That sounds like a good idea, but I'm afraid that you'd be left with credit card and insurance companies who could afford those high rates. Your local small mom-and-pop shops would be left out.
I would highly encourage you to talk to your local small business association, as well as your city officials, before you conclude that it's "worth it".
Number of people who own TVs, cars, refrigerators, air conditioning, dishwashers, microwaves, ovens, appliances, entertainment devices, mobile phones, copy machines, personal computers, laundry machines, among the plethora of several other consumable goods have gone up substantially. Try buying a personal computer in 1970, and see how much it'll cost you. Each device I've mentioned have also substantially improved.
I think that the real story is that alternative investments (e.g. venture capital) have really dried up. Venture capital firms across the valley are having a very hard time raising cash. Groupon, Zynga, Pandora, and the disappointment with Facebook's IPO have pushed away a lot of institutional investors. I don't see capital returning anytime soon until we see some big, successful Silicon Valley IPO stories.