I had flirted with the idea of running for public office. On account of my impatience with stupidity and socialism, I would be arguably the least electable, but most entertaining candidate in the history of the US. However, key in my platform would be some rather simple, but ingenious ideas such as;
1. Changing the constitution to limit government expenditure and revenue to 20% GDP FOR ALL LEVELS OF GOVERNMENT.
2. National ID cards with biometric data to not only apply for jobs, but for voting as well.
3. Requiring a balanced budget of all governments.
4. Increasing the retirement age to 75 immediately.
5. Cutting spending on SS and Medicare by 25% immediately.
6. Eliminating corporate and dividend taxes and making it part of the constitution no company shall ever be taxed to bring back investment into the country and legitimately boost stock prices.
7. Replace ALL taxes with ONE sales tax so there is no need to ever fill out a tax form ever again AND so the people know ONE number and know PRECISELY how much in tax they're paying.
8. The immediate cessation of any government funding to "global warming" studies or personnel and an immediate investigation into "global warming" to see if any criminal activity took place (with sincere intent to persecute and punish).
Now, what is sad is that for the most part Americans are not educated or smart enough in either basic economics or the constitution or the history of this formerly great country to realize THAT IS POSSIBLE. And not only is it possible, but that the above 8 ideas would be of ENORMOUS benefit to the country, and would effectively stop the recession in its tracks. They are more concerned about transferring other people's wealth and exacting a toll of "revenge" on people who "made too much." They are too busy pursuing "global warming" as a religion with fervent and pscyhotic zeal. Also, too many people and too large of swathes of the economy are dependent upon wealth transfers either by direct receipt of those transfers or are employed in the "wealth transfer industry."
And so when you see something like this, you start to wonder if you shouldn't move to Georgia (and for those in Rio Linda, that's not the state we're talking about).
14 comments:
Do you know what friendly fire is?
Because if you really ran for public office on that platform, you would find out real quick.
Would love to see it happen though. Total lack of critical thought happening in politics today, could use a fresh infusion of "WTF were you thinking!?!???!!"
I'd be on board with all of those except #2. #1, #3-#8 are all about decreasing the size and extent of government. #2 is about increasing the control of government and its intrusion into the private lives of the citizenry.
I suspect #2 wasn't really about identification as much as keeping illegal immigrants out of the job market and voting privileges. I think there are better ways of handling that than a national ID card.
The small, former communist, countries like Georgia, Slovakia, Poland, and so on, they are the real stars in terms of economic achievements. China, Russia, Brazil, and India are hailed as future economic superpowers, but their success will be short-lived.
I can't wait Georgia to join the NATO, so that they will never be attacked by Russia again.
The years you were in office would be grand, but by 10 years after we would probably end up with income, corporate, and who knows what other taxes back on. Plus the federal sales tax on top of it.
They made income tax unconstitutional when the country was FOUNDED, and how long did it take them to get that in? "Oh, those guys didn't understand MODERN governing when they wrote that!"
Sometimes I think the US is just too big to do much but slide towards socialism.
I kind of hope several states and provinces will secede to form a new nation. And the stupid fish/tofu eaters on the coast will let us because they are too stoned to remember that we grow all their damned food!
I've always been fond of taxing consumption instead of production but even I fall prey to the temptation of taxing different things differently. A flat across the board sales tax would be harder to swallow but it would be the best way to guaranty freedom.
How would Georgia enforce a 60% of GDP public debt cap? They can control their own banks from loaning too much to people but what if their citizens take loans from foreign banks? Too bad Putin has his eyes on Georgia.
I agree with daniel about #2. National ID cards would be printed by the government, right? What's to stop the party in power from printing as many as they like?
Also, I would not only set a limit to government spending as a percentage of GDP, but also require that when tax revenues exceed that figure, the FIRST place that money should go is into a Rainy Day fund which should be built up to about 3 x GDP, such funds to be used only when tax revenues fall and ONLY to support identified core services plus capital construction.
Retirement at 75 may be pushing a bit too much. I'll work until 70 is you get elected. :)
Jim
you would never be elected to office in Minneapolis. with the politics you're spouting, its kind of hard to believe you live there.
Strongly disagree with number two, I don't want the government at all involved in the hiring process. Just adds expensive bureaucracy.
with the politics you're spouting, its kind of hard to believe you live there.
It's somewhat less bizarre than Michael Savage living in San Francisco.
"you would never be elected to office in Minneapolis. with the politics you're spouting, its kind of hard to believe you live there." (anonymous)
Now THAT really is funny stuff!
Best laugh of the week so far.
The "political" platform offered was solely based on market-based economic principles (those work, redistribution and socialism/Keynesianism clearly does NOT), so apparently anonymous is lamenting that the people of Minneapolis are "too stupid" to know what works and what doesn't and therefore wouldn't vote for logical workable economic principles that would deliver greater prosperity to more people, because they'd let feelings/sentiments cloud their judgment.
To be fair, that's not only Minneapolis, the rest of America has gotten too fat, too dumb and too horse-shit happy (spending the windfall previous generations worked for) and has also voted feeling over logic, sentiment over practicality, but still, that was a not-so-nice, even if unintended slap at the people of Minneapolis.
Funny stuff.
"A flat across the board sales tax would be harder to swallow"
Wait until there's no mortgage interest deduction, and you have to pay tax on your house sale.
Three's no way to phase that in, that works, you have have to ram in it and enforce it with a bayonet, while the crowds bayed for your blood.
looks like Tytler got it absolutely right
" A democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of government. It can only exist until the voters discover that they can vote themselves largesse from the public treasury. From that moment on, the majority always votes for the candidates promising the most benefits from the public treasury with the result that a democracy always collapses over loose fiscal policy, always followed by a dictatorship. The average age of the world's greatest civilizations has been 200 years.
Great nations rise and fall. The people go from bondage to spiritual truth, to great courage, from courage to liberty, from liberty to abundance, from abundance to selfishness, from selfishness to complacency, from complacency to apathy, from apathy to dependence, from dependence back again to bondage. "
so we just have to decide in which stage we are. i think betweeh apathy and dependence, so things will get worse. a lot worse.
"On account of my impatience with stupidity and socialism..."
Well, every country is socialist. Except Somalia and parts of Pakistan I guess.
Socialism isn't an either/or, it is one of the ingredients in the recipe that cooks up a country. Some countries use more, some use less. You can ruin the dish by using too much or too little, but within a band, it is mainly a matter of taste.
The US, as far as I know, has a socialist military, basic education, most police forces and fire crews, CDC probably others. Other countries do much the same.
When compared to the real outliers, the "no socialism" of Somalia or the opposite end exemplified by North Korea for example, most western nations tweak their recipe by very minor amounts indeed.
I agree about removing #2 from the list. In stage one it has some benefits. Long term when your political enemies are in power, they get to decide what to do with them. The more government knows about and tries to control, the less freedom we have.
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