Former state school superintendent Tom Watkins, a regular contributor to the Free Press and other area media, has an interesting idea, rooted in another era, for rebuilding a sense of unity in America — and raising money to tackle some of our pressing needs: Buy bonds.
His idea is born from “a yearning to try to create something positive out of this mess” exemplified by last week’s Wall Street bailout and the national anger it spawned.
Watkins writes:
Look, I am far from an economist. But, I am an American and I don't like the helpless feeling that this huge fiscal crisis has placed upon me, my family and country. I am finding myself complaining to anyone who will listen. While that may be good therapy, it won't "fix" anything. We need to do something to pull the American people together as one -- not Republicans or Democrats, Blue State or Red State -- but the United States.
As President Franklin Delano Roosevelt said at the height of the Great Depression, "Do something and if that does not work, do something else, but for God's sake, do something!"
I say we call for issuing "Invest in America Bonds." They would be similar to the "War Bonds" last issued during World War II. We have an economic Pearl Harbor facing our nation and it's time to come together as a country and re-invest in America.
Rather than issuing these bonds to finance military operations during war time, they would be used to invest in creating jobs for the 21st Century, hyper-competitive, disruptive, transformational, technologically- and knowledge-driven, global economy. The resources from the bonds could be used to help stimulate job creation in alternative energy; rebuilding our infrastructure; innovations aimed at making us safer against terror; new manufacturing technology and education.
Americans are looking for safe havens for investment. They are also looking for ways to help lift up our nation and spirits. What better way to do so than creating a campaign that allows all of us, from school-age children to adults, to invest in America? Imagine children filling a promotional cardboard "Invest In America" holder with 75 slots for quarters, to equal $18.75. When full it could be turned in for a bond that matured in 10 years. Other campaigns in larger denominations could be created.
Investing should be made as simple as possible. Payroll deduction would be an easy method. As with savings bonds, employees would earn the interest on their investments.
At the end of the Victory War Bond campaign in 1946 more than 85 million Americans — half the population at the time — purchased bonds totaling $185.7 billion. With inflation, imagine the money that could be generated to put America back on our feet and back to work!
As I said, an intriguing idea. But has the government lately inspired the kind of confidence required to attract such bond investors? And, sad to suggest, can you imagine the political fighting over how the bond proceeds would be distributed? A board? Appointed by whom?
Everything Watkins suggests is worthy of investment, but the results in some areas might not be as tangible as, say, the tanks and planes that won WWII. I’d suggest that whatever is funded, from new schools to a solar research lab to a robotics course for displaced auto workers, it ought to be plainly labeled as a product of the bond drive for all to see.
I’m not sure this concept has legs, but maybe you do. One of the purposes of this forum is to throw stuff at the wall and see what sticks. What do you think of a bond sale as a purposeful campaign for the next president?
