Laelia wrote:
Aestu wrote:
I will say I oppose making healthcare mandatory - its an unfair, unfree, and unenforceable law.
Do you feel this way about all types of universal coverage or just the specific implementation in the PPACA? In Canada coverage is automatic, paid for with taxes (which of course you can't opt out of). Would you see this as a more or less free and fair implementation?
I completely agree - universal coverage is the way to go. This specific implementation amounts to throwing people to the lions - it's outrageous to insist people have to pay private industry a fee or be breaking the law. It's racketeering.
Now, there's a law that you have to have car insurance to legally drive a car - but to drive a car is a privilege, not the condition of living in the country
To fix the deficit and the economy in general:
I think Medicare/Medicaid/Social Security needs to be restructured. The entitlement program for the unemployed and disabled should be axed. I talk to a lot of poor people, and a lot of them really do feel "I don't have to work because I get a check every month". At the same time, I think there does need to be a safety net, and I think our current system fails in that regard. Bringing back the WPA in some form would be a good start. Perhaps create labor gangs then contract them out to private industry. Of course, there's no political impetus under our current republican system of government, and it is likely that will have to change.
I believe another necessity is running the currency, which will of course lower the standard of living and the government's buying power, but also make it more sustainable and will create more working-class jobs. This will of course make a lot of people, Americans of all economic levels who must learn to do more with less and foreigners who will face steeper competition from us, very angry. But in the long run it is a necessity to get the country back to work. Again, a change in our form of government - or the passage of many decades, or a serious economic catastrophe - will be necessary to make this happen.
The former two changes are most important, but these latter two will also help:
The military must be diminished not only in cost but also in political power. I think the best way to do this is to action black-budgeting (which is the real reason for million-dollar screwdrivers) and implement human resources attrition - stop promoting or recruiting to fill empty positions. Doing so will deprive the military and associated civilian advisories of their numbers and power. Of course this will take many years and the last president to try doing this wound up dead. A violent approach may prove necessary, or the creation of an American praetorian guard / Republican guard / Schutenstaffel - a new military organization responsible only to the CinC with supervisory power over the Pentagon. Re-implementing conscription will also make the military more responsible to the political leadership. Subverting then neutering the military will inevitably prove necessary to bring it back under control - and under cost - because those changes will come only when they accept them.
In the big picture, I think the American polity should be restructured - ideally, New England would become one state, California should be split in two, the South and Central states should be consolidated, and since much of the Midwest is empty land already owned by the federal government, it should be governed as a special administrative region under direct control of the executive, like Roman Egypt or some parts of Russia. This is necessary to ensure the proper management and renewal of natural resources which are currently being liquidated and squandered based on political connections to the legislative branch. Consolidating redundant state governments would save billions and facilitate federal administration. Obviously, these far-reaching changes won't happen under our current government, and it's doubtful they would under any future government. Nor are they truly necessary to correct the deficit (although they would certainly help in the long run).
