Oh, by the way – under this “system” I’m currently a 7. Until 4 years ago I was a 12. What happened? I got laid off. Sucks to be me, I guess.
By the way – I could NOT join the military. I tried, once upon a time, but my vision disqualified me. I suppose the myopia is my own damn fault. Sucks to be me, I guess.
I suppose I could run out and do 5,000 hours of volunteer work to give me three more points and claw my way back up to 13.
On the other hand, having a child would be problematic, as my spouse is sterile. I suppose, marriage be damned, I could just run out and cheat on said spouse to generate a child and get another point, never mind the morally bankrupt manner in which that child was generated. Yeah, great. :rolleyes:
Oh, and my spouse – born disabled. So permanently dinged because:
on welfare as a child (but let’s punish him for a decision his parents made, never mind the astronomical medical bills)
could never serve in military (damn cripple!)
unable to have biological child
Nice… I suppose the spina bifida was his fault, right? Totally OK to penalize someone for a birth defect even if they did go on to higher education (master’s) with a 3.75 grade point most of schooling, started a business, employed others, married, never committed a crime…
Say I work 60-70 hours a week to keep my family off welfare. I still have to make my volunteer hours? Certainly there won’t be some problems with my marriage from never being home. Why don’t I get points for all the years I paid into unemployment and didn’t draw anything?
Never mind the auto industry here in Michigan. The new state motto is “Come to Michigan, where the unemployed will lick your shoes”.
How does “1 point for each additional term in the military” not turn the nation into a militaristic society? Looking at my own place in this misguided “caste”, I have a doctorate, 1,000 hours of volunteer work (hope my volunteer consultancy counts), no criminal record, never had public assistance or filed bankruptcy, have a child, no child support payments, etc. etc. and I still only got an 18. Pretty much the only way for anyone to get a 20, and for a lot of people the only way to go up in caste, is to spend significant time in the military, as in dozens of years…which would be a horrible drain on the nation’s economy, because you’d have to figure out some way to pay those millions of people who signed up just to try to move up. Considering the whole point of this game was to “benefit society”, it seems illogical to then turn around and drain society by inflating the military to huge personnel levels.
Of course, this is a terrible, terrible idea for a lot of other reasons, but that one struck me as the most counterlogical.
What our society really needs is a safe outlet for those who believe they have the moral authority to tell others how to live. Y’know, get them out from underfoot, so we could actually address our issues.
I’m thinking the prison population would do nicely. Why don’t we put them in charge of that? They can try out all their theories, ride their high horses, be all condescending and judgmental, and leave the rest of us the hell alone!
I have an alternate suggestion. Let’s give poor people EXTRA votes. After all, the rich have money, while the poor are more dependent on Social Security, universal health care, public schools, public transportation and all that stuff. Therefore the poor have a greater interest in how government actually works, so they should have a greater say in electing people.
I say everyone earning less that $25,000 gets four votes, $25-$50K gets three, $50-$75K gets two votes, and everyone earning >$75,000 gets a single vote.
If rich people want to increase their voting clout, all they have to do is create more high-paying jobs, and not eliminate the ones that are already here. That way, there’s a built-in incentive for the people who create jobs to make sure everyone is employed and earning as much as possible.
First, let me say that I find the op’s idea stupid as all hell and repugnant in the extreme. I would probably engage in violence to prevent its adoption and would leave any jurisdiction that adopted it.
Second, the above is ridiculous as well. The OP could legitimately (ie, in a reasonable manner within their system) argue that those who prepare for a disaster deserve more points than those who don’t. That is, cancer doesn’t automatically mean bankruptcy–for example, no type of cancer would force me into bankruptcy because I’ve set things up so that basically can’t happen.
I could move from a 3 to a 4 in 9 months by getting knocked up, abandoning the kid to its father, then entering a marriage of convenience with someone for the caste benefits.
At which time, I could start leveraging my annual “level 4” endorsement.
I’m not sure, but I don’t think that’s the way the system is meant to work.
It may be true that the rich get richer and the powerful get more powerful, but I am amazed every time I hear that someone thinks that’s the way things should be rather than the way that things just end up working out sometimes. Intentionally making the system more unfair is a horrible idea.
Yes, but you have to have some amount of resources to build up the things you need to have the luxury of not worrying about a health problem breaking you. A fifty year old with a steady job can probably expect to not go bankrupt from cancer, and should probably account for that possibility. A 20 year old working an entry-level job gets in a car accident that makes him a blind paraplegic? Even with health insurance, an education and an industry where they can expect a good future that kid is going to be completely fucked, and there wouldn’t have been a lot that they could have done in their adult life to prevent that.
And even better, this system is going to knock him down a few citizenship levels and throw a tax increase as icing on the cake!
Anyway, the main problem with this system is nto that it is unfair and gross (which it is) but that it creates perverse incentives that actually lead to more of the social ills it tries to prevent. That kid on the street who is deciding whether or not to go steal cars with his buddies? He’s not worried that he may lose his right to run for city council or vote for who sits on the school board. The incentives generally aren’t ones that matter to most people, and aren’t going to be motivating gangbangers to reform their ways and become model citizens. But he will notice if he is being told “You are not a part of this society. You are an outcast.”
People don’t fuck up systems that they feel like they are a valued and integral part of. People fuck up systems that they feel outside of, anonymous to, and disassociated from. Sociologists have shown time and time again that when people buy into or feel ownership of their community, they respect it’s values. But if we are kicking people out of our society, how would we possibly expect them to respect that society’s values? I don’t know about you, but if I was walking around with my level 1 ID card, I sure as hell wouldn’t feel too bad about stealing a level 4s car. If they don’t feel like they owe me much of anything, I’m hardly going to feel like I owe them anything in return.
So congrats on making a system that promotes even more violence and social decay!
In addition to all the objections so far, how much do you want to bet that large number of ‘We guarantee a GPA>3.0’ private schools will open up.
And if you think diploma mills are a problem now just wait until having a useless bachelors/masters/PhD give increased political power and reduced taxes.
Yes, and how long did it take for you to arrange that?
How many 20 or 25 year olds, no matter how responsible and full of foresight, could arrange for that to be true about themselves?
The system favors the old and wealthy even more than the current system.
Yes, I understand that you have the illusion that it is possible to plan for and cover absolutely all contingencies. You don’t actually, though you’ve probably got the most likely taken care of. You also don’t seem to consider that that really is out of reach of a lot of young people who are having to build their little financial empire from scratch.
Do you understand that if everyone in the country was able to gather the same amount of resources (money that) you have managed to (the fact that you don’t undstand that this is impossible we’ll leave aside for the moment), then that money which all of you hold would lose its buying power and none of you then would be able to afford what you thought you did? The value of money derives from the inequal distribution of it.
I’m an 11(2). Looks like 2 of the things I’d have to do to make 15(3) are get married and has babby. I would do the former, but for various reasons, I’m not attractive husband material. I will not do the latter.
I never served in the military and am now ineligible. I have zero crime and public assistance records.
I could tote up my lifetime volunteer work, contribute more to charities, and get a 4 endorsement, but that would still only bring me to 14 - unless volunteer work is interpreted as donating one’s time to arts causes.
Maybe the marriage thing would bring a bunch more single gals to market who otherwise wouldn’t consider hitching up…
