While a race is on in
the US to choose the next President, the world watches with interest because
being the largest economy and strongest military power in the world
particularly one that regularly intervenes in world affairs rather than
refrain, whatever happens in America influences the rest of the world hugely.
Of the seven candidates that still remain in the race the
favorite of this author is Bernie Sanders. This is because Bernie wishes to
fight against rising economic inequalities in the world, does not represent big
money interests and stands for good human values like medical care for all. Bernie is particularly able to do this because he is being funded by the people and not big corporations and banks as most others He
is especially good news for the world at large because he places more faith in
peace than wars. More so, Bernie has a long and consistent record on working for
these values and all this is not just a put on to win elections as many
politicians tend to do.
If this author has to make a second choice it would have to
be Donald Trump and none other. From a basic human point of view this author
supports him because he has clearly and firmly stated that he does not believe
any human should die on the street because of lack of medical care and the
state must ensure it whereas his competitors, particularly Ted Cruz mocked him
over it in a recent debate and seems to think that it is a horrible idea not to
let the poor die on the streets. On Israel
and Palestine issue Trump seems to believe in
striving for a peace agreement saying that he would be fair to both sides while
his republican rivals Rubio and Cruz mocked him in a debate over this saying
that they should support Israel
no matter what and not the right thing. This is the same attitude as an evil
father who would say that he would support his son no matter what, even if he
rapes and commits robberies and murder. My own father believed otherwise and
took me to the school teacher for punishment at the age of six when I stole
some toys from my playschool.
Most inspiring has been the stand of Donald Trump on many
economic issues. One being to remove the influence of money lobbyist to which
President Obama seems susceptible such as not permitting competition for health
insurance companies across states, opposing new trade agreements, TPP and TTIP that appear to give even
more power to hugely profiting corporations at the cost of power of governments
and people. Most promising however was his recognition of the fact that huge
trade deficits harm a nation and he would strive to eliminate them. However he
has not spelled out how he would do it. He mentioned the valuation of currencies
but this is something that is not easy to control. Following is a suggestion that
could perhaps help him in achieving this goal
Trade Deficits
A trade deficit is the difference between the value of
imports and exports between two countries. The simplest way to check this is by
imposing an import duty/tax that eliminates this deficit. This is how the tax
can be computed
Trade Deficit Elimination Duty = 100 (Imports –
Exports)/Exports %
The following points may be noted about this proposal
- The number 100 in the above formula is provisional, it may be revised upward or downward based on experience until trade deficit with a country is eliminated
- The tax may be revised on a quarterly basis or longer period depending on implementability and it may be rounded to nearest 1 percent
- The tax need not be applied to countries with which one has small trade volumes and it need not be applied to basic quantities needed for survival such as medicines, basic unprocessed food items such as food grains and cooking oil, crude oil and raw minerals such as ores.
UPDATE March 29: It must be concluded that while Bernie is loved by many with his message of love, the opposite seems to be true for Trump. The following link is perhaps the best explanation of why:
http://occupydemocrats.com/2016/03/28/trumps-top-strategist-just-quit-wrote-brutal-open-letter-trump-voters/
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