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By mikema63
#14811285
This is mostly for my self-edification. This is a list of some of my general thoughts and ideas without any particular mind to their political feasibility. I'll break it down into sections so feel free to skip around or not read it at all.

Political Structures:In general I favor a sort of technocratic republic. I think it makes sense for lawyers to write legislation and I think that democracy is necessary to create a dynamic society that does not stagnate and die. I also think there are limits to democracy namely in the specifics of any issue. Supporting energy independence is a fine general goal, but the details of what some people think that means can be anything from ridiculous to self-defeating.

So I favor a system whereby the legislature votes to do some general thing, say an infrastructure project or environmental regulations, and then a panel of experts semi-randomly selected from the top of their fields (for example on environmental regulations it would be environmental scientists, environmental economists, etc.) where they work out what specifics should be done. Then it's sent to another group of lawyers who write that into practical legalistic form, and then it's either voted yes or no by the legislature again.

I would also require provisions in every bill that test it's effectiviness and allows changes to be made to address deficiencies and unforeseen consequences.

Religion:All religious institutions must pay taxes. All religious schools and homeschooling should be banned. Strict enforcement of the separation between church and state. In school religious history will be taught from a secular point of view (i.e. this is what we know, this is what these groups believe, this is the historical origins of each group.)

Education:I touched on this above a bit. The education system needs to be completely remade. Flexible grade levels that aren't based on age but ability. Much higher teacher salaries with higher requirements to become a teacher. Incentives for experts to spend a few years teaching the subject they are experts in. Stronger arts, PE, and music programs. More focus on critical thinking more than rote memorization (though that is still important). Get rid of school zones and untie school funding from property taxes and those ridiculous tests.

Higher education should definitely be free or at least cheap enough that everyone has access. As well as programs to catch people up if they were undeserved by the lower educational system.

Welfare:Negative income tax that provides for the basic needs of the american population that varies by the cost of living in various areas. With that you can eliminate pretty much all other welfare programs except for those involving healthcare.

Also universal healthcare.

Taxes:Beyond the negative income tax rates the taxation rate should go up steeply after about $10,000,000 and should be 100% past $1 billion.

Tax capital gains as regular income, tax corporate bonuses at double the going tax rate, and eliminate corporate income tax.

Surrendering US citizenship will require large chunks of your assets and wealth frozen and seized. If the American system saw you gain your riches then you don't get to run away from the system when the bill comes due.

Criminal Justice:Massive refocus to rehabilitation. End the stigma against ex-cons being able to get jobs and educate them. Require them to work some reasonable amount to help pay off the cost to society of their incarceration.

End the death penalty and replace it with life in prison, where they will work.

Lots of race issues fall into this category and I can go into endless detail on police force reform but basically demilitarize, refocus police forces, educate them properly, body cams, etc. etc.

Science:Massive increases in science funding across the board. Increase NASA spending substantially. Especially focus on materials science, automation, etc.

Take some funding out of the military to go towards NASA but also explore military options for space. Work on making resource procurement from space feasible. Definitely put a lot of money into energy research.

Social Issues:Compete support for LGBT rights. Commitment to the social revolutions we've seen so far and probably some that are coming. Reactionary elements against social change are not only archaic but actively dangerous to the dynamic social changes that must come to a changing world. Fighting social change is a good way to make your society brittle and make it collapse.

Diplomacy:Maintain and expand NATO. Strengthen our European relationships. Russia is not our friend and we should not try and disrupt our geopolitical interests just to try and become their friend. The current international structure is working for us, make sure it keeps working for us, and don't abandon it out of some misguided desire to be friends with Russia.

Strengthen American Propaganda outfits. Find and hire some liberal hippy Imams and organize them to create a new narrative about Islam (this would apply generally to other religious groups) and broadcast it widely at home and abroad. Undermine the religious values of conservative third world groups.

Return to the "melting pot" where cultural identity is not something that should be maintained absolutely but should partially assimilate to the cultural values that allow the US to exist. Head scarfs, food, etc. are great and add value to american society. The ridiculous views on women rights, Gays, theocracy, etc. need to die.

If we happen to get into another damned middle eastern war we need to change the way we approach the reconstruction. We need to take political control and massively build up infrastructure, educate the entire populace, and indoctrinate them all into our way of thinking. Resistance to this agenda needs to be eliminated. Anything less and we are just wasting our time on another pointless conflict for no reason. By the time we are done they should be thanking us, let us keep a military base, and maintain extremely strong ties to the west.

If I think of any other general stuff I'll add it later.
#14811387
I posted something like this once, but it got a chilly reception from the right wingers that occupy this forum. I could post it again, but it is 18 pages long, and I don't feel like pissing people off today. :excited:
#14811452
I support most of that list (I'm less hardline on religion, and wouldn't support so steep progression in the income tax schedule - if we want to tax rich people then we would be better off doing it through some sort of tiered consumption taxation*, and am undecided about the NIT, and would have placed more emphasis on land and carbon(!) taxation). Though one policy which seems very obviously unworkable to me is,

mikema63 wrote:Surrendering US citizenship will require large chunks of your assets and wealth frozen and seized.

One of the presumptions I make whenever I design taxation policies is that, in the long-run tax accountants always win.

I can only imagine that the people rich enough to be targeted here would have developed (or had their accountants develop) at least half a dozen schemes to avoid this by the afternoon the bill is published. It seems very difficult to actually enforce.

(Taxing corporate bonuses is another where the end-result is more likely a windfall for tax accountants than any sort of social gain).
#14811454
I'm less hardline on religion


It's necessary, at the very least, to do this to stop more radical Islamic madrassahs and the funding from foreign states that goes into them. It does have to be equally applied to all religions. It helps that I am pretty anti-religion personally of course.

undecided about the NIT,


There are going to be huge unemployment upheavals in the future from automation. Self driving truck alone would unemploy millions of american workers. I think it's not only simpler than broad welfare programs but necessary to deal with drastically changing economic conditions that technology will bring.

and would have placed more emphasis on land and carbon(!) taxation


It was silly of me not to mention the carbon tax, which I fully support. I do support property tax's as well though I think that is slightly less important. I also support an extremely high estate tax.

One of the presumptions I make whenever I design taxation policies is that, in the long-run tax accountants always win.

I can only imagine that the people rich enough to be targeted here would have developed (or had their accountants develop) at least half a dozen schemes to avoid this by the afternoon the bill is published. It seems very difficult to actually enforce.

(Taxing corporate bonuses is another where the end-result is more likely a windfall for tax accountants than any sort of social gain).


The goal of these is less to generate revenue than reduce as much as possible the rate of people actually doing this. One of the results of the provision I would require in all bills to test and change bills to increase effectiveness would be to constantly adapt bills to counter these strategies.

They can't be eliminated of course, but I seek to minimize them wherever possible.

sort of tiered consumption taxation


I'm not sure how a tiered consumption tax would work but it's not something I'm super fond of. At a certain point of wealth people stop consuming as much as a portion of their income and simply invest the extra money. So the burden will always fall on lower income brackets in terms of percentage. Even if it were tiered I doubt a billionaire would consume enough to pay more as a fraction of their income than someone in the middle class.

I should also add for in general that we should reunionize the work force and have them represented in the expert panels along with industry experts (general experts who aren't tied to any particular company but study the industry and it's needs as a whole).
#14811784
You need to add something about a border wall with Mexico. Maybe landmines and stuff too.
#14811801
Believe it or not I flirted with expansionism in Highschool, I probably would support a peaceful annexation to form a North american union or equivalent. :D

Out of curiosity do you think what I've outlined would be socialist or is the map you used a coincidence? I don't consider it particular socialist in and of itself outside of my intention to let it be able to adapt policy to changing economic realities to the point that it could become socialist.
#14811835
If controversial opinions are aloud, I want this:

http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/images/maps/mapGreaterME.jpg

In order to understand why you have to understand the political structure and society I envision but that would take a lot of time to write. Don't worry it isn't fascism or something like that, I think both you (@mikema63) and @MememyselfandIJK would agree with the political structure and society of my vision. Also you have to understand Technocracy i.e. the technocracy described by technocracy.ca.
#14811873
@Oxymandias Let's get the nations to stop fighting first, than we can discuss unification (although unification will be nearly impossible along Sunni/Shite lines, let alone including the Israelis)
#14811945
@MememyselfandIJK

(Note: The following may in fact be a pipe dream, it is also rushed because Oxymandias wants to sleep and it's 1 am right now)

This may be controversial, but my idea is to "conquer" it all, but not in a completely physical manner, more in an economic/diplomatic manner similar to the way China is "conquering" but the potential of such "conquering" is expanded. There will be military actions taken against the various nations of the middle east however that is not what will win them over. The goal is to become an economic and cultural superpower in the middle east. This may seem hard but it's not. There are plenty of economic and political theories that can cause growth and high-standards of living for everyone, there are policies that can incentivize social change yet they are not being used at all. The only big problem that doesn't seem to have a solution is the rural and city divide.

I would discuss my ideas for how to do this but it would take too long and I don't have the sources at hand to provide examples. I also think that my ideas deserve a more focused discussion in it's own post not because I think my opinions deserve high regard but because my ideas are too derivative from the discussion and may stop people from posting their own random political thoughts.

So anyways before I even do this I would need a country in the first place. I have my eyes on the plans of Greater Syria discounting Israel. Of course this will have immediate American and Israeli intervention for reasons that are obvious and if we try to go on a full on war with them we will also lose. So the goal is not to fight in a war with them, it's to put enough political obstacles to make fighting against us a waste of time and resources for the US. The best way to do this is to use the US military's weak points. I've read numerous essays and articles written by actual soldiers in the US military on how to improve it and now I know it's weak points. The US military, like most other militaries in the world, is big, bulky and backwards. It's still in the Cold War and uses Cold War tactics and strategies. The US military's weak points isn't enough to destroy them, but it is enough that we would be able to make fighting a war with us an extremely exhausting experience. Another good way is to build lots and lots of good economic and political ties with businesses in Europe and the US and somehow encourage them to make major investments in our country. This can potentially be done with a charismatic presenter and good, solid plans for economic development that are predictable while making sure that they do not become too powerful of an influence over the government.

Another good way is by making Israel look bad which is pretty easy. All you have to do is cause a ton of political pressure on Israel to make it socially unstable. After you do that we send informants into Israel not to be terrorists but to record footage of the brutality of Israel and post it on youtube. But that isn't enough, at best it'll cause the American population to hate Israel but I'm assuming the worst and predicting that Trump turns America into an authoritarian kleptocracy so what I want to do is make the country have better value than Israel has to the US and if that happens, the US will not just stop supporting Israel, but be against it and even sponsor a war against Israel and my country if I am of that much value.

How do I make myself of value? Two things, free oil and buying arms, lots and lots of arms, more arms than Saudi Arabia and Israel can ever buy. Now you may be wondering, why free oil? Well that's because I hate oil, I hate what it does to countries and I hate what it did to mine. By getting rid of it I make myself of value to the US and if I promise to still give them free oil even when I conquer new territories, I would get sponsored. I also want to become the king of renewable energy and what else is a good motivator other than getting rid of oil in general? And if it doesn't work the ME can still use Geothermal, Solar, and Cogeneration. And then you may ask, how the fuck are you going to afford more weapons than Israel and Saudi Arabia? Well I'll be using Modern Monetary Theory as the basis for my economic system and I would explain Modern Monetary Theory however I am in a hurry. I probably only have enough time to talk about the Sunni/Shia divide then I'm to go to sleep.

Basically since the government prints as much money as it wants, it can never be in debt but we ca also use this to print a ton of money thus can pay as much as it wants as long as it has value which it will have instantly since we have oil and are not under American influence which America does not want because that would damage diplomatic relations and then I would give free oil to Europe so America cannot do shit to me if I didn't give it free oil.

Regarding the Sunni/Shia divide there is a very simple solution. Now my country will not have an official state religion however, it will promote Sufism to it's citizens and in foreign policy. Now you may say "So the way you're going to solve the Sunni/Shia conflict is by adding another sect into the fight?" however Sufism isn't really a sect as much as wikipedia would like you to believe. You can be Sunni and be Sufi. This is because Sufism is a focus on a particular part of Islam which is the Greater jihad. Now don't let the word jihad scare you, the Greater jihad is, in contrast with the Lesser jihad (which can only be done in self-defense and against oppressive authorities, ISIS claims to be doing the lesser jihad), an internal struggle. The goal of the Greater jihad is to change yourself and develop internal purity, peace, and love for everything.

Not only that, but Sufis think religion is a very personal thing and believe that only through direct connection with god can you achieve salvation. This is also the reason that many of them can potentially be anti-organized religion and anti-clerics as it fits within their beliefs. Do you see where I'm going with this? If we do it right we can potentially create an Islamic reformation. And an even better thing is that this will create a shift between Sufis and non-Sufis. Yes this is good because Sunnis and Shias can be Sufis and so the main question isn't whether or not Ali is the rightful Caliph but whether or not Islam should be about inner connection with God or should be in the power of the clerics and we should do everything in our power to support them.

Although we may run into a problem. You see, many people in the ME don't know how to read so they won't be able to read the Quran and so the Sufi's revelations won't have an effect on them, we won't get that big change that leads to the discovery and rediscovery of thousands of alternative sects of Islam or even new religions. So I'm thinking of creating a constructed language that is phonetically similar to Arabic and Farsi and uses a similar script but it will be phonetic and simple. It will also be inspired by conlangs such as Lojban. This way people will be easily able to read the Quran and thus we can have an Islamic Reformation.

For a better explanation of Sufism read this: https://sufism.org/sufism

It doesn't explain the actual practices of Sufis but it does explain it's core idea and that's really all we need.
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