At the end of Episode One: A Plug and a Whack I promised to offer unsolicited advice and solutions to The Concord Coalition, a force behind (and focus of) the debt doc I.O.U.S.A.
It’s compelling and entertaining film that explains the history of our federal debt and deficits, the problems they create and what the future could look like of we don’t act a.s.a.p.
Unfortunately after 90 minutes of explaining why we’re doomed the audience isn’t given anything meaningful to do about it.
Before seeing the movie my wife and I had dinner at Meiwah and my fortune said something like it’s easier to be a critic than to solve problems. With that in mind, here are some specific steps that Concord can take, or could have taken:
Tell people to pull out their Blackberrys and immediately sign up for I.O.U.S.A. online campaign. Oh, create an online campaign to which people can sign up.
Tell people how to order the film. Make the film available on iTunes and other online movie outlets.
Tell people how to contact Concord to organize screenings at house parties, civic groups, in schools, at churches, etc.
Bring back and promote Concord’s “Hard Choices” game, and develop an interactive online version. This was (and may still be, no one mentioned it last night) a terrific exercise that makes small groups of people balance the federal budget using government numbers and government descriptions of programs.
Tell people to increase their own savings, and give them easy ways to do that. A major point of the film is that low personal savings rates contribute to the problem, and that if the government goes broke we’ll all need to rely on our personal savings to finance our futures. So how about a palm card or magnet or something with tips like, “pack a lunch” “make coffee at home” “insulate your home” etc. Create a website with these ideas and drive traffic to it in film screenings.
Give viewers specific input to give to legislators: Keep Pay-Go Rules, No New Tax Cuts, Raise the Social Security Eligibility Age Faster, and so forth. This is tricky for a lot of reasons, but if budget hawks can’t make hard choices about legislation, how can we expect Congress to?
Give viewers a list of questions they can ask legislators and candidates – and a list of what good answers are. Concord has done this in the past and should be doing so around the film.
In the film we’re told that cutting all pork, ending the war in Iraq and letting the Bust tax cuts expire will only solve 13% of the problem. That’s 13% better than where we are now. We have a spending habit, we should get a savings habit. Voters should applaud every step to save money.
There are lots of other steps Concord, and all of us can take. And as the movie points out, the stakes are too high to not to act.
