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[Mrhappyface]

I love my country America for its positive aspects: Freedom, liberty, the constitution, apple pie, etc. I hang a flag outside my house on holidays, I have a troop support bumper sticker, I'm registered in the nra. 
 But I still believe the country is far from perfect, and could still improve. I don't have a lot of faith in either parties due to recent e Lots of people think of copying Europe, but I am thinking a small but efficient and strong government would be best for the USA.
What are your suggestions

[Blargityblarg]

Controls on guns and corporations'd be my first step, were I to be appointed the magical overlord of the US who could do anything regardless of difficulty in implementation.

[Tellemurius]

I love my country America for its positive aspects: Freedom, liberty, the constitution, apple pie, etc. I hang a flag outside my house on holidays, I have a troop support bumper sticker, I'm registered in the nra. 
 But I still believe the country is far from perfect, and could still improve. I don't have a lot of faith in either parties due to recent e Lots of people think of copying Europe, but I am thinking a small but efficient and strong government would be best for the USA.
What are your suggestions

Fix the damn tax system and balance the budget, cut down some of the military as we are backing out on the wars now.


Also if the health care plan is still going through it might be high time to combine medicare and medicaid taxes to one.

[Euld]

The idea of a government's "size" has never made much sense to me.  Are we talking... 1)Number of employees 2)Amount of money to run it 3)Power over individuals or companies, or something else?

[Ancre]

There will always be lots of room for improvement, and lots of disagreeing on what improvement should be. No matter the country.

I kinda like how it is at the moment. Of course, I also think there's room for improvement (mine would be working toward health care, and not being dependent on cars so much) but there's a lot of nice things in it, and it's huge, there's always a way to find some place you like living in.

[Bauglir]

I will say that while many of my ideas do happen to follow trends in European social policy, none of my reasons for it happen to involve Europe. It's largely coincidental.

[Frumple]

Eh. Define "good" and/or define "best for the USA" and maybe some interesting discussion could be had.

Anyway. Being like Europe wouldn't necessarily be a bad thing, nor necessarily a good thing. Several countries over there do things better than the states are currently managing. We should shamelessly steal their effective methodologies and implement them for our own improvement. Some of them don't do things as well. We should not adopt those practices.

Is simple thing, but first you have to figure out what you're actually trying to do. Which practices to adopt and not adopt vary depending on your "good."

'Course, state of politics being what they are, us not!disgustingly rich people's opinions probably don't really matter that much. Still, might be fun talking.It'll die quickly or be locked. I give 2:1 odds of moderation resulting from extended argument. Takers?

[mainiac]

It'll die quickly or be locked. I give 2:1 odds of moderation resulting from extended argument. Takers?

I actually don't expect the thread to live long enough for that.

[MetalSlimeHunt]

Lots of people think of copying Europe, but I am thinking a small but efficient and strong government would be best for the USA.

This is very vague.

[mainiac]

Lots of people think of copying Europe, but I am thinking a small but efficient and strong government would be best for the USA.

This is very vague.

Do you think he means Sweden, Ireland or Belarus?

[CJ1145]

Lots of people think of copying Europe, but I am thinking a small but efficient and strong government would be best for the USA.

This is very vague.

Precisely. I thought the whole point of conservatives pushing for smaller government was because they thought it was too strong as it is?

Do you think he means Sweden, Ireland or Belarus?

Greece. Duh.

[Criptfeind]

Is America being "conservative" good?

No. No country being anything is good. Countries should do what is best for their citizens and the world, but in the poisoned political atmosphere we have in America we pointedly do not do such things even when a a majority of experts from all sides of the political spectrum think we should because of nothing to do with it's own merits but rather because it does not have the worthless label of 'conservative' or 'liberal.'

People need to worry less about whether something has a label they like and more about if it is a good idea.

[Mrhappyface]

Not necessarily, the government tends to get wasteful and slow as it gets larger. It would be nice to become like the Nordic countries, but we are too large and heterogeneous for that to happen. Nor do we want to become like the declining PIGS or unstable eastern countries.

[mainiac]

Not necessarily, the government tends to get wasteful and slow as it gets larger. It would be nice to become like the Nordic countries, but we are too large and heterogeneous for that to happen. Nor do we want to become like the declining PIGS or unstable eastern countries.

The "declining PIIGS" contain among them Ireland, which was supposed to be the poster child for limited government and is often still treated as such.  The only unstable countries I am aware of in eastern countries are the baltics, which are quite committed to small government, Belarus, which is still stalinist and needs to get with the times and Hungary which has gone off the deep end with conservative authoritarianism. 

Oh and Greece...  Greece which apparently is the only thing anyone cares about because it provides the example that the free market brigade desperately needs after their economic policies lead to a horrible bubble and crash and their monetary policies in the ECB have threatened a double dip.  Yes Greece has a bloated public sector.  They also had a government that was cooking the books and then got hit by a massive recession that they were especially vulnerable to because of the Euro.  It's not like Greece is the only country that would suffer in such circumstances.  In fact I can name you some laissez faire economies that would suffer in much less dire circumstances like oh... Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Ireland.  We aren't going to turn into Greece.  We do not have a government that is fabricating numbers and we do not have another country setting the interest rates on our currency.  Say what you will about Bernanke but he is Jesus Christ on toast compared to Trichet or King or Draghi.

[Mrhappyface]

I just hope we quit printing so much money eventually. (Also, thanks for not being the Escapist forums. They think all conservatives are controlled by Skeletor!)