10 ways to change America (for the better)

[mellowtigger]

Brainstorm time. Suppose you were made supreme poobah and could change any law, any government body, without any interference. What would you do to improve America? If you want to join the brainstorm, I suggest no more than 10 entries, keep each entry short, and include a single-word (sound-bite) title for each entry.

I'm including a useless paragraph here, because LiveJournal did a lousy job or formatting my paragraphs around my photo.

1. Elections. All elections throughout the country (national, state, city) will follow rules for instant-runoff.
2. Elections. If electronic voting is used, it will be done on machinery and software that can be publicly reviewed, with data trails that can be publicly verified at any time.
3. Energy. Build a fusion research site, even better than ITER.
4. Energy. Build at least one free factory for Tata to begin manufacturing air-powered cars in America, with one decade free from all taxes.
5. Energy.  Employers must pay (separate from salary) a transportation wage to each employee, based on the distance from their home to their workplace.  This wage is waived for employees who telecommute at least 90% of their time.
6. Space.  Build a base on Mars to house 100 scientists within 10 years.
7. Knowledge.  Establish a maximum 10-year copyright on any material (software, music, movie, book, chemical, medicine.... anything).
8. Medicine.  If a corporation discovers a medicine or procedure of great public benefit, then seize the intellectual property for the public domain, even before the 10-year limit mentioned above.  Pay appropriate remuneration to the discoverer.
9. Accountability.  No government figure may earn more than 4x the national minimum wage.  No private figure may earn more than 10x the national minimum wage.  Any value (money, services, items) received in excess of this amount will be confiscated via taxes.
10. Accountability.  Citizens are permitted access to any method or product that the government uses on its own citizens.  (eavesdropping, wiretapping, data collection, owning weapons)

There's more, I'm sure, but 10 is my limit for today.

Comments

[kauko.livejournal.com]

As for number 5, I think its more environmentally responsible to encourage employees to live within a reasonable distance to their jobs which will reduce the pollution they create on long commutes.
Also think of it this way, if an employees CHOSES to live all the way across town from their workplace is that really the employers' fault, shouldn't that be the employee's responsiblity to accept the consequences of where they've made a choice to live?

[pangolin.livejournal.com]

Due to economic factors, people often have no choice but to live far away from employers, particularly as pertains to the structure of big cities. Downtown Houston, for example, is one giant business park, and all the nearby residential areas are either outrageously expensive or ghettos.

Additionally, people are more likely to change jobs than change where they live, and are at minimum bound to live in a spot for particular periods by leases, nevermind if they are homeowners, and excepting taking a job in another city, you can't just hop up and move every time you get a new job.

Requiring this kind of wage could cause companies to A) intersperse themselves closer to residential areas or B) Allow people to telecommute more.

Plus, once a real alternative for combustion vehicles is created, such distance will have less environmental impact. I do however generally agree that where you live and where you work should be nearby, but the structure of our society is not presently very conducive to that.

[pangolin.livejournal.com]

I think that's a pretty good starting list, though I would also accept more ordinary electric cars too.

For Elections, I would add that they should be available via the internet, with voting locations available for the non-net savvy.

For Energy, I would also add some proviso to support the wide spread proliferation of solar cell technology, which would help fix that whole coal for electricity thing. This would include providing tax breaks equal to the startup costs of purchasing and installing.

Under Knowledge, I would also make funding of public schools organized at the national level so that the quality of education is less dependent on what kind of neighborhood you grow up in. And in line with that, I would funnel a whole lot more money into education, raise teacher salaries, and have competitive ranking and rewards for better teachers.

On Space, I'm in agreement, but that would definitely require a lot more funding to NASA.

I *really* like number 9. I have considered similar rules previously, though yours are much stricter, but still quite acceptable.

[furr-a-bruin.livejournal.com]

Well, that's simple - require anyone building a skyscraper to put in enough housing to accommodate all the people who'd work in the rest of the building. It would take time - but the idea would eventually reduce commutes.

I can't take credit for the idea... I lifted it from Ernest Callenbach. ;)

[furr-a-bruin.livejournal.com]

I'll copy you on 1 & 2 - with a clarification. Electronic machines must print a HUMAN READABLE paper ballot that is the OFFICIAL, legal ballot; if there's any question about the electronic tabulation, there's the hardcopy for counting. Making the ballot human readable means the voter (or their assistant, if visually impaired) can double check the ballot before putting it into the ballot box.

Energy: In sunny areas of the country, mandate that all new buildings and all major renovations MUST by law include a solar water heater. Provide major tax incentives to use an on-demand water heater as backup, instead of a tank-type water heater.

Energy: Eradicate all laws, covenants, and any other irrational legal impediment to solar or wind power based on someone not liking the looks of solar panels or windmills. Tax laws and utility company polices should be designed to encourage property owners to add solar or wind generation wherever practical.

Education: Compulsory, comprehensive sex education, PERIOD, beginning no later than Grade 6. Compulsory science, math and English classes through High School.

Accountability: Corporate tax returns and related financial documents are open to PUBLIC review; they must (at least) be promptly published in a prominent location in their entirety on the corporate website, free for anyone to peruse and/or download.

Land Use: As I mentioned in a comment, require anyone building a skyscraper to include residential space sufficient to house the workers expected to occupy the business space. Over time, this should drastically reduce commutes.

Sanity: End the "War on Drugs." Legalize, regulate and tax marijuana, in the same fashion that alcohol is handled. Adopt the concept of "harm reduction" across the board for all other drugs.

Copyright: Corporations cannot own copyrights, they can only license them from actual humans. The maximum non-extensible term of copyright shall be 50 years; but if a copyright licenseholder responsible for publishing a work fails to keep the property available to the public (being unavailable for more than one year), the license is automatically voided and the copyright owner can then seek to have the property issued elsewhere. If, after a reasonable term, the property is STILL unavailable to the public, it automatically becomes public domain. During the term the property is unavailable to the public, lawsuits charging violation of copyright will NOT be accepted.

Population Control: Individuals that participate in the production of more than 2 children during their lifetime will have an additional 5% surtax - per child over two - added to their income tax. In extremis, flagrant violators of this law will be surgically sterilized.

Accountability: In any motor vehicle accident between a car/truck and a motorcycle - unless the motorcyclist is drunk/impaired or there is other clear evidence of the motorcyclist's negligence, the base assumption will be that the other vehicle is at fault.

Accountability: Cell phone companies will be required to itemize the actual price of the monthly service and how much is being charged for the "free" cell phone under a contract package. They would be required to stop charging for the cell phone once it was paid for, and offer the "bare" service fee to anyone wishing to re-use a compatible cell phone, or to anyone willing to pay the retail cost of the phone up front.

That should give people a few things to talk about... ;)

[kauko.livejournal.com]

I agree, I thought of that as I wrote my reply, but still wrote it thinking not so much of people who don't have a choice as much as people who do have a choice and still choose to live far away. Either way, perhaps the worst trend of the last century environmentally was people moving out of cities into suburbs, as that inevitably led to the need for people to have long commutes. Personally, I would never want to live far from where ever I would have to be n a daily basis, as I would never want to have to put up with the stress of traffic and the like, not to mention cost in gas, etc.

[joshuwain.livejournal.com]

Those are very good ideas. I'm especially fond of #5, #6 and #8.

For the air-powered cars, I would add an addendum: "When they meet minimum safety standards of India or the U.S. ... whichever is higher."

[mellowtigger]

Yes, the idea is to encourage more development that is not so homogenous. Don't put residential areas 10+ miles away from business areas. Mix 'em up a bit.

I'd hope it would encourage more telecommuting where that is possible. I'd also expect employers to figure this extra cost into their formulas for making decisions on which of the candidates to hire for a position. Is it worth paying extra for a distant person if someone closer has the necessary skills?

I figure there would have to be some sort of allowance for low population density. Some rural areas may simply not have enough clustered areas of housing for finding workers, or where housing too nearby some industrial sites would be detrimental to the workers' health.

[mellowtigger]

Yes, I'm all for internet voting too, once electronic voting is finally trustworthy.

And I've been pondering ideas for education too, which certainly needs some help.

[mellowtigger]

Your Copyright idea is very different from mine, but I like it a lot. I'd settle for either of our suggestions. :)

In theory, I had a sex ed class one semester, but it was not at all useful. It had to be so sanitized that it was difficult to relate to anything presented. I just don't think society is ready for actual sex ed. "Your homework assignment tonight is to reach orgasm without any visual stimulation. Tomorrow we'll work on journaling about your experience." Practical. But sexual-involvement-on-demand? Ick. There's a different kind of bad precedent. I don't have a good suggestion for this one.

[furr-a-bruin.livejournal.com]

Well, we had reasonably comprehensive sex ed when I was in Jr. High and High School - though parents could opt their kids out of the program. Our health classes also covered drugs in a fair degree of detail, and relatively evenhandedly, though of course the message was "these aren't anything you want to mess with." On the one hand, there was no "Reefer Madness" type hysteria - and they did actually admit that one of the reasons people use drugs is because they make you feel good ... for a while.

I just think rather than trying to pack comprehensive sex ed into one semester - and possibly too late - it needs to be part of the curriculum every year from a certain point, getting gradually more specific as the grades progress. One of the interesting things about my old school district was that they found the kids who'd been opted-out of the sex ed program had a higher rate of unplanned pregnancies....

[bigsockgrrl.livejournal.com]

"Accountability: In any motor vehicle accident between a car/truck and a motorcycle - unless the motorcyclist is drunk/impaired or there is other clear evidence of the motorcyclist's negligence, the base assumption will be that the other vehicle is at fault."

Can we add bicycles to that, too? Along the same lines, I've often wished that everyone who drives a car was required to spend some time as a bicyclist or motorcyclist and as a pedestrian. I hope that would help drivers realize what a deadly threat they are posing to the rest of us all the time.