How Howard Schultz Wins The Presidency For $30 Million

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Summary

Howard Schultz, former head of Starbucks, knows how to seize opportunity.
Running for President in 2020, as a third-party candidate, would attract a growing number of voters who have given up on both parties.
Two moderate third parties that are shopping for a 2020 Presidential candidate. A scant $30 million could get a third party's candidate on the 2020 Presidential ballot across the country.
I offer a 10-point guide to the kind of economic policies a reform-oriented moderate party could base its candidacy on.

Howard Schultz knows how to build something from scratch. He grew up poor and ended up a billionaire by transforming Starbucks into an international business phenomenon. Now, 65, he's ready for Act II -- not building another great business, but fixing a great nation.

Schultz, who just stepped down from Starbucks, is purportedly considering a 2020 Presidential run. That's great news. The question, though, is how to run when gaining the Republican or Democratic nomination requires catering to the far right or the far left, which dominate their parties' primaries and which would block needed reforms.

The best option for Schultz is running as the candidate of a moderate, third-party. The Modern Whigs and The Serve America Movement are two such parties. Both are shopping for two things -- $30 million to get on the 2020 Presidential ballot nationwide and a Presidential candidate with a big enough wallet to meet the press' financial litmus test. The two parties can be merged into The Independence Party. Some 42 percent of voters currently declare themselves independents. Another large share of voters, possibly 30 percent, are neither diehard Democrats nor diehard Republicans. And two-thirds of millennials say they want a third party.

What kind of economic policies would a reform-oriented moderate party base its candidacy on? Here's my 10-point CliffsNotes guide. See this free book for details.

1. Equalizing Education -- Pre-K for all and half-day, uniform, 4th-12th grade online education, effectively moving to class sizes of 1. High-speed internet in all schools and free laptops for all children.

2. Universal Healthcare -- Enroll the entire population in Medicare Part C and adjust the system's coverages through time to keep costs at a fixed share of GDP.

3. Fix Taxes -- Switch to a progressive personal consumption taxation combined with a VAT and a progressive payroll tax. Eliminate personal and corporate income taxes.

4. Fix Social Security -- Freeze the current system. Pay off all accrued benefits over time. Initiate the Personal Security System with a 10 percent mandatory contribution to Personal Security Accounts, contribution sharing between spouse/partners, progressive contribution-matching by the government, and collective investment of all Personal Security Accounts in a single global, market-weighted index of stocks, bonds and real estate. Hence, all participants earn the same rate of return on their contributions. The government guarantees that account balances at retirement equal at least what was contributed adjusted for inflation. The entire system would be run by a laptop with no Wall Street involvement or fees. As workers reach retirement age, PSA balances are gradually transformed into inflation-indexed pensions on a cohort-specific basis. See here for details.

5. Immigration -- Amnesty for all illegal immigrants now in the country (provided they have no criminal records), far stronger border enforcement, including walls as needed, no separation of children from parents.

6. Climate Change -- Tax carbon emissions at $80 a cubic ton. Rejoin the Paris Accord, but push for accelerated carbon abatement.

7. Long-run fiscal accounting -- Adopt fiscal gap and generational accounting as proposed in The Inform Act. This will force the government to put all its hidden debts on the books and end Congress' ongoing take-as-you-go, intergenerational Ponzi scheme.

8. Banking reform -- Adopt Limited Purpose Banking, which transforms all financial corporations into mutual fund holding companies that issue 100-percent, equity-financed mutual funds. Limited Purpose Banking eliminates banking crises forever.

9. Work incentives -- Over half of American workers, particularly the poor, face sky-high work disincentives. Reform our tax/transfer system so that all workers face a 30 percent marginal tax on their labor earnings.

10. International Trade -- Re-authorize NAFTA, rejoin TPP, and eliminate Trump's tariffs. Take trade disputes to The World Trade Organization.

This article was written by

Laurence Kotlikoff

1.11K Followers

Laurence J. Kotlikoff is a William Fairfield Warren Professor at Boston University, a Professor of Economics at Boston University, a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, a Fellow of the Econometric Society, a Research Associate of the National Bureau of Economic Research, Head of International Department for Fiscal Sustainability Studies, the Gaidar Institute, President of Economic Security Planning, Inc., a company specializing in financial planning software, and the Director of the Fiscal Analysis Center. Professor Kotlikoff is a NY Times Best Selling author and an active columnist. His columns and blogs have appeared in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Financial Times, the Boston Globe, Bloomberg, Forbes, Vox, The Economist, Yahoo.com, Huffington Post and other major publications. In addition, he is a frequent guest on major television and radio stations. In 2014, he was named by The Economist as one of the world's 25 most influential economists. In 2015 he was name one of the 50 most influential people in Aging by Next Avenue. Professor Kotlikoff received his B.A. in Economics from the University of Pennsylvania in 1973 and his Ph.D. in Economics from Harvard University in 1977. From 1977 through 1983 he served on the faculties of economics of the University of California, Los Angeles and Yale University. In 1981-82 Professor Kotlikoff was a Senior Economist with the President's Council of Economic Advisers. Professor Kotlikoff is author or co-author of 19 books and hundreds of professional journal articles. His most recent book, Get What's Yours -- the Secrets of Maxing Out Your Social Security Benefits (co-authored with Philip Moeller and Paul Solman, Simon & Schuster) is a runaway New York Times Best Seller. His other recent books are The Clash of Generations (co-authored with Scott Burns, MIT Press), The Economic Consequences of the Vickers Commission (Civitas), Jimmy Stewart Is Dead (John Wiley & Sons), Spend ‘Til the End, (co-authored with Scott Burns, Simon & Schuster), The Healthcare Fix (MIT Press), The Coming Generational Storm (co-authored with Scott Burns, MIT Press), and Generational Policy (MIT Press). Through his company, Professor Kotlikoff has designed the nation's top-ranked personal financial planning software and Social Security lifetime benefit maximization software. Professor Kotlikoff has served as a consultant to the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank, the Harvard Institute for International Development, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, the Swedish Ministry of Finance, the Norwegian Ministry of Finance, the Bank of Italy, the Bank of Japan, the Bank of England, the Government of Russia, the Government of Ukraine, the Government of Bolivia, the Government of Bulgaria, the Treasury of New Zealand, the Office of Management and Budget, the U.S. Department of Education, the U.S. Department of Labor, the Joint Committee on Taxation, The Commonwealth of Massachusetts, The American Council of Life Insurance, Merrill Lynch, Fidelity Investments, AT&T, AON Corp., and other major U.S. corporations. He has provided expert testimony on numerous occasions to committees of Congress including the Senate Finance Committee, the House Ways and Means Committee, and the Joint Economic Committee.

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