October 10, 2015

No one’s asked me to run for the Presidency. But if they did, I know what I’d work to accomplish. If you know of anyone who’ll run on my terms, I’ll vote for her or him. The first thing I want my candidate to promise is that all defense contractor work will be done either on a non-profit basis, or a cost plus ten percent maximum profit, with the CEO’s and officers’ salary equal to the national average of all Americans, a reasonable percentage of salary retirement program, and basic medical benefits.

I’d like the defense manufacturing budget to be reduced by $100 Billion and that sum be provided annually in a startup fund for peace-oriented small businesses requiring $100,000 to $250,000 or less to launch. All defunded defense workers would be assisted in shifting to one of these new peaceful endeavors. My justification for this business model is that anyone willing to work on such terms will be a true patriot instead of a profit opportunist pretending to patriotism.

Any defense contractors, whose production costs exceed their projections by more than ten percent, would be temporarily removed from their positions and returned to training programs teaching them how to more accurately estimate costs. If after training they could still not achieve their projections, they would be retrained as street lane painters or dog and cat walkers.

Such programs will achieve the deficit reduction that Conservatives are particularly eager to realize. I further want the Federal government to provide major tax incentives to large corporations reducing each worker’s hours to thirty a week – assigning their deleted hours to new workers hired from the currently unemployed.

I’d enjoy seeing a collaborative corporation/government education venture that trains these newly employed for their new jobs. The millions of new jobs for both trainers and the newly hired workers will, thereby, recreate a market of tens of millions of new consumers, who will make $ billions of new purchases from the corporations enjoying their new tax breaks, helping increase their profitability.

Any corporate member not eager to help such a program work, I’d like to see put in ankle and wrist stocks on Times Square in New York, where ordinary citizens could pelt them with rotten tomatoes and soft fruits for a week before they were again offered retraining and job replacement. If they still refused to help, I figure we’ll be on Mars soon, and they can be sent there to prospect for water.

Now, that’s my entire Presidential campaign plan. If you can’t find a candidate to try it, and want me to come out of retirement, I’m flexible. You don’t have to pay me; my Social Security and VA Disability Pension don’t keep me in the lap of luxury, but I’ve got a roof over my head and don’t usually miss any meals. I do admit, it would be nice to have a small cottage somewhere when Winter comes and the rains seep into my boat. So, if you can manage that, I won’t complain.