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[Mictlantecuhtli]

Now, I fashion myself as a patriot, but that does not stop me from voicing my opinion about this country we call the US. As all of you, and the world, know, America is essentially a shell of it's once great-and-glorious self. Why? I think I can try to answer this question with my revolutionist-rooted opinion from years of fact gathering and social observance;

Our country is ran by a two-party dictatorship with each little string being pulled by a greater corporate hivemind meant to keep the American public both under it's media and political influence, blinding them to their own nation's problems and keeping them ignorant of the way a country should be run.

All they are truely skilled at is staying in power and keeping resistance too small and out-voiced that any true policy change is completely blocked out.

These intense feelings of anti-government do not come from my regular doses of cannbis, as would be typical, but more due to the fact that I've watched our country rapidly deteriorate in just the last ten years.

So I pose a question to you: What are the problems truly facing the American (not the "American People [corporate interests]" that Rep Boehner and Mconnell likes to include in each of their speeches) populace? A mature discussion is required in this country if we are to fix our own future. Our government simply does not worry itself about the general populace anymore. Lower taxes on the wealthy and cut social security. Yeah, that'll fix the deficit.

[Sowelu]

We spend too much on military.  We need to return to isolationism and rebuild our infrastructure, plus spend more on education so that we can be more competitive in the world economy.  Also, and this is very important:  We need to move from a service economy back to a production economy.  Self-sufficiency with no need for imports.

[Mictlantecuhtli]

We spend too much on military.  We need to return to isolationism and rebuild our infrastructure, plus spend more on education so that we can be more competitive in the world economy.  Also, and this is very important:  We need to move from a service economy back to a production economy.  Self-sufficiency with no need for imports.

I agree completely with you. But I am slightly on the fence about our military spending. Thing is, I know we spend far too much developing overkill systems-of-complete-brown-people-obliteration, but we DO need to keep our current bases in the world funded. If we cut our military budget and simply brush off the closing of military bases as a 'small consequence' we will quickly begin to see how much people take for granted our military's stability causing effect and the ability for our soldiers to help foreign economies with their local purchases. It's all very hard to deal with.

[Tellemurius]

I do feel that we need to reposition our troops to the Mexican borders to gain control over that massive drug war going down there. Seriously we need to stop spending, the national debt is really bullshit right now and the government should have laws in place forcing them to balance the budget with no deficit unless under populous vote. While on the people, we do have the power to put laws in effect federally without requiring the windbags in Congress to vote or Obama to sign, come on, we can vote laws in without the overhead.

[Mictlantecuhtli]

I do feel that we need to reposition our troops to the Mexican borders to gain control over that massive drug war going down there. Seriously we need to stop spending, the national debt is really bullshit right now and the government should have laws in place forcing them to balance the budget with no deficit unless under populous vote. While on the people, we do have the power to put laws in effect federally without requiring the windbags in Congress to vote or Obama to sign, come on, we can vote laws in without the overhead.

You'd be surprised at how effective the federal government is at stonewalling out a state-voted policy. If it's not in the National (aka Congressional) Interest then it's definitely not going to be around very long. This goes for any policy changes, future or present.

[Tellemurius]

we got social networks, more people are connected now allowing us to share are views and hopefully react to them.

[Mictlantecuhtli]

we got social networks, more people are connected now allowing us to share are views and hopefully react to them.

In order to do that, you must get past the national apathy we have built up over the years and years of disillusionment and acceptance of a moronic government. I think that may be the largest hurdle to overcome before aything else falls into place. Too bad it's nearly impossible to get the American people to stand for something without a bomb or an attack being launched against us. We are, as a people, under siege every day by our ever-darkening government. Yet no one seems to notice. It's interesting how little we care of our own future and well-being.

[Realmfighter]

Its not a problem if no one cares.

[Mictlantecuhtli]

Its not a problem if no one cares.

It's a problem if it's a distasterous problem and no one cares. In fact, I'm pretty sure that is what has made it all into such a big clusterfuck. The populace apathy is not a sign of a hunky-dory country, and more of a sign of a country so invariably screwed that the people are either exceedingly stupid, or disappointingly inactive. I prefer to believe the latter. But, this may be a case where what I believe is not true in the least. But a man can dream.

[Tellemurius]

i remember about a thought of using a national sales tax as the only federal income. by comparing with the GDP of the nation the government should have a est. of 3 Trillion. the flat tax doesn't seem to be a bad idea but this will certainly be confusing for 3 years but this is increased income for the country.

[Vector]

Personally, I almost feel like we need some sort of revolution.  Not violent, but some kind of more formal, unified opposition.

Our country's problem is that it's too goddamned big.

[V-Norrec]

The Federal Government is too big is our number one problem.  I would favor a constitutional amendment that would allow a supermajority (two-thirds) of states to repeal a federal law, in order to enforce the tenth amendment of the Constitution.  Right now the federal government is usurping power from the states and from the people in order to increase their own power which isn't want the Framers imagined.  Of course if we would have continued to let Senators be elected by the State Legislatures rather than by popular state-wide vote, this probably wouldn't be an issue.  A smaller, more limited government would be more efficient at the fewer tasks it did, presuming of course they were legitimate uses of government authority (i.e. enforcing government laws, providing for the common defense, etc.). 

The second problem is the national debt.  The only way to fix this problem is spending cuts, which means invariably cutting benefits for some group of people.  I support a 20% reduction of federal government employees (non-military), getting rid of the dead weight bureaucrats who provide nothing productive to the country.  Also eliminating the Union for Federal Employees would be a step in the right direction as the average Federal Employee is compensated better than workers in the private sector.  (Some Sourcing)  Also note that sourcing is misleading even as it doesn't consider benefits such as health insurance and retirement savings into the total salary figures so the problem is even worse than it appears.

I would also favor privatizing social security (though allowing those currently retired and 10 years from retirement at the current age limit to continue to receive the benefits they were promised) as the government has proven time and again that they will not put the money paid into Social Security "into a lockbox" but rather merely expand the budget with the money they receive.

I would favor greatly reducing the role of Medicaid and Medicare and instead allowing states to set up individual programs per state, so that the most efficient programs will become evident and be adopted by the majority of states.

All-in-all that would be a great start in reducing the Federal Debt, as well as returning government spending to 2008 levels and freezing the spending at that point for 5 years, which shouldn't be a problem if we eliminate 20% of the federal employees and bring federal employee compensation more in line with their private sector counterparts.

Moving on to a completely different issue, we need to radically change or immigration laws.  Chain Migration is a serious problem and contributes to the problem of illegal immigration as it creates a massive back-log of people trying to enter this nation.  Also, though some may not consider this a problem, people are coming into this country faster than can be assimilated and changing the make-up of the national culture (which really, might not be a problem, but it certainly is an unintended effect of chain migration)  As such I would favor returning to a system where we accept "X" number of people per year (based on population levels) and then choose who enters based on skills, education, and background (i.e. not a terrorist or criminal) with only a slight preference for people directly related to U.S. Citizens (i.e. a serviceman who married overseas would have his/her spouse and any potential children able to jump ahead in line).  Once we adopt this system, we lock down the border and make sure it is much more difficult for people to enter this nation illegally and have actual punishments for people who attempt to do so.

I think that's about all I feel like posting for now, if I feel like it later, I may post more.

Edit:  Some clarification

[Sir Pseudonymous]

We spend too much on military.  We need to return to isolationism and rebuild our infrastructure, plus spend more on education so that we can be more competitive in the world economy.  Also, and this is very important:  We need to move from a service economy back to a production economy.  Self-sufficiency with no need for imports.

I agree completely with you. But I am slightly on the fence about our military spending. Thing is, I know we spend far too much developing overkill systems-of-complete-brown-people-obliteration, but we DO need to keep our current bases in the world funded. If we cut our military budget and simply brush off the closing of military bases as a 'small consequence' we will quickly begin to see how much people take for granted our military's stability causing effect and the ability for our soldiers to help foreign economies with their local purchases. It's all very hard to deal with.

Only the smallest fraction of military spending is R&D, with the vast majority spent in wages, benefits, and pensions.

I do feel that we need to reposition our troops to the Mexican borders to gain control over that massive drug war going down there. Seriously we need to stop spending, the national debt is really bullshit right now and the government should have laws in place forcing them to balance the budget with no deficit unless under populous vote. While on the people, we do have the power to put laws in effect federally without requiring the windbags in Congress to vote or Obama to sign, come on, we can vote laws in without the overhead.

That is literally the worst thing you can do in a recession, along with cutting taxes. Well, I suppose one could conceive of worse things, but they fall more into the "obviously suicidally insane" category, like nuking ourselves or somesuch. When the economy is depressed, you increase spending to make up for it. When you lower government spending, you either cut wages (meaning more people with less money to live on, who save more and spend less, harming the economy) or fire people (meaning more people with even less money to live on, who save more and spend less, harming the economy even worse), and reduce the efficacy of government programs (harming every part of the economy that the gutted programs touched). When you increase it, more people are making slightly more money, or more people are making any money at all, and so they are more willing to spend, which means businesses make more money, which means they grow or at least don't fail, which means more jobs and more tax income, not to mention the increased benefit from the effects of those programs on the society as a whole.

i remember about a thought of using a national sales tax as the only federal income. by comparing with the GDP of the nation the government should have a est. of 3 Trillion. the flat tax doesn't seem to be a bad idea but this will certainly be confusing for 3 years but this is increased income for the country.

Sales taxes are horribly regressive, particularly vice taxes and those on basic necessities, namely food and fuel. It needs to be said that a progressive taxation system is preferable to even a flat one not only because the wealthy can afford paying a higher percentage without a noticeable impact on their behavior, but because the poor most notably can't afford to pay a higher percentage, when one takes into consideration that a full time job at minimum wage is barely enough to live on. If you take more from them, you essentially eliminate their participation in the economy beyond purchasing the barest necessities, with predictable results on the economy as a whole.


Now, as I've been writing this, I keep getting the nagging feeling that I missed something and the whole point of this thread is to say outrageous or otherwise entirely backwards things, and if this is the case then I apologize for missing the joke.

[MrWiggles]

The US, is pretty neato beans. Not perfect, but I wouldn't want to live anywhere else in the world.  I also don't think thats it unpatroratic to voice your opinions or air your concerns.

I think the OP message had a bit to many cynical grandstanding there.
--
Its hard to see how to 'fix' the US. There are some things, I wouldn't mind seeing changed though.

Congressional Term Limits.

Wages tied to GNP for Congress, President office holders, supreme court.

Third Party ethic committee for state and federal actions.

Tax Model Change. (I'm in favor of negative income tax model.)

Change in school text book content management.

Copy right, intellectual property and patent reform.

Public National Campaign Run funds.

---

I don't see the deficit being as bad as its being made out. Compared with our deficit during the Depression, its no where near as bad. Its almost as bad as during the 70s. This isn't say, that it doesn't need minding, but why is it a being presented as such a major issue?

[sneakey pete]

I would favor greatly reducing the role of Medicaid and Medicare and instead allowing states to set up individual programs per state, so that the most efficient programs will become evident and be adopted by the majority of states.

Nice theory but you just know it wouldn't happen. A centeralized system is probably better, though the implementation of it needs to improve (but hey, if your going to split it up and make 50 new systems, why not just spend the time doing that on improving your federal system!). Other issues (like the school textbook thing) could also be solved by a well managed, you guessed it, federal system!.
But hey, i'm just a evil socalist nazi hippie from downunder.

Seriously, if you guys really want to have all states being so seperate and the like, why don't they just create their own littie countries with a military alliance or somesuch.