Azelma wrote:
How SHOULD the US be run? Please share your grand plan that is so much better than Ron Paul's and any other idea ever.
I'll wait.
I'm pretty sure I outlined my general ideas earlier. But I'll do it again:
Economic1. Mandate that all goods sold in the US must have been produced in accordance with US law.
2. End agricultural subsidies.
3. Dramatically raise taxes for those earning over $500k a year.
4. Dramatically increase land taxes for non-homestead properties.
5. Sharply throttle the money supply.
6. Institute a carbon credit system and pin it directly to the currency. The backing is zero-sum, so activities resulting in negative emissions can claim credits direct from the money supply.
7. Use the above system to reforest and renew overexploited lands and watersheds.
8. Create a new public works administration, mandated at the federal level but implemented at the local level - counties get money and authorization from the Feds, and receive their mandate to spend the money from their state governments. Counties have executive control over the works, but the federal government has tight supervisory power via the Justice Department.
9. Write off some federal debts owed to people we don't like.
10. Increase car and gasoline taxes by 25% per year for the next 20 years.
11. Ban internship and require all who contribute labor to be compensated fair value.
12. All corporations that do business in America must found a discrete subsidiary based here, run in accordance with American law and at least two-thirds owned by American citizens.
13. Six hour per day, five day per week workweek. Anything past that is overtime and subject to heavy taxes on the employer.
14. Environmental degradation of property (emissions, deforestation, etc) is now subject to extra capital gains tax.
15. Disband the EEOC and end "equal opportunity employment".
16. Conscript unemployed people into battalions and contract them out to private corporations, or use them to build public works, especially railroads.
17. Build a national railroad and zeppelin network.
18. All corporate policies and projects must be signed off by an executive to establish personal legal liability for misdeeds. Eligibility for executive authorization requires an individual commission by the investors and personal investiture in the corporation.
Military1. Reinaugurate conscription and abolish "conscientious objector" status
2. Auction off most foreign US bases, in some cases simply divesting them to the EU (whether they want them or not).
3. Mandate a 1% annual reduction in military hiring quotas, each year, for the next 50 years.
4. Axe the most costly military hardware programs (missiles, capital ships, tanks and aircraft).
5. Transfer most USAF assets to civilian control, especially aerospace/ICBM assets, with the intent to revitalize the civilian aerospace research sector.
6. Put all CIA/NSA employees on paid furlough and institute a permanent hiring freeze for those agencies. Current employees are forbidden from quitting their jobs or taking on new employment.
Foreign Policy1. End the alliance with Israel.
2. Normalize relations with Iran and Cuba.
3. Revoke China's MFN status.
4. Start dealing with the EU as a whole instead of individual member states.
5. Ignore the North Koreans; stop talking to them.
Social1. Ban alimony.
2. Divorce now results in forfeiture of all children and mandatory sterilization.
3. Three-time felons and eight-time misdemeanors are to be sterilized.
4. Embezzlement, securities fraud, despoilment of environmental resources and draft evasion are now punishable by hanging.
5. Drug dealing and human trafficking are now punishable by crucifixion.
6. Lethal injection and electrocution are outlawed; most executions will be carried out by guillotine.
7. The right to a catered last meal is guaranteed by law.
8. Drug possession is no longer a crime.
9. Creating, owning or distributing graphic depictions of violence is now a felony. Graphic sex in public media is now subject to censorship. Graphic sex in private media is unregulated.
10. Ban psychoactive medication.
11. Ban affirmative action.
12. 3/6/9/12 months' mandatory maternity and paternity leave for all employees with 1/3/5/8 years of tenure. Leave cannot be forfeited by the employee, and finding new employment during this time is also illegal.
13. Create parks, theaters, and other facilities to keep people off the streets.
14. Demilitarize police forces; mandate blue uniforms, use of civilian and not military titles, and all sheriffs are to be elected annually and must be a member of the bar.
15. Ban the wearing of sunglasses and balaclavas in public.
Political1. Build cafeterias next to all government buildings and require all government employees and elected officials to eat a thousand meals a year on site. Failing to do so is a felony.
2. Ban paid political advertisements on television and in print; all political advertising will now be provided by federal mandate implemented at the county level to any who meet a quorum, and requisitioned from firms as a condition of their FCC license.
3. Ban campaign fundraising as "racketeering" and "conspiracy". All campaigns will be provided equal funds particular to the office being sought at taxpayer expense.
4. Create a federal secret police with police powers only over government employees.
Education1. Create a system of rigid and challenging federal exams required for all accredited college degrees.
2. Create a system of polytech schools using the same federal/state/county scheme described for the WPA above.
3. Create a federal secret police for the educational system, charged with investigating abuses committed by schools.
4. Make classical education mandatory; all students will now be required to learn Latin and read classical works.
5. Introduce tetra-lingual education beginning in elementary school; all students will now be required to learn English, Latin, one European OR East Asian language and one other language of the parents' choice.
6. Create a system of mandatory apprenticeship for all students, beginning at age 15 and lasting four years (note that internships are now illegal, effectively putting all students and businesses on even footing).
7. Directly connect secondary schools to the conscription board, linking grades and performance to military placement and training students in infantry tactics, seamanship and military discipline.
8. Carve up federal lands to create
dachas to be given out to experts in exchange for citizenship and serving as professors and researchers.
9. Mandatory school uniforms, standardized nationwide.
10. Driving kids to school is now illegal. All kids must take the bus, or the parents will be charged with truancy.
Science1. Refound NASA, borrowing human and material assets from the USAF as well as foreign experts and apprentices.
2. Lavish funding on researching quantum physics, bio-engineering and new methods of launching objects into orbit.
3. Create a new line of space probes based on spy drones - instead of being one-time deals like the Voyager program, these new probes, using advances in miniaturization and plastics since the 1970s, are built like cars - cheap, mass-produced, and "sprayed and prayed" across the solar system, at the rate of hundreds each year. Many will be defective or recover entirely useless data, but through sheer force of numbers they will increase our knowledge and alert us to opportunities.
4. Create elaborate ceremonies based on the Catholic Church and English knighthood to honor esteemed scientists - involving pompous spectacles like being handed a decorative sword, being coronated with a wreath, appellated with a noble title, being paraded around by an honor guard, etc, designed to aggrandize scientists as public heroes.
5. Emphasize science in education at the primary/elementary level through standardized federal materials and testing.
6. Undergraduates who pass the very difficult hard science federal exams now receive free graduate education, guaranteed employment upon completion of their graduate degree, and the honorary rank of major in the Army.
............................
This would achieve the following goals:
1. Reducing our military commitments and spending
2. Civilizing American society
3. Increasing employment
4. Subjecting corporations to civil authority
5. Making government more responsive and relevant to the American people
6. Ensuring our long-term economic growth
7. Ensuring our technological dominance into the new age
