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Author Topic: How to fix the country thread discussion: USA  (Read 5859 times)

Frumple

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Re: How to fix the country thread discussion: USA
« Reply #30 on: November 23, 2015, 11:37:14 am »

10% of the country's yearly GDP would be dedicated to detaching florida from the continental US and relocating its population. Once accomplished, the entire landmass would be burnt down to the bedrock and the funds repurposed towards undercutting the remains of the state and collapsing the entire thing into the ocean.

I'm not sure what else I'd do, but that would be my first unilateral act as dictator.
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SirQuiamus

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Re: How to fix the country thread discussion: USA
« Reply #31 on: November 23, 2015, 11:47:59 am »

10% of the country's yearly GDP would be dedicated to detaching florida from the continental US and relocating its population. Once accomplished, the entire landmass would be burnt down to the bedrock and the funds repurposed towards undercutting the remains of the state and collapsing the entire thing into the ocean.

I'm not sure what else I'd do, but that would be my first unilateral act as dictator.
South America, take it away!
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Bohandas

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Re: How to fix the country thread discussion: USA
« Reply #32 on: November 23, 2015, 12:35:20 pm »

abstinence from being mentioned at all
I'd not want abstinence only to be around, but saying 'Of course, the most foolproof way is to not have sex' wouldn't be a bad thing. It's not going to do what abstinence only does (ie increasing children because nobody has any clue about birth control) but it at least lets them remember sex isn't a necessary thing.

Oral's pretty foolproof as well. They should know that too. As are several other things that I was going to list but will refrain from to avoid derailing the thread.
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Frumple

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Re: How to fix the country thread discussion: USA
« Reply #33 on: November 23, 2015, 12:48:47 pm »

... increased education is good, but even less emphasis that not engaging in sexual acts is okay is... not something I'd want to see. Abstinence should be mentioned, that it's acceptable (not necessary, or even necessarily desirable, but that it's okay) to not engage should be emphasized, because even in abstinence heavy education systems there's not nearly enough people saying that.

Abstinence only is braindead, though, and the existence of lower-issue alternatives that still involve intimacy is, indeed, something that should probably be mentioned. But one thing that line of education really needs is more of a line saying that not getting involved in sexual acts is okay. Not necessary, as per abstinence only stupidity, but acceptable. Lotta' youngin's (and not-youngin's) do really stupid shit because they've internalized the message that if you're not fooling around, something is wrong with you. Value neutral, information high, is the sort of thing ideal for a sex ed program. That we're currently mostly value biased and information low doesn't mean it's a good idea to just fix one of those aspects, heh.
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TempAcc

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Re: How to fix the country thread discussion: USA
« Reply #34 on: November 23, 2015, 01:01:40 pm »

Yep. Schools shouldn't do away with abstinence related teaching, but it shouldn't focus ONLY on abstinence, it should also deconstruct the whole idea that ~if you're not having loads of sex by your teen years, you're some sort of failure~ feeling thats still endemic in teen culture of many parts of good ol' amurika. Kids need to be taught its ok to not want to have sex/feel attracted to anyone. Right now, it seems most schools employ ye ol' scare tactics by plastering kids with pictures of STDs that seem to have been taken straight out of the Pain Series, sometimes coupled with religious message in certain places.
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Loud Whispers

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Re: How to fix the country thread discussion: USA
« Reply #35 on: November 23, 2015, 01:15:05 pm »

Beer taps at home, piped from communal beer reservoir.
Europe is so superior to America that it has a choice between beer, wine and ale reservoir pipes
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misko27

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Re: How to fix the country thread discussion: USA
« Reply #36 on: November 23, 2015, 01:45:10 pm »

so i was thinking i would try my hand at a discussion thread and see if it can get off the ground for a wile so here goes.

if you were to suddenly have total power to change every law and policy and such in the United States, to fix it basically, what would you do?
I think that maintaining the US as a representative democracy, and imposing my iron will on it, are mutually exclusive. If it remains a democracy, and I do something people don't like, it sure as hell won't last. And if it does, it's not a democracy. That's just obvious.

But I would probably focus on reorganizing the US to conquer the world, starting with the most obvious solutions.
Misko's Imperial States of America: Part I - The Plan
Statehood for Puerto Rico and Guam. Do away with "US Territories", start offering a whole variety of options to increase your relationship with the US, which allows nations to climb a ladder to statehood (similar to the EU). Target places like the Philippines and Liberia for this pseudo-statehood, begin propaganda drive. Take various locations in the Western Hemisphere under our wing. Continue to Manifest Destiny. This is Phase I: Reorganizing our government to prepare for coming imperalism.

Destabilize the international order by sabotaging international organizations, and use our influence to break apart the post-war order. This will lead to opportunism by the other powers, which is both good and bad for us (good in that it re-establishes notions of imperialism while simultaneously making joining us for protection a good bet, bad in that it could lead to strengthening of our enemies). Spend years attempting to grow US economic self-sufficiency within the US Sphere of Influence, then radically overturn the global market and plunge the rest of the world into chaos. Continue to pick apart, while destabilizing our biggest opponents. Overall, this is the idea: put an end to the international order as it currently exists, such as to create an environment suitable to our ambitions, and put us in the best position possible to achieve our goals.

Eventually begin offering broadly decentralized agreements to join the US. Use full influence to push governments into it, and then use cultural influence and decentralized structure of government to suppress and subvert nationalist movements before they begin. Eventually assert "misko27 corollary", and claim control over all of west. Continue to expand. Support separatist movements and splinter China. Eventually, spread into Europe proper. Phase IV: Increase strength over the International System till we become Hegemonic.

After many years, only recalcitrant nations will remain. Announce ultimatum. Conquer the ones who do not join voluntarily. Then look to the Stars to further unite the United States of Earth. Phase V:

This can be broken down into five phases:
Phase I: Imperialist Reorganization
Phase II: Overturn the System
Phase III: Regain Unipolarity (which will be lost when the international order is no more)
Phase IV: Obtain Hegemony (Total domination of majority of states, influence over what remains)
Phase V: Consolidate Planet

That's the broad outlines at least. I'll have more latter. I think my next post will focus on the domestic sphere during this phase.
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itisnotlogical

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Re: How to fix the country thread discussion: USA
« Reply #37 on: November 23, 2015, 02:10:36 pm »

Public feeding troughs. If you cause undue hassle at a restaurant or in a grocery checkout line, then you shall be directed to a public feeding trough serving a warm slurry of oats, sugar and animal fat, until such time as you demonstrate that you are mature enough to be allowed back into the store.
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martinuzz

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Re: How to fix the country thread discussion: USA
« Reply #38 on: November 23, 2015, 02:20:00 pm »

Public feeding troughs. If you cause undue hassle at a restaurant or in a grocery checkout line, then you shall be directed to a public feeding trough serving a warm slurry of oats, sugar and animal fat, until such time as you demonstrate that you are mature enough to be allowed back into the store.
At the very least it'd make billions of dollars for the US treasury from videos of it going viral
"pay 2 dollars to watch 5 minutes of capitalist pig feeding ritual livestream and vote on what to add to today's slurry mix"
« Last Edit: November 23, 2015, 02:21:32 pm by martinuzz »
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Egan_BW

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Re: How to fix the country thread discussion: USA
« Reply #39 on: November 23, 2015, 02:41:21 pm »

Public feeding troughs. If you cause undue hassle at a restaurant or in a grocery checkout line, then you shall be directed to a public feeding trough serving a warm slurry of oats, sugar and animal fat, until such time as you demonstrate that you are mature enough to be allowed back into the store.
This sounds pretty... unconstitutional.
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Shadowlord

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Re: How to fix the country thread discussion: USA
« Reply #40 on: November 23, 2015, 03:03:22 pm »

I'm going to go with:

1. Carbon tax (as in CO2-burning, or other greenhouse gases like methane), to provide a financial disincentive for contributing to climate change, hastening the switch to cleaner energy and non-gasoline cars, while also raising government revenue.
2. All illegal immigrants are now citizens, unless they're murderers or rapists on the run or repeat offenders or something. They can pay taxes, can actually talk to the police without being at risk of being deported. They were already doing jobs (or they'd have left), now they'll contribute to the tax base, can vote, and can't be exploited as easily. This may have knock-on effects (on the economy, or on immigration), but I feel it's the right thing to do. We also shouldn't be deporting all those refugees fleeing murder from south/central america either, or holding them in internment camps for months.
3. Legalize, regulate, and tax prostitution. (I wouldn't use it myself but I don't see any reason why it should be illegal, it just drives it underground)
4. Legalize, regulate, and tax marijuana. We already have alcohol and cigarette taxes, of course.
5. Alter the criminal justice system to be focused on rehabilitation rather than punishment.
6. The education system needs to be revised, and everyone agrees on that, but nobody agrees on how. So I would ask folks in the Scandinavian countries what theirs is like and if it would work here. (The teachers would all need retraining, and it would need to be free, though, but they could do it on the internet, which would help with the cost and eliminate travel time)
7. Public colleges shouldn't cost anything. Some European countries have figured this out. We can probably copy how they did it.
8. Cut military spending, by, for example, getting rid of all our ICBMs (which would have a one-time cost but eliminate the continuing cost of upkeep), and cancelling the F-35. I'd also keep the A-10 warthog. If it's expensive because of old components, perhaps have a new model designed that uses more modern components that are easier to acquire. I'm speculating on that. I don't know why they're cancelling it instead of updating it. They don't have anything else that can do the same job as well.
9. Instead of investing in fancy new planes, fund work by the NSA and/or DARPA to find ways to hack potential enemy planes (and secure ours). If possible have satellites able to hack in and take control of enemy planes, or if not, drones to do it. May also need to develop stealth drones. Once hacked they're probably vulnerable to all kinds of stuff. Like screwing with the flight systems to cause a crash. Maybe ejection is available, but I wouldn't be surprised if it was just a button/switch that the computer(s) had no access to.
10. There are far more deaths due to heart disease and cancer than gun violence, so to avoid antagonizing half the population I would mostly leave the gun issue alone, and instead fund further research into both heart disease and cancer, and aging.
11. There's still an epidemic of drugs and "drug abuse" which has been in black communities for a long time, and is to my knowledge only recently getting widespread mainstream media attention now that it has reached suburban white communities (they're reporting on heroin currently). Legalizing heroin or other highly addictive drugs isn't the answer because of how addictive they are. Considering supply and demand, I would expect that as long as the demand continues, supply will try to fulfill it. If there's excess supply it will try to create new demand (addict new people). So far efforts have focused primarily on cutting lines of supply or making it harder to create (e.g. for meth) but as long as there is profit to be made it will keep coming back. So we need, first, a program more effective than DARE at convincing young people that (addictive) drugs aren't cool, that they aren't designed to be awesome, they're a way to turn you into the most reliable repeat customer there is by turning you into a slave to your addiction (and that people sometimes die of overdoses or an impurity in their drugs, but since addicts run out of money and things to sell and often can't hold down a job, they become less and less useful as customers, so they don't really care that much if you die). The point is to eliminate the future customer base. If a medicine is developed to cure addiction permanently, that would also help current generations that want to quit to do so.
12. Let Daesh know we're going to bring our armies to Dabiq to meet them on the field of battle. Send transports and such with genuine imitation tank drones, i.e. the cheapest thing that appears to be our tanks but is actually a treaded drone in a tank-appearance shell. Not that they have satellites or anything. Unload them and send them to Dabiq. When Daesh's armies all show up, drop a nuke on them, breaking their prophecy and their armies.

I'm sure there could be more but I doubt anyone wants to read even more stuff.
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Bohandas

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Re: How to fix the country thread discussion: USA
« Reply #41 on: November 23, 2015, 04:44:13 pm »

3. Legalize, regulate, and tax prostitution. (I wouldn't use it myself but I don't see any reason why it should be illegal, it just drives it underground)
4. Legalize, regulate, and tax marijuana. We already have alcohol and cigarette taxes, of course.

No. Just legalize and regulate. In an optimal world sales tax would be eliminated and he money made up for through increases in the income and capital gains taxes.

Also, any regulations on prostitution should be purely from a public health standpoint. We don't want to put people's sexual hangups into law and furthermore no special protections would be needed for the prostitutes themselves as once it was legalized they would fall under the purview of existing occupational safety laws.
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Baffler

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Re: How to fix the country thread discussion: USA
« Reply #42 on: November 23, 2015, 04:50:42 pm »

-snip-

Well, if there was ever a time to do it, it's now while we're still relatively on top. I for one welcome our new greyscale fast-food overlord.
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TheBiggerFish

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Re: How to fix the country thread discussion: USA
« Reply #43 on: November 23, 2015, 05:02:28 pm »

... All the things the other people said that were serious propositions.
Shadowlord, mostly.
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Zangi

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Re: How to fix the country thread discussion: USA
« Reply #44 on: November 23, 2015, 05:35:31 pm »

First option: Glass the US of A

Second option: Get out of my way or be put 6 ft under. 
Everyone will conform to my ideal way to fix Murrica or at least stay out of the way, else they will be buried.  Any acts against this ideal is treason.  Thought crimes too, the media will be controlled.

I'm lazy, so a mix of Ispil, Bohandas, and Shadowlord's list seems like a good start.
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