Problem Summary
The tax code is not setup to benefit most young Americans. The majority of tax benefits adults interact with is related to retirement, i.e. older adults.
However, the financial difficulty of simply covering basic needs – shelter, food, and transportation – is now so high that few people want to date, start a family, support local businesses, or anything else.
The birth rate in Asian countries has cratered largely because the cost of living has been increasing for generations. America is facing this issue and we need to reckon with it now. This unreasonable cost of living has created a culture of where work and money are more important than our own humanity and our own families.
You want people to have more kids?
You want people to be more competitive and innovative?
Then stop perpetuating a society that robs them of their opportunity to thrive.
Tax Cuts and Policy Reforms:
- The first 250k of your lifetime income is completely untaxed. And this amount should be routinely adjusted for inflation.
People need the most financial help at the beginning of their adult lives and near the end of it.
This tax break is aimed at young adults, giving them more financial freedom to pursue their life goals, whether that’s pursuing education, starting a family or a business, or anything else.
This will be a critical step is giving young adults the opportunity to pursue the American dream without excessive tax burdens from the government.
- Income recieved during maternity/paternity leave is untaxed.
Families caring for newborns and pregnant mothers should get more help not less. If you want people to value their family, then support them by making it more affordable.
Healthcare costs for pregnant mothers and newborns can be astronomical, rivaling cancer treatment. This is utterly ridiculous and a serious healthcare failure.
- National support for Paternity and Maternity leave paid for by Medicaid (or other program)
At least some of that social security/medicaid money should go to help new families. Without supporting them, you won’t have young workers to keep the cost of labor down.
- Prevent and Punish Discrimination against Mothers and Fathers dedicated to childcare/eldercare
Men and women returning to work or education after caring for family should be a protected class under the Civil Rights Act.
Employers should be heavily penalized and corporate executives held personally responsible for discrimination against them as well.
- Place strict limits on how many residential real estate properties corporations can own, particularly Single-Family homes. Also, restrict private equity firms investment in real estate to a small percentage of their portfolio.
The fact that giant financial companies can play Monopoly with the residential housing market is insane. They can create artificial demand and raise prices through various shady methods.
- Have the Govt back mortgages as a guarantor to provide low interest rates for first-time home buyers.
This has been proposed before and Fannie-Mae/Freddie Mac already back most residential mortgages, but the problem is the housing costs are too high and (current) lending standards are too strict.
If the federal govt provided easy access to low interest mortgages like they did with student loans