The Bedrock First Mandate
A Common-Sense Plan for a Functional and Trustworthy America
A Note from an Everyday Citizen: Why Is This So Complicated?
I am not an economist, a scholar, or a political strategist. I’m a citizen, just like you, trying to make sense of our current political and economic dilemma.
I look at my bills, I see the cost of healthcare, and I listen to the news. Nothing adds up. It feels like both sides are playing a zero-sum game, and the only person who loses is the average American. We are told to pick a team—Left or Right—but both paths seem to lead to more instability, more debt, and more division.
I’ve gone down the rabbit hole trying to understand *why*. Why are our systems so irrational? Why do we reward financial speculation over productive work? Why do we accept “Socialism for the Rich” (like hidden tax loopholes that subsidize corporate risk) but criticize programs that would stabilize the working family?
I don’t have a complex model. I don’t have a 1,000-page plan. But in trying to find an answer, I’ve realized the problem isn’t just the *policy*; it’s the *process*. The machine itself is broken.
“The problem is choice. You are the anomaly… You are here because you are unable to accept the terms of the equation. You are here to understand *why*.”
A (non-serious) nod to the frustration of a flawed system.
The equation *is* flawed. The “choice” offered by partisans is the anomaly. We have to stop trying to win a rigged game and instead demand a new, fair set of rules.
This document is the result of that frustration. It’s an attempt to outline a common-sense **”Bedrock First” Mandate.** It’s not about Left vs. Right; it’s about **”Functional vs. Dysfunctional.”** It’s a set of ideas, open to everyone, for fixing the foundation so we can *finally* start to build a stable economy that works for all of us.
The “Bedrock First” Mandate: Fixing the Machine
This is the new “Grand Compromise.” It breaks the zero-sum game by shifting the focus from “Left vs. Right” to **”Functional vs. Dysfunctional.”**
We must offer a new “win” that both sides can champion, and that the pragmatic, apolitical majority desperately wants: **Stability.**
- **To the Left:** We must first *save* the institutions of government so that we have the power to *use* government to help people.
- **To the Right:** We must first *save* the rule of law and the Constitution so that the free market has a stable, predictable foundation on which to operate.
- **To the Swing Voter:** We must **fix the machine** before we can argue about what the machine should build.
Pillar 1: The Anti-Authoritarian Framework
This pillar restores institutional integrity and ensures policy is based on **facts, not fealty.** This is the “No Kings” Mandate, and it requires both sides to give up their most extreme tools of power.
| The “Get” (A Universal Win for Stability) | The “Give” (The Partisan Sacrifice) |
|---|---|
| **Constitutional Guardrails:** Automatic Legislative Review for all emergency declarations; strengthening the Posse Comitatus Act to ban military use on citizens. | Both sides give up the ability to have a “strongman” president who can ram through their agenda via executive order. |
| **A Mandate for Competence:** A “Certificate of Fitness” (ethical, financial, psychological) for all high federal offices. | Both sides give up the power of political patronage, cronyism, and installing purely ideological (but unqualified) loyalists. |
| **An End to “Dark Money”:** A Fair Elections and Disclosure Act that bans foreign money and requires all political spending groups to disclose their major donors. | Both sides give up their reliance on anonymous, billion-dollar war chests from their most extreme donors. |
Pillar 2: The Anti-Division Framework (The Economic Fix)
How do you stop cultural division? You make **economic stability more important and more tangible than the culture war.** This plan creates a *shared, universal economic identity* by giving every American a direct stake in the nation’s success.
| The “Get” (A Universal Win for Stability) | The “Give” (The Partisan Sacrifice) |
|---|---|
| **The “Citizen’s Dividend” (A Public Wealth Fund):** We close major corporate/wealth loopholes (Carried Interest, etc.) and deposit the revenue into a Public Wealth Fund. The returns are paid out annually *to every single American.* | **The Left** must give up its “Medicare for All” purity test and accept a regulated private system, as this fund becomes the primary social stabilizer. |
| **The Universal Savings Account (USA):** A **voluntary, flexible, tax-free** account for every American to build their own wealth and security. | **The Right** must give up its defense of the specific, indefensible loopholes that are used to fund the Public Wealth Fund and the USA’s progressive match. |
The Grand Compromise: A “Win” for Everyone
This compact is not for the ideologues; it is for the pragmatic majority tired of the chaos. It breaks the zero-sum game by delivering tangible, common-sense outcomes. It achieves **progressive outcomes** (more equality, universal access) using **fiscally conservative methods** (fiscal discipline, market efficiency).
The Appeal to Fiscal Conservatives (The Method)
- **Fiscal Responsibility:** The plan is **deficit-neutral**. All new spending is fully paid for by closing wasteful loopholes, not by raising general taxes or increasing the national debt.
- **Pro-Market Efficiency:** The plan *removes* government distortion. By eliminating the corporate debt subsidy, it restores **market rationality** and stops the state from subsidizing risky financial behavior.
- **Individual Responsibility:** The **Universal Savings Account (USA)** is voluntary, flexible, and market-based. The **Low-Rate Credit** is conditional on stringent, responsible underwriting, rewarding prudence, not dependency.
The Appeal to Progressive Advocates (The Outcome)
- **Reduces Inequality:** The plan structurally achieves the **60/40 wealth target**, a massive and durable victory for the working class.
- **Funds Social Good:** The “Carried Interest” tax on the top 0.1% is used to directly fund **mass capitalization** (the Savings Match) for the bottom 40%.
- **Universal Guarantees:** The plan delivers universal healthcare stability, controls costs, and protects all existing social safety nets (Medicare, Medicaid) from cuts.
Detailed Fix 1: The Wallet (Eliminating the Debt Crisis)
The primary crisis facing the $90\%$ is **systemic insolvency**. The household balance sheet is consumed by high-interest debt and volatile costs. The **Low-Rate/High-Scrutiny Compact** is engineered to put thousands of dollars back into your pocket by structurally ending this debt extraction.
The “Costco Model” for National Credit
This plan does *not* create a new, massive government lending agency. Instead, it uses the government’s power to **de-risk the $90\%$** and make them safe, profitable customers for the **existing private lending market** (banks and credit unions).
- **Why are your rates high now?** Banks charge you 22% on a credit card because they are pricing in *systemic risk*—the chance that a financial crisis will cause millions to default. You are paying a premium to subsidize the volatility created by the financial $20\%$.
- **How We Fix It:**
- **Government (The Guarantor):** Sets the strict, common-sense underwriting standards (low DTI, proven savings).
- **Private Lenders (The Supplier):** Supply all the capital and issue the loans at the mandated low rate.
- **The Lender’s “Win”:** Lenders trade a few high-margin, high-risk loans for a massive, trillion-dollar market of **low-risk, guaranteed-solvent** customers. Their profit shifts from high-risk interest to safe, predictable volume.
Detailed Fix 2: The Taxes (Integrity, Loopholes, and Funding)
This is the **Anti-Extractive Tax Compact.** The core irrationality is that the tax code favors passive capital income over earned wages. Our plan directly targets the largest subsidies benefiting the top 10%.
Target 1: Closing the Carried Interest Loophole
**The Problem:** Financial managers treat labor compensation as investment income to pay a lower tax rate. This violates the principle that *a dollar earned is taxed as income, regardless of who earned it.*
**The Fix:** We mandate this income be taxed as **ordinary labor income.** The substantial revenue recaptured is **permanently earmarked** to fund the **Progressive Savings Match** for the bottom 90%.
Target 2: Eliminating the Corporate Debt Subsidy
**The Problem:** Large corporations deduct interest paid on debt, making debt cheaper than equity and encouraging fiscally irresponsible speculation. The government subsidizes corporate risk.
**The Fix:** We **eliminate** interest deductibility for large firms. This forces stable, equity-based financing and generates revenue used to ensure the overall Compact is **deficit-neutral** by removing a major tax subsidy.
Detailed Fix 3: The Safety Net (Stabilizing Medicare & Medicaid)
We guarantee that Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid are not cut or privatized. Instead, the SCSC fixes their underlying cost problems, making them financially solvent for generations by attacking the systemic price failures in healthcare.
Medicare: Cost Control and Solvency
Medicare’s solvency challenge is a **cost problem**, not a benefits problem. The SCSC attacks this cost inflation at its source by empowering the **National Price Negotiation Authority** to demand lower prices for drugs and hospital services across the board. The billions saved on these purchases directly improves Medicare’s solvency outlook without touching promised benefits or raising your payroll taxes.
Medicaid: Efficiency and Reduced Structural Reliance
Medicaid serves the most vulnerable, but its rolls are overloaded by working families who are one financial shock away from poverty. The SCSC fixes the *cause* of this poverty, not just the symptom. As **wages rise** (indexed growth) and families gain a **Solvency Shield (USA)**, more people will earn enough to shift *off* Medicaid rolls. Resources are then reserved for the **genuinely disabled and long-term needy**.
Detailed Fix 4: The Security (Achieving Mass Capitalization)
Security comes from owning assets and controlling your financial future. This is how the SCSC makes you an owner of capital, guaranteeing your family’s solvency against future economic shocks. Our goal is to achieve the **60/40 Stability Target**, where the working $90\%$ of Americans hold $40\%$ of the national wealth.
The Universal Savings Account (USA)
A simple, **voluntary,** penalty-free account for any life goal (emergency, home, retirement). Its liquidity solves the crisis problem for the $80\%$.
The Progressive Match Guarantee
Cash matched contributions, permanently funded by closing tax loopholes, are exclusively injected into the accounts of the lowest-wealth citizens. **You are paid to save.**
The Wealth Goal (60/40)
The total effect of these measures is to transfer **7% of national wealth** to the bottom $90\%$, ensuring you hold $40\%$ of the nation’s capital.
The $60/40$ Equilibrium Shift
This transition is a **gradual, decade-long process** achieved by funding mass savings and stopping debt erosion, thereby protecting all investments. This isn’t a “sudden collapse”; it’s a stable rebalancing. **The plan isn’t about *punishing* success; it’s about stopping the *subsidies for speculation* and *rewarding productive work*.**
Total Wealth Base (Estimate)
$168 Trillion
U.S. Household Net Worth
Your Family’s Share
Share of the Working 90%:
Total Capital Value (Estimate):
$55.44 Trillion
Needed for Stability Shift:
+$11.76 Trillion
This capital is transferred via stable growth and debt reduction—not a crash.
Detailed Fix 5: The Healthcare Framework (SFP-HC)
The **Stabilization and Fair Price Healthcare Compact (SFP-HC)** is the integrated plan to ensure health costs support, rather than destroy, the household balance sheet. It is a **market-based fix** that uses proven business logic to restore sanity to healthcare pricing.
Pillar A: Universal Risk Pooling (The “Costco” Model)
The core structural flaw in U.S. healthcare is the fragmentation of risk, which fuels adverse selection and strips away bargaining power. We mandate that all citizens are part of a single **National Risk Pool (NRP)**—the ultimate buying group—to end this fragmentation.
- **How it Works:** Just like Costco uses its millions of members to get bulk pricing, the NRP uses the entire population to gain leverage.
- **Outcome:** The focus shifts from **risk avoidance** (insurers “cherry-picking” the healthy) to **efficient cost containment** for the entire nation.
Pillar B: National Price Negotiation Authority
The **National Health Security Board (NHSB)** is granted the exclusive power to set uniform, benchmarked prices for pharmaceuticals, high-cost medical devices, and major hospital procedures. This imposes **market rationality** where monopolies previously operated.
- **How it Works:** The NHSB would, for example, target the 10 most expensive specialty drugs, forcing their prices down by $50-80\%$ to match global averages.
- **Outcome:** This ends the practice of “billing complexity as a profit center” by standardizing what providers can charge.
Pillar C: The Anti-Extraction Defense
The plan enforces discipline on healthcare providers by banning the use of **interest deductibility** for Private Equity (PE) leveraged buyouts of hospitals and clinics.
- **How it Works:** This removes the primary tax subsidy that fuels the “buy, leverage, and strip” business model that preys on healthcare assets.
- **Outcome:** It ensures the healthcare sector is run for **long-term clinical value**, not short-term debt service to external financiers.
Political Strategy 1: The Branding (The Party of Competence)
The SCSC framework redefines political identity by focusing on **competence and structural integrity**, rather than ideological labels. We seize the political center by solving problems using the most efficient tools available.
The Core Rebranding Strategy: Implementation Over Ideology
- **Owning Fiscal Discipline:** We neutralize the “tax and spend” critique by ensuring every new benefit is **paid for** by eliminating market-distorting subsidies, allowing us to claim the mantle of **fiscal responsibility**.
- **Structural Integrity:** We frame our policies as **necessary infrastructure upgrades**—fixing the plumbing of the economy—rather than optional spending. This elevates the conversation from partisan debate to a mandate for functional governance.
- **The Competence Guarantee:** We prove that we are the only side capable of implementing structural solutions that stabilize costs (healthcare) while simultaneously empowering the individual (USA), thereby becoming the trusted party of **economic competence and implementation.**
- **The True “Pro-Growth” Party:** We redefine “pro-growth” to mean **pro-worker, pro-small business, and pro-stability.** We expose the opposition’s platform as a **”pro-speculation” system** that only benefits the financial elite and leaves the real economy behind.
Political Strategy 2: Co-opting the Opposition (Political Jujutsu)
The political power of the SCSC lies in its “jujutsu” strategy: using the opponent’s own strength (fiscally conservative principles) to execute our objective (progressive wealth security).
The Core Political Calculus: Forcing the Defense of Irrationality
Our strategy is to force the opposition into defending the **irrationality and hypocrisy** of the status quo, making their position politically untenable to the swing voter.
- **The Carried Interest Trap:** Opponents are forced to choose between **defending a special tax break for millionaires** (politically damaging) and **opposing a savings match for working families** (politically suicidal).
- **The Debt Defense:** The opposition must defend the idea that **subsidizing corporate debt** (which fuels financial volatility) is more fiscally responsible than making **Medicare solvent** through negotiated prices.
- **Co-opting Responsibility:** We seize the “individual responsibility” narrative by making the **Universal Savings Account (USA)** voluntary, liquid, and market-based—all while using it as the most effective vehicle for wealth transfer. We turn their best political attack into our strongest policy defense.
The Self-Respect Plea: Guaranteed Ownership vs. A Rigged Gamble
This final plea challenges the deeply ingrained belief that the working class is only one lucky break away from joining the ultra-wealthy. This **”1% Fallacy”** is a form of self-sabotage that prevents true economic action.
The Illusion of Access vs. The Reality of the Gap
You are told any person can become a member of the $1\%$. This fallacy ignores the structural fact that the current system is designed to reward passive capital at a rate far exceeding the return on labor. **The gap between your wages and the cost of owning capital is too wide for hard work alone to overcome.**
Definitions & Key Concepts
This page provides simple, clear explanations for the core economic and policy terms used throughout the SCSC framework. Click any term to expand.
80/20 Premise (or 90/10)
A general observation that in many systems, roughly 80% of the outcomes come from 20% of the causes (or 90% from 10%). In economics, it often refers to wealth concentration, where a small percentage of the population holds a large percentage of the wealth. Our plan aims to create a healthier, more stable balance (like 60/40).
Anti-Extractive Policy
Policies designed to stop the removal of wealth from the working class or the broader economy through non-productive means.
Example: High-Interest Credit Card Debt
A person making $40,000/year is forced to use a credit card with a 25% APR to pay for a $1,000 car repair. Over time, that $1,000 repair costs them $1,500 or more. That extra $500 is **extracted wealth**—it created no new value for the economy, but was simply transferred from the worker’s paycheck to the bank’s balance sheet.
Our plan fixes this by providing **low-cost credit** and **Universal Savings Accounts (USAs)**, which function as a “solvency shield” to prevent this extraction from happening.
Carried Interest Loophole
A tax loophole allowing managers of private equity and hedge funds to treat their performance fees (which are compensation for their *labor*) as “capital gains” (which are returns on *investment*). This allows them to pay a much lower tax rate.
Example: The Unfair Tax Rate
- A nurse who earns **$80,000 in wages** pays a **22%** marginal federal income tax rate on part of that income.
- A fund manager who earns a **$20 million “performance fee”** (carried interest) for their work gets to treat it as a capital gain and pays only a **20%** tax rate.
**The SCSC Fix:** Our plan closes this loophole and requires that *all* income earned from labor is taxed as ordinary income. The revenue saved is used to fund the **Progressive Savings Match**.
Corporate Debt Subsidy (Interest Deductibility)
In simple terms, interest deductibility is a provision in the U.S. tax code that allows a company to subtract the interest it pays on its debts (loans) from its income before calculating how much tax it owes.
This effectively means the government (i.e., you, the taxpayer) is paying for a portion of that company’s debt, making it a **government subsidy for debt.**
How It’s Abused in a Leveraged Buyout (LBO)
A leveraged buyout is a strategy where a Private Equity (PE) firm uses a large amount of borrowed money to acquire a company.
- **The Target:** A PE firm identifies a stable company (like a hospital or grocery chain) with predictable cash flow.
- **The Financing:** The PE firm puts down a small amount of its own cash (e.g., 10%) and borrows the other 90%.
- **The Critical Step:** The PE firm structures the deal so this massive new debt is placed onto the *hospital’s* own balance sheet. The hospital, not the PE firm, is now legally responsible for paying back the loan that was used to buy it.
- **The “Tax Shield”:** The hospital must now use its operating revenue to make the large annual interest payments. All the money the hospital pays in interest is a tax-deductible expense.
A Simplified Example
| Scenario | Before PE Buyout | After PE Buyout (LBO) |
|---|---|---|
| Annual Operating Profit | $100 Million | $100 Million |
| Interest Expense | $0 (was debt-free) | $80 Million (from LBO loan) |
| Taxable Income | $100 Million | $20 Million ($100M – $80M) |
| Corporate Tax (at 21%) | $21 Million | $4.2 Million |
| Profit After Tax | $79 Million | $15.8 Million |
By loading the hospital with $80 million in interest payments, the PE firm has created a “tax shield” that reduces the hospital’s tax bill from $21 million to just $4.2 million. This frees up cash flow, which is then used to pay down the debt or be paid out to the PE firm as a dividend.
Consequences for the Hospital & Community
The hospital’s primary financial goal shifts from patient care to debt service. To make these payments, management is often forced to:
- Reduce nursing staff or increase patient-to-nurse ratios.
- Delay investments in new medical equipment.
- Sell off hospital real estate (and then lease it back, creating a new expense).
- Close less profitable services, like maternity wards or mental health units.
**The SCSC Fix:** Our plan **eliminates this tax subsidy for large firms.** This makes the extractive LBO strategy unprofitable and forces companies to use safer, more stable **Equity Financing** (their own cash) for investments, protecting community assets like hospitals from financial predators.
Debt Service Ratio (DSR) / Debt-to-Income (DTI)
These are simple ratios that lenders use to see if you can afford a loan. DTI is your total monthly debt payments divided by your gross monthly income. DSR is similar but focuses on the percentage of your income needed to cover just the debt payments.
Why It’s a “High-Scrutiny” Tool:
The current system often gives high-interest loans to people with high DTI ratios, *trapping* them in debt they can’t afford. This is predatory.
**The SCSC Fix:** Our plan makes low-interest loans available *only* to those who meet a *strict, common-sense DTI ratio*. This isn’t to “punish” people; it’s to **enforce prudence**. It makes sure that the new, low-cost credit is used to build wealth (like a mortgage) and not to fall into a new debt trap.
Equity Financing
Funding a business or investment using the company’s own cash (retained earnings) or by selling ownership shares (stock), rather than borrowing money (debt).
How it Works (A Simple Example)
Imagine a successful, debt-free local bakery wants to build a second, larger location for $1 million.
- **Option 1 (Retained Earnings):** The bakery has saved up $1 million in profits over the last 10 years. It uses this cash to build the new location. This is pure equity financing. The company is stable and has no new payments.
- **Option 2 (Selling Shares):** The bakery doesn’t have the cash, so it sells 25% of its ownership to local investors for $1 million. The bakery gets the cash to build, and the new investors now own 25% of the profits.
In both cases, the company is **stable**. It has no new mandatory loan payments. If it has a slow sales month, it doesn’t risk defaulting. This is why our plan incentivizes equity financing over debt financing for large corporations—it **reduces systemic risk** and prevents the kind of financial collapse that leads to mass layoffs.
The Extractive Side of Equity
However, simply forcing a company to use equity does not guarantee it will be good for the 90% (the workers). In the modern economy, equity financing has its own powerful extraction tool:
The Problem: Stock Buybacks vs. Worker Pay
A large corporation (like a tech firm or major retailer) has $10 billion in profit (retained earnings). It has two choices on how to spend that equity:
- **Productive Investment:** Spend the $10B on R&D for new products, building a new factory in the U.S., or giving all its employees a significant, permanent raise.
- **Extractive Investment (Stock Buybacks):** Spend the $10B buying its *own stock* from the open market.
When the company buys its own stock, it artificially reduces the number of shares available, which drives up the stock price. This provides no productive value to the company itself—no new factory is built, no new product is invented. It is a **pure financial transfer** that benefits executives (whose pay is tied to stock price) and major shareholders (the 10%).
**The SCSC Fix:** Our plan addresses this. By forcing companies to use equity (which is good for stability) but *also* tying their tax breaks to a **Productivity-Share Incentive (Section 7)** and **Wage Indexing**, we create a powerful incentive for them to use their equity on **productive investments** (worker pay, R&D) rather than extractive stock buybacks.
Fiscal Responsibility / Deficit Neutrality
The principle that government spending should be balanced by revenue, avoiding large increases in the national debt. A “deficit-neutral” policy pays for itself.
This is the core “conservative method” of the SCSC. Instead of proposing massive new spending programs and funding them with debt, our plan funds all new benefits (like the Savings Match) by **eliminating existing wasteful tax subsidies** (like Carried Interest). It’s a responsible transfer, not new spending.
Mass Capitalization
The core goal of the SCSC: to shift the majority of the population (the bottom 90%) from being primarily debtors to being owners of capital (savings, assets, equity). This creates a solvent, stable consumer base and ends the “rigged gamble” of the 1% Fallacy.
How This Feeds, Not Fights, Wall Street & Innovation
This is not an anti-capitalist policy; it is a policy to create *more capitalists*. It provides Wall Street with a new, massive, and far more stable source of capital.
Example: The “Patient Capital” Infusion
Consider the **Universal Savings Accounts (USAs)** funded by the **Progressive Savings Match** and the **Citizen’s Dividend**.
- **The Capital Pool:** This system injects hundreds of billions of new dollars into the economy, held by the 90%. This money doesn’t just sit in checking accounts; it is invested in the market through the USAs (in low-cost index funds, stocks, and bonds).
- **The “Win” for Wall Street (Asset Management):** This creates a **new, multi-trillion-dollar pool of “patient capital.”** Wall Street financial firms (like Fidelity, Vanguard, or Morgan Stanley) will compete to *manage* these assets, earning stable, long-term fees. This shifts their profit model from high-risk, speculative trading (which creates bubbles) to **high-volume, stable asset management** (which builds the economy).
- **The “Win” for Growth (Innovation):** A corporation that wants to build a new factory or fund a 10-year R&D project needs stable, long-term investors. This massive pool of USA funds provides that stable capital. Businesses can issue new stock or bonds and know this pool of national savings is there to fund genuine, productive growth.
**The SCSC Fix:** Mass Capitalization doesn’t stifle growth; it **rationalizes it.** It replaces the volatile, debt-fueled capital of the few with the stable, patient capital of the many, creating a more resilient market for innovation and ensuring industry remains sufficiently capitalized for the long term.
National Price Negotiation Authority
A proposed government body (part of the SFP-HC) with the power to set fair, uniform prices for high-cost healthcare items like drugs and devices, using the nation’s collective buying power.
Example: The Drug Price Difference
A specific vial of insulin might cost **$30** in a country with price negotiation (like Australia or the UK) but has a list price of **$300** in the U.S. Why? Because U.S. law has historically *banned* Medicare from negotiating prices.
**The SCSC Fix:** Our plan empowers this authority to look at the price in other developed nations, add a reasonable profit margin, and set that as the **non-negotiable price** for the entire U.S. market. This single act restores market rationality, ends price gouging, and makes Medicare fiscally solvent.
Predistribution
Policies that aim to make the *initial* distribution of market income (wages *before* taxes and transfers) fairer. This is contrasted with “Redistribution,” which is moving money around *after* it’s been earned (like welfare or food stamps).
Example: Wage Indexing
For the last 40 years, worker productivity (the value you create per hour) has skyrocketed, but median wages have remained flat. The profit from that productivity has gone to shareholders, not workers. **Predistribution** fixes this by indexing the minimum wage to productivity, ensuring that as the company becomes more valuable, the worker’s paycheck *automatically* rises with it.
Progressive Savings Match
A government contribution made directly into a citizen’s savings account (like the USA). The policy is “progressive” because the match rate is highest for the lowest income earners.
Example: A Fairer Incentive
- **Current System (Regressive):** A 401(k) *deduction* gives a CEO in the 37% tax bracket a **$37 tax break** for every $100 they save. A cashier in the 12% bracket only gets a **$12 tax break** for the same $100.
- **SCSC Fix (Progressive):** The SCSC gives the CEO **$0** (they don’t need it) and gives the cashier a **$50 or $100 cash match** for their $100. This inverts the incentive, using federal money to build wealth for those who have the least.
Universal Risk Pooling (Healthcare)
Combining the entire population into a single insurance pool to average out health risks, eliminate adverse selection, and gain maximum leverage for negotiating lower healthcare prices.
Example: The “Costco Model” Fix
The current system is like a grocery store where every shopper has to negotiate the price of milk, and the store charges sick people $50 a gallon and healthy people $1. This is inefficient and unfair (“adverse selection”).
**The SCSC Fix:** We create a **National Risk Pool (NRP)**. This is like everyone joining Costco. By paying one membership fee, the *entire* pool (all 330 million Americans) gets to buy milk at the same, low, bulk-negotiated price. This stabilizes the market, stops insurers from “cherry-picking” the healthy, and lowers costs for everyone.
Universal Savings Account (USA)
A simple, flexible savings account where contributions grow tax-free and withdrawals can be made at any time without penalty. It is designed to act as both an emergency fund and a long-term wealth-building tool.
Why It’s Not a 401(k):
A 401(k) is a *retirement* account. If you withdraw money early for a car repair or medical bill, you pay a massive 10% penalty. This is a “trap” for the working class, who cannot afford to lock up money for 40 years.
**The SCSC Fix:** The USA is a **liquidity account**. It provides the same tax-free growth as a Roth IRA but with **no penalties for withdrawal**. This gives you a “Solvency Shield”—an emergency fund you can actually use, which breaks your dependence on high-in… [Immersive content redacted for brevity.]