Here's an idea on how the unemployed can help the unemployed start new businesses. The government will stop taxing unemployment benefit paychecks. Instead what is paid in tax will go to a Re-employment Ventures Fund that will invest in projects and business ventures started by people who lost their jobs and currently receive unemployment benefits.
The initial pool of funds can be provided by the private sector in the form of charity contributions with additional money coming from the massive fiscal stimulus packages the government recently announced.
Contributions to the fund will come from deducting a small amount of money from the unemployment benefit paycheck and deposit it with the Fund in the form of re-employment contribution. The tax is thus scrapped and replaced by the contribution amount that goes to the Fund. As a percentage, the amount will be no higher than the amount that was taxed.
The caveat will be that any new business start-up funded exclusively or partially by Re-employment Ventures must hire people who are unemployed. No option to hire people who already have jobs.
In order to turn the Fund into a prestigious institution that promotes social good, our President as well as national business icons such Bill Gates, Warren Buffet and their likes will sit on its Board.
In preparation for the G-20 summit in London, Gordon Brown called for a new global economic system that will have values and morals at the center of its markets.
I think that values should be present at every aspect of economic activity, not just in markets.
When those who lost jobs and careers that are not coming back are encouraged to start new businesses through networks of support they themselves create, then not only do we create economic growth and increase trade, we also make growth more sustainable in the long term
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