis (which only became a crisis in the eyes of the media and the idiots in Washington DC when banks saw how much money they stood to lose), and our mindless rapacious unsustainable consumerism.

We can do the following things as a nation to soften the blow:

• End the war this second and get out of Iraq and Afghanistan.
• Close every tax loophole for the wealthy and tax them at rates comparable to the tax rates in Europe and Britain.
• End corporate welfare and all tax breaks for large corporations.

We then take all the money that we were spending on the wars of terror and we reinvest that money in rebuilding our crumbling national infrastructure, in college scholarships for low income students, and in art and music programs in elementary, middle, and high schools across the country. We then take all that new tax money and we invest it in small "Mom and Pop" owned businesses, alternative sustainable energy sources, and community owned and operated organic farms.

We should also legalize hemp production in this country. Food, fuel, clothing, and many other useful items can be made out of hemp and it's a crime that fields lay fallow in this nation when they could be used for growing hemp. We need to stop importing hemp and start growing it ourselves.

Things we can do as individuals are:

• Stop consuming so much and live more sustainably.
• Stop taking on more debt.
• Stop trying to live the life the corporate media says you should live.
• Stop patronizing the multi national corporations who are killing us and our planet.
• Break up every multi national corporation.
• Vote out all incumbents.

And if Bush/Cheney and their gang of thugs tries to stay in power past their Constitutionally mandated time, we should take to the streets and begin a rebellion against them and their corporate overlords.

Actually, if we all did those things during good economic times then we'd be doing ourselves, our planet, and future generations of people a world of good.

Thanks for that question D-Cap!

Send me your burning questions all this month and I'll answer one a day. Send your questions to monkeymuck(at)gmail(dot)com.