I want to do my part to clean up this mess. No one is talking about how we can help those around us. I see my savings shrinking, but have a roof over my head and enough to take care of me and mine. My heart hurts for those who will lose so much and who have so little. I can make donations to essential charities but am still asking: How can we on the street help?
This is a crazy idea – but I'm putting it forward because I want to start looking for ways that everyone could help, not just the Wall Street bankers. Please hear me out and help me think about how we could take responsibility for a situation that impacts us, but for which we have little responsibility; how we could help our communities and the people hurting so much in them. What if we took salary cuts ... and received equity for those cuts...
With the failure of many programs supported by state and local government, we face serious declines in health care, education, and other programs that meet basic needs.
What if people central to providing those services cut their salaries to try to keep more people working. Of course this applies only to those who get cutable salaries. Day care workers don’t get a livable wage now – they can’t live on less. But some teachers, police, doctors, counselors, etc. could cut back and live on less. The alternative is to eliminate services. This would have to be voluntary and would vary from person to person, but what a gift to those around us in the community.
As a way to compensate people making such cuts, I would like to see the federal government pass out little pieces of those shares in banks that they are buying. This is how it would work:
For instance, assume I am a counselor who works with kids in inner city neighborhoods. My nonprofit organization is suffering from funding cuts and liquidity problems (they always have to borrow money to meet payroll because grants are paid late.) By offering to cut my salary by 15%, I, along with coworkers, can fund one more worker staying on the job.
In exchange for this, I get V-shares (the V is for voluntary), shares of stock in the government owned equity that resulted from the bailout. Someday, these may be worth something. Or maybe my actions just keeps things working a little more smoothly.
I believe in volunteerism. I have taken pay cuts in the past to make it possible to provide services I think are essential. The understanding has always been that I will tighten my belt some with the anticipation that things will get better in the future. Many of us do this, either by volunteering or working unpaid hours. But many others might be willing to think about it if there was some clear acknowledgement that they were making a sacrifice. In our culture that honors money so highly, that acknowledgement could take the form of possible future payment, shares in the rebounding of America.
Do you have other ideas? It feels important to think about how we can help remake the economy. We are not powerless in the face of bankers, pundits, and Washington wonks. We can (and do) help those around us.