Foundations and churches could issue short-term loans to cut into the payday lenders’ business. Public and private programs could give the poor and middle class access to financial planners. Usury laws could be enforced and strengthened. Colleges could reduce credit card advertising on campus. KidSave accounts would encourage savings from a young age. The tax code should tax consumption, not income, and in the meantime, it should do more to encourage savings up and down the income ladder.
Solid stuff. But it overlooks (it is Brooks, after all) something I think is pivitol to solving this and which, conveniently, gets addressed just a stones throw away in Bob Herbert’s excellent column:
America needs to dream bigger, and in this election year, job creation should be issue No. 1. If I were running for president, I would pull together the smartest minds I could find from government, the corporate world, the labor movement, academia, the nonprofits and ordinary working men and women to see what could be done to spark the creation of decent jobs on a scale that would bring the U.S. as close as possible to full employment.
Yes; duh! Government should play a substantial role in creating jobs to stimulate wealth accumulation while at the same time encouraging people to save and assisting them in doing so: a concept so novel it only came along 70 years ago and played a vital role in establishing America’s middle class.