Thursday, July 16, 2015

How to Crowd-Fund Greece Out of its Crisis

Greece can pay all its debts in a few months and get back to healthy economic growth immediately if its “socialist” leaders open their eyes to the new capitalism of the Information Age.

As I have been arguing for several years, the corrupt, inefficient corporate capitalism of the industrial era is dying and its successor is waiting in the wings, ready to take the world into the economy of the free market that Adam Smith wrote about in the 18th Century.

What should Greece do?

First, its leaders should use the latest multi-billion dollar bailout not to inflict more pain on their people but to plan how the Greek economy can capitalize crowd funding.

What does that mean?

It means taking advantage of the innovative funding opportunities opened up by the Internet and Worldwide Web.

How?

By creating a global Internet-based lottery with all-expense paid trips to Greece as prizes.

The number of tickets sold for each prize should cover the expenses of all those actively involved in providing a pleasant experience for the tourist, from waiters and guides to hotels and airlines.

An additional number of tickets should be sold to pay off the Greek national debt and fund any programme the government wants.

As some 22.5 million tourists pay to enjoy a Greek vacation every year – most of them Europeans – we can expect that with the whole world bidding the available lottery tickets would be quickly sold out.

Suppose the government sold just 10,000 $1 lottery tickets for each prize, it would generate a total income of 225,000,000,000, which is about the same as the country's 2013 GDP.

The 10,000 figure is of course, ridiculously low; 100,000 tickets could easily be sold globally for each prize.

Such a funding system would have the Greek economy humming instantly and create a very healthy level of employment.

The government could also take several other steps to reform the economic system.

The biggest step should be to end income tax.

It would not only send levels of consumer spending and saving into the stratosphere, there would be an immediate end to the haemorrhage of money into the international black market.

From my napkin calculations, Greece should be able to pay off its national debt with ease and look to the welfare of its citizens without worrying about funding.



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