Reid Hoffman

Following last week's illuminating discussion over Thomas Friedman's proposal to jumpstart the economy by injecting money into the venture capital industry, here's another idea to kick around.

In an editorial today in The Washington Post, LinkedIn CEO Reid Hoffman says that the U.S. government needs to foster entrepreneurship by giving "incentives to business innovators."

He offers a three-pronged approach, including removing the cap on foreign visas while instituting a payroll tax on those positions to generate funds to reeducate Americans. He's also an advocate of providing loans to small businesses. And, in what might be the most controversial idea, Hoffman suggests that the government provide matching funds to angel and venture capital investors.

"What if firms with credible histories could receive as much as $100 million in federal matching funds if their investments create jobs in the United States? Investors could keep their normal return plus 50 percent of the returns on the matching funds, while the other half goes back to the government to revitalize further investment," Hoffman writes. "This would give individuals an incentive to double down on investments they would make anyway, but sooner rather than later."

Friedman's idea was widely panned on TechFlash and other blogs, but what do you make of the Hoffman proposal?

It seems like the idea of providing matching funds to venture capitalists and angel investors -- an idea that Founders Co-op's Andy Sack floated on this blog last week -- could lead to some of the same criticism we heard last week. After all, many argued that tossing more money into venture capital firms won't solve the problem.

What do you think? Which plan is more reasonable? And are there other ideas to get us out of this mess?