Education: BA Near Eastern Studies (Toronto), MA linguistics (Toronto).
Occupation: economic design and consulting.
Political experience: GOP nominee for Seventh District US House seat in 1996 and 1998.
Question: Given the current economic climate, what are your priorities for the budget surplus and why?
Answer: Any alleged budget surplus should go to paying down the national debt, because it quintupled in the last 15 years and the interest payments alone have become one of the biggest budget categories. However, such ''surplus '' should include no money from the Social Security fund because of Social Security 's clouded long-term future. Money should never be taken from the Social Security account for the regular budget.
Generally, federal budget priorities should shift from millions of peripheral band-aids to one central cure: convert overtime into on-the-job-training and hiring, and adjust the workweek downward - to balance overwork and under employment, and to centrifuge wealth out of the huge stock bubble and into solid wages and consumer markets. This can be done, for example, by means of a high tax on overtime with a complete exemption for overtime-targeted training and hiring. At our high levels of technological efficiency, the task of supporting ourselves should be a lot easier and our stress levels should be a lot lower. And we should have a lot more free time for our families, friends, communities, and for protecting the Earth, and we can get it by cutting hours, not jobs - by timesizing, not downsizing.
To facilitate this, we should expand direct electronic democracy based on issues, not personalities.
