Richie Paine says:

First and foremost, I’d work to reallocate funds and resources from the military-industrial complex into the sustainable energy industry. This will not only help ween us off of foreign energy sources, but it will also increase national security by lowering the incentive to attack the country (since the country would not be involving itself in so many wars in foreign lands and angering people around the world). I’d immediately begin withdrawing troops from Iraq & Afghanistan at the rate of 10-20% a month.

Second… I would use the media and a position of leadership to promote frugality and self-sufficiency — as opposed to wasteful consumerism. I’d promote organic gardening and small-scale farming to offset large-scale industrial farming which relies heavily on petro-chemical pesticides and fertilizers.

I would enact sweeping environmental regulations to protect the commons and ensure a healthy environment for future generations. Specifically… I would immediately ban all old growth logging and ban the importation of products made from old-growth forests (all imported products would have to be sourced to ensure this was followed). I would quickly move to phase out mountain-top removal coal mining within one decade. I would dramatically increase automobile fuel standards by 10% each year and I would demand that the primary greenhouse emitters reduce their emissions by 10% each year until they were (at most) 10% of their current levels. I would also move to dramatically curtail the pollution of the oceans and waterways with heavy fines and penalties. Dangerous, expensive, and waste-creating nuclear power facilities would be phased out and banned. Genetically modified organisms would also be banned until much better testing could be done before releasing them into the world.

I would immediately enact sweeping reforms of the prison-industrial complex — the land of the free should not have the largest prison population and the highest incarceration rate in the world. Consensual crimes would be decriminalized and non-violent drug offenders would be released with the option of enrolling in high-quality rehabilitation networks. The police forces would be more regulated to prevent further abuses and government surveillance of citizens would be widely curtailed.

I would transition the tax structure in such a way that consumption started to be taxed more heavily than earnings. Food would not be taxed and land/property would be taxed very progressively with the bottom third paying no property tax. I would eliminate offshore tax shelters and seize and reallocate (up to 90%) the assets of millionaires who get caught trying to escape their tax burdens. Only earnings would be taxed, not savings, and tax breaks could be earned by donating to various charitable institutions.

So as not to completely shock the system, as with other proposals, I would phase out all corporate subsidies. The government might still buy products, but corporations would not endlessly get billions of dollars from the government simply because they had good lobbyists or made big campaign donations.

NAFTA & the WTO agreements would be scrapped as they reduce the laws of each signing nation to the lowest common denominator — for example, they don’t allow you to pass on the cheapest deal even if it was made with the worst labor and environmental conditions.

I guess this is just a start, but that’s how I’d run the country. Eventually… I think the public would need to value the natural world and the global commons and would need to move towards simpler and more efficient technology (while still expanding arts & philosophy). Non-authoritarian programs to persuade the masses to reduce the global population would probably be good in the long run as certain resources are limited and overcrowding in certain areas at certain times can be a real problem. The point is… I don’t really want to make people do anything besides question authority and think about what is in their own best interest and the best interests in the long term for humanity. I think people should feel the need to revolt if draconian authoritarian practices continue. And even if an individual or group isn’t effect yet, the problems compound and get worse for everyone. If I ran the country I’d probably steer it towards anarcho-primitivism if I could.

Unka Dano says:

I would first stop the importation of goods not manufactured under the same labor and environment laws as we have here. How can we effectively compete otherwise?

Our trading with China is reminiscent of our own revolutionary war where the British had to fight by rules of engagement by marching in a straight line while wearing bright red uniforms. The Americans, by contrast, wore buck skin clothes that blended into the environment and shot from behind trees and rocks. In short, we can’t compete against other nations if American manufacturers have rules and regulations while other countries don’t.

I would end welfare by setting up a multi-tiered society starting with communes at the bottom, socialism in the middle, and pure capitalism on top. People would pay the highest taxes at the bottom to support their communes, a little less in the middle but still quite high to pay for their social medicine, and hardly any taxes would be paid at the top. A multi-tiered society would motivate people to do better.

I would honor social security to those under it but would start a mandatory 401K accounts starting at birth. Parents would have to put in two or perhaps three percent of their yearly income into each child’s account. A percent of the account would be allowed for college education and for a down payment on their first home.

I’ve penciled out that at three percent a married couple would indeed be able to go to college and have a nice down payment on a home. By starting a child’s retirement account at birth, they would be able to retire early, say 55 or so. This would cause a small shortage in the labor market keeping wages realistic instead of the pathetic wages we see today.

Also, by parents having to contribute to each child’s 401K, they be more inclined to keep their families small and thereby it would automatically reduce earths carbon foot print.

I wish I had more time to write about the benefits of starting 401K’s at birth but I have to go. Btw, many say I’m a liberal but I’ve always felt as though I’m a centrist.

Paul says:

Mandatory public funding of campaigns and term limits.

wbond1963 says:

I am a conservative
1st downsize bureaucracy red-tape and make the federal more user friendly.
2nd People who receive social services must do some service to earn them. Something as simple as reading bedtime stories to older people.
3rd revamp the whole foreign trade fiasco this may make things such as electronics cost more in the short term but it will get America back to work
4th completely rework the entire tax system Fire the IRS and start from scratch
more to follow on day 2