To design out the downward potential of the "business cycle," the private sector needs to reinvest a lot more continuously and voluminously in its own markets. Otherwise, we repeatedly come to crises where we have far more productivity than markets. Put another way, if the private sector allows the centripetal forces on money to overcome the centrifugal, money ceases to be currency and turns into decoration.

When that happens, the private sector experiences a fast or slow reduction in markets for productivity of all kinds - in short, a cut in corporate profits of the sort that we in Mar/99 again experienced for the first time since 1989. A previous occasion occurred in Oct/29. (Note that the "business cycle" is a misnomer because neither the downward nor the upward curve is automatic.)

The requirements for the design are that it be continuous, grassroots/frontline, automatic, non-arbitrary, as close to market-oriented as possible and that it accelerate (by centrifuge action) spending activity.

The easiest basis of such a mechanism seems to be overtime employment, rather than some direct definition of excess income ("overgain") or excess wealth ("overhold"). An overtime tax on corporations with an exemption for on-the-job training and hiring in the overtime pressured skills would satisfy the requirements.

Essentially it would incentivate corporations to reinvest in their own markets via the skills of their own employees or via adding more employees, thus upgrading the spending power of their own tiny corner of the whole vast economy. It would avoid the downward spiral of downsizing that we are in today (and were also in back in the 1920's).

For corporations, it would equate to reinvesting in their own markets and long-term future, via their own employees. The problem will automatically control the solution - overtime will trigger, size, pace and finance its own resolution.

Quick Reference. The 5 phases of the public-sector stage of the Timesizing program (bear in mind there's a long private-sector stage preceding that) are:
1. Referendums, to broadly define unemployment and set target rates
2. Corporate overtime tax with an exemption for OJT and hiring
3. Individual workoholic tax with an exemption for mentoring and employing
4. Making the workweek vary inversely with unemployment, newly defined to include welfare, disability, homelessness, prisons, forced part time and self employment, forced early retirement...
5. If the workweek gets too short too fast, shifting the pressure to imports, immigrants, or births

6.=new 1. If the public doesn't want to squeeze imports immigrants or births, we move on to the next program, "Paysizing," and go through the same private and public sector stages of 5 phases apiece with "income and poverty" instead of "employment and joblessness".

For more details, see our campaign piece alias social-software manual, Timesizing, Not Downsizing, which is from *Amazon.com online.

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