Your Top 5 Policies

[Victus]

Suppose you have 5 policies to implement or modify in your country. Which do you choose, and why?

[Kate]

You first.

[ubs]

Are these policies on top of the existing system? or as though we were appointed Grand Poobah of the World starting ..... now. No wait, now!

[ubs]

OK, I've got it....

1. Only women can vote
2. Only men can run for office
3. Office holders serve until their first grey hair (pubic if necessary)
4. They end their term with a feast and public stoning
5. Office holders cannot order the death nor the imprisonment of any citizen.

My will be done.

[Kate]

What about death and imprisonment, in that order?

[ubs]

Kate wrote

What about death and imprisonment, in that order?

No. No suppressing the vote. No wishing for wishes. None of that.

[Kate]

Fine.

/trudges back to the corner to clean the weapon.../

[Philboid Studge]

'Stoning' prolly doesn't mean what I think it means, is it?

[Victus]

ubs wrote

Are these policies on top of the existing system? or as though we were appointed Grand Poobah of the World starting ..... now. No wait, now!

On top of whatever exists where you are. You can introduce or repeal 5 policies (or groups of policies, if they can be grouped together coherently).

[Kate]

Philboid Studge wrote

'Stoning' prolly doesn't mean what I think it means, is it?

[ubs]

Victus wrote

On top of whatever exists where you are. You can introduce or repeal 5 policies (or groups of policies, if they can be grouped together coherently).

OK. With disemboweling the current corruption in mind, I would

• Close all foreign bases and bring the soldiers home
• Legalize drugs, prostitution and gambling
• Set the maximum term for intellectual property rights at 7 years
• Return to the gold standard
• Prohibit third party payments

[Rhinoqulous]

ubs wrote

[*]Set the maximum term for intellectual property rights at 7 years[*]Return to the gold standard[/list]

I find these interesting. Wasn't it illegal to own gold while we were under the gold standard? I seem to recall that you could own small amounts (for jewelry), but other than that gold was the property of the state. Also, I think there is more money in circulation than gold could cover, which would either make the price of gold skyrocket or do really wacky things with the dollar.

Intellectual property right laws in this country are fucked right now. They pretty much change at the whim of the Disney corporation (every time one of their properties is to go into public domain, the laws change. Coincidence?). How would this work with things like beer recipes (or even the branding of names)? While I think the current law is complete bullshit, limiting all intellectual property might not work either.

[Victus]

Kate wrote

You first.

Ok.

1) Open borders. Drastic, near-total rollback of restrictions on individuals' rights to cross borders or establish residency in the country. Allows the worlds' worst-off to escape the crushing poverty in which they are trapped by equalizing global labor prices (or at least moving in that direction) via removing barriers. Estimated impact if universally adopted: doubling of global GDP, depending on which estimates you go by.

2) Declare unilateral free trade. Straightforwardly, anyone that wants to sell their products here, regardless of where those products originate, can do so without any specialty limitations, fees or restrictions. The main benefit of free trade come from access to cheaper imports, so while 'bilateral' free trade might be ideal, the main benefits can be reaped without having to reach an agreement.

3) End prohibition/vice laws. There are economic arguments about how such laws adversely affect (mostly poor) people, but the sheer bullshitedness of the government telling people what to do with their own bodies boggles my mind.

4) End various military conflicts. Due to scale, less important in Canada than in the US, but still an issue. People are dying, needlessly.

5) Repeal Medicare*: Switch over to a market based system, as I've outlined in previous threads. It's economically inefficient, and fundamentally abhorrent that it is illegal to seek medical care other than from the government.

*Alternative: repeal the ban on private competition and allow permanent opt-outs, then let the system collapse on its own.

[Smellyoldgit]

• Abolish the ‘peer for life’ role for bishops in our highest legislative body (coz they’re good for nothing slimy fuckers)
• Ensure all churches/religions/cults pay taxes/rates/duties in line with any other business.
• Disestablish the link between the church of England and the unelected head of state (coz it stinks)
• Enact an advertisement-based law to force religions to prove their claims – or shut the fuck up.
• Outlaw the teaching of ID/creationism in any science class.

[ubs]

Rhinoqulous wrote

I find these interesting. Wasn't it illegal to own gold while we were under the gold standard? I seem to recall that you could own small amounts (for jewelry), but other than that gold was the property of the state. Also, I think there is more money in circulation than gold could cover, which would either make the price of gold skyrocket or do really wacky things with the dollar.

Yes. Executive Order 6102. Money in the bank - the so called M1 - lives a double life. It is your savings and someone else's loan. Encouraging (or enforcing) bank deposits helps to pump up the economy by increasing the money supply. During the depression of the 1930's our currency was gold based and so the hording of gold had the effect of reducing the money supply. Roosevelt was trying to do a quantitative easing by outlawing the holding of gold.

This year our government has been doing some odd things with regard to gold. Effective July 1st we can no longer trade gold on the forex. Also effective this year, you are to report any gold that you aren't holding at the bank in your tax returns. Some speculate that our government has sold gold that it doesn't have and now that other countries are demanding physical delivery (for instance Chavez required a huge delivery from the US earlier this year) they plan on forcing citizens to trade their gold for paper in order to make good on those sales.

I don't know if that's the case or if they just want to discourage the use of alternative currencies. If we all stop using dollars, then they lose the capacity for uninhibited spending on the backs of the citizens....a much more lucrative means of income than mere taxation.

Which is why I would like to return to an asset based, non-fiat currency. It doesn't have to be gold. Gold just happens to hit a certain sweet spot. It's useless to manufacturing and doesn't rust. It doesn't matter how much there is (currently a one centimeter cube per human). What matters is that if you take the right amount of paper to the bank, they must produce the metal. It helps keep them from going nuts with the press, and more importantly for the 99% in the US, gets us out from under the burden of being the world's reserve currency.

Rhinoqulous wrote

Intellectual property right laws in this country are fucked right now. They pretty much change at the whim of the Disney corporation (every time one of their properties is to go into public domain, the laws change. Coincidence?). How would this work with things like beer recipes (or even the branding of names)? While I think the current law is complete bullshit, limiting all intellectual property might not work either.

The whole point of the copyright law is to encourage creativity which it is no longer doing. Instead it has become this fuel for predatory groups of attorneys to roam the land harassing the young. This group has gotten so nasty that they have are actually praising the virtues of child pornography There is a nice article about the need for change in copyright law by Lessig in the WSJ. Unlikely to happen as the MPAA and BMI are big poltical lobbyists.

Regarding beer, you cannot copyright recipes, but now that you can patent broccoli, probably the work-around is to patent yeast.

So Rhinoq! Where are your five policies!