Project 2028: Reviving the American Dream

Here are 10 ideas that should be part of any Presidential Platform in 2028 to revive the American Dream with a focus on opportunity for our young people who have disproportionately suffered over the last decade.

1. Make Owning A House Affordable: Build 5 million units of cool prefabricated housing, clustered in small and medium-sized cities, with construction subsidized by the federal government, to be bought by Americans under the age of 40 using low-interest government-backed mortgages.
2. Make Social Security Solvent: Increase the age for Social Security by 5 years on a phased-in basis, but immediately means-test out anyone who averaged over $250k in household income. Sunset all defined benefits for anyone under 40, transferring whatever they have paid in to a defined contribution plan so they get what they put in rather than bailing out the system.
3. Mandatory National Service: One year of mandatory service for all young adults whenever they graduate from, or drop out of, high school. Good for them and good for our country to break down boundaries across all demographics.
4. Break Up Big Tech: Use ATT as the model. Break up all big tech companies so that no single company has a market cap greater than $500 million.
5. Billionaire’s Tax: Limit the unrealized gain holding period to 10 years for any gain over $25 million, retroactively, for equity in any company. At present, billionaires literally pay no tax because they can sit on unrealized gains and borrow against them.
6. Democratize Elite Colleges: To maintain non-profit status, every college and university must demonstrate that no more than 10% of its student body is drawn from the top 1% of American households by wealth, and that it serves all Americans across the economic spectrum while doubling its residential student body.
7. $25 minimum wage: Most minimum-wage workers are young and getting ripped off. A working wage should be a living wage.
8. Make Estate Tax a Transfer Tax: 25% tax on any transfer of wealth at any time above $1 million, with no outs (abolish estate tax).
9. Learn to work: Create a centralized federal co-op program in which any student attending a 4-year college is required to work for 2 semesters as a condition of graduation.
10. Make college affordable: Tuition capped at $25k per year; 50% of all college budgets must go to faculty; the asset value of every college endowment (top 50 are valued at $500 billion) is taxed @ 10% at the end of each year, which goes into the federal financial aid program distributed based on merit.

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This post was previously published on Linkedin.com.