"What Would You Do If The Political Situation Was Left Up To You?" or...

[Seil]

"What Would You Do If The Political Situation Was Left Up To You?" or "Seil's Been Drinking!" woulda been the full title, had it fit. Since Jagos is doin' the newspaper thing, an' people are talking 'bout politics, I thought it prudent to ask a question.

What would you do if politics were left up to you? (Get it? "Left?" Hahaha-I don't get it either.) 'M not saying that there's not going to be a political body that doesn't try to get things done, authority that doesn't enforce the law or a citizenship that doesn't live by the laws, but you're in control of what goes down. You're like the Super Presi... fuck it, let's go Canadian - you're the Super Prime Minister, or Super Prime for short 'cause it sounds like a giant robot Prime Minister and that's awesome.

The idea is that there's still a country, but they're beholden to your whims, and you can get anything pushed through and people will apply it. Do you stand for health care? BAMF! There's health care - but how're you gonna work it? Do you sit for a full seperation of church and state? BAMF! Church and state are now divorcees. Do you **** for gay rights? You saucy minx. So what's it gonna be? What's your ideal?

SEIL'S STUFF (Until the sober amendment kics in)
- Everyone is equal. You're black/hispanic/asian/indian? Welcome to Canada! You're gay? Adopt! Get married! Have fun.
- Authority figures such as police and other law-keeping agencies must be subject to random inspection. You know - for corruption and junk. But I'll have someone write up something clean and neat so that it's done quitely and proffessio... profession.... properly.
- Immigration law will not be as... demanding as previous, and will be done according to a person to person basis. Like "Doctor with an outstandingly blank criminal record? Welcome into the country!" "Repeat offender looking for asylum? Try America!"
- You are legally required to make at least one person smile per day.
- Fuck economics. I'm not imposing a communist rule, but we're gonna get rid of the lower tax bracket. You people having trouble making payments on your house? Don't worry, you'll be taken care of. People having trouble eating? We'll take care of you. Yo guys addicted to cocaine? We're here to help.
- Bullying is outlawed. Now I know this is impossible due to human nature - but it will be met with harsher punishments in school, and kids will be encouraged to report it because of a cool spokesperson. Like... Robocop or Poochie or someone.

[Fenris]

First thing I would do is make "[size=totally huge]" a reality.

[Fifthfiend]

Increased taxes on the wealthy, repeal the ceiling on the amount of income taxed by payroll taxes.

Begin deficit stimulus spending, focusing on infrastructure repairs, new construction, transit, education, and energy research. Lower the age at which Social Security begins paying out benefits to encourage older employees to move out of the work force.

Prosecution of the numerous bad actors in the financial sector, fully reinstate the regulation of banks repealed by the Commodity Futures Modernization Act and Graham-Leach-Bliley.

Force the retirement of the most conservative judges on the Supreme Court (assuming that in this fantasy world I have the political mojo to make this happen as well). Replace them with justices who will roll back the myriad abrogations of individual rights and freedoms and expansion of the rights of corporations conducted by the court over the last few decades. Appoint like-minded federal judges.

Legalize and decriminalize most if not all drugs, one of the most common excuses for the above abrogations of individual rights and freedoms.

Do... something about the two ten-year-long wars going on. FUCK I don't even know what at this point. Send everyone in Guantanamo Bay home, unless they were A. actually demonstrably guilty of something, B. not tortured.

Break up the high concentrations of media ownership that resulted from the Telecom Act of 1996.

IDK, lots and lots of things, it is probably sufficiently obvious by now that I spend A LOT of time imagining what I would do if I could make the government pass any legislation I wanted.

[Aerozord]

First thing is, as supreme ruler I'd tweak your title suggestion abit
you're the Super Optimus Prime Minister, or Super Optimus Prime for short

anyways, lets see, are we assuming all other things are the same? Cause if so some of my choices will be to reign in members of upper class that dont share my views.

But two radical things I'd definitely toss out there
all government positions above mayoral are volunteer, congress, president, ect dont get any salary what so ever. That will give us a few billion to work with.

I'd then use those billions to create a free national wi-fi network. While not as good as commercial ones it will lower the barrier for lower class to gain the network access we all take for granted. Since we are quickly getting to the point lacking ability to continually access other people and information will put you at a massive disadvantage.

Granted they'd still need to afford the device, but a single payment for a device is alot more manageable if you dont have a 70+ monthly bill slapped on it

[Seil]

I totally made this thread to argue laws that you want, too, so people argue about stuff, and other people be like "That's a good point, I never thought about it that way before." and other other people be like "AWFJIOEJFIOEWJ YOU GUYS ARE NAZI'S MAN!"

On second thought, don't be like that. That's not listed in the forum rules. :<

EDIT
Do you stand for health care? BAMF! There's health care - but how're you gonna work it?

[Krylo]

Well I think I'd star...Increased taxes on the wealthy, repeal the ceiling on the amount of income taxed by payroll taxes.

Begin deficit stimulus spending, focusing on infrastructure repairs, new construction, transit, education, and energy research. Lower the age at which Social Security begins paying out benefits to encourage older employees to move out of the work force.

Prosecution of the numerous bad actors in the financial sector, fully reinstate the regulation of banks repealed by the Commodity Futures Modernization Act and Graham-Leach-Bliley.

Force the retirement of the most conservative judges on the Supreme Court (assuming that in this fantasy world I have the political mojo to make this happen as well). Replace them with justices who will roll back the myriad abrogations of individual rights and freedoms and expansion of the rights of corporations conducted by the court over the last few decades. Appoint like-minded federal judges.

Legalize and decriminalize most if not all drugs, one of the most common excuses for the above abrogations of individual rights and freedoms.

Do... something about the two ten-year-long wars going on. FUCK I don't even know what at this point. Send everyone in Guantanamo Bay home, unless they were A. actually demonstrably guilty of something, B. not tortured.

Break up the high concentrations of media ownership that resulted from the Telecom Act of 1996.

IDK, lots and lots of things, it is probably sufficiently obvious by now that I spend A LOT of time imagining what I would do if I could make the government pass any legislation I wanted.
Welp, guess I don't have to type anything, after all.

[Seil]

You know, as much as I want to get into politics for - what I believe are the right reasons - it becomes very clear to me with every political stint I see that I don't know the first thing about political procedure.

...Is the procedure part of political procedure part of the problem?

[Aerozord]

Increased taxes on the wealthy, repeal the ceiling on the amount of income taxed by payroll taxes.

this wont help too much unless you do alot more to tax law. The upper class actually pay lower taxes percentage wise then middle and perhaps even lower class because they know how to manipulate their income. "charity" work, bonuses, stock, company perks, good old fashion money laundering. Most of the money these people make isn't from a paycheck

[edit]
You know, as much as I want to get into politics for - what I believe are the right reasons - it becomes very clear to me with every political stint I see that I don't know the first thing about political procedure.

...Is the procedure part of political procedure part of the problem?

kinda, even if everyone is truely working for the greater good you have disagreements that risk deadlocks. As a result you get concessions, compromises, backroom deals. Over time you get, well, what we have now

[Loyal]

Rehaul the legal system to discourage frivolous lawsuits and corporate bullying (i.e. repeatedly taking someone to court until they can no longer afford the fees). I don't know the intricacies of the current legal system well enough to immediately determine how I'd do that, but that's pretty high up on the list.

[Amake]

"There is no race activism. There is no women's rights activism. There is no gay rights activism. There is no political correctness movement, or any disability awarenesses. There is no struggle of the rich against the poor; there is no class struggle. There is only a struggle against class. A struggle for humanity.

"For every single human being to be treated as a human being.

"Let me tell you how it's going to be. I'm going to treat you all like adults. I'm going to assume that all of you have the ability of complex, critical thought, and I'm not going to let you persuade me otherwise. I'm going to make life hard for you. I'm going to hold you responsible for the power that you wield. I'm going to make you treat people you don't like as equals. I'm going to take you out of your comfort zone. I'm going to make you learn things you don't want to believe in. And I'm not going to let you get away with behavior that is unworthy of humans.

"But most of all I'm going to treat you as individuals. I do not believe there are any stupid, easily manipulated masses. I think each and every one of you is a fully realized, fully living person, just as capable of independent thought as myself.

"Now, I'm kind of dumb. Honestly, I do pretty badly at IQ tests. But I'm not so ignorant I think I know the best way to run the world. We're going to figure all that out together. My job is just to make sure you possess the faculties to make the most out of your possibilities. Most important of those faculties are compassion, conscience, consciousness, respect and trust.

"We're stuck here with each other. We're going to have to learn to live with each other. We start now."

A televised speech along those lines would be my first impulse. Then I'd hire some clever people to help me figure out the rest. Probably starting with you guys.

[Aldurin]

Hire a pyro, burn all of the governments and I mean ALL OF THEM. Then new governments can be established in a way that causes the least debt/war/beauracracy.

Also Seil needs to drink more often so we have more threads like this.

[Token]

I dunno, Earl, this is pretty much on par with his other threads.

[Seil]

Also Seil needs to drink more often

Yessssssssssssss.

[Professor Smarmiarty]

I would take all defence department money and spend it on baking. Then I would hand out baked goods to everyone. Maybe I'll leave the army a few bucks- but only to go buy me some flour- after all they got like tanks and cargo planes and things. They could bring back heaps of flour.

[Overcast]

I'd fire every single supreme court judge. Force them to complete an occupation with any other judge that wants entry and rewrite the situation so that they only are allowed a six year sitting.

All requirements to run for any office over the age of thirty would be reduced to thirty.

All offices of the legislative branch would be forced into the a proportional representation voting system, dumping the plurality. There would be a year long period of education on what that meant to all of the US before it would be executed to bring in the new Congress.

Do pretty much everything Fifthfiend said, with edits as above for the supreme court and perhaps less leniency on victims of torture if they were guilty of something notable as long a no further torture is used.

If possible systematically invade all land south of the US and work out some kind of fusing agreement with Canada to become the United Americas.

[Osterbaum]

- Immigration law will not be as... demanding as previous, and will be done according to a person to person basis. Like "Doctor with an outstandingly blank criminal record? Welcome into the country!" "Repeat offender looking for asylum? Try America!"
Isn't this pretty much what's wrong with immigration laws now? "Yeah hey, we'll take all those people who will be of clear use to us! No matter that the countries of origin are then only left with the cases we didn't want and are drained of those in their society with any education!"

e: Also my answer to the original question is obviosly socialism.

[Terex4]

Do... something about the two ten-year-long wars going on. FUCK I don't even know what at this point.
Operation Penny Drop. (http://www.thebestpageintheuniverse.net/c.cgi?u=penny_drop)

I would implement "common sense law" to tackle frivolous lawsuits. Spilled hot coffee? No shit coffee's hot, case dismissed. Hurt yourself breaking into someone's home? Don't be an idiot.

Were I able to turn back time, I would have disbursed the bailout money amongst the public, not the companies. Sure you'd have a few who would blow it on drugs and such, but if you were in debt and the government handed you a check for a hundred grand, what would you do with it?

With universal healthcare, I would expand the current medicaid program. It may not be perfect, but being able to get a check up more than once every ten years would be better than what we have now. I think it would be more efficient to build on an existing program rather than implement something new. Make it available to everyone while steadily increasing the funding every year to allow for more services.

Of course there's more but I'm no expert on politics.

[Professor Smarmiarty]

I would implement "common sense law" to tackle frivolous lawsuits. Spilled hot coffee? No shit coffee's hot, case dismissed.

You do realise that in this case the coffee was not just hot but more like surface of the sun hot, a fact which McDonalds had been repeatably and consistently warned about by health inspectors but which they ignored because they wanted the smell to get out onto the street.
A few seconds of contact through clothing causes 3rd degree burns. She was in hospital for 8 days getting skin grafts. She lost 20% of her body weight and required continual medical treatment for 2 years.
Mcdonalds offered a settlemnt of $800, her medical bills alone were about $12000.
Like what the fuck dude.

[Osterbaum]

A functioning Space Program! Mars colony by 2030!

e: And send a probe to the Gliese 581 system.

[Tev]

all government positions above mayoral are volunteer, congress, president, ect dont get any salary what so ever. That will give us a few billion to work with.Not a very well thought out idea. It's bad enough that someone has to raise a ridiculous sum of money just to run for elected office. Without a paycheck attached, you eliminate the capability for most non-wealthy Americans to keep office on the unlikely event that they somehow succeed in getting voted in. Traveling back and forth to, and spending weeks at a time in D.C. isn't cheap. At the very least you'd still need to have a budget set aside for room, board, and travel expenses as well as some form of stipend so that non-wealthy elected officials don't go broke and lose their homes just trying to serve the public.

[Terex4]

You do realise that in this case the coffee was not just hot but more like surface of the sun hot, a fact which McDonalds had been repeatably and consistently warned about by health inspectors but which they ignored because they wanted the smell to get out onto the street.
A few seconds of contact through clothing causes 3rd degree burns. She was in hospital for 8 days getting skin grafts. She lost 20% of her body weight and required continual medical treatment for 2 years.
Mcdonalds offered a settlemnt of $800, her medical bills alone were about $12000.
Like what the fuck dude.
Nope, didn't realize that. That would be a poor example to illustrate my point then.

[shiney]

Increased taxes on the wealthy, repeal the ceiling on the amount of income taxed by payroll taxes.

Begin deficit stimulus spending, focusing on infrastructure repairs, new construction, transit, education, and energy research. Lower the age at which Social Security begins paying out benefits to encourage older employees to move out of the work force.

Prosecution of the numerous bad actors in the financial sector, fully reinstate the regulation of banks repealed by the Commodity Futures Modernization Act and Graham-Leach-Bliley.

Force the retirement of the most conservative judges on the Supreme Court (assuming that in this fantasy world I have the political mojo to make this happen as well). Replace them with justices who will roll back the myriad abrogations of individual rights and freedoms and expansion of the rights of corporations conducted by the court over the last few decades. Appoint like-minded federal judges.

Legalize and decriminalize most if not all drugs, one of the most common excuses for the above abrogations of individual rights and freedoms.

Do... something about the two ten-year-long wars going on. FUCK I don't even know what at this point. Send everyone in Guantanamo Bay home, unless they were A. actually demonstrably guilty of something, B. not tortured.

Break up the high concentrations of media ownership that resulted from the Telecom Act of 1996.

IDK, lots and lots of things, it is probably sufficiently obvious by now that I spend A LOT of time imagining what I would do if I could make the government pass any legislation I wanted.
This, in its entirety.

Spilled hot coffee? No shit coffee's hot, case dismissed.Not to cause a scene about this but the coffee was hot enough to cause 3rd degree burns & require skin grafts. That lawsuit was only made frivolous by the media coverage that made fun of it. The reality of the situation is "caution: hot coffee" should make one reasonably assume the coffee is hot, but not hot enough to melt your skin.

[Krylo]

Not to cause a scene about this but the coffee was hot enough to cause 3rd degree burns & require skin grafts. That lawsuit was only made frivolous by the media coverage that made fun of it. The reality of the situation is "caution: hot coffee" should make one reasonably assume the coffee is hot, but not hot enough to melt your skin.

WAY TO BE LATE TO THE PARTY, SHINEY!

[Aerozord]

Not a very well thought out idea. It's bad enough that someone has to raise a ridiculous sum of money just to run for elected office. Without a paycheck attached, you eliminate the capability for most non-wealthy Americans to keep office on the unlikely event that they somehow succeed in getting voted in. Traveling back and forth to, and spending weeks at a time in D.C. isn't cheap. At the very least you'd still need to have a budget set aside for room, board, and travel expenses as well as some form of stipend so that non-wealthy elected officials don't go broke and lose their homes just trying to serve the public.

my reason is simple, if you are above that position you are wealthy. Non-wealthy people already cant already. In addition you may not know this but room board and travel expenses are paid for by the state. Congress members get a place for free in DC, and free travel to their homes on tax payers dime.

Not to mention getting a salary while already in office isn't going to help people that cant afford to run for it in the first place.

[Nique]

I don't know if I would actually do this specific thing but I think it's a neat idea;

'Clean House' on state and federal laws to weed out irrelevant legislation and refine effective laws in order to 1) make the criminal justice system more effective and 2) weed out frivlous cases and lawsuits.*

*Not the MCDonalds coffee thing cause that was legit. As has been stated. Shut up.

[The Murderer]

Can i kill anyone who complains?

[synkr0nized]

Calling it now -- if you've seen one "The Murderer" post, you've seen them all.

[Fifthfiend]

Requesting namechange to The Murderest

[Nique]

Requesting Fifthfiend's namechange request be changed to 'The Murderista'

[Fifthfiend]

Requesting namechange to Mary Tyler Murder

edit: Lighting the world up with his smile... of murder!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Loyal]

Calling it now -- if you've seen one "The Murderer" post, you've seen them all.

I sincerely hope that isn't the case, but even seeing the name threw up a flag. I am unfortunately inclined to agree with this assessment.

[The Murderer]

Well i called myself the murderer for a reason...also can I actually get my name changed by mods if people request it?

[Overcast]

It seems so. The fools were willing to let Earl become Aldurin, they don't even think about it anymore. I remember when they used to do it without people asking because they were terrible.

Also, I think T-Murder has already had posts about something other than murder. Moreso than those about murder, so it seems moot as of now.

[The Murderer]

Well part of why i asked if i could kill people who complain was because i was curious where the line was drawn. Seil said I was the "super prime" so i was wondering how far it could go.

If i could control politics couldn't that basically just make me a king? could i have a full totalitarian society? Would people seriously obey every belief i held? could I be a supreme overlord over all that lived?.....also it's probably what i would do given the situation.

[Fifthfiend]

Speaking for the US and the current political climate thereof I find the prospect of a head of state being empowered to literally go out into the streets at night selecting random victims to personally and brutally murder to be well more plausible than any of the stuff I posted ever coming anywhere near close to becoming law.

[Jagos]

I'd fire every single supreme court judge. Force them to complete an occupation with any other judge that wants entry and rewrite the situation so that they only are allowed a six year sitting.

All requirements to run for any office over the age of thirty would be reduced to thirty.

All offices of the legislative branch would be forced into the a proportional representation voting system, dumping the plurality. There would be a year long period of education on what that meant to all of the US before it would be executed to bring in the new Congress.

Do pretty much everything Fifthfiend said, with edits as above for the supreme court and perhaps less leniency on victims of torture if they were guilty of something notable as long a no further torture is used.

If possible systematically invade all land south of the US and work out some kind of fusing agreement with Canada to become the United Americas.

Well crap I don't have anything to add but...

Send everyone in Guantanamo Bay home, unless they were A. actually demonstrably guilty of something, B. not tortured.

Uhm... They'd still be in there unless you can define why they can't go home from B?

[The Sevenshot Kid]

Well i called myself the murderer for a reason...also can I actually get my name changed by mods if people request it?

Name changes are the way to go. You think I came up with this name on my own? Fifth bestowed it upon me during his short stint as the host for the awesomeness of Shawn Spencer. Before that I was "The Gunslinger." That name totally sucked. So why don't you think up a new name when you get the chance and pop that name-change cherry. It's gonna happen sometime.

[Fifthfiend]

Uhm... They'd still be in there unless you can define why they can't go home from B?

Guilty of something AND not tortured.

Like, if we can't prove you're guilty of anything, we let you go.

If we tortured the shit out of you, even if we think you're guilty of something, we let you go.

EDIT: Looking at that second clause, I think that maybe, if we can prove that you did something significantly bad, that we can prove in a trial, without using evidence obtained via torture, then maybe we don't let you go.

[Aerozord]

actually haven't they ALL been tortured? heck just being in there would probably qualify as torture

[Seil]

Seil said I was the "super prime" so i was wondering how far it could go.


I wouldn't put a lot of faith in what I say when I'm drunk.

[DarkDrgon]

I put a ton of faith into Seil drunk.

[Aerozord]

wait, there is a sober Seil?

[Seil]

There have been times where I've been cursed with sobriety.

[Thadius]

The USA? Beholden to my whims?

Oh, it's like the birthday I always wanted!

Okay. First order of business. Sell Hawaii and Alaska. I am NOT flying thousands of miles to be burned to death by lava or frozen to death by Arctic wasteland. As an added bonus, Sarah Palin will probably be a citizen of Russia! I don't actually know if that's true, but she won't be MY problem anymore!

Second order of business. Return California and Florida unto the oceans. Seriously, those states are making the rest of the country look bad. What few businesses we have there that I care about can be relocated to other, emptier states!

Third order of business. The grand restructuring. It's...complicated. It's lengthy. It's the system I envision that will should replace our current, broken one. What it boils down to is the elimination of corruption in positions of authority, while allowing those that have the will and capacity to take said positions of authority. I have a document somewhere that goes into greater detail than I can put down now.

Fourth order? Adding chlorine the gene pool. I have long held a belief that stupid cannot be taught. Cannot be learned. It is something you are born with. Not ignorance, you can CURE ignorance with information and facts. Stupid people...you hear about them all the time. And they drive me nuts. I'd take measures to ensure that there would no longer be an excess of stupid people. Where'd that flamethrower go?...

If I come up with more orders of business, I'll be back!

[Amake]

Show me one of those "stupid people" who are unable to learn things, and I'll show you an unfit teacher.

[Seil]

http://americansfortruth.com/uploads/2007/05/george-w-bush-picture.jpg

[Professor Smarmiarty]

Adding chlorine the gene pool.

Maybe I'm one of the stupid people but I don't understand how this works?

[Overcast]

Maybe I'm one of the stupid people but I don't understand how this works?

I believe he is suggesting a Holocaust for D students. An odd thing since manual labor done by those who don't rise to SMB levels of drunken university terror are still a vialble thing.

[Professor Smarmiarty]

Oh I thought he was like injecting chlorine into people or like modifying our genetic sequences with chlorine or someshit.

BUt it makes no sense- any links between intelligence and genetics are so small that nobody has ever conclusively found any.

[Amake]

[Dubya]
Indeed, a nice example of someone who's not and has never been in a position to easily learn things. But being born into such an obscene degree of wealth and privilege is not an incurable genetic defect. I'd rather argue it's an environment ripe with bad teachers that is responsible for making him the dumbass he is today. He has really never had a chance.

[TDK]

So what you're saying is we need to inject BAD TEACHERS with chlorine?

[Osterbaum]

We need to effectively erradicate a group of people. Any group of people will do really.

[Overcast]

We could do a less intense version of Logan's Run and eradicate the geriatrics.

[The Wandering God]

The USA? Beholden to my whims?

Oh, it's like the birthday I always wanted!

Okay. First order of business. Sell Hawaii and Alaska. I am NOT flying thousands of miles to be burned to death by lava or frozen to death by Arctic wasteland. As an added bonus, Sarah Palin will probably be a citizen of Russia! I don't actually know if that's true, but she won't be MY problem anymore!

Second order of business. Return California and Florida unto the oceans. Seriously, those states are making the rest of the country look bad. What few businesses we have there that I care about can be relocated to other, emptier states!

Third order of business. The grand restructuring. It's...complicated. It's lengthy. It's the system I envision that will should replace our current, broken one. What it boils down to is the elimination of corruption in positions of authority, while allowing those that have the will and capacity to take said positions of authority. I have a document somewhere that goes into greater detail than I can put down now.

Fourth order? Adding chlorine the gene pool. I have long held a belief that stupid cannot be taught. Cannot be learned. It is something you are born with. Not ignorance, you can CURE ignorance with information and facts. Stupid people...you hear about them all the time. And they drive me nuts. I'd take measures to ensure that there would no longer be an excess of stupid people. Where'd that flamethrower go?...

If I come up with more orders of business, I'll be back!
Please tell me you are joking.

Otherwise...

[Nique]

Sell Hawaii

DIE.

[Overcast]

Also the island of Hawaii is one of our major footholds in Pacific naval superiority. Give that up and things start to get a little murky.

[Professor Smarmiarty]

Is that even really a competition?

[Overcast]

Not right now when we aren't fighting anybody, but it is helpful in letting us police the world.

[Professor Smarmiarty]

No criminals that way. No wonder you doing such a shit job.

[Overcast]

Greater Indonesia can get pretty shady, but you are right there is more to bust on your side. You'd think you guys would do something about that. Actually wait this is getting argumentative. No point inthat.

[Professor Smarmiarty]

Indonesia is only darkies hitting other darkies. Not really a crime that's just nature.
We policed the world for ages. We on our break.

[Overcast]

Navies don't bother things people do in their countries unless we are coming by to offer disaster relief. I was talking about the masses of drugs and humans they export from around there. And the guns that get imported.

[Ecks]

The USA? Beholden to my whims?

Oh, it's like the birthday I always wanted!

Okay. First order of business. Sell Hawaii and Alaska. I am NOT flying thousands of miles to be burned to death by lava or frozen to death by Arctic wasteland. As an added bonus, Sarah Palin will probably be a citizen of Russia! I don't actually know if that's true, but she won't be MY problem anymore!

Second order of business. Return California and Florida unto the oceans. Seriously, those states are making the rest of the country look bad. What few businesses we have there that I care about can be relocated to other, emptier states!

Third order of business. The grand restructuring. It's...complicated. It's lengthy. It's the system I envision that will should replace our current, broken one. What it boils down to is the elimination of corruption in positions of authority, while allowing those that have the will and capacity to take said positions of authority. I have a document somewhere that goes into greater detail than I can put down now.

Fourth order? Adding chlorine the gene pool. I have long held a belief that stupid cannot be taught. Cannot be learned. It is something you are born with. Not ignorance, you can CURE ignorance with information and facts. Stupid people...you hear about them all the time. And they drive me nuts. I'd take measures to ensure that there would no longer be an excess of stupid people. Where'd that flamethrower go?...

If I come up with more orders of business, I'll be back!

Take "in-detail" warning labels off products. If you're stupid enough to not check if a potentially harmful chemical will harm you... well... the world's overpopulated. Let them kill themselves off, so we have a clean conscience and our hands do not have blood on them.

On-topic:

Seriously here, we need the old blood out of office... all at once. I don't care how it happens (preferably in as non-violent a manner as possible, for crying out loud the whole of my nation celebrated the death of one man. That man may have perpetrated something horrible, but for fuck's sake, the guy DIED. He's DEAD. Will not walk the earth again, was riddle with bullet holes, tabloids say we ran him over with a truck a couple of times, yadda yadda, point being, we're the fucking mob of Rome cheering on the gladiators again). But we need to weed out the corruption, put the corporations back in their place, and take away the amount of ridiculous power the media has. Our Bill of Rights was necessary, I am not proposing a return to lack of personal freedoms. I'm just saying we were given an inch... and took a billion miles, constantly adding more each day. This needs to stop. This monster has had enough of the monstering, man.

[Kim]

Lately, I am always disappointed by the level of sociopathy these threads bring about.

Probably everything Fifth said, plus providing much, much better support systems for the unemployed regardless of cause for unemployment and diverting a fair amount of funding towards research in automating various jobs.

[shiney]

On that trend though, also research that would promote alternative jobs, as automation correlates strongly with unemployment.

[Overcast]

I was about to say with automation and higher unemployment it seemed like we were heading toward that point of all jobs automated, universal unemployment that eventually causes the revolt and either goes down the path for, "In the grim darkness of the far future there is only war." or "The spice must flow."

[Kim]

On that trend though, also research that would promote alternative jobs, as automation correlates strongly with unemployment.

Well, my belief is that eventually we'll reach a point where people won't need to work, and while we should improve our education system so people can more easily continue to work, a society where the vast majority of people don't *have* to work for everything to function is also an ideal one for setting up something along the lines of communism or some such, so a lot of my policies would be to make for a smoother transition to that.

Oh! And I guess I'd work on improving people's abilities to travel from one country to another and just generally advancing mass communication, since I think that'll play a huge role in getting people to stop caring about "_____ is the greatest country ever" sort of stuff.

[shiney]

I would love it if people didn't "have" to work but until we're in a position where we can throw a switch and BAM it's just like that there's going to be a system of haves and have nots as well as resentment of "why should I have to work but Jim gets to stay at home with his family and still live a fine life"..

I'm splitting hairs I'll admit, because I see where you're coming from, I just don't have a lot of faith in humanity to put aside their differences long enough to make it work before jealousy and shit gets in the way.

[Kim]

I would love it if people didn't "have" to work but until we're in a position where we can throw a switch and BAM it's just like that there's going to be a system of haves and have nots as well as resentment of "why should I have to work but Jim gets to stay at home with his family and still live a fine life"..

I'm splitting hairs I'll admit, because I see where you're coming from, I just don't have a lot of faith in humanity to put aside their differences long enough to make it work before jealousy and shit gets in the way.

Thus why I said until there's a situation where people don't *have* to work. Such a situation would also be one where most people would be unable to work. What you'd be left with are some public service jobs, creative jobs that people would work because it makes them happy, and I dunno programming and sciency stuff? In the case of public service jobs, programing, and sciencing I think you could probably incentivize working those jobs to some degree while generally offering a strong support system for everyone else. I'm not arguing flipping a switch. I'm arguing transitioning to such a system. The slow transition itself would also probably make for a populace less based in selfishness and "me first," too.

[Terex4]

I would love it if people didn't "have" to work but until we're in a position where we can throw a switch and BAM it's just like that there's going to be a system of haves and have nots as well as resentment of "why should I have to work but Jim gets to stay at home with his family and still live a fine life"..

I'm splitting hairs I'll admit, because I see where you're coming from, I just don't have a lot of faith in humanity to put aside their differences long enough to make it work before jealousy and shit gets in the way.
Even then the process would probably cause its own self-destruction. The point of automating is so you don't have to employ as many workers so you can make more money. Then once all of said workers are out of a job, they won't have money to buy the products the robots are making thus costing the corporations money and causing a massive breakdown of our entire system.

Truly progress is just setting the world up to fail ;)

[Kim]

Even then the process would probably cause its own self-destruction. The point of automating is so you don't have to employ as many workers so you can make more money. Then once all of said workers are out of a job, they won't have money to buy the products the robots are making thus costing the corporations money and causing a massive breakdown of our entire system.

Truly progress is just setting the world up to fail ;)

Thus why I'm arguing the transitioning system. More automation = people in charge making more money, and then you just tax that money more and give more money to the people on the bottom so they can keep buying stuff, which keeps the rich people in business so they benefit but also keeps the people on the bottom able to survive.

[Professor Smarmiarty]

That wa ssupposed to happen 50 years ago. The theory and mechanics are there but the barrier of investment is too high for companies and shareholders which operate on yearly cycles not 20 cycles. It's not going to happen without completely transforming how companies work at which point you can forget about transitional change.

[shiney]

Until the people at the bottom want to be the people at the top. :D

But I do admit I am overlooking the topic of the thread which is "if you were in charge of the political process" which sort of suggests that you would have measures in place to prevent problems of this nature!

[Kim]

That wa ssupposed to happen 50 years ago. The theory and mechanics are there but the barrier of investment is too high for companies and shareholders which operate on yearly cycles not 20 cycles. It's not going to happen without completely transforming how companies work at which point you can forget about transitional change.

I disagree. It's going to happen when the barrier of investment decreases, which is just a matter of time. I mean, people have skewed concepts of how long these things take. Just look at what people were expecting nowadays even a couple decades ago. Shiny, plastic bodysuits still aren't in fashion.

Until the people at the bottom want to be the people at the top.

Eventually you phase out having people at the top, really.

[Terex4]

Which also kinda nullifies the comments about cutting out the corruption since you would be the one in power.

Also, mandatory casual fridays.

[Fifthfiend]

Fourth order? Adding chlorine the gene pool. I have long held a belief that stupid cannot be taught. Cannot be learned. It is something you are born with. Not ignorance, you can CURE ignorance with information and facts. Stupid people...you hear about them all the time. And they drive me nuts. I'd take measures to ensure that there would no longer be an excess of stupid people. Where'd that flamethrower go?...

Tell me again how you think the US has too many beautiful tropical islands and which ones you think we should get rid of.

[Seil]

Oh, right. I'd make the Westboro Baptist Church illegal. Maybe I'll touch on what they do, but I'll just pass something that includes the death penalty.