I hope that the desire to be a part of history wasn't the only reason people voted for Obama. Personally, I feel no matter who we vote for we will get the same brainwashed political puppet so I didn't really care much who won. Regardless of race or gender. I liked the strategies that ManClinton used to eradicate the deficit and was hoping WomanClinton would apply the same but I also realize it is not just the person who sleeps in the White House but the staff they are surrounded with.
Anyway, this will not be an "I'm so excited for the future and what this means as we all walk united holding hands as we make history" bullshit post like everyone else is doing today.
You want change? I'll give you change.
Step 1. Completely shut down all financial backing for NASA. I mean really. I enjoy sci-fi and fancy space photographs as much as the next geek but really, how will any of this help our financial situation in the next 8 - 100 years? Unless we find diamonds on Mars, space is a giant black hole for money.
Step 2. Bring our military home. Stop wasting money and human lives elsewhere. The U.S. is hurting and we need to lick our wounds. Yes that even means we pull back those groups that we are protecting. You damn well know as soon as we are done help them get stable they were turn and stab us in the back like history has shown.
Step 3. Steamroll and regulate colleges. How much money is wasted here? Everyone regardless of financial backing should be able to afford a good education. People have computers. People have internet access. People have webcams. Uhhhh, why are we still polluting the Earth by driving to school and paying for parking? Why are we still buying books that we can't resell because new versions come out next semester? Three little letters you greedy McGraw-Hill motherfuckers, P D F. People may argue, "But they won't learn social skills!" At $30,000 to $500,000 a year, we can teach our kids social skills at home.
Step 4. Cut welfare. If you can't get a job at McDonald's, you shouldn't get free money for staying at home and having more kids.
Step 5. Legalize AND TAX street vendors and day workers. These people WANT to work and aren't standing at the corner of the freeway with a cardboard sign or pestering you at the gas station. Tax them for the money they make. We are throwing away money by arresting or deporting them.
Step 6. Legalize AND TAX marijuana. If people want to kill their own brain cells, swell their brain mass like they do with alcohol and grow man boobs, then tax them. There is a lot of money to be made and taken away from drug dealers and traffickers.
Step 7. Reduce the size and pay of all politicians. You have to be kidding with whatever explanation you give for this not having been done generations ago.
Step 8. Drastically increase the educational requirements of school teachers across the board and have them rotate districts. No preferred or "good" schools should exist. Education is important.
Step 9. If you can't limit the quantity of children irresponsible parents choose to have then at least tax them higher and stop tax benefits after two kids. Why give people bonus incentives for overpopulation?
Step 10. Completely restructure incarceration procedures. People aren't afraid of prison. Make it so. Reinstate the electric chair. Don't provide dental and health care. Don't provide entertainment. Don't provide delicious food. Segregate criminal severity or by their capacity for re-education. Put those who are animals down already and stop allowing them to be a vacuum on government funds and society in general.
I could go on.
22 comments:
Amen!!!
I agree with you 100%. There are plenty of things that these "politicians" can do to help our country, starting with your amazing list that you so helpfully compiled.
And I think that it's silly that some people voted for Obama just because of his race. It really showed how much Americans have not moved past the whole race issue.
*Jaw dropped* I love it. I can't wait to read who is opposed to your ideas. I love to come back and read the anti arguments.
It hurst me personally, but I think of the bigger picture rather than myself.
I have a close family member who is in jail. I believe that if the electric chair was in place, he wouldn't do what he did to get there in the first place!
I pretty much agree with everything you said, except:
#5. Deport, deport, deport. Some hard-up student or homeless person or some other American citizen will fill those jobs. And if not, oh well, I can move my own furniture without a day worker.
#7. I agree and want to add "limit terms." There is just something inherently wrong with the term "career politician."
#9. I agree, but statistically, the US is under-populated. Maybe this goes back to #5. How about give the day workers a pass to the front of the naturalization line and let them, people who are ready, willing and able to work their asses off in to take the place of all these breeders.
>Andrea: While it definitely IS the lesser of two evils. Voting for someone because of their race is nowhere near as bad as voting against someone because of it. I don't expect nor am I sure we should ever "move past" the race issue. I think it is something we should embrace. We ARE different and this is exactly why this country is so great. Even being different, we can all achieve greatness.
>Iris: Sometimes I don't consider the greater repercussions of the words that are expelled from my keyboard. I do think that a scary prison would definitely keep people on the straight and narrow. The less people believe in hell, the more people believe in sin.
>Angela: Now it sounds powerful and easy to just deport people. Think about the full situation. Deporting isn't cheap. Raids aren't cheap. Regulation isn't cheap. This isn't a situation where we "make a point to show those illegals" that they aren't welcome here. I can easily destroy your argument without any animosity whatsoever, I promise. Simply by telling you that if those hard up students or homeless people even TRIED to get those hard fruit-picking, flower selling jobs, they would get them. Easily. Problem is, they don't want them. You are telling me that an employer would rather choose an illegal, uninsured, non-English speaking employee? I think not. These people DON'T want to work. Next time you get off the freeway in your nearest urban city and see someone with a sign check the color of his eyes. Then look at the the guy selling flowers or fruit on the other corner and look at his.
Career politicians, 100% agree with you. The way they make a habit of just rotating their positions when their terms are up is criminal. There should be a limit but not so short so they can't learn to be good at what they do. I don't want to run out of people who know the law only to have them replaced by people who've never read it.
Are we to wait until we are overpopulated? Sure we have a lot of empty, key word uninhabitable, land to spare. But the urban and even suburban areas are packed. Schools are packed. Shopping areas are packed. Jails are packed. Lets not let it get as extreme as China or India and nip it in the bud.
I think either way, no matter who won, our country is making its way on a downward spiral. it's obvious that the only reason why people were voting for obama is because he's black. have you seen the headlines? "first black president." I don't think race should even be an issue. I haven't seen any headlines saying "socialist president." people should be voting based on the policies that these politicians are planning to put in place and how they're going to make the country better. honestly, after these elections, I'm starting to question humanity's ability to make rational decisions based on the cold, hard facts. people are, still, so hung up on race. which shows that the country hasn't made as much progress as you'd like to hope.
so when are you planning on running for president? haha. I definitely agree with you, especially when it comes to the subject of welfare and how people get larger tax breaks for having more kids. there are a lot of people who take advantage of that because it's the easy way out. money for almost nothing. the problem is, some of these are women who don't even want kids or aren't even fit to have children in the first place.
hmm, interesting.
I guess all we can do is wait and see what the next four years has in store for America...
I don’t think everyone voted for Obama just cause he's black, and i do find the news headlines really offensive...i hate the undertone of the phrase "First Black President", as if there’s nothing more special about him than he's skin colour...
i agree race is still a major issue in the states, not the biggest one that they could be discussing, but certainly the most publicised!
and why don’t you run fro president HektikLyfe? ever seriously considered it??
holy shit batman! I loved this post. I literally wanted to puke when i saw the news and how people were reacting to Obama winning,,some were crying, sobbing, dancing, its like they were on tremendous amount of drugs and out of control. YESSS, I understand we made history--but dammmmmm...get over it.
NOW,,I agree with just about thing you said--100%,,,dam--why dont you run!!!
the one thing I struggle with and probably because this hits me personally. I have a sister that just was sentenced to prison..for drugs...2500 worth. The judge treated her like she murdered another human being. thing is--when she got caught-she went into treatment,,NOT once did she get a dirty UA..she was in therapy, for 6 months she was coasting along and doing great. Her PO officer recommended she continue as she was doing but give up her bartending job. The judge sent her to prison. All the help she was getting--DONE. Now she's been sitting for 3 months with 0 therapy or treatment. We have prison systems full of non-violent people that just need treatment and therapy. her cell mate was a woman who had a role in murdering a woman and tortureing a young boy. what the F....???? My sister used cocaine!!!! Anyhow, while i agree 100% anyone who commits a murder or rape--etc...take em out..I dont want to house them anymore nor pay for anything they need. But for non serious offenders--its time we stop sending them to prison. Its insane.
i don't live in the states, maybe that's why i don't really understand why the race thing there is such an issue.
i do agree with most of your points here, they apply to my country as well.
I agree with some of what you say, I disagree some of what you say. You raise some interesting points.
1. NASA. Solving problems for space exploration leads to quite a bit of residual technology that we use everyday. So much so, NASA publishes a magazine called Spinoff to chronicle how NASA inventions are being adapted for us land-dwellers. How can you be in IT and seriously not grasp how much "space-age" technology is involved in modern computing?
2. I don't know that isolationism is the answer, but I definitely agree we've overextended our military presence around the world.
3. Yes.
4. Not everyone on welfare is a jobless baby machine, especially with all the overseas job migration and cost of living increases we've seen in the past decade. The income/asset level needed to qualify for welfare is incredibly low, and the assistance it provides is enough to buy some cheap groceries and pay some bills.
I say pair welfare with the overhaul of education you propose in 3. Provide a cheap netboot and online job training tools, and set educational goals to the welfare payments.
5. I have no position on this, as I have no experience on the matter.
6. Yes.
7. Or at least take away their ability to vote for their own pay raises.
8. I don't know about rotating districts, as the county my mom teaches in only has one district with 4 elementary schools. Changing districts would mean commuting for more than an hour each way, and she already works 10 hour days. That may be more plausible for urban schools.
9. Yes.
10. I'm of mixed opinion on this issue. I'll withhold my thoughts for now.
Wow, almost all of these are great ideas (to me). I just don't agree with legalizing marijuana, taxing drug traffickers and getting rid of welfare. But it's not as black and white as not agreeing with you, I just think maybe there is a better way to go about these things (less drastic).
Oh, and after reading other commenters, I find it offensive that people aren't giving Obama more credit than for his being HALF black. He did make history, big time, but once you get past that celebration there is a big job ahead and I think he's the man to get us STARTED on the right track.
And for the record, not everything about Socialism is bad (to the commentor above who is afraid of Obama's presidency). My personal Utopian world is one in which everyone has a good life, nobody has too much or too little. Not everyone who's poor got there by being lazy and not all wealthy people really earned all that wealth by themselves.
>Jessica: The entire world is going downhill. :( I don't think anyone would vote for a president with stage fright. XD
>eizzy.k: I don't think everyone voted for him because of that either but I fear a lot of people might have. McCain was just scary. Not only did he sound like Bush but he acts like him and people don't want more Bush right now. I would NEVER run for president but thanks for your vote, of confidence. :) I am anti-politics so that would be kind of weird.
>Dawnie: LOL It DID seem like this generation's Woodstock didn't it? The fact that it was outside like a concert also gave it that popular effect. All we needed was mud and a little love. As for the drug users, I absolutely agree. The real dangerous criminals should be segregated from those that could be treated and reintroduced into society. That would take time to decide and judge but it needs to be done. Sometimes people come out more dangerous criminals than they went in.
>Sorry: It is important here because it has never happened and people are still suffering from lost opportunities based on race. Racism runs rampant in our country unfortunately. So even though Obama is only partly Black, it helps to know that there is at least a little ethnicity in the White House to more appropriately represent the people that make up this country.
>Ryan: I understand the necessity for NASA but I also know that we are in SERIOUS financial trouble right now. We don't need "space-age" advancements at the moment. We need to solve our issues and quickly. This would only be temporary.
Isolationism would also only be temporary. We need to recoup and now before this becomes another Great Depression. My tactics are emergency movements. Most of which are temporary.
Not everyone on welfare is that way I agree but a LOT of them are. If you can't afford food for yourself, you should get paid to provide food to have more children. It is an easy fix that is all too often exploited.
I believe they have recently lost that ability to give themselves raises. I believe severe paycuts are in order. You should NOT have a mansion if you work in congress. You should live like the people do to understand their issues.
As for rotation, I do mean in urban areas. I'm sorry if I didn't clarify. I don't know what the state of rural education is like.
I know murder is wrong but we have two choices, support them financially for the rest of their lives for committing atrocities, or put them to sleep, in as a humane manner possible.
>Sarah Jane: Toss some ideas at me and we can discuss them. Those that I threw out are drastic, and quick meant to aide in our current financial troubles. Most polls by CNN and MSNBC have all shown that the greatest concerns of the people are about the economy. So I suggested some drastic and immediately attainable solutions.
Personal Utopia ~ Wait WHAT? Have we talked about this already? This is a series of blogs I have in the works. Weird.
I'm not saying raids are the only way to solve the illegal immigration issue and I'm not arguing the fact that they are expensive. Lets even ignore the fact that we already have an entire federally funded department whose entire existence is to raid and deport, but I can think of about 5 different places off the top of my head that are public and are within access and within legal bounds for a police officer cruising the area to take in to INS. I can also think of at least 5 different people whom I personally know of, off the top of my head, whose lives have been negatively impacted by the rampant availability of cheap, illegal labor. This isn't a racially motivated, color of their eyes argument (incidentally, the only illegal I know has blue eyes and isn't from a latin american country), this is an American resource argument. The only way to help illegals from south of the border is to pump more money into their economy (instead of CHINA), not turn a blind eye when laws are very clearly being violated. If the government can rationalize that illegal immigration isn't bad or just plain illegal, then how many other illegal practices can they rationalize?
"There should be a limit but not so short so they can't learn to be good at what they do."
This is where I can't seem to reconcile my ideas on career politicians. I can't figure out what is too short and what is too long.
Ryan - I'm a big ole scifi geek, but I think NASA has had it's run on the federal dime and it's objectives would probably be more quickly and efficiently accomplished in the private sector. IMHO.
>Angela: It is not the job of the police to regulate immigration so I doubt they are within any legal bounds. That would take away money from the security they are paid to provide. Do you have examples of these negative impacts of cheap labor? Keep in mind that my idea of taxing this "cheap labor" would force this "cheap labor" to increase their costs and make mandatory regulation and certification which in turn would greatly increase the cost of their labor. Legalizing it will bring money into the country and keep money in the country. If you deport deport deport like you chanted earlier, you just throw away money at a problem that will continue to exist. You can never solve a problem like that with a bus pass.
How many blue eyed Illegal Immigrants do you see getting deported? I thought so. This IS a racially motivated movement. Do you hear any mention of closing our borders to Canada? Or deporting so many popular Canadian comedians or actors? Nope.
I don't support throwing money into another country. That won't help. The farther South you get the more corrupt and deadly you get. The more drug money is thrown around. My proposal would keep money in the U.S. which is what we need to do.
I am not proposing that any blind eye be turned away when laws are violated. For evidence of that we just need to turn towards Washington.
The government ISN'T rationalizing that immigration without paperwork isn't illegal which is why you understand immigration as being illegal. This is why people are getting deported now. This is why companies are being shut down now. This is why money is being pumped into government funded departments to resolve this countries damaging problem. All that money is GONE and the "problem" is still here.
My solution would save a lot of money and most importantly keep it here.
Presuming that rationalization of other "illegal" practices which are unrelated would be a fallacy in logic. "Well if you drink you might as well do cocaine."
Besides, no one ever said illegal immigration should be legalized.
You said you would move your own furniture without a day worker. If the rest of the citizenship of the U.S. felt that way, we wouldn't have a problem.
By any chance are you Native American?
A decade sounds long enough for any position of power. Presidents have a maximum of 8. If you can't accomplish something in 10 years, 20 won't make much of a difference. This will make things work much faster.
NASA: Government support for NASA should be completely cut off. Even though they don't get that much, some is too much. At least until we get back on our feet. Only then we can start to worry about jumping.
Have at it: Share your vision
HL, no we haven't talked about our personal Utopia ideas yet! how funny.
I really enjoyed this post, but disagree on a few points:
4. A full-time job at McDonald's (or equivalently, low-level retail) is not sufficient to support even one child in addition to you, let alone a family of average size or larger. The economy does not hit a natural floor at subsistence for families. I feel that a safety net for those left behind by market forces is an appropriate use of government money. It sucks that people game the system, but I'm willing to swallow that harm up to a pretty forgiving point.
7. It's important to attract smart people to politics. Pay is a good incentive. Maybe we could try to up the prestige factor of politics as a replacement?
8. I think the problem may be that there simply aren't enough potential/existing teachers to meet tough requirements. Maybe the government could try to attract more smart, qualified candidates by subsidizing pay.
9. If the decision to have children is defined as "irresponsible" when you have more children than you can raise comfortably given your income, this policy would primarily hurt the children, who have no hand in creating their shitty situation.
Sorry if I'm repeating what others have said--I've only read about half the comments.
Michele sent me to read your poignant post. I am far away, I am not a US citizen but this discussion is very interesting, of course!
>Ryan: I'm a little afraid to share my vision there honestly. I'm afraid my ideas might send off some red flags and I will start getting followed! XD Part of my vision includes loss of job security for a LOT of politicians. I don't think they will take that lightly.
>Sarah: We should. I have a label titled Reorg Earth which will, eventually, contain all those ideas.
>Cherry: Thanks. :) A full-time job at a fast food chain isn't enough to provide for a family sure, but its more than what many have already. One thing is being left behind by market forces, and another is laziness. That can be easily traced and tracked. 8 kids and tax evasion habits and no job are the first clues. I'm talking about people who are gaming the system. Besides, I've never met a working professional on welfare. Unemployment maybe, not welfare.
Pay is a good incentive sure, but that incentive was met 6 figures ago. Their pay keeps going up. They make a lot more than your average doctor or lawyer which in my opinion requires a lot more skill and intelligence.
Subsidizing pay would require increasing taxes. I think before they start giving them bonuses, they need to show improvement. I don't believe in giving people or politicians their rewards before they show any success. Increase the requirements and increase the pay once those requirements are met. That and we would need cameras in each and every classroom. Kids are evil. I think I would enjoy teaching kids how to use computers but I would be afraid of sue happy parents who wouldn't believe that their kid fell because they were misbehaving.
The decision to cut benefits would hurt everyone. Just like now. These machines keep having kids and have the rest of society foot the bill. This hurts everyone because they see an option. If they feel danger from bankruptcy then perhaps they may consider spending a dollar on a contraceptive instead.
>Mar: Welcome, and thanks for posting!
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