Forum Post: Policy suggestions

One of the problems people have with the movement is we are bringing up many problems we have with our broken system yet have not been able to come up with many solutions. I think we need to start discussing specific ways and policies we would like to see. If you like my suggestions great, if not, great but please try to come up with a solution you think is better too. I want to see some real change come from this. I will break this up into sections so hopefully comments and suggestions can be made to specific points

General topics: 1) Campaign finance reform 2) Tax reform 3) Outsourcing 4) Executive compensation 5) Financial reform

The specifics: 1) corporations are currently being called people, and are being allowed to make contributions to politicians to influence policy. I think the corporations should be allowed to have a say, but should be limited in the amount they can contribute to something an actual person might contribute, say $50,000.

2) We currently have too many tax tricks for corporations to legally take advantage of. Most of these should be closed. Also, we have flat taxes on corporations, the estate tax, and capital gains. These taxes should be changed to a progressive tax, so the well of corporations pay a higher percent than the ones just getting by

3) Companies are choosing to outsource over hiring domestically. This causes society to have to pick up the cost of the unemployed worker. I think an outsourcing tax needs to be implemented equivalent to the unemployment benefits of the worker that wasn't hired.

4) Today I found out the JP Morgan CEO made $20.8M in total compensation in 2010, an increase of 1,541% from last year. Since 2008, he laid of nearly 10,000 people. I think executives and highly paid employees should have to take compensation cuts before cutting jobs and must hire or increase the average wage before getting any pay increase

5) Part A) Repo 105 must be outlawed and prosecuted (an accounting trick that makes a company appear healthier than it is by temporarily transfering debt to a subsidiary just before financial statements come out) Part B) companies should not be allowed to take naked positions in and financial derivative (right now companies can place bets on how they think other companies will do, without owning a stake in the company) Part C) too big to fail means you are too big to exist. Break up the mega-corporations into smaller companies that are small enough we can let them fail Part D) restrict high frequency trading Part E) banks should have to keep the mortgages they underwrite (they will keep underwriting standards high)