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Let’s face it, not everything Congress does is all that great. Some things that Congress have done have worked out really well for Americans, such as the Roth IRA. Other things have caused a lot of economic turmoil. There are some things that congress could do to make us a lot wealthier and ensure our long term economic stability. We might not see a massive increase in our net worth right away, but doing these five things would make America much wealthier over a long period of time and ensure its economic competitiveness with developing nations such as China and India. Here are five different things that congress can do to make us rich.

Mandate personal finance teaching in schools – When most students graduate high-school, they lack a basic training in handling money. They are never taught basic financial principles such as “live on less than you make.” Often times students graduate high-school without even being able to balance a checkbook. This is a problem, the money habits that people establish when they are just starting their financial lives will last with them for decades. We need to start our young people off to the right start and give them a sound education about money so that they know how to handle money when they go out into the real world.

Make Social Security voluntary – Many people who are well educated in personal finance abhor the Social Security system because it offers such a terrible rate of return and much better retirement programs are available. If a person is taking care of their retirement and have necessary disability insurance, they should be able to go to the government and be able to opt out of Social Security. This would enable people to have people more and better options with their money rather than to be coerced to participate with a inefficient government program. This isn’t one sided politics, it’s mathematics.

Create a savings incentive plan similar to Ireland’s – Ireland previously had a negative savings rate, but the government created a special program which gave people a 20% match if they put it away for at least five years. Just a few years after initiating the plan, the savings rates increased dramatically. America could learn a lesson from Ireland by simplifying its complex set of retirement plans and creating an incentive plan for savings.

Adopt Kerry’s Compact For America – This piece of legislation never really made it to any sort of serious national debate, but it would enable an additional 500,000 students to attend college who otherwise would not be able to afford to do so. Students could participate in a national service program performing community service for two years and have a full scholarship to a public university. This would dramatically decrease the amount of student loans undergraduates help out, and ensure a highly-trained workforce to compete with international economic threats for years to come.

Adopt the Balanced Budget Amendment – In the 1990’s, there was a great debate as to whether congress should be required to create a balanced budget each year. This would go along way in preventing additional long term structural deficits and limiting America’s massive national debt which is threatening the future of economic viability of the United States.