What Would You Do?

Fund education to ensure as many people have a trade as possible as adults.

Phase out welfare.

Tax the living heck out of any company that outsources work to other countries.

Make it illegal for health care companies and insurance companies to be openly traded on the stock exchange. A person's life should not be placed in the balance due to overhead costs.

I think if you accomplish those four, a lot will naturally fall into place.

 

As for Chrysler's dealerships -- if they are failing, then let them fail without the government getting involved.

I would say it's more than a few Chrysler dealerships. That's probably 40,000-50,000 people out of work.

Not sure if it's "full of fail" in that I agree that most car dealerships have Republican/conservative backings and leanings. Nearly all businesses that involve sales - or really, anyone who depends on a commission for their income - tends to support low taxes/less gov't. Yet those who "build things" or work on assembly lines - especially if in a union - will back Democrats. Now a Democratic president with a Democratic governor is picking sides on who gets saved and who doesn't.

I was against the bailouts when Bush did it last year just as I am right now. GM and Chrysler were going to fail one year ago. Let them fail. We didn't need a total of another $100 billion dollars to hold their hand.

 

3. I'm cool with three. Absolutely. Let people buy what fits their needs... but
5. So they can drive what they want...but they can't live in the house they want? If you limit the McMansions, then you artifically drive up the price of those homes. If this market, it is THOSE homes that are really good deals right now, especially with 5% interest rates!
4. Oil companies run off a 10% profit. Less than Starbucks. Nobody was crying about big oil in November when gas was $1.70 a gallon.
6. Put the casinos wherever you like. Nobody forces them to go there and it does provide decent employment for people with general skills. Also, as a card-counter for blackjack, don't mess with me! Although, I would happily play at a state-run casino as long as the Dealer Stood on ALL 17s.

 

If GM failed and the government stepped in, we would all be out of jobs. Everyone in this newspaper industry would be more fucked than they are now.
Imagine your paper with no more GM/Saturn/Hummer/Chevy advertisements. No dealer ads, no more classified ads for used cars.

Not to mention the hundred thousand people that would lose their jobs and a couple hundred more that would lose their jobs indirectly. All of these people would be un

on 5. I wouldn't say limit where people live, but give them options. I can't live in a huge ass house with a 4 car garage and 6 bedrooms. Build me a ranch with 3 bedrooms 2 baths and a 2 car garage.

Oil companies make 10 percent profit, but Exxon Mobil turned in the biggest profit in company history last year while we were scraping by to fill up the tank.

6. Casino's are not good when you oversaturate. Vegas is fun. I love it. But Battle Creek Michigan does not need a fucking casino. Sorry.

 

Here's one on my list: A state may have a collection of city governments or county governments, but not both.

This would be at least a start in an effort to streamline all government programs and eliminate what is a burdensome overlap and duplication.

 

- On the oil companies. Exxon Mobil may have turned a record profit but people kept buying gas until they finally had...enough. Then it fell and the complaining was finished for a good eight-month stretch.

- Casinos rock but only for the smart and the disciplined. We can all agree this country could use more of that.

We see something far more destructive in America right now than Hope & Change...

The Politics of Envy.

President Obama ran, and won easily, on this outlook. He needed tens of millions of voters to be frightened and anxious about their financial futures. He needed them to be angry/envious/jealous at those who are making a good living.

What has happened/is happening now is this unusual mix where the poor to middle class are saving their money and not spending it because of the anxiety and the rich are not spending their money because of the anxiety and not wanting to appear insensitive in these times where spending money on vacations or nice cars or homes is frowned upon.

Through campaign rhetoric -- which continues even as the President has been in office for 4+ months -- this is what happens when people "turn off the faucet" and quit spending the money. Companies have lower profits/steeper losses. People get fired or laid off. Newspapers go out of business.

The group currently with all of the power in Washington D.C. needs a high percentage of the unemployed, the underemployed, people living in public housing. People who are "down on their luck" or frightened are their swing voters. Those voters paved the way in 2008 and they're banking on more public misery to hold their seats in 2010 and 2012.

While our nation is in a Misery Index-style Funk circa 1979, fully validated from the Oval Office on down, control what YOU can control. Heck, even in this crazy lifestyle we all lead (sports or journalism, etc.) where the future is uncertain, i have never doubted my own skills. Trust yourself first. It's really quite liberating.

However, a Presidential drinking game can make things fun. Everytime you hear: "sacrifice", "failed policies of the past", "working families" or "middle class", take a pull.

 

Ok in no particular order

Everyone is allowed to kill one person without penalty. You get one "get out of jail free card" for murder. Guy molests your kid, you can kill him and not worry about the justice system.
It thins the population and think how much nicer we might all to be one another if you know that your neighbor - you know the guy whose grass you keep walking all - over might just decide to pop you and get away with it.

In addition to being allowed to kill one person free of charge, you are also allowed 12 free kicks to the groin without penalty. Janice Dickinson or Kate Gosselin pissing you off, present your card and kick 'em in square in the junk.
Again, another way of making people be nice to each other.

Universal health care on a state level. You pay a flat annual fee of a $100 and you get free state-provided health care. Wannabe Docs. get free state-paid education in return for working 5 to 8 years for the state.

Mandatory 2 or three year military service for all 18-year olds, male and female.Think of it as R. Lee Ermy's Gym Class from Hell. Just like Israel; well-trained and more fit citizens.

Close all U.S. embassies. We should not be the world's policeman. Let's take care of our country first and worry about the rest of the world later.

Cut the military in budget in half and give it to NASA for space and underwater exploration and development. We have enough nuclear weapons to destroy the world. And if we don't go around starting trouble there won't be no trouble.
In other words, unless we are invaded we leave other people and countries the fuck alone.
Let's get onto exploration in space and undersea. We are running out of land space and resources.

Legalize drugs across the board.. If you can grow it, make it, smoke it, roll it, inject it or ingest it is legal and you can buy it a Rite-Aid, along with clean supplies.
We tried to ban alcohol in this country and it helped give rise to the organized crime. Let's take away the drug business. Legalize and tax the hell out it.
Anyone convicted simply of nonviolent drug charges is free from jail.

Tort Reform... Caps on jury awards (millions for smokers who got cancer? PLEASSE!), penalties for filing and losing frivolous lawsuits and full-time jurors.

Express lane Death Penalty. All sentences and appeals must be conducted within three years. Let's start cleaning out the overcrowded jails at both ends.

Declare Steak and Blowjob Day and National Holiday and implement penalties to make sure it is observed.



I'm only half-serious.

 

One person a day..without penalty? Anyone can pick one person?

I'll be dead by lunchtime.

Nice post.

 

One person in your lifetime.
For whatever reason. Or No for no reason.


Edit: One a day! Now that's just ridiculous.

 

1) Acknowledge that the U.S. is actually in pretty good shape. We still have an awesome standard of living, we still have fairly good medical care, we still have a whole lot of freedoms. All the handwringing about how awful things are gets very tiresome. It's probably third on my list of countries I would want to live in in the entire world right now, and that ain't bad.

2) Add the right to privacy and equal protection for gender and orientation to the Constitution.

3) Universal health care and the taxes to pay for it. It's time has come.

4) Significantly lower financial aid for liberal arts grad school programs. I'm sorry, but degree creep has gotten way out of hand, and we've got a lot of kids getting into six-figure debt for worthless degrees.

5) Set up a network of medical schools that do not require tuition for those accepted. One of the best ways to lower health costs would be to flood the market with doctors.

6) Begin experimenting with parliamentary democracy at the state level, with an eye toward making the transition to it at the federal level within two decades.

7) Plan a Constitutional convention for 2029. Our Constitution is outdated and the worship of it is getting tiresome.

8) Require all corporations to be incorporated in and governed by a state in which they do at least 10% of their business.

9) Put real, serious effort into subsidized public transportation.

10) Seriously ramp up consumer education to the point where it begins in junior-high and is a full-time class each year. Too many people haven't the slightest idea what managing their money means. Tell them they shouldn't be living on more than 75% of their income in good times, and they look at you like you've got a hole in your head.

 

1. Limit the amount of money that political candidates can spend on an office. Let's say, $100 million for the presidency, $20 million for senatorial candidates, $5 million for the House, etc. Free speech is exactly that, free.

2. Universial healthcare. Other Westernized countries have it. No reason we shouldn't, either.

3. As someone mentioned earlier, free education for doctors and nurses. They are working 90 hour weeks. Quality of care is down. Anyone who becomes a doctor or nurse gets their education paid for.

4. Legalize drug use, regulate it and tax it. Want to smoke pot in your home? Go ahead. Smoke pot while driving. Go to jail, go directly to jail.

5. Legalize prostitution, regulate it and tax it at registered brothels.

6. Allow victims of crimes, or their families, to decide punishments for the criminals within legalized boundaries. A person gets murdered, the parents, or spouse, or kids can decided if the murderer gets the death penalty, jail, or even walks free.

7. Have a gradual minimum wage, depending on the size of the company and the percentage of profits. The little corner bookstore can pay $7.15 an hour. Wal-Mart should be paying a lot more.

8. Any sports team that uses a stadium paid with public money must make all tickets available to the public for all games, except for a certain percentage that can be donated to local charities. If some TV star wants to sit in the front row at the World Series, that TV star should be standing on line with everyone else to get the tickets.

9. No more gerrymandering. Draw up the congressional districts, then keep them that way.

10. Come up with alternate fuels for our cars and more public transportation.

 

Can't have it both ways, bud.