THE CAMAHORT FEDERAL BENEFITS PACKAGE

By Jose Luis "Joe" Camahort

Consolidate all Government benefits into one computerized, electronic package based on age and income level, which incentivizes people to earn more; but disincentivizes them from having more than one child per parent per household. Plus have the U.S. Treasury Dept. provide PERSONAL financial services free of loan interest, insurance premiums and broker commissions.

An example of what a universal monthly benefits package could look like is shown below:

• Dependent Children, less than 18 years old = $250 per child up to a maximum of two children per couple, or one child per single parent.

• Young Adults, 18 to 24 years old = $250 each.

• Low Income Adults, 25 to 64 years old = $250 each for incomes up to $10,000 per year. Reduce benefit by $1 per month for each $25 that annual income exceeds $10,000. This low income benefit would drop to zero when annual income reaches $16,250.

• Seniors, 65 years and older = $500 each.

• Blind or Disabled = Additional $250 each.

PERSONAL FINANCIAL SERVICES - THE U.S. TREASURY DEPARTMENT AS PERSONAL BANKER, INSURER, AND BROKER.

There are too many economic parasites in our society today, the greedy intermediary industries - banks, insurance companies (including HMOs), and brokerage firms; which produce absolutely nothing but siphon off the economic lifeblood of hardworking people. Is it such a bad idea to merge all of these essential PERSONAL financial services into the Federal government? It certainly doesn't seem to be a bad idea for big banks to merge with bigger banks, or big insurance companies to merge with bigger insurance companies, or big brokerage firms to merge with bigger brokerage firms, or even for big banks, big insurance companies, and big brokerage firms to merge among each other to create "one-stop shopping" for financial services. What I propose is the mega-merger to end all mega-mergers. Merge all PERSONAL financial services into the U.S. Treasury Dept. and provide these one-stop financial services free to all citizens with a valid Social Security Number (SSN)! Yes, zero-interest mortgages and credit cards, zero-premium insurance, and zero-commission brokerage services.

At a minimum, I envision a Federal Brokerage, Insurance, & Credit Union run by the Treasury Department for all personal financial services. The first step would be to merge all Federal Credit Unions (FCU), then open the FCU membership to all individuals with a valid social security number.

We have the marvelous digital technology and the government has the supercomputers to accomplish this. Providing FREE PERSONAL financial services involves the few things that government can do reasonably well: database management, bookkeeping, and computer security. They already have a database with all the SSN information, and they send out millions of social security checks, welfare checks, etc. with few problems.

The big banks, insurance companies and brokerage firms can continue providing financial services to businesses, professionals, and corporations; e.g., commercial and investment banking, commercial and professional insurance, and venture capital and other commercial broker services.