What Would You Do to Move Your Country Forward?
Shock and Awe:
Theres a lot of talk about how to make countries viable in the future, and in the case of the US, how to maintain it’s status as the world’s most powerful and influential nation. The basic idea of this thread is how would you go about this for your country? What would you have done?
Personally,
-Invest in modern infrastructure on the scale of the Interstate. Powergrid, information systems, roads, and above all else power sources to replace fossil fuels. The big thing for the 21st century in my opinion will be Nuclear Power as it is the most viable long term power source as it is incredibly powerful and comparatively low impact. This would also be supplemented by Green energy wherever it is practical.
-Education needs an extreme overhaul. Emphasis on practical applications of Math, Science, and Civics needs to be increased exponentially in US Secondary School. We also need to introduce foreign language into our Primary schools.
-Military size needs to be reduced by about 10% mostly in the Ground arms of the service. Future investment should focus on making fewer men and women able to do more. However we should maintain the capability and have supplies on hand for mass mobilization to a military beyond current strength.
-Encourage the use technology and high tech methods to make domestic manufacturing if not cheaper at the very least comparable with foreign made goods.
-Fix the immigration system to make it more appealing for foreigners with skills to come to the US.
Those are just some of my major points, but there are many more.
Captcha: Trust me.
___________________________________________________
Third-eye:
Legalize and regulate marijuana, some forms cocaine, and some forms of gambling and prostitution.
Allow gay marriage.
Reform state lotteries to broaden the winner base, ie instead of one winning ticket for $300M there would be 300 winning tickets of $1M each.
Start a municipal sports league as an alternative to college sports.
Eliminate private ownership of professional sports teams. All professional sports teams would be owned by municipal governments, run as a private-public corporation. All profits would go to pay for hospitals, schools, road & bridge repair, subsidize housing of the poor, etc.
Incorporate “smart technology” into traffic signals: RFID chips in license plates and “readers” and motion detectors in signal lights.
Allow cram-downs of principle residences in chapter 13 bankruptcies.
All chapter 11 reorganizations of large corporations would have to include an ESOP feasibility analysis.
Promote ESOPs with low interest government loans.
Reform tax code for teired progression and eliminate all deductions.
Start a new religion based on positive and negative energy.
Completely reform American system of farm substitutes.
Privatize American Education system and replace funding through property taxes with a “user fees”.
Institute universal auto liability insurance paid for “at the pump” (with a tax on gasoline).
___________________________________________________
Not G. Ivingname:
Third-eye:
Reform state lotteries to broaden the winner base, ie instead of one winning ticket for $300M there would be 300 winning tickets of $1M each.
That is pretty much impossible to ensure with how most lottery numbers are chosen. A certain number of ping pong balls are selected, and anyone with the winnning numbers get atleast a part of the money. Sometimes it is only one person, sometimes it is a lot of people (one case where the numbers were 7,7,7,7,7 caused some issues), but there isn’t any ticket/tickets that were chosen to win. Think less “golden ticket in chocolate bar” and more “finding shiny pokemon.” Even if you did revamp the system so it did get wider amount of people, less people would be willing to buy into without the promises of large one huge reward, and lotteries are a revenue stream for states, nothing else.
Eliminate private ownership of professional sports teams. All professional sports teams would be owned by municipal governments, run as a private-public corporation. All profits would go to pay for hospitals, schools, road & bridge repair, subsidize housing of the poor, etc.
Running a proffessional sports team is really freaking expensive. I mean ungodly expensive. You have players with multi-million dollar contracts, a huge stadium to keep running and clean, grass to mow, thousands of employees to keep employed. The only thing keeping the NFL or the MLB running is the fact they, the networks, the businesses paying for advertising and all the restraunts with stadium booths is that they have a profit motive and they make more than they sell. Would you cut the pay of the atheletes? Would you make the networks donate the money they are making of the to these charities?
Incorporate “smart technology” into traffic signals: RFID chips in license plates and “readers” and motion detectors in signal lights/
This would be a problem in the same way traffic light cameras are a problem, they increase accidents:http://www.cracked.com/article_19937_the-6-most-popular-crime-fighting-tactics-that-dont-work_p2.html
Reform tax code for teired progression and eliminate all deductions.
Start a new religion based on positive and negative energy.
Completely reform American system of farm substitutes.
Privatize American Education system and replace funding through property taxes with a “user fees”.
O_O
I was honestly taken completely off guard by this one. You want to nationalize an entertainment venue, yet privatize one the oldest public systems? I am not entirely sure what I think about this at the moment, but that was a curve ball if I ever saw one.
Institute universal auto liability insurance paid for “at the pump” (with a tax on gasoline).
Right now, making gasoline more expensive isn’t such a good idea. I have yet to really see much wrong with Auto-insurance companies (besides all claiming you would save more at one than any other one, which is physically impossible).
___________________________________________________
Third-eye:
Reform state lotteries to broaden the winner base, ie instead of one winning ticket for $300M there would be 300 winning tickets of $1M each.
That is pretty much impossible to ensure with how most lottery numbers are chosen. A certain number of ping pong balls are selected, and anyone with the winnning numbers get atleast a part of the money. Sometimes it is only one person, sometimes it is a lot of people (one case where the numbers were 7,7,7,7,7 caused some issues), but there isn’t any ticket/tickets that were chosen to win. Think less “golden ticket in chocolate bar” and more “finding shiny pokemon.” Even if you did revamp the system so it did get wider amount of people, less people would be willing to buy into without the promises of large one huge reward, and lotteries are a revenue stream for states, nothing else.
Each ticket would be a unique identifier made up of a series of numbers, letters, and simple symbols (stars, harts, cloves, etc.). No two tickets would be the same. Depending on the size of the Pot, and the State’s cut, you pull tickets for each million available. The odds of winning would increase, so ticket sales would go up. Anytime you can invest $1 and get $1M, thats still a good bet.
Third-eye:
Eliminate private ownership of professional sports teams. All professional sports teams would be owned by municipal governments, run as a private-public corporation. All profits would go to pay for hospitals, schools, road & bridge repair, subsidize housing of the poor, etc.
Running a proffessional sports team is really freaking expensive. I mean ungodly expensive. You have players with multi-million dollar contracts, a huge stadium to keep running and clean, grass to mow, thousands of employees to keep employed. The only thing keeping the NFL or the MLB running is the fact they, the networks, the businesses paying for advertising and all the restraunts with stadium booths is that they have a profit motive and they make more than they sell. Would you cut the pay of the atheletes? Would you make the networks donate the money they are making of the to these charities?
Sure they are expensive, they are also cash cows. And right now they are getting huge public subsidies and are exempt from anti-trust laws, so its not like professional sports is a normal free-market business. There would still be a profit motive. The more profits the more money for public services. Players salaries would go down, but there would be better protection against injury and big incentives for early retirement. Therefore there would also be less incentive to use dangerous performance enhancing drugs. And you would not have owners blackmailing cities for new stadiums with the threat of taking the team down the road.
Incorporate “smart technology” into traffic signals: RFID chips in license plates and “readers” and motion detectors in signal lights/
This would be a problem in the same way traffic light cameras are a problem, they increase accidents.
Its not about giving out traffic tickets, its about saving fuel and time by turning red lights to green when there is no cross traffic and no reason to stop. Its a smart light, not an eye-in-the-sky traffic cop.
Third-eye:
Privatize American Education system and replace funding through property taxes with a “user fees”.
O_O
I was honestly taken completely off guard by this one. You want to nationalize an entertainment venue, yet privatize one the oldest public systems? I am not entirely sure what I think about this at the moment, but that was a curve ball if I ever saw one.
Here’s how it would work: As students move on to the “real world”of employment, a small portion of their paycheck is deducted and delivered to their alma-maters. This Education fee is collected like a FICA tax. The fee would then be divided among the various schools the former student attended, the largest percentage being paid to the last school from which he received a decree. Non salary income would also be taxed.
The beauty of this system is that it’s self-regulating. Schools that produce hard working, tax paying, productive citizens will grow and prosper. Those that produce losers dependent on welfare and social services will wither and die. No need for property taxes or vouchers. No need to give schools grades. It’s all done with an “invisible hand”. There would still be state regulation.
Institute universal auto liability insurance paid for “at the pump” (with a tax on gasoline).
Right now, making gasoline more expensive isn’t such a good idea. I have yet to really see much wrong with Auto-insurance companies (besides all claiming you would save more at one than any other one, which is physically impossible).
Gas is expensive, but so is the cost of uninsured and under insured motor vehicle coverage. Pay at the pump would be cheaper and fairer, insuring that everyone is paying for their own coverage.