A reform of the capital punishment system…namely, that it should be a quicker, cheaper, more streamlined process that allows for a better societal “return” on the effort spent.
I’d like the FCC to stick to things like station licensing and frequency standards, and leave the regulation of “obscene” content up to the free market system.
I suggest that, as soon as effectively possible, the MPAA movie rating board be replaced by a triumvirate of supercomputers. (The same with the Supreme Court, the UN Security Council, and the Vatican.)
A heavy tax imposed on companies that ship jobs overseas
Development of a vocational educational system. Not everyone should go to college. I work at a university and it is scary how much we pander to students (ooh, we like that tuition money). Students need to have more options.
Decriminalize victimless crimes and legalize pot ASAP
1)Ban Political Action Comittee donations–it’s just legalized bribery.
2)Forbid giving funds, or conspiriring to give funds, or failing to disclose the gift of funds, to any candidate or imcumbant, by any person living outside the district that politician represents, above the city/county level.
3)Require all US High Scholl students to complete a Red Cross First Aid Training course as a requirement of graduation.
Destroy almost everything interfering with the free market system. This means privatizing social security, tossing “universal health care” plans into the fireplace, eradicating tariffs, and eliminating most subsidies. This means globalization to the maximum degree possible.
Reforming the educational system with a school voucher program that lets parents decide where they’ll send their kids. This will punish schools that don’t perform to standard and force them to service the customer. Schools that suck will be eaten alive by the schools that turn out geniuses.
Tie between banning abortion/infanticide w/ very few exceptions and dismantling the welfare state to the bare minimum. If you get a house from Habitat for Humanity, you have to volunteer at some point to work on someone elses. Welfare should be like this…a loan, not a grant.
I don’t understand why anyone would want a universal health care plan. If we’re up for proposing unrealistic “solutions” like this, then I propose that every day should have all sunshine, puppy dogs, and ice cream for everyone. “universal”=Socialist. I don’t feel like waiting forever on a list just to get inadequate service.
I don’t understand, after all we’ve done to climb out of the hole of protectionism, why anyone would want to climb back into it. Trade barriers to keep jobs?! I don’t want to pay $100 for a DVD player when I can buy a Japanese one for $40, and use the saved $60 to take a vacation. A vote for tariffs is a vote for poverty.
Yeah, I’ve never understood that argument; if more people live in one spot or another, then those people will have more votes than the other people. Basic math.
Because I think health care is a basic human right, and I think it’s disgraceful for people to have to go without something that is a basic human right because they can’t pay for it.
There are people now who literally can’t get health insurance except through a job. Those people are tied down to a subset of all available jobs- they can’t leave their company and start their own business, even if they might become the next Bill Gates by doing so, because they can’t get private health insurance. People go bankrupt and some become homeless because they don’t have health insurance and can’t afford the health care that they or members of their families need.
I wouldn’t have a problem with a system in which there was private health insurance as well as universal health coverage, so people who didn’t want to use universal health coverage wouldn’t have to. But I think it’s an absolute outrage that some people go without needed health care so that a company can make more profits.
Also, with health insurance companies able to deny coverage for “pre-existing conditions”, there’s an incentive for someone whose future health insurance is uncertain to delay treatment of any problems they might have. Medically and in terms of minimizing future health care costs, that’s exactly what you don’t want them to do.
But what happens when your job manufacturing those DVD players for $80k/year goes away, and all you can find is a $30k/year job at Wal-Mart? I for one don’t want to try to live on what Third World sweatshop workers earn…
When you consider the fact that we spend exponentially more on Corporate Welfare than on social welfare, I think that ending subsidies takes extreme precedence.
First, health care is NOT a basic human right. Dying is a basic human right. It’s not my job to keep you alive. Second, gee, how terrible of me to suggest that people get a job. Thirdly, I’m cool with a universal health care system, so long as I don’t have to pay for it. It’s the same with my school voucher suggestion. The gov’t can provide it so long as *my * taxes don’t pay for it.
If my job manufacturing DVDs goes overseas, then I move to the new/expanded industry created out of the excess money everyone’s saved on DVD players, such as travel/vacation, as I suggested. If I can only get a WalMart job, I man up and deal with it. I don’t whine to the government about how Mexicans “stole” my job. They didn’t steal it, they just did it better than you. Anecdotally, I laugh at your $30k/year=Third world salary implication. The “DVD makers” are a miniscule portion of our society. If they lose a job so I can get cheap stuff, so be it.
The government’s job is to stop me from screwing you over, not forcing me to help you. What’s next? Subsidizing crappy businesses so THEY don’t lose their jobs? Mandating an equal salary for everyone? How much like Stalinist Russia do you want to be?
Because it’s better for me as an individual and for society as a whole. I currently work really hard at a great job, but I don’t get health insurance, and the job doesn’t pay enough for me to be able to afford private health insurance. I don’t have any health problems, being young and so on, but I keep my fingers crossed that I don’t end up in an accident or with some sort of unexpected problem because it would mean almost instantaneous bankruptsy for me.
As for society, because I want the schizophrenic homeless guy that accosts me every day on my way to the train to be able to get treatment and not end up a screaming mess living on the street and attacking people. I want my car to not get broken into because some basehead was able to get treatment instead of stealing my stereo to further his addiction. I want people to be able to prevent smaller medical problems from turning into huge ones and choking hospitals and emergency rooms, placing a greater load on the system. And so on.
That’s true only if the system works. There was a thread here this week titled “What can the Federal govt still do reasonably well?” It amounted to “very little”. All I’m saying is that a universal health care system that works is fictitious. Look at Canada’s system. I’ve never heard good things.
[talk like a robot]Stay on target, stay on target[/talk like a robot]
As long as we’re in IMHO, just let people say their piece, and save your comments on their plans for Great Debates. I just wanted to see what different priorities people had. If we discuss each other’s priorities, well, this could turn very long. And there’s another forum for that. I think we all get that there will be fundamental disagreements here.
Amend the Second Amendment thus: “The right of the people to keep and bear amrs shall not be infringed.” From there, we can maybe figure out what constitutes a reasonable restriction in the interest of public safety.
Scrap and then outlaw every form of health insurance, health management organization, etc. When it’s “we the people” actually footing the bill for our own health care costs, maybe hospitals and doctors will charge what real people (not insurance companies with deep pockets) can afford.
Downsize the U.S. Military to a size consistent with defending the continental U.S. from foreign invasion. Let the mega-Corporations hire their own fucking mercenaries to defend their tighty-whities when their shitty global business practices blows up in their face in the form of bloody revolution in some 3rd world hellhole.
