Things you would change if you were a dictator vol Eye for an eye

[slicknickmd]

I was contemplating my existence the other day as I smoked hookah and sipped on Hennessy. I thought about the minor and major incommodities of life that makeeverything a struggle. If today you were granted absolute power and dominion, what aspects of life would you change. I would be a harsh but fair leader. Mycode of laws and punishment would be akin those used by King Nebuchadnezzar in Babylonia.


Of the top of my head, here are some laws I would pass. Crime and punishment

1. If you force yourself on someone sexually, you should be taking to a special prison where you too shall be violated on a daily bases by well-endowedhomosexual prison guards.

2. C-blocking is punishable by having to walk around naked with a cinderblock attached to your genitals for a week. For females the punishment is a ban on allsexual activity for a specified length of time depending on the severity of the C-block

3. Hypocrisy is punishable by having you lips stapled shut.

4. Acts of violence will be settled in an eye for an eye fashion (word to the code of Hammurabi)

 

[innocentmanse7en]

Weed will be legal and football will be played year round...other than that, it's whateva

 

[addictedtofreshkicks]

Originally Posted by slicknickmd

2. C-blocking is punishable by having to walk around naked with a cinderblock attached to your genitals for a week. For females the punishment is a ban on all sexual activity for a specified length of time depending on the severity of the C-block

Ouch

 

[nyvictory45]

Oh man, I think about this a lot actually.

1. Every crime is punishable by death

2. You have to pass an IQ test to vote.

3. Racism is a crime.

4. Religion is forever confined to a private setting. Meaning if you want to practice religion that's fine but you will pray in your house by yourself orin a temple or Chuch or Mosque of some sort with others like you. Religious ceremonies will not be shown on television or broadcast on radio and they willabove all, certaintly have no place in politics.

5. If you're a politician representing a pro-life, anti-gay, etc state or district and want to attempt at injecting your subjective beliefs into the publicarena then you must present a sound argument based not on the Bible but on some type of philosophical or ethical lines as to why anyone should take youseriously.

6. Schools will become much more difficult. What we are taught in 12th grade now will be expected to be learned in at least 9th grade. Nations are free to makethe curriculum more difficult than this.

7. When you vote you must state why you voted that way in a logical argument. And if you're argument is illogical you must change your vote to theappropriate one or not vote at all. Meaning if you're a person who makes under 50,000 dollars a year but want to vote against your economic interest forsomeone because you feel like you can have a beer with them, you will be turned down.

8. As the world dictator, I will oversee all countries and lands but will allow democratic elections at the national and local level. This means while I retainpower to destroy any nation at a whim and enact a few global laws, ultimately the nations decide their own fate.

9. The consumption of oil will stop. Every top-tier country will be forced to put up a large amount of money to find environment friendly energy sources.

10. All countries will be expected to have the majority of their wealth put toward science and space exploration.

11. Utah can have an NBA team but their fans cannot attend their games. Instead all games will be played in an empty arena with simulated crowd cheers andboos.

12. The southern United States will not be allowed to make any more rap music.

13. We will begin colonizing Mars.

14. Consumerist nations like ourselves will be reshaped drastically. Everything will be molded to fit a more localized way of life. Cities will be reduced butretain the most important buildings in them. around the cities will be towns and outside the towns will be nothing but farmland and wilderness. States can onlyeat what they produce. As a New yorker I wouldn't be able to eat pineapples at any point during the year.

15. A top priority will be conservation. Most of the ecosystems we have destroyed will be brought back. Trees cannot be cut down anymore, rivers cannot bedammed. Development of nations such as ourselves will be limited to the land we already have. So if you want to building a nuclear power plant you better bewilling to demolish the local hospital to put it up.

16. Below my highest rank will be a group of Overmen who will control each continent.

17. Greed, materialism, and selfishness are crimes. But if convicted one can go through cognitive restructuring to change their thoughts about these things. Ifthe thoughts persist, death will ensue.

18. The current human population will be culled down to about 1 billion people. Death will be randomly chosen by a supercomputer. The means of death have notyet been decided.

19. Evolution and intelligent design will be taught in schools. Also in all school we will teach all religions and all philosophy.

20. Failure to obide by these rules or any others I come up with result in the extermination of the human population and me comitting suicide.

21. These rules are subject to change.

 

[slicknickmd]

^^^^Nice, you and I share a lot of the same views. You could be the second in command. I just have to put some final touches on this doomsday machine.

 

[kiiidthrash]

Originally Posted by NYVictory45

Oh man, I think about this a lot actually.

1. Every crime is punishable by death

2. You have to pass an IQ test to vote.

3. Racism is a crime.

4. Religion is forever confined to a private setting. Meaning if you want to practice religion that's fine but you will pray in your house by yourself or in a temple or Chuch or Mosque of some sort with others like you. Religious ceremonies will not be shown on television or broadcast on radio and they will above all, certaintly have no place in politics.

5. If you're a politician representing a pro-life, anti-gay, etc state or district and want to attempt at injecting your subjective beliefs into the public arena then you must present a sound argument based not on the Bible but on some type of philosophical or ethical lines as to why anyone should take you seriously.

6. Schools will become much more difficult. What we are taught in 12th grade now will be expected to be learned in at least 9th grade. Nations are free to make the curriculum more difficult than this.

7. When you vote you must state why you voted that way in a logical argument. And if you're argument is illogical you must change your vote to the appropriate one or not vote at all. Meaning if you're a person who makes under 50,000 dollars a year but want to vote against your economic interest for someone because you feel like you can have a beer with them, you will be turned down.

8. As the world dictator, I will oversee all countries and lands but will allow democratic elections at the national and local level. This means while I retain power to destroy any nation at a whim and enact a few global laws, ultimately the nations decide their own fate.

9. The consumption of oil will stop. Every top-tier country will be forced to put up a large amount of money to find environment friendly energy sources.

10. All countries will be expected to have the majority of their wealth put toward science and space exploration.

11. Utah can have an NBA team but their fans cannot attend their games. Instead all games will be played in an empty arena with simulated crowd cheers and boos.

12. The southern United States will not be allowed to make any more rap music.

13. We will begin colonizing Mars.

14. Consumerist nations like ourselves will be reshaped drastically. Everything will be molded to fit a more localized way of life. Cities will be reduced but retain the most important buildings in them. around the cities will be towns and outside the towns will be nothing but farmland and wilderness. States can only eat what they produce. As a New yorker I wouldn't be able to eat pineapples at any point during the year.

15. A top priority will be conservation. Most of the ecosystems we have destroyed will be brought back. Trees cannot be cut down anymore, rivers cannot be dammed. Development of nations such as ourselves will be limited to the land we already have. So if you want to building a nuclear power plant you better be willing to demolish the local hospital to put it up.

16. Below my highest rank will be a group of Overmen who will control each continent.

17. Greed, materialism, and selfishness are crimes. But if convicted one can go through cognitive restructuring to change their thoughts about these things. If the thoughts persist, death will ensue.

18. The current human population will be culled down to about 1 billion people. Death will be randomly chosen by a supercomputer. The means of death have not yet been decided.

19. Evolution and intelligent design will be taught in schools. Also in all school we will teach all religions and all philosophy.

20. Failure to obide by these rules or any others I come up with result in the extermination of the human population and me comitting suicide.

21. These rules are subject to change.

 

[nyvictory45]

Lol word. I dunno about second in command though. I'd need my own harem of about 3000 women then I'd accept.

 

[eye see soles]

1) Delusional +$!%#$ will get the axe.

 

[blackmagnus514]

1. If you force yourself on someone sexually, you should be taking to a special prison where you too shall be violated on a daily bases by well-endowed homosexual prison guards.

 

[johnnyredstorm]

I'd create a group of Super Heroes to protect America and they would be called the Avengers.

 

[tha sun child]

Thank God you guys aren't in power..........And if you were, well, if you were, y'all seen what happened to Caesar.

 

[slicknickmd]

1. A well-rounded, education will be the biggest priority of my regime.......and physical methods of punishment will fair game at our schools. None of thatdetention nonsense. Schools will be co-ed but the sexes will take classes separately.

2. Prositution will be a legalized and regulated by the government.

3. Parents will be given a guide on how to raise their children objectively in hopes to completely eliminating social differences between men and women. Ourpercieved gender roles of today will be eliminated and men and women will be viewed as more of less social equals.

 

[slicknickmd]

Originally Posted by That Valles Dude

Females must pledge allegiance to richard

Corniness is punishable by having to sit in a room and listen to nothing but Soulja boy for a whole year.

 

[blackmagnus514]

-female spies shall be deployed to find out the true feelings of females in "gettting to know you" stages of relationships. if said female shows themale "fronting" vibes, said female shall have to pay a fine of $100.

-men shall not be required to hold the doors, pull out chairs, hold the purses or spend money on so called "independent" women

-lie detection machines for both men/women to be attached to the their partners when honesty of said partner is in question

-stripping is illegal. stripping is punishable by fine and managing a stripper is punishable by flogging. women in such positions shall not be blatant-----teasers.

-marijuana shall be made legal

-homosexual males shall be the only males women watch such movies as "Maid in Manhattan" with

-The Knicks shall be dismantled with only Lee, Chandler and Robinson kept under contract

-Mens night at clubs.

-Rappers shall be required to read dictionaries/encyclopedias

-Men shall be required to compete over a "free agent" female provided there is no "b----------ness involved, such as gossip and sidetalk"

 

[4x6191990]

Originally Posted by NYVictory45

Oh man, I think about this a lot actually.

1. Every crime is punishable by death

2. You have to pass an IQ test to vote.

3. Racism is a crime.

4. Religion is forever confined to a private setting. Meaning if you want to practice religion that's fine but you will pray in your house by yourself or in a temple or Chuch or Mosque of some sort with others like you. Religious ceremonies will not be shown on television or broadcast on radio and they will above all, certaintly have no place in politics.

5. If you're a politician representing a pro-life, anti-gay, etc state or district and want to attempt at injecting your subjective beliefs into the public arena then you must present a sound argument based not on the Bible but on some type of philosophical or ethical lines as to why anyone should take you seriously.

6. Schools will become much more difficult. What we are taught in 12th grade now will be expected to be learned in at least 9th grade. Nations are free to make the curriculum more difficult than this.

7. When you vote you must state why you voted that way in a logical argument. And if you're argument is illogical you must change your vote to the appropriate one or not vote at all. Meaning if you're a person who makes under 50,000 dollars a year but want to vote against your economic interest for someone because you feel like you can have a beer with them, you will be turned down.

8. As the world dictator, I will oversee all countries and lands but will allow democratic elections at the national and local level. This means while I retain power to destroy any nation at a whim and enact a few global laws, ultimately the nations decide their own fate.

9. The consumption of oil will stop. Every top-tier country will be forced to put up a large amount of money to find environment friendly energy sources.

10. All countries will be expected to have the majority of their wealth put toward science and space exploration.

11. Utah can have an NBA team but their fans cannot attend their games. Instead all games will be played in an empty arena with simulated crowd cheers and boos.

12. The southern United States will not be allowed to make any more rap music.

13. We will begin colonizing Mars.

14. Consumerist nations like ourselves will be reshaped drastically. Everything will be molded to fit a more localized way of life. Cities will be reduced but retain the most important buildings in them. around the cities will be towns and outside the towns will be nothing but farmland and wilderness. States can only eat what they produce. As a New yorker I wouldn't be able to eat pineapples at any point during the year.

15. A top priority will be conservation. Most of the ecosystems we have destroyed will be brought back. Trees cannot be cut down anymore, rivers cannot be dammed. Development of nations such as ourselves will be limited to the land we already have. So if you want to building a nuclear power plant you better be willing to demolish the local hospital to put it up.

16. Below my highest rank will be a group of Overmen who will control each continent.

17. Greed, materialism, and selfishness are crimes. But if convicted one can go through cognitive restructuring to change their thoughts about these things. If the thoughts persist, death will ensue.

18. The current human population will be culled down to about 1 billion people. Death will be randomly chosen by a supercomputer. The means of death have not yet been decided.

19. Evolution and intelligent design will be taught in schools. Also in all school we will teach all religions and all philosophy.

20. Failure to obide by these rules or any others I come up with result in the extermination of the human population and me comitting suicide.

21. These rules are subject to change.

nice

 

[4x6191990]

well i would

1. Force other countries to contribute food for third world countries.

2. Ban shipping to Nigeria.

3. Preserve the ecosystem and use lethal force to enforce that.

4. Arrest leading members of the fur industry.

5. Only synthetic leather will be authorized.

6. Use force to put a stop to whale and shark hunting, and give harsh penalties for overfishing.

7. More money towards space and deep sea exploration.

8. Improve health care first in the States and from there worldwide.

9. Send Special Operations Forces to "unstable" countries like North Korea to take out their missile silos and assassinate top leaders, then invadethe country and liberate their people.

10. Establish a stronger UN to work together more and have more emphasis on a world government rather than individual ones.

11. Hope to have contact with extraterrestrial life.

12. Abolish the death penalty.

13. Support stem cell research.

14. Set up a rehabilitation system for people in gangs and if it does not work for an individual throw him in jail or summarily execute him/her.

15. Infiltrate organized crime societies like mafias and drug cartels. Use the military and police forces to permanently destroy them, with help from othercountries for drug trafficking.

More later.

 

[trelvis tha thrilla]

Originally Posted by NYVictory45


7. When you vote you must state why you voted that way in a logical argument. And if you're argument is illogical you must change your vote to the appropriate one or not vote at all. Meaning if you're a person who makes under 50,000 dollars a year but want to vote against your economic interest for someone because you feel like you can have a beer with them, you will be turned down.

9. The consumption of oil will stop. Every top-tier country will be forced to put up a large amount of money to find environment friendly energy sources.


12. The southern United States will not be allowed to make any more rap music.



15. A top priority will be conservation. Most of the ecosystems we have destroyed will be brought back. Trees cannot be cut down anymore, rivers cannot be dammed. Development of nations such as ourselves will be limited to the land we already have. So if you want to building a nuclear power plant you better be willing to demolish the local hospital to put it up.


18. The current human population will be culled down to about 1 billion people. Death will be randomly chosen by a supercomputer. The means of death have not yet been decided.

I was with you on all of them except those left above.

 

[nyvictory45]

Why are you against those? I understand not wanting to cull humans and the rap one but why the others?

 

[freshproduct]

3. Racism is a crime.
[color= rgb(255, 0, 0)]That would be #1 on my list. I hate racism, stereotypes and anythingelse that relates.[/color]

 

[eddy650]

Pedestrians don't always have the right of way.

 

[rexanglorum]

Originally Posted by NYVictory45

Oh man, I think about this a lot actually.

1. Every crime is punishable by death

2. You have to pass an IQ test to vote.

3. Racism is a crime.

4. Religion is forever confined to a private setting. Meaning if you want to practice religion that's fine but you will pray in your house by yourself or in a temple or Chuch or Mosque of some sort with others like you. Religious ceremonies will not be shown on television or broadcast on radio and they will above all, certaintly have no place in politics.

5. If you're a politician representing a pro-life, anti-gay, etc state or district and want to attempt at injecting your subjective beliefs into the public arena then you must present a sound argument based not on the Bible but on some type of philosophical or ethical lines as to why anyone should take you seriously.

6. Schools will become much more difficult. What we are taught in 12th grade now will be expected to be learned in at least 9th grade. Nations are free to make the curriculum more difficult than this.

7. When you vote you must state why you voted that way in a logical argument. And if you're argument is illogical you must change your vote to the appropriate one or not vote at all. Meaning if you're a person who makes under 50,000 dollars a year but want to vote against your economic interest for someone because you feel like you can have a beer with them, you will be turned down.

8. As the world dictator, I will oversee all countries and lands but will allow democratic elections at the national and local level. This means while I retain power to destroy any nation at a whim and enact a few global laws, ultimately the nations decide their own fate.

9. The consumption of oil will stop. Every top-tier country will be forced to put up a large amount of money to find environment friendly energy sources.

10. All countries will be expected to have the majority of their wealth put toward science and space exploration.

11. Utah can have an NBA team but their fans cannot attend their games. Instead all games will be played in an empty arena with simulated crowd cheers and boos.

12. The southern United States will not be allowed to make any more rap music.

13. We will begin colonizing Mars.

14. Consumerist nations like ourselves will be reshaped drastically. Everything will be molded to fit a more localized way of life. Cities will be reduced but retain the most important buildings in them. around the cities will be towns and outside the towns will be nothing but farmland and wilderness. States can only eat what they produce. As a New yorker I wouldn't be able to eat pineapples at any point during the year.

15. A top priority will be conservation. Most of the ecosystems we have destroyed will be brought back. Trees cannot be cut down anymore, rivers cannot be dammed. Development of nations such as ourselves will be limited to the land we already have. So if you want to building a nuclear power plant you better be willing to demolish the local hospital to put it up.

16. Below my highest rank will be a group of Overmen who will control each continent.

17. Greed, materialism, and selfishness are crimes. But if convicted one can go through cognitive restructuring to change their thoughts about these things. If the thoughts persist, death will ensue.

18. The current human population will be culled down to about 1 billion people. Death will be randomly chosen by a supercomputer. The means of death have not yet been decided.

19. Evolution and intelligent design will be taught in schools. Also in all school we will teach all religions and all philosophy.

20. Failure to obide by these rules or any others I come up with result in the extermination of the human population and me comitting suicide.

21. These rules are subject to change.

So basically you want to return use to a standard of living that resembles peasants in the middle ages. Our real income is about 30,000 in the US in 2008and the real income or a medieval peasant was about the equivalent of $500. Keep in mind that they did not get that as a wage to supplement their own crops andother home production, like cloth and crafts. This includes what they were about to harvest, make and consume. The average person had a diet with almost all oftheir calories coming from course bread, gruel and low alcohol but thick ales. They had a few vegetables and maybe some fruit and dairy products and meat onceor twice per year.

Aside from obvious technological disadvantages, they were needlessly made poorer because of policies, which you seem to want to implement. Most note worth isthe social stigma directed towards merchants and others who were deemed as greedy and materialistic. Local customs and church edicts and the laws of tradeguilds not only set prices, they also set how much could be produced. In this feudal economy, having political forces, that were not worried about the profitmotive meant that those elites, who made economic decisions, continued to have a much better standard of living compared to the masses, due to wholesaleexpropriation and exploitation of the masses. Meanwhile, the masses paid dearly in the form of a very low standard of living.

The most damaging edict that you would impose is the ban on interstate trade. That not only reduces people's access to luxury goods, it would make thingslike cars and computers very expensive because they would have to be produced in every state, whether or not they are able to take advantage of economies ofscale and whether or not they originally had a comparative advantages in producing cars, or computers or other goods. Worse, yet, your ban on interstate tradewould lead to famines, if your policy were enforced. More likely, there would be a black market and the crime associated with black markets. Gang members wouldsmuggle basic food stuffs across state lines or bribe border guards and because the whole enterprise is illegal, that would be reflected in the cost andordinary people would have to pay much, much higher prices for food than they pay now. We have already seen how five percent food inflation has caused pain,especially for the poorest people, imagine if food became two or three times more expensive than it is now.

Specialization, division of labor, low transaction cost and free trade are keys to escaping poverty and history has proven this time and time again.

Some of your ideas are good ideas but the ones that involve economics, are all terrible ideas and most of them have been tried and have failed miserably, withthe masses paying the price, in the form of hunger, misery and death.


If I were in charge of the country, I would try to improve people's standard of living while also trying to harmonize economic growth with environmentallysustainable policies. I would change health care laws. I would also try to make some changes to education, the type of people who run for office, the lawsinvolving drugs and alcohol and tobacco and firearms and the nature and enforcement of traffic laws.


On the Economy

- I would declare property rights to be sacrosanct and that imminent domain should limited to public works only. There would be no more instances of wealthydevelopers and city governments, low balling current land owners.

- I would abolish virtually all trade barriers but I would compensate those workers who are displaced through free trade. For older workers, whose skills areobsolete, government would give them a big chunk of change to help them retire comfortably. For younger workers, we would give generously unemployment benefitsand money to get educated/ learn a new trade. We are moving into a high skills based, information driven economy and government can help with this transition.

A good economy is one where people have a wide variety of consumer choices and they can get increasingly better products for prices that are smaller in realterms than there were in the past. Division of labor, specialization, exploiting comparative advantage all make the lot of Americans and people in othercountries better, these things that make people wealthier should not be limited by national boundaries. The whole world should be a free trade zone. Even ifother countries are foolish enough to punish their own people with import tariffs, we will not reciprocate that stupidity and impose our own tariffs, whichonly serve to make our own people poorer.

-I would add the labor exchange index in official government statistics. It would calculate how many minutes or hours of labor need to be worked in order tobuy certain goods. I would measure the mean and the stats from all ten income deciles and see how many minutes or hours a person needs to work in order to earnenough money to be able to afford certain goods. This would be a very effective way of seeing how much purchasing power our citizens have.

I would also add a "green GDP" to the list of economic statistics. It would measure the economic bad that is pollution against the economic"goods" associated with greater productivity.

- I would drastically reduce the middlemen who are involved in welfare programs, I would not end welfare, I would end the sorry spectacle of a quarter on thedollar getting into the hands of poor people. I would have a lean bureaucracy that would give money to poor people in order to insure that no one in thiscountry is living in poverty. I would let anyone who want to get on welfare and those who can clearly show that they are permanently disabled, they wouldpretty generous payments so thy can live the rest of their lives with dignity.

For every one else, I would get ride of minimum wage so there would be a lot more jobs for low skilled people and I would set up a very robust negative incometax. This would mean that if you leave welfare and go into the work force, even if you are so unskilled that you start off at four dollars and hour, governmentwould supplement your wages so that you are effectively making ten to twelve hours per hour, a living wage. As the worker gets more skills and earns more, theywould get less but the negative income tax would be se up so that getting any job means that you get less money from the government but in total, you aremaking more than you did when you were earning less and those who get a job, any job, are making more than people on welfare. This way, very few people wouldbe cheating because the opportunity cost of able bodied individuals staying on the dole would compel most of them to enter the labor force.

In addition, these poor, low skilled people would get their health care, rent and child care paid for so that when they start working they do not loss all ofthere nonwage income that they received while and welfare and lose when they enter the labor force. Right now, the incentives are arranged so that people wholeave welfare are dramatically worse off then they were if they stayed on welfare. My plan would set up the incentive so that those who can leave welfare willbe, overall better off, if they start working and as they start earning more, they would have their negative income tax and benefits reduced but at such a ratethat earning more never makes you worse off overall. Eventually many of these people will acquire more skills and experience and will not only cease to be acharge on the public treasury but many would eventually become tax payers and would be contributing to the public treasury.

- I would force cities and metro to loosen up the most restrictive of their land restriction laws and let more homes be built. That and I would also pressurecities to allow higher density housing to be built. This would make housing more affordable in many metro areas and it would mean that many lower income peoplewould be able to become home owners, with taking on risky second mortgages.

- I would end agro subsidies and corporate welfare in general. There is no reason to keep firms that cannot survive the rigors of market discipline alive.Keeping inefficient companies alive, through subsidies make the population as a whole poorer. Businesses that do not use scarce resources wisely are the onesthat are unprofitable and they should go out of business and the scarce resources that they were using can be taken up firms that use scarce resourcesefficiently, in a way that benefits consumers. Subsidies allow these inefficient firms that make us poorer and should go out of business, to continue to existand be inefficient. Also, ending, subsidies would free up money for the increased welfare, health care and negative income tax that I have already mentioned.

I would reign in the Fed and make them not bail out decision makers. If I were in charge, Bear Sterns would be allowed to fail. The only thing the governmentshould have done was compensate people who have their money invested. Bailing those people out would not create moral hazard because they did not makedecisions about how to run that firm. What I would want to avoid is moral hazard on the part of decision makers in the financial sector, if they know that theywill always get bailed out by Uncle Sam, they will take the same, if not greater risks, because they will either make a lot of money if they succeed and theywill get saved if their risky, ill advised investments back fire. This is important because giving incentives to decision makers in the financial sector tomake bad investments, means that the scarce resource that is capital, flows to where its benefits to society are suboptimal.

- I would also give tax write off for firms that invest in research and development into alternative fuels and I would also give generous write off for anyfirm hat buys energy efficient capital. That would include a firm's buying of energy efficient vehicles, machinesand building improvements, solar panels and other investments that reduce a firm's carbon foot print.

On Health Care

- I would drastically change the US health care system by using a mix of market reforms and a few touches of socialized medicine in certain areas. I wouldstart by changing the incentives that cause employers, to offer full coverage health insurance as part of compensation packages. These healthcare consumershave no incentive to use medicine prudently so they consume scarce medical resources until benefits equal marginal cost and when someone else is paying foreverything that means that they will be using a lot of healthcare. Certain procedures and medicines are things that people obviously need, if you break yourarm, you get it set and get cured. If you get an infection you get anti-biotics and get cured. I am not advocating that people forgo those things. It is thosepractices that are expensive and will only marginally improve your health. If you have to incur part of the cost, you will not want to consume those healthcareservices that are costly and offer very little benefits. I would give tax breaks to firms that offer high deductible insurance along with health savingsaccounts. Instead of paying a few hundred per month, companies that offer healthcare as part of their compensation packages would get tax breaks for payinginto a health savings account.

Having a tax sheltered fund, which would also grow due to it being invested in safe investments, that would only be used for health care expenses would lead tomore prudent consumption of medicine. At the same time, the high deductible insurance would shield families from catastrophic financial loss in the event of avery serious illness. Health savings accounts would also allow people to take some money out if those funds go a certain number of years of being unused, sothis gives people an incentive to engage in preventative medicine and take care of themselves by eating healthily and exercising. All of this would greatlyrude the demand for health care and the price would fall quite a bit and make insurance much more affordable so those who do not get insurance through workwould be given tax write off for buying high deductible insurance and setting up their own health savings account and as you move down the income scale,government would partially or fully match your contributions and for those very low on the income scale, government would make contributions into your healthsavings account every month, whether or not you could afford to make a contribution that month. For the very poor and very sick, who simply cannot getinsurance, then the government would just pay their healthcare bills.

All of this deals with both the bloated demand, caused by a series of perverse incentives that currently exist. It would also make sure that no one goesbankrupt because of healthcare costs. The supply side also needs fixing.

WE need to liberalize our policy of allowing foreign doctors to immigrate to the US. I would take away the AMA's power to basically block the universitiesfrom setting up medical schools, there are many more bright and capable young people then there are spots and medical schools. This would increase the supplyof doctors, the most important input into health care. I would also have nursing programs expanded so that the number of spots at nursing schools is equal tothe number of people capable of becoming nurses. I would also make it easier for hospitals to get set up, right now it is very difficult for them to getestablish, there is a lot of red tape. All of these changes would increase the supply of health care and lower the price further.

Finally, would allow for more innovation and competition in health and end state micromanagement of scope of practices, I would let the market determine whatnurses can do and what doctors, only, can do. I would also allow for mini clinics to get set up so people who are sick could go to the drug store or a smallshop, staffed by nurses and get checked out and if the situation is routine, they would get prescribed the appropriate medication. If the situation isabnormal, they would get refereed to a doctor. I would also have certain medicine placed in the "behind the counter status" where a qualifiedpharmacist and/or nurse employed by a pharmacy would give a quick examination and let the sick person buy the medicine. This would make the need for seeing adoctor come up less often. I would also end the minimum mandatory scope of coverage for insurance programs, which can be very extensive. The reason why somany people are with out healthy insurance is that young, healthy people, cannot buy basic insurance and they have tobuy expensive premium insurance and theyconsider the hefty cost of insurance's to exceed the benefits. I would also end the restrictions on inter state sale of insurance, once again, let thearket decide what is a the right mix of insurance coverage. My guess is that the bad ones would be unprofitable and cease to exists and the good ones would bepopular, profitable and would continue.

All of these policies that reduce demand, increase supply and increase competition, that all force scarce health care resources to be used much moreefficiently, would make health care and health insurance much, much more affordable and we would get similar, if not better aggregate health statistics, butless of out GDP would go into healthcare and the better and cheaper insurance that would result from competition would put an end to the rash of heart breakingbankruptcies caused by crushingly expensive medical bills.


On education

I would have a national vouchers program so that low income families would have the same luxury that middle and higher income families already enjoy. That isthe credible threat of removing there kids from dismal, under performing public schools. The presence of or even the threat of entry by private schools, forcespublic schools in wealthier communities to offer a good product, which is to say results. School districts that service poor neighborhoods, behave exactly asmonopolies are expected to act, they are arrogant, unresponsive and provide a bad product and they waste money. This is especially true of poor, big cityschool districts.

In The Los Angeles Unified School District, they behave in text book behavior that we would expect of a monopoly, the people at the top spend lots of money onthemselves. A full third of all the district's money goes to the downtown office, more money goes to the army of on campus administrators, theadministration of the LAUSD also conspire with labor unions and certain construction firm that get paid more than the competitive price and these

' per pupil expenditure than most, wealthier suburban districts.

If families were given vouchers (with poorer families receiving the biggest vouchers) and are able to give even the poorest parent the credible threat ofremoving their kids from a failing public school, there would be a huge incentive for underperforming school districts to get their act together. The people atthe top would have to cut some fat and start getting money into the class rooms pay teachers more (since the working conditions are harder in low incomeschools, you have to make teachers a lot more to get a lot of quality teachers). They would have to stop cutting sweet heart deals with contractors that areinefficient, they would not pay huge amounts of money to consultants who do almost nothing to improve education, they would reduce the layers of bureaucracy sothat more money actually goes in class rooms and they may even break up the district in into smaller administrative units so they would become more efficient.If the administrators of LAUSD fail to clean up their act, than the market for private schools would exploded, with all of the kids being pulled out of publicschools, and the LAUSD would get less total funding because it would have less pupils and if it really fails to clean up its act, the leaders would findthemselves out of their otherwise, secure and well paid jobs because the public school would close because the failed to provide kids with the same quality ofeducation that they got else where.

Obviously, poorer school districts face special challenges and in other states the problems of inefficiency are compounded by schools being funded by localproperty taxes and therefore the expenditures per pupil are lowest in the poorest areas and that need to end, low income schools need more money. However, asthe experience in the LAUSD has illustrated, spending more in low income districts alone is far from a solution. The biggest problem faced by poor districts isthat the lack of a threat of private school competition causes them to behave like monopolies, while schools in wealthier areas face that competition/threat ofcompletion and behaves more like a firm in competition. More funding, per pupil, along with vouchers and the competition create would force poorly run urbanand/or low income school districts to spend their money wisely. They would actually spend it on things like supplies,the schools themselves, teacher pay and other things that actually are related to education. These poor kids deserve better and if I were in charge they wouldhave something much better.

- I would also make thing easier for public schools by letting kids ho do want to be their leave. By high school, if the kids want to leave, he should be ableto leave. The kid can see how hard it is to earn money with out an education and if he changes his mind, he can return to school. Meanwhile, schools, wouldhave less trouble makers and the student body would be, on the whole, more serious about their studies.

I would also make a high school education mean something, as it once did. Getting a high school diploma would no longer be a birthright; it would have to beearned. It would require passing some math, at least to the pre calculus level; some real hard sciences; a rhetoric class, so that even the poorest kids couldspeak confidently in standard English; tough English classes, which would demand knowledge of grammar, how to write a well structured essay and somefamiliarity with classical literature; history classes would demand that they learn both western non western history and that are taught how to apply lessonsof history to current affairs. In other words, a high school diploma would signal to employers that this applicant is smart and able to learn new thingsreadily. This would means that less people would have to get bachelors degrees in college and that would take pressure off of the university system and thatmeans that scarce higher educational resources are used more effectively. It also would mean that


On criminal law

- All recreational drugs would be legal. The biggest winners would be law abiding citizens of lower income neighborhoods. There would be much less gangactivity, less shootings, less police helicopters, less theft to pay for expensive drug habits (since legal drugs would cost much less if the yare not sold onthe black market). All of this means nicer neighbors and more investment and more businesses and more jobs in the lower income neighborhoods.

Those who are also addicted cold seek out help and if they are poor, government would pay for their rehabilitation. This would be especially beneficial becausemany more crack addicted pregnancy women would be able to seek out help without the fear of being thrown in jail. There are medicines that really help peopleget off of certain highly addictive drugs and people who are addicted should not fear being thrown in jail if do the right thing and seek out help. Inaddition, marijuana, which has a proven track record in helping people quick harder drugs, could be prescribed if that is the best fit for that person, seekingto quite and addiction to highly addictive drugs like crack-cocaine or heroin or legal drugs like tobacco or alcohol for that matter.

Other benefits would be an end to over crowding of prisons and an end to the increasing growth of the prison-industrial complex. Truly violent criminals wouldbe kept in jail for much longer so the streets would be safer less rapists, robbers, murders and sex offenders being released after a few years. As a result,we would be safer and criminals that commit crime that are mallum in se, self evidently bad, would serve longer sentences and justice would be betterserved. We would also see this change greatly benefitting minorities, while blacks and Hispanics do commit violent crimes at a somewhat higher rate thanwhites, the number of black and brown people in jail for non violent drugs crimes is many times greater than the number of whites, who are in jail for the samenon violent drug crime. This would mean that far less black means would ever be involved in the criminal justice system and most blacks, whites, Hispanics andevery one else would not suffer the social and economic stigma associated with having served time in jail as a felon.

I would also change alcohol laws and let 14 year olds buy beer and wine and let 18 years olds buy hard liquor. This would reduce instances of college kidsoverdosing on alcohol. More teenagers would spend a few years learning their limits, with alcohol beverages that are less concentrated. Once they get access tohard liquor and are away at college, they would be more aware of their limits and would understand that alcohol caries consequences if you drink too much. Inaddition, kids under 21, sometimes can other get alcohol sporadically so when they have it around, they will drink way too much because they might not have anyfor a while so that contributes to binge drinking. Remember, also, that most instances of lethal or near lethal instances of alcohol overdose involve kids, whohave little or know drinking experience and they are drinking hard liquor and they have no idea what their body's limits are. Letting teenagers first messaround with beer and wine ,would make them aware of how much alcohol will cause them hangovers, blackouts, vomiting and other nasty side affects from drinking.Based on that they will realize that 20 or 30 or 40 drinks could kill you so when they are able to buy hard liquor, there will be far less instance of kidsbinging on dangerous levels of hard liquor. This may seem paradoxical but the evidence from most Western European Countries, should that this system ofgraduated access to alcohol, of varying strength, leads to less binge drinking and incidences of alcohol poisoning.

- I would liberalize most gun ownership laws and make it easier for sane, adults to get concealed, carry permits. They would be required to get trained andpass certain tests, the same way we treat automobile license (but more stringent) after passing these tests, you would be allowed to carry a gun in order toprotect your home and your self. The states and municipalities, with the most restrictive gun laws, have the highest crime rates. The states that make it easyto get a concealed carry permit have lower crime rates. Working class, law abiding citizens have the same right to protect themselves as to those who arewealthy enough to afford body guards or those who lives in suburban counties, which tend to issues concealed carry permits much more readily. Ending State andcity bans on owning and carrying a gun, and replacing it with objective standards and certifications, would reduce crime in the highest crime areas and itwould benefit the least privileged members of our society.

- Finally, I would raise speed limits and have police focus more on moving violations like people running red lights, people not signaling on freeways, peopletail gating and other rules of the road that are important but over looked in favor police having to meet their quota for speeding tickets. I would have thepolice's pay detached from speeding ticket quotas, and have them out there looking, for truly unsafe drivers.


As you can see, the constant theme is to make society use its scarce resources more prudently and not so that the rich can get richer but rather to makeordinary people better off, particularly the poor. I would combine the powers of markets, free enterprise, competition and other types of economic common sensewith a strong belief in creating a greater degree of equality and security, especially those who are on the margins of society. I advocate for social marketsolutions, not to help the millionaires and billionaires, I want to elevate the disadvantaged, the working poor, the residents of the "bad" parts oftown, the people who society and the schools write off as unreachable. As an aside, I differ from others who have their hearts in the right place regardingsocial justice but have their heads in the wrong place and buy into the zero sum fallacy and therefore conclude that a millionaire's wealth is obtaineddirectly at the expense of someone else and therefore is causing poverty by being rich. I see the prospect of profits and becoming rich as being important increating the incentives for firms to use resources as efficiently as possible and directly and inadvertently make society better off as a result. In addition,if I were in charge, we would start to see start to see a more diverse group of people at the very top of the socioeconomic ladder. It would be over night butafter ten and certainly after 20 years, the poorest neighborhoods would produce successful entrepreneurs and white collar professionals as result of myeducation reforms ending the drug war and other reforms.

I want to change the incentives that exist in order to achieve those goals and that way we can have country and a world of peace, robust economic growth,environmental sustainability, and social justice along with a strong social safety net that will not require punishing taxes to finance. I cannot promise aUtopia, but if I were in charge, I would bring more than just generic change and hope, I would bring change that yields results and I would not just create afeeling of hope but hope that is well founded due to changing realities.





BTW, I know that most people will not read this very long pots but I request that thesmarter people on this board read through what I posted and tell me if you agree, disagree or agree with some parts and disagree with some parts. I am curiousto know what other NTers, who are interested in public policy, economics, criminal justice, healthcare, education and social justice, think of myideas.

 

[trelvis tha thrilla]

Originally Posted by NYVictory45

Why are you against those? I understand not wanting to cull humans and the rap one but why the others?

7. You really should be aloud to vote for whomever you would like. Shouldnt have to justify it.

9. You cant just STOP consuming oil to work on other means. You will still have to use oil in the process of finding an alternative.

12. Obviously I am from the south and I like southern music.

15. Cutting down trees and daming rivers serves purposes alot of times. Where we gonna get paper from if we dont use trees? And alot of other things.

18. Why would you start killing people?

 

[georgehimself]

Originally Posted by slicknickmd

Originally Posted by That Valles Dude

[color= rgb(0, 153, 153)]Females must pledge allegiance to richard[/color]

Corniness is punishable by having to sit in a room and listen to nothing but Soulja boy for a whole year.

I think there are a couple people on this message board already serving hard time then.

 

[slicknickmd]

Did anyone read what rexanglorum wrote? Cliff notes please, Im hungover and I have a headache.

 

[rexanglorum]

The Shortened version would be

1.) I would get rid of most restrictions on trade, price controls (minimum wage and rent controls in particular), subsidies to farms and other businesses and Iwould strengthen property rights. Basically I would let the market do its work and raise standards of living.

2.) At the same time, the market does produce some undesirable out comes so I would create some incentive for households and firms to buy new machine andbuildings that make them more energy efficient and leave a smaller carbon footprint. I would give money to workers who lost their jobs to free trade, the olderworkers could use that money to retire and the younger ones could use that money to pay the bills for a while as well as get trained and find a new skill. Iwould also let any one who wants to be on welfare and I would set up the incentives structure so that if you get off of welfare and get a low paid job, thegovernment will make up the difference in pay between what you make and a living wage. It would also work out that that job plus the negative income tax fromthe government would add up to more then being on welfare. The opportunity cost of not working would be enough to make able bodied people, who would be temptedto stay on the dole, police themselves.

3.) I would change how heath care is demanded and how it is supplied. On the demand side, the market is distorted and the demand is artificially bloatedbecause a large chunk of health care consumers have employer provided, full coverage insurance so they consume a lot of extra and expensive health care, whichhas little or no benefit to them. I would encourage health savings accounts and higher deductible insurance. On the supply side I would let more doctorsimmigrate, stop the American Medical Association's collusion to limit the supply of doctors and I would make it easier for hospitals to get established. Bylowering demand and increasing supply, health care would cost less.

To make it cost even less and to improve quality, I would remove scope of practice restrictions and let the market decide how many things nurses can do and howmany things only doctors should do. There could also be mini clinics and prescription medicines that would be in a legal status between over the counter andtransitional prescriptions. The medication would be "behind the counter" and a nurse or qualified pharmacist would be able to prescribe them. Therewould also be other innovations that would make health care more affordable. Sectors of the economy that are least regulated, in the the long run, usuallyproduce higher quality and lower prices and sectors that are heavily regulated, like health care is now, do not do so.

4.) I would start up a national school voucher program across the country. In higher income school districts, the public schools have competition or at least athreat of competition from private schools and they provide a better service and educate the kids more effectively. In poor school districts, where parentgenerally cannot afford private schooling for their kids, the public schools have no competition and they behave like you would expect a monopoly to behave.The people at the top waste money and the service that is provided is generally low quality.

5.) I would change criminal law. All recreational drugs would be legal, I would override state and municipal restrictions on conceal carry permits for firearmsand I would have more flexible speed limits on freeways and have the highway patrolmen focus more on unsafe behavior instead of pulling over people who aredriving fast on uncrowded freeways.