Fix the economy with carrots and sticks. [View All]

Banks and other businesses like penalties so we should have a few for them...

A penalty for each foreclosure. Maybe $10K or equal to the combined attorneys' fees, whichever is greater.

A penalty, maybe $5K per month for each vacant house. After 90 days if not paid and not still unoccupied, the locality can condemn it from the forecloser (or slum landlords too). This could hire people to renovate the houses that need it, and for the security and maintenance communities are stuck paying for.

A penalty for each job outsourced or offshored (not just once but as long as that job is done elsewhere), and for each layoff. On the other side of the coin, as Obama suggested, a "reward" for each new job created (but at more than minimum wage - say $12 to $15 at least). This should be higher on the penalty side to discourage churning.

I'm sure there are more along the same lines which would be good. (Nasty stock practices come to mind of course.) These are just the ones I was thinking of regarding the housing/jobs slice of the economic problem.

But penalties are something the vultures of our society understand, since that's their gig. Let's use it back on them. It might change how they calculate what's in their "self-interest". And also it would compensate those who pay the cost of it. These fees could go into a trust fund designated for the corresponding services needed - as the highway taxes used to go to build roads. Or to compensate individuals who are harmed.

I think it could fund a lot of the solutions we'll need to fix this mess. It's only right that those who choose to take such actions for their own benefit should pay the freight for it - and not in a general higher-taxes way which costs everybody, but targeted directly to those specific entities which are doing the damage. Straight cause and effect.