There has been a rather despicable problem in our economy that has, to this point, eluded a political solution. The pervasive growth of this issue has led our country into a self-reinforcing economic collapse that has affected all areas of our modern civilisation. From housing, to health, to the general welfare of the common worker, these systemic problems conflate to form a tightly woven net that drags all of us into economic stagnation, and serve to restrain the tenuous process of recovery.
Of course, we are all well aware of the ongoing collapse of the housing market. Historic levels of private debt, coupled with a bubble in the housing markets, eventually culminated in the rather catastrophic collapse of the financial markets in 2008. The debt of home owners was filtered through a system designed by the financial markets to mitigate risk that had been designed to tolerate a low level of failure. However, due to poor management, the tolerances were far exceeded by the scope of the program's acceptable losses, which is what led to the economic collapse of that year. Since then, millions of Americans have been facing a murky future of foreclosures and impoverishment.
That aspect of the problem is incidental to what I intend to address, which is a related, and altogether more fundamental issue. I wish to instead discuss the moral hazard that is crushing, private debt.
Private debt has been on the rise since the end of the 1950s, and its continued growth compounds our economic woes today. Poor souls who have been dragged underwater into this system have no choice but to rely on social safety nets that are highly stigmatised at best and woefully ineffective at worst. Even worse, the children of such impoverished have almost no chance of leaving their parents' economic classification.
Morality compels one to right this situation, and fight to preserve the American Dream for future generations. Not only would my proposal work to preserve basic American values, it would greatly reduce the torrents of human suffering in America.
I now present my thoughts, which I expect to be met with nothing but the thunderous applause it so richly merits.
In the last century, there have been remarkable gains in the field of organ transplantation and preservation. I propose the value of a complete group of human organs be set at $80,000. The specific value of particular organs would be established by economic and medical professionals, of course, in a sensible manner reflecting the relative ease at which they may be stored and they may be transplanted.
Of course, coupled with this would come the additional provision that a moneylender could- in the case of an excess of the previous number, along with poor prospects of repayment- be entitled to seek a lien against the offending individual to attain their organ assets for themselves, as a means of compensation for their debt.
These things together would have drastically positive consequences for our country. But before I outline them, I would like to take a moment to deflect the most obvious criticism.
I understand that legally fixing the price of human organs would constitute government intervention in the marketplace. That is not my intended goal, and in fact, I would only advocate for this if in each successive year of operation, the pricing is adjusted, so that the varying human organs would more accurately reflect their true market value. After a period of no longer than a decade, I would desire that government remove itself from all regulation of this sort. Therefore, I propose my $80,000 figure as merely a temporary starting point.
In regard to the positives, immediate injection of much needed money would be placed into the economy. The extra money would make it possible for those hopelessly in debt to instead keep a spouse or family in their homes. It would prevent countless families from suffering with the indignity of losing their homes through foreclosures.
Additionally, nobody would ever again be required to face the humiliating and degrading process of bankruptcy. Such people who have managed to dig themselves into a massive financial hole, would, instead of being a drain on society, repay their debt in a way that is productive.
This process would also preclude certain people from making careless choices in the future. With the consequences of careless spending being, ultimately death, people who would otherwise be motivated to spend relentlessly would instead be discouraged.
In regards to the debtor who is incapable of understanding the handling of money, it would be ultimately compassionate to end their suffering in as humane a fashion as possible. Thus, this would end a great deal of suffering felt by the poorer classes of society which are incapable of the discipline of their more successful peers.
People suffering through sickness could be similarly relieved of their misery via this same process, should their costs to a health plan accrue to a suitably high threshold. Other people, who need defective organs replaced, would have a market to purchase a replacement. Many medical professionals would be required to perform the surgeries, which would spur the market to produce many more highly skilled medical professionals, thus driving down the cost of medical care for the nation.
The children of impoverished families generally do not have the money required to attend college. With my solution, a parent who loves their child and wishes them to succeed could voluntarily sell a contract on some or all of their organs, so that their child may have access to the American Dream.
Of course, there are those who might see such a solution as unnecessary, and in fact, that all of these problems could be resolved via other means. Using federal money to stimulate the economy and create infrastructure improvements during times of poor employment. Establishing a more rigorous system held accountable to the people that handle foreclosures. Working to ensure that creditors are more accountable for their lending practices in general. Allowing easier and more open access to bankruptcy, should it become necessary for an individual. Working to prevent those problems that make health care costs increase every year. Ensuring that access to colleges for everyone is as cheap as possible, such that one never needs to enter debt to attain higher education.
Only by such radical actions could these same problems be solved in any believable way. And such, I expect no critique of my proposal to be adequate without seriously addressing all of these issues at once.
My solution takes the more realistic approach to handling all of these problems, and I submit my idea freely, so that the public may further refine the argument, and ultimately implement the agenda in a manner that provides great benefit to the nation.
For me, I will just be glad to have played my own minor role in the continued tradition of preserving the American Dream for generations to come.