I mentioned that the longer (50+ pages) version covered what can’t be done in a page. The penalties and disincentive to picking up cultivation elsewhere would be fatally severe, as the OECD sponsors are not concered with demand, only a lack of supply. If there are 100 nations that would like to take up the slack, that is a rich nation incentive to see that they develop much healthier long term prospects than drug cultivation. The Afghans and Andeans are the final nice guy alternatives, whether you consider that good or bad, as the next guy will not fare well. Without teeth, no diplomacy can be successful in the long run. One set of teeth would be biologial control, now far along in development.

Perhaps you will have read the late Mancur Olson’s famous paper, Big Bills Left on the Sidewalk? Olson presents an economist, who when seeing a hundred-dollar bill on the sidewalk, says he is not picking it up because if it were real, someone else would already have picked it up. Is it possible that myopia is an economist’s genetic defect? Let me know if you can see ‘big bills’ in the ‘price differentials diplomacy’ outlined below. Thanks!

Walton Cook
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Change! Would any U.S. leader, political or military, reject these economic, strategic and moral advantages: one new strategy–clean-cut, simple, highly profitable and diplomatic?

…Superior returns-on-investment to U.S. ($150 billion annually)
…Superior returns to other OECD nations ($160-180 billion annually)
…Reduction in regional tensions (Afghanistan, Pakistan, India, Iran, Iraq and Latin America)
…Reduction in loss of lives, military and civilian
…Reduction in conflict levels
…Reduction in terrorism levels
…Reduction of military personnel needed
…More effective use of both military and civilian personnel
…Reduction in costs related to ISAF/NATO and U.S. military presence
…Reduction in terrorist abilities to recruit among disenchanted youth
…Reduction in terrorist ability to finance a WMD event
…Increase of recipient nation ‘budget-support’ and better general economics.
…Increase of recipient nation education
…Increase of qualified expatriate returns to recipient nations
…Increase in recipient nation’s health care and life expectancy
…Increase in needed infrastructures for recipient nations
…Reductions in tensions between EU and U.S
…Supports Islamic religious and moral standards against narcotics
…Gives many reasons for hope, winning hearts and minds–for all of us

Q. How is this possible? A. Diplomatically! What drug crop farmers get paid $2 billion annually to grow costs richer OECD societies (for two drugs only, opiates and cocaine) $317 billion annually for using. This huge gap puts big bills on the sidewalk, (U.S. annual ‘societal cost’ is $150 billion of that OECD total.) We compensate Afghan (and Andean) farmers in full, and for 10 years, for not cultivating narcotics producing plants. In addition, we add $10 billion annually for 10 years to support democratic nation building. In that decade alone, the U.S. narcotics cost savings can be $1.5 trillion—a timely, cost free stimulus! And it is not only the U.S. that benefits from finding a new source of revenue, big bills found left on the sidewalk—but the entire world.

There is no better platform than a moral high ground. This is a bold response, one that fulfills President Obama’s mantra of change. It restores American moral standing in the world and improves world economics at a time of crisis. Change requires creating new diplomatic incentives and reward systems. ‘Change We Can Believe In’ becomes a real result, not a T-shirt slogan. ‘It’s big bills, not small change to be left on the sidewalk!’

Can political leadership lead the way to bold reform to restore America’s standing? Yes, I think they can, and must; because given easily weighed choices, policy mistakes are not inevitable. Without virtue, U.S. leadership will never regain its proper world standing. This is change that can begin immediately—there is no reason to wait.

An important note: There is much more detail to our full proposal, of course, but not all that fits in a one page outline. We haven’t forgotten security issues, land reform, alternate crops, vocational education, infrastructure, rule-of-law or governance issues. Email me for greater detail at waltoncook@yahoo.com. I hope to hear you views.

Walton Cook authored the 2001 political-thriller, Buzzword and in 2002, Birthright of Freedom, on Social Security reform. He can be reached by phone at (814) 466-8747.

Sorry to seem dense but how could this be done? Increasing something like a sales tax?