Other Columns by Paul M. Weyrich
Paul M. Weyrich Bio

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When families own stock and property and have a special savings account to help meet the costs of college for their children they truly have a real stake in our society. They are not required to rely upon the government to help them make ends meet because they have jobs, are earning regular paychecks and are managing to save some every week. Welfare reform helped to provide many Americans with a boost to stop collecting a government-issued check and to start pocketing an employer-issued paycheck. The first jobs may not have paid very much but many of the "welfare mothers" who are now earning better salaries are doing so because they took that first step and strived hard to remain in the job market.

Seeking to create greater incentives for marriage throughout society can help more Americans, particularly those from poor backgrounds, often single family backgrounds, with few family assets, to start rising up the economic ladder.

Reducing the tax burden on Americans while simultaneously providing more incentives for savings and investment through the proposed establishment of Retirement Savings Accounts could help boost the assets of many American households. Similarly, the proposed Lifetime Savings Accounts would allow families to save for their children's college education, the down-payment on a home or for job training. Neither account, if enacted, would tax the earnings.

Then there is the idea of taking power away from the government bureaucrats at the unemployment office and putting it in the hands of those Americans who will need to acquire new skills to remain competitive in the job market. Establishing personal reemployment accounts -- something President Bush has discussed -- can help workers to do just that. Furthermore, doing away with the so-called "death tax" on inheritances will help more Americans provide their children with the savings that can help them to achieve greater economic security.

Currently the U.S. home ownership rate is nearly 70%. Only 48.1% of Black Americans own their own homes, figures that have not improved dramatically from the mid-1970s when 43.3% of Black Americans were homeowners. However, more can be done to increase home ownership. One measure that has been discussed by President Bush is a Single-Family Affordable Housing Tax Credit aimed at creating more affordable housing. Greater financial education efforts can help consumers to learn how to purchase homes for their families.

This new approach helps Americans become real shareholders in our economy, rather than merely government-check recipients, because the emphasis is on savings and investment and the ability to pass on what they earn to their children. Shareholders will feel the benefit in being able to earn and save and see their proceeds grow. It is a dramatic turn from what many Americans have learned to expect. Clearly, greater homeownership, more emphasis upon savings for retirement and abolition of the inheritance tax will go far toward helping more Americans gain a vital foothold on the economic ladder to upward mobility. Working to build a true Ownership Society can help those Americans willing to take that vital first step upward to climb higher up the economic ladder and to take their family members upward, too. Government can provide a boost to those Americans looking to move upward but those taking that first step must be willing to put forth the effort required to climb higher.

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