Addressing US/World Problems
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Main Underlying Concepts & Things to Be Vigilant About
These problems are overarching with regard to the reasons we are in such a mess now, AND are important to recognize when they show up.
Most definitely they will “show up” when trying to implement my list of “Specific Ideas” below, as well as showing up when trying to fix problems not on my list.
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1 |
Stop, and prevent, the intentional setup of Conflict of Interest. Root out Conflict of Interest.
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Our country (and world) is being destroyed, socially and physically, due to greed, followed closely by jealousy. People are placing their short-term interests over long-term matters. An obvious example, around the Enron collapse, “Burn baby, burn” as said by a stock investor glad at the devastation in CA as wildfires burned up some of the electrical grid, resulting in raising the price of stock he held. (My interpretation of what I heard.)
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2 |
Checks and Balances: Dust off and clarify laws, regulations, and policies.
Perhaps some new concerns, problems, and issues have evolved over the decade(s), that necessitate updated working or vigilance.
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Care must be taken however, so we don’t “swing” too far the other way and become a bunch of self-righteous ideologues. Interrogating everyone for every imagined sin is not helpful. Neither is “Torturing them until they confess.”
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3 |
Transparent as Possible. Open as possible. Use as much Open Source Software as possible. Open Source Software provides an excellent point of reference for learning software and computers. Software and hardware designs in the Public Domain should be used as much as possible to promote the common good.
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Specific Ideas (No Particular Order, Do All at Once)
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1 |
Repeal Prohibition on Drugs ====================
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See www.LEAP.cc Law Enforcement Against Prohibition for tons of testimonials, statistics, information, and links to related web sites. (Disclose triangle to see additional links.)
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Potential Problems
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People incorrectly seeing it as an attempt to promote drug use.
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Corrupt officials and citizens participating somehow in selling or trafficking drugs.
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Religious people who think God told them to push their wills on others. (To them I would point out 1 Timothy 4:1-6.)
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Entrenched interests getting tons of money due to this losing war that just gets more and more obese with spending, while covering up and distorting their losing efforts.
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Other countries resisting due to their addiction to HUGE US financial and military hand-outs.
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Terror from hypocrites posing as being against drugs, but in fact, are drug dealers thinking they will get less money than they do now.
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Conflict of interest from the “privatization” of prisons and their suppliers that find profit (extracted from taxpayers), to lock people up; their lobbyists are powerful I bet.
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Benefits
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Save hundreds of billions of dollars formerly spent on:
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Trashing other country’s environments.
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Incarcerating decent people. Turning them from productive members of society in to costly liabilities.
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Escalating spending on weaponry and gadgets for spying and destroying.
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Actually following our own Constitution.
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Many decent people in prison can be set free, and not kept around the amazingly violent offenders. Greatly reducing prison overcrowding.
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Hemp fiber can be grown easily and help replace a lot of cotton, which is VERY depleting on soil nutrients. This should not be underestimated. Cotton is great, but it yields significantly less fiber per acre and is GREATLY depletes nutrients from the soil, which hemp does not do.
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Significant medical studies can go forward.
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“Pulls the rug out from under” the drug lords.
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2 |
Flat Tax ====================
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Tax everyone the same percentage. This is only fair. This will save billions of dollars our govt. spends trying to figure out and enforce its own CRAZILY COMPLEX tax codes. (Years ago I watched Jerry Brown pitch a flat tax program on Tony Brown’s TV show, I am no expert in such things, but from what I’ve heard about Jerry Brown and his aversion to the trappings of power, he seems like a very good person to learn from and involve.)
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Potential Problems
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Extreme resistance from the very wealthy tax preparation industry that thrives off the complexity of the tax system, and “instant cash” to poor people awaiting returns from the IRS.
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Extreme resistance from the wealthy and their tax experts who are aware of all the loopholes and take advantage of them, paying a much smaller percentage of their income than does a poor slob like myself.
The thought of me paying over 20% of my income doesn’t bother them, but their blood may curdle when you ask them to pay 20% of their incomes.
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Anger from religious people who point out that God asks for 10% of our incomes, but the govt. wants even more than God. However, I’d point out to them, even now (before fixing our tax system), it seems the US Govt. is taking more than God.
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Benefits
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Much simpler tax codes. People can fill them in themselves (a goal), without need to hire expensive lawyers and others.
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Better mood in country as everyone knows we’re all paying the same rate, instead of feeling like we’re the only one’s being ripped off, and other are somehow finding tons of loopholes to pay less taxes.
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More money being collected due to elimination of loopholes.
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Less time spent beating head against wall trying to figure out complicated tax codes. Less frustration.
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Less human hours wasted on needlessly complex rules.
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3 |
Promote Use of Open Source Software ====================
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There is some AWESOME stuff out there covering the gamut of what’s needed:
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Operating Systems.
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Software like databases, scripting languages, office software, graphics software and more.
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Content management systems for storing and sharing information. Using a database to store the information and a web browser to see it (in simple terms).
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Other systems to benefit education.
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Open Source Software excels at sharing information, vs. locking it up in a proprietary file format that’s not readable in a few years, or requires outrageous licensing fees to access, or requires breaking the DMCA to access your own data! Ludicrous!
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Via Open Source Software and local Education, we can count on many more people knowing the systems and being able to help maintain, and fix necessary them, versus some really remote company and or tech support.
The benefits of many more people knowing things is enormous. Learning. Education.
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Potential Problems
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Some very monied companies enjoy their monopoly and feel threatened.
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Some people have been brainwashed by FUD (Fear, Uncertainty, and Doubt) to believe that open source software is bad. Mistakenly thinking it is inherently less secure, produced by people with malevolent intent, or some other bunch of inaccurate lies.
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Benefits
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Greatly increase the level of understanding many people have with regard to computers and specifically, software.
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Create environment where MANY more people can be called on to fix problems, or customize the software.
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More secure software.
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Renewed focus on data and information, which is the REAL reason for the computer tools, instead of focusing on the software tools themselves (i.e. which word processor was used, which operating system is running the computer). Publicly documented file formats are essential! What program was used to create them is not.
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Put Usury Laws Back in Place ====================
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I’m not sure what was taken out, but it makes no sense to build an industry on money that people are not capable of repaying. It seems to me I heard that usury laws were somehow subverted during the Bush administrations.
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It seems many “credit” companies are mainly interested in enticing people in to debt tar-pits they have no possibility of escaping.
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5 |
Green Jobs and Green Energy ====================
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Govt. Installs VAWT (windmills) on Houses and Buildings
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The household gets to use whatever energy the windmill generates, but all extra energy is sold back to the grid.
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The payment back to the government takes the form of energy being sold back to the grid!
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Once the participating house/building has paid back 200% the costs (parts and labor), the homeowner is the new payee for energy being sold back to the grid.
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Benefits
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Immediate jobs.
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ZERO up-front costs to the homeowner/building owner.
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Immediate benefit to homeowners through reduced energy costs.
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Reduction in green house gasses.
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Immediate use for the increasing stockpiles of recycled metal (which are not being bought like they used to).
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Participating houses sell green-energy back to grid.
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Training and educating more people in important matters like electricity and energy.
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For landlord/tenant situations, I’d like to see the benefits split evenly. I.e. not a handout to the landlords.
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Potential Problems
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Strong resistance from energy companies who see ONLY themselves as the source of energy, and bristle at the thought of “lowly homeowners” becoming a force, selling power back to the grid.
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Strong resistance from energy companies who only think 31st century solutions are the answer.
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Videos/Educational Links
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6 |
Begin “Conversation” About Population Size Management ====================
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If you don’t believe this is a problem please read Jared Diamond’s book, “Collapse.” At Amazon At Wikipedia
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Potential Problems
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Some people will mistakenly think this is an effort to control various ethnic or cultural groups.
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Some people will mistakenly think this is meant to “purify” our society and rid it of “undesirable” people and/or beliefs.
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Some people could create plans based on percentages of races, and other social structures (like religion). This could give the (wrong) impression my plan is based on “ethnic cleansing,” or trying to maintain some claimed superiority.
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Some people will go out of their way to have more children, just to spite this effort.
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Some belief systems are against educating women.
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Benefits
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Facing the problem openly and head-on is the best way to figure out all opposition and benefits, as well as letting everyone know what’s going on. And why this is an important issue.
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With a stabilized population, planning can be more intelligent than a population that swings wildly in terms of gaining, or loosing, citizens.
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7 |
Stop Corporate (and Government) Inbreeding ====================
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It seems many in the upper echelons of business sit on each others boards of directors and vote each other huge pay packages and bonuses. Then they chant the same thing, “we need to pay our executives a lot since other companies are paying them a lot.”
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It also seems many people move from corporate positions to government positions and back and forth. I think people call this a “revolving door.” On the surface, this seems like a great idea, that people with experience are tapped by both govt. and industry. HOWEVER, it seems corporations are leading some/many in to temptation, and instead of it being a good idea, corruption has seriously soured this potentially good idea.
It is VERY disheartening that people are using their contacts, not for the public good, but to screw us over.
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Prevent Telcos and Cable Companies (ISPs) Crookedness ====================
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It seems many of them do not like “net neutrality.” They want to insert themselves between customers and Internet sites, then extort them to make sites load faster, intentionally and artificially slowing them down. Perhaps to favor a “partner” the ISPs are in cahoots with.
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It seems many of them do not want to develop their capacity and move to IPv6.
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It seems they want to just sit back and squeeze more money from customers based on adding monopolistic services and “bundles” to their offerings.
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It seems many of them fight against towns and other citizen groups trying to create their own networks, and create Internet access points for the benefit of citizens. So instead of benefitting the citizens, which we all are, the citizens are stymied in to doing nothing, or forking over power to the corporations which only bring profits/benefits to fewer people.
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It seems they already received HUGE tax breaks or government handouts, but did not use the money the way they promised. www.pbs.org—neutrality.html
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If memory serves these companies have TONS of capacity, but they have turned it off, creating “dark fiber” in order to create artificial scarcity, and thus raise prices.
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The Internet was designed from the beginning to be distributed, not a star hub with all us little people as “dead-end” nodes.
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Prevent and revert many “exclusive” deals between companies that smack of monopolistic practices and prevent consumer choice. ====================
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Mainly I’m thinking of how Apple’s iPhone seems to be strangled by AT&T. But that’s just one example.
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10 |
Universal Health Care ====================
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Why is it when big business wants to buy up other businesses, it’s to increase efficiency, to increase buying power, but when the notion of single-payer health care comes up, it’s railed against as being the worst boondoggle imaginable?
Do I think government is perfect? Ha, if I did this wouldn’t be #12 in my off-the-cuff list. :-) I’ve certainly be subject to more than a few sluggish public servants who were only too glad to be as leisurely as possible when doing their jobs.
Please see this few word essay I wrote, that links to a great PBS show: www.NewOldSalt.com—Future_of_Healthcare_on_Frontline
The real “bitter pill” is going to be that the medical profession needs to charge less. The teaching institutions need to charge less, so the doctors aren’t so grossly in debt upon graduation, and thus the doctors need to charge less. Their rates are unsustainable IMHO.
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Reassign Most of NASA & Most of the IRS ====================
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We have so many very deep problems that these ultra-smart people could/should be focusing on, but instead, it’s like we’ve “gone shopping” to forget how depressed at our problems we are.
In tandem, I believe the NASA and IRS folks have the smarts and the number crunching capability to help tons of businesses become much more efficient, mainly in terms of energy use, but also in other fields.
Due to the new Flat Tax (separate, but related) far fewer people are needed at the IRS to interpret complex tax codes,
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Potential Problems
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Resistance from “entrenched interests.”
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Engineers at NASA (Engineer’s curiosities must be moved, refocused, not just orders given. Deep thinking should not be discouraged.)
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IRS Employees
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Companies Immediately Profiting from NASA or the IRS
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The “smart people” may run away from the country, and villains on par with James Bond’s nemeses could trick, or buy up, such people. However, not all “smart people” will be tricked, or bought out; the “good news”-lining of this cloud.
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Benefits
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Some NASA personnel should be maintained to investigate space, in large part to monitor for collisions on the earth from space objects. As well as inspect our ozone layer and other related issues.
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Monitor the solar system for interesting events, like the magnetic field an inner planet is supposedly forming.
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Most NASA personnel should be reassigned:
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Acclimate NASA/IRS to idea. Care must be taken.
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NASA/IRS meet-ups for socializing, brainstorming, and forming plans.
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Begin reaching out and taking requests to work with companies, public and private, to increase efficiency, reduce energy use, re-channel waste and by-products in beneficial ways, i.e. reusing, recycling.
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Use the Internet and open source CMSs like Drupal to store and share relevant information. Don’t force a heavy handed top-down approach to specific tools used (i.e. software, OSs, hardware) but promote Open, Free, and Publicly Documented protocols).
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Create new technologies to tap energy, mainly capturing energy from the sun, however, other sequestering schemes should be investigated as well, as appropriate to the area in question. (Namely that one puts a paddle wheel in a stream in shady forest, not a solar panel or windmill.)
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The sun is where most of the focus needs to be since nearly every other form of energy available is a by-product of the sun, a testimony to how much energy it sends out, as well as pointing out the finite nature of the energy sources we can tap, that the sun has already created. The sun has the most concentrated amount of energy we can tap.
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Optimize (make more efficient) entrenched, current, and new technologies with NASA and IRS intellectual power.
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Work with the (non-NASA, non-IRS) organizations to detail issues, short-term, medium, and long-term optimizations and upgrades.
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12 |
Fix the Law Making Process ====================
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Laws should be written in “plain English,” approachable English, language a high school student can understand. NOT legalese, not verbose legalese.
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Laws must contain only relevant issues. Laws must not be allowed to have unrelated issues tacked on them. I know that some say it’s needed to get support from un-supportive people, but what does that amount to? Sounds like bribery to me.
Also, it very much muddies the waters in the future when political opponents claim that someone voted, or didn’t vote, for such and such a bill. The muddying issue being they didn’t vote for the main bill, but one of its unrelated amendments, or earmarks.
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Potential Problems
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Politicians saying “it’s not the way it’s done.”
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Pork and come-ons seen as needed to obtain votes for laws not capable of passing on their own.
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Benefits
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Constituents can read the laws and understand them.
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Constituents know politician voted for law due to law, and not some unrelated tacked-on come-on to sway them.
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Laws can be organized by subject better since they will contain only related issues, and not tacked on issues which are unrelated.
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13 |
Perhaps others…
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