- Sep 21, 2001
- 18,447
- 133
- 106
By god-emperor I mean that you have the authority to do things that cross the lines between executive, legislative and judicial, as well as fed, state and local, and you can magically put them all into place within four years no matter how impractical that is in real life.
Me:
- revise the school system so that "high school" teaches more content more aggressively, with faster progression in science and math, allows students to identify their general areas of focus at age 14 (you either love English or you don't) and ends at age 16. At that point students choose to go on to either vocational school or university. Vocational school lasts 2-3 years and prepares you for a functional career of your choice. University puts you through an accelerated bachelors/masters program, and optional higher education means getting a doctorate. Vocational school and university would equally prepare you to enter the workforce in different areas and would be accepted as standards of excellence in their own right, with one not deserving of more merit than the other. Education up through the end of either route would be subsidized, both for first time and returning students.
- emancipate minors at age 16, give them more rights and responsibilities, put them on the hook for criminal acts, lower the drinking age, lower the age of consent, give them the ability to marry, etc. Go back a few decades/centuries or over a few cultures and bow to the historical imperative that children reaching adolescents have typically been considered adults at this point. Reduce the problems we have created for ourselves by artificially extending childhood.
- Legalize pot, tax the hell out of it, tax the hell out of cigarettes.
- Replace the tax system with a graduated tax rate. Nothing for under $30k a year, 10% for $31-75, 15% for $76-300, 20% for $300k+. On top of that, tax luxuries at a flat tax rate of 5%. Tax vices at a rate of 20%, with most of the tax proceeds going directly to the impact of the vices (vice-related healthcare, legal costs, restitution, whatever)
- Dramatically increase the penalty for DUI
- Require the legislative branch to decommission one piece of legislation for every new piece they pass.
- Reduce the number of hours worked by the legislative branch and reduce their pay so that it is not possible to be a full time congressman or senator (see our founding fathers). Adjust term limits if necessary but prevent consecutive terms from any position in government, and do not let them get around it by switching back and forth (congress to senate back to congress, etc.) Basically make it impossible to be a career politician and thereby try to keep intelligent working people in the roles with frequent change ups for fresh perspective and to keep personal back-scratching agendas from forming.
- Require that all budgets be balanced at all times or they will receive mandatory reduction starting with the arts, parks, etc. Those things are vital to a successful and developed civilization, but they also unfortunately need to be the first to go when we are not a successful and developed civilization as defined by our debt. No new programs or laws can be passed if they exceed the budget; officials must choose to reduce other programs in order to implement new ones or increase existing ones.
- Eliminate the electoral college (great idea at the time but circumstances are too different now) and replace it with basic voter testing that ascertains whether the voter is can accurately identify the issues, the candidates, the candidates' positions on the issues, and anything else on the ballot. Political parties can frantically dump resources into trying to educate their voters well enough to pass the test rather than trying to brainwash them into blindly voting for a particular candidate or piece of legislation. This would ensure that the voters are at least well-educated enough to know their options by the time they hit the polls and that our governmental decisions are being made, if not thoughtfully, at least with some basic understanding.
- Break down the two major political parties, put caps on how much money a party can control, how many politicians can be aligned with a given party, etc. Require that the media does not slander or libel (with tightened restrictions) political representatives or candidates, including cutting them off after questions are asked and/or taking their quotes out of context. Requiring that no media clip of political statements, unless used in satire, is shorter than 30 seconds.
- Provide emergency health care free of cost and require all citizens and residents to have private health insurance, much as we currently require car insurance.
- At the end of it all, try to dump as much power back to the individual states as possible and reduce the power of the federal government to necessities. Our country is too big and too diverse to try to run it all at the federal level. Federal government was never intended to have this much power, nor to rule over an area this big with this many people and resources.
I'm sure I could think of more. What would you do if you were in charge with this fantasy-style control?
Me:
- revise the school system so that "high school" teaches more content more aggressively, with faster progression in science and math, allows students to identify their general areas of focus at age 14 (you either love English or you don't) and ends at age 16. At that point students choose to go on to either vocational school or university. Vocational school lasts 2-3 years and prepares you for a functional career of your choice. University puts you through an accelerated bachelors/masters program, and optional higher education means getting a doctorate. Vocational school and university would equally prepare you to enter the workforce in different areas and would be accepted as standards of excellence in their own right, with one not deserving of more merit than the other. Education up through the end of either route would be subsidized, both for first time and returning students.
- emancipate minors at age 16, give them more rights and responsibilities, put them on the hook for criminal acts, lower the drinking age, lower the age of consent, give them the ability to marry, etc. Go back a few decades/centuries or over a few cultures and bow to the historical imperative that children reaching adolescents have typically been considered adults at this point. Reduce the problems we have created for ourselves by artificially extending childhood.
- Legalize pot, tax the hell out of it, tax the hell out of cigarettes.
- Replace the tax system with a graduated tax rate. Nothing for under $30k a year, 10% for $31-75, 15% for $76-300, 20% for $300k+. On top of that, tax luxuries at a flat tax rate of 5%. Tax vices at a rate of 20%, with most of the tax proceeds going directly to the impact of the vices (vice-related healthcare, legal costs, restitution, whatever)
- Dramatically increase the penalty for DUI
- Require the legislative branch to decommission one piece of legislation for every new piece they pass.
- Reduce the number of hours worked by the legislative branch and reduce their pay so that it is not possible to be a full time congressman or senator (see our founding fathers). Adjust term limits if necessary but prevent consecutive terms from any position in government, and do not let them get around it by switching back and forth (congress to senate back to congress, etc.) Basically make it impossible to be a career politician and thereby try to keep intelligent working people in the roles with frequent change ups for fresh perspective and to keep personal back-scratching agendas from forming.
- Require that all budgets be balanced at all times or they will receive mandatory reduction starting with the arts, parks, etc. Those things are vital to a successful and developed civilization, but they also unfortunately need to be the first to go when we are not a successful and developed civilization as defined by our debt. No new programs or laws can be passed if they exceed the budget; officials must choose to reduce other programs in order to implement new ones or increase existing ones.
- Eliminate the electoral college (great idea at the time but circumstances are too different now) and replace it with basic voter testing that ascertains whether the voter is can accurately identify the issues, the candidates, the candidates' positions on the issues, and anything else on the ballot. Political parties can frantically dump resources into trying to educate their voters well enough to pass the test rather than trying to brainwash them into blindly voting for a particular candidate or piece of legislation. This would ensure that the voters are at least well-educated enough to know their options by the time they hit the polls and that our governmental decisions are being made, if not thoughtfully, at least with some basic understanding.
- Break down the two major political parties, put caps on how much money a party can control, how many politicians can be aligned with a given party, etc. Require that the media does not slander or libel (with tightened restrictions) political representatives or candidates, including cutting them off after questions are asked and/or taking their quotes out of context. Requiring that no media clip of political statements, unless used in satire, is shorter than 30 seconds.
- Provide emergency health care free of cost and require all citizens and residents to have private health insurance, much as we currently require car insurance.
- At the end of it all, try to dump as much power back to the individual states as possible and reduce the power of the federal government to necessities. Our country is too big and too diverse to try to run it all at the federal level. Federal government was never intended to have this much power, nor to rule over an area this big with this many people and resources.
I'm sure I could think of more. What would you do if you were in charge with this fantasy-style control?
Facebook
Twitter