This puts equity on the same footing as debt, so less need for debt financing (more resilience in bad times). It also removes the main reasons for share buy-backs and other financial manipulations that enriches Wall Street. Joe Blow’s 401K account on Main Street would see a bigger share of profits instead of Wall Street.

It would raise the same amount of revenue, as the current corporate tax ($300B), but would greatly benefit us mortals with 401K accounts (rules that helps the little guy on Main Street vs. rules that help the big guy on Wall Street). Not to mention simplification of the tax code. Also no need for expensive corporate tax-attorneys.

The first and most obvious place to look for public funding is from the defense budget. Diverting part of the money spent on wars to develop alternative energy infrastructure would allow us to begin to break our dependence on foreign oil.

This crushing addiction has kept us involved in wars and nation-building in Iraq, Afghanistan and Libya, among other places.

The other place to look for infrastructure funding is the $1 trillion of profits U.S. corporations are storing overseas. American companies are lobbying Congress to repatriate profits earned in overseas subsidiaries at tax rates as low as 5%.

Perhaps Congress should legislate a compromise and tax half of returning profits at 0% if corporations loaned the other half of profits to a national infrastructure bank for a term of 10 years and an annual interest rate of 5%.

The infrastructure bank would capitalize new high-speed transit, offshore wind power, solar power arrays and new energy transmission grids. These projects once built would cash flow and allow repayment of multinationals repatriated profits.

This scheme would remove responsibility from corps to dedicate profits to job creation. We could fund projects on the scale of the Erie Canal, Hoover Dam and transcontinental railway.

The shortcoming I see to the proposal is finding someone strong and visionary enough to pull it off. Surely though there is an American who would raise to the challenge.