What "radical" ideas/laws would you enact if "king for a day"

In My Humble Opinion
1

Off the top:

  • More eye-for-an-eye legalities. You kill? You’re killed. You rape? You get raped. You embezzle/fraud/etc? Every possession and nickel is taken from you and your credit is destroyed forever. etc. Also such punishments are “advertised”/shown to people much more as incentive to drive home the “do the crime pay the time” kind of thing.

  • False accusations, if proven, would carry far greater consequences (eg a woman crying rape and it’s proven to be completely false) - like the accuser gets the punishment the accused would have gotten if true.

  • We would finally take animal abuse seriously in this country. Far tougher laws would be passed AND enforced. Vick would be lucky to ever see the light of day again.

  • The EPA would actually be given power/“teeth.” (my impression is they have little now or traditionally) and companies pulling BS like BP did would be raked over the coals quite severely.

  • Public schools would be mandated to have classes on things like basic car/home maintenance and sexual/parental responsibilities (I grant the latter would be dicey to walk the fence on but at least some common sense stuff like “avoid getting knocked up/married at a very young age” etc - you’d be amazed how many brain-dead kids need these kind of clues).

  • Speaking of schools, the authority teachers have had ripped from them over the last decade or 3 would be restored. Suing them and/or schools would get a LOT harder.

  • In fact, suing people in general would get a lot harder, with a lot more early scrutiny initially.

  • REAL equality begins. This means (for ex) no more “affirmative action” (eg reverse discrimination) ad nauseum. People are neither denied OR given a job based on ANY demographics such as gender, race, age, etc.

  • Places like restaurants, theaters etc would have to have devices which scramble cell phone signals or pay heavy heavy fees to lift such mandates. This means the obnoxious aholes have to go outside the place to blather away on the damn things.

  • What the hell while I’m at it cell phones would become much more expensive one way or the other. I’m sick to death of people’s obsessions w/the stupid play toy things.

  • Much tougher noise ordinance laws as well.

  • Littering would also get much tougher laws AND enforcements. I’m tempted to say people busted for throwing cig butts on the ground would be forced to eat them but I’ll stop just short of that. But again heavy fines would be levied.

2

Private cars would be banned except for medical need

3

If I were dictator for a day…

All countries would adopt SI metric as their sole official measuring system.

Loud vehicles would be taxed in proportion to their loudness and its degree of voluntarity. Drive a vehicle that’s loud but it has to do a job and you don’t really have an alternative? I’ll grudgingly accept that, but you have to pay. Modify your pleasure vehicle to be louder? You pay extremely. Use your loud pleasure vehicle to annoy others? It gets confiscated permanently and you get to watch it being destroyed while being staked out on an anthill.

Same-sex marriage and polygamy are legalized. Family and inheritance law is extended to take this into account.

Drugs are legalized, or not, based only on actual harm done to others by their users. Centuries of custom are ignored when making these decisions.

Traditional schools are made voluntary, but getting an education remains compulsory. My Ministry of Education defines various life skills that children and students should have at various ages, but leaves how they are acquired up to students and parents.

In my voluntary schools, at least, any beliefs that are faith-based, rather than evidence-based, are prominently labeled as such. The mandatory life-skills tests include tests of logic and proof to discern items of faith.

Composting and recycling systems are instituted in all municipalities. Packaging and products that are non-reusable or non-repairable are taxed at higher rates than those that are.

Subsidies are removed from non-renewable resource-extraction industries and transferred to industries based on renewable resources. Our stock of non-renewable resources is viewed as a one-time investment of capital into society, not to be used for operating expenses.

4

Longer days. :slight_smile:

5

Government gets out of the marriage business. Entirely. No one pays more or less in taxes due to his/her marital status. No one has more or less rights in a situation based on his/her marital status.

6

I’m feeling lazy, so here is something I posted back in Feb.

7

First, drivers would have a chip embedded that all cars are required to read. If your license has been suspended, you physically cannot start the car (and it would be required for the car to continue running, too - no somebody starting it for someone else).

Next, every legal driver is issued a book of tickets. Somebody does something stupid, like cutting you off, weaving all over the road while jabbering away on the cell, etc., you can issue one of these tickets (you have to have a valid witness, though).

Once a driver is issued 10 “stupid tickets” within a 1 year period, they’re license is revoked, period! They disable their embedded chip and we’re rid of a bunch of idiots on the road in no time!

8

Queen for a day?

  • mandatory holiday - in order to qualify one random act of kindness must be performed
  • all men forced to wear white t-shirts and old jeans
  • personal security force (for me) made up of 6 special forces soldiers in full gear
  • animal cruelty punishable by public shaming and eye for an eye style justice
  • series of propaganda videos about why dogs are the best critters ever broadcast over public airwaves and internet - no opt-out option
  • all meals accompanied by delicious butter
  • Marco Pierre White as my personal chef and professional ‘companion’
  • all old people in nursing homes taken out for the day to spend the day surrounded by children and animals, being entertained and fed good food
  • all nursing homes and orphanages upgraded to 5 star standards
  • televised public shaming and rotten-egging of certain banksters
9

$10,000 fine for any politician who tells a demonstrably false lie about a bill.

10

I’d expand the (American) franchise to include lawful permanent residents, as well as citizens, in local elections. There’s some logic to denying the vote to non-citizens with regard to national office; what if the American national interest conflicts with that of their homeland? But if you’re living in a city, your interest in city government is precisely the same whether or not you’re a citizen. Green card holders need effective police, schools, sanitation, etc. Moreover, they’re governed by that city - and so far as we can tell, democracy is the least-bad way to govern people. Bringing permanent residents into the political process just makes sense.

11

I’d immediately:
o Shut down half or more of the agencies/bureaus of the government.
o Build the border fence, monitor it electronically, and back that up with armed response.
o Fire up a modern-day version of Operation Wetback. This would include discovering business or individuals who had hired illegals and fining them a minimum of $25k per illegal per day.
o Shut down all phases of federal welfare. This includes Medicare and Obamacare. I’d turn them back to the states; if a state wants to implement something like that, hey- 10th Amendment, baby.
o Shut down Social Security. For everyone in the system, find out how much they have paid in over the years, figure a reasonable rate of interest on those contributions (5% a year is a good start), then subtract how much they’ve taken out. If the balance is positive, write them a one-time check and let them be responsible for managing their own money.
o Get rid of the income tax and replace it with the Fair Tax. Constitutional Amendment required for that.
o Balanced Budget Amendment. The Congress can no longer spend more than the government takes in, unless war or national emergency is declared.

I’ll think of some others.

12

I would require that every non-fiction book be required to have an index.

13

I’d legalize homicide under certain conditions. First you’re obligated to openly confront your intended target face to face, declare your intentions to your target and then give your target one minute to try to talk you out of it, fetch a weapon or run away. When the minute expires, they’re fair game.

It would certainly make C-SPAN more interesting.

14

Here’s my contribution to a better world: if you have a garage sale and advertise it with signage all over the neighborhood and then don’t go back and collect those signs when the sale is over, there is a littering fine for each and every one of them. Not too hard to figure out who to fine since the address is usually right there on the signs.

Other than that everyone can do whatever they want on Thursdays, because that day usually sucks and we could all use a break from suckage.

15

I’d ban standardized tests.

16

Gay couples would be free to marry.
Gay married couples would be free to adopt children.
Unmarried people, of any orientation, would be given strong incentives to put their offspring up for adoption.

All drugs would be legalized.
Prostitution would be legalized. (That way, the junkies would be able to support themselves until they O.D.)

The FBI would wear black uniforms, with jackboots.

I would not enact a flat tax, but I would drastically simplify the tax code. Everybody would to their taxes on a 1040EZ. No deductions, no exemptions, no loopholes. If your income is A, then your tax is B. Period.

Firearm safety training would be mandatory in middle school.
Marksmanship training would be mandatory in high school.

Abortion would be legal. For any reason, or none. Up to, and including, the ninth month. However, you would have to study sonograms and foetus-in-a-jar, before making the final decision. (Freedom is not for the sqeamish.)

We would have universal healthcare. Run by the Army Medical Corps. The government would pay for medical school. In exchange, the doctors and nurses would spend 20 years in uniform, working in government-run hospitals and clinics. Instead of malpractice lawsuits, incompetent doctors would be subject to UCMJ penalties. A monumentally incompetent doctor would be busted back to E-1 and spend the rest of his 20 cleaning bedpans in Point Barrow.

17

That’s what I’d do to cell phones. Or maybe make them so the only thing you can dial/connect to is 911. No more idiots walking around w/those damn things glued to their faces 24/7. Yay! :slight_smile:

18

This is not even close to an exhaustive list (because I’m pretty sure the full list would probably be considered a “Manifesto”), but:

There will be Lese Majeste laws enacted on my behalf.

I’d make it a crime to publicly voice an opinion that differed from my own too much. There would be certain exemptions for academic research and the like, but basically, if you hate cats (for example), you can (and will) keep that to yourself.

It would be against the law to publicly care about things I deem irrelevant (with the same exemptions for genuine academic discussion and the like as above).

Celebrities would be required to justify their fame in a way that satisfies me personally. Failure to do so means they are not to be mentioned in the media again until such time as they do something actually noteworthy.

There would be an absolute right to privacy for the average person.

Large corporations would be legally required to put the interests of the communities they operate in and their employees above those of shareholders.

Similarly, as long as a business is making money, it will be illegal to make staff redundant, restructure the business in a way which involves reducing staff to make even more profit (if profit is above a certain amount which I alone will decide, given the context of the business and situation), or increase their prices to continue making an obscene profit.

It will also be illegal to avoid hiring staff to get around the laws regarding “making too much money”.

It will be illegal to charge outrageously different prices for otherwise identical manufactured products within first world countries. Thus, if your widget is $49 in the US, you’d better have an extraordinarily good reason for it to be $239 in Australia or $149 in Canada. Helpful hint: There are no approved extraordinarily good reasons for this.

All employers are required to pay their staff a “Living wage” at a minimum (ie, enough to actually live on). Tipping will remain legal, but it is to completely and purely optional and voluntary, and there is to be no expectation of it under any circumstances.

Prices must include all applicable taxes, fees, charges, etc. If a Widget is advertised at $49, then that is all the purchaser pays.

Universal Healthcare.

That’s probably enough for now…

19

I would make it illegal to wear those dress shirts where the collar is a different color from the shirt. Punishable by a slow and tortuous death.

20

Public buildings would have to post their street addresses in an easy-to-see-from the road location.