Personal Political Manifestos.

[Mr Mystery]

Point 7. If you wish, and you can afford Private Healthcare, you may opt out of the NHS, in return for a reduced National Insurance contribution. Reduces unnecessary burden on the service, and offers an incentive to seek private healthcare. Win/Win.

Slight ammendment to the education one.....If your degree is of immediate use to the Public Sector, then you have the *option* of having the state pay your way. Allow for a minimum grade (2:1 or better, 3rds show you're not working hard enough) and if you hit that, the state waives your fees, settles a fixed amount of your student debt, in return for a minimum term of service in the public sector. If you wish only to work in the Private Sector once you qualify, then you can pay for your own education, regardless of whether you wind up working for the state.

[Aldramelech]

I would legalise all drugs in the UK, provide registered addicts with as much smack as they could shove into their veins and sit back and watch the useless f*ckers all die within a couple of months whilst the crime rate dropped by 90%.

Eldargal would also be required to perform various popular hits in Trafalgar square twice daily in the woman's beach volleyball uniform.

[Mr Mystery]

Little bit sexist!

[Aldramelech]

No, its a lot sexist actually..............

[Mr Mystery]

Fnarr!!

[Denzark]

Mr A, as ever - HOOFING!

PS can we charge French visitors £9.95 each time they want to use a public bog?

[DarkLink]

If I had to make a list of a few important issues:

1. Revise the election system. Implement run-off voting, where each person nominates their 1st, 2nd, and 3rd picks. I've seen research that this system is not only more efficient, since you only need one big election rather than multiple rounds as if it were a tournament, but it also strongly promotes more political parties. The US's current system can really only support 2 candidates at a time. Any more would split constitutes and give one candidate an easy win.



2. Revised child welfare/social security. Not sure exactly what to call it, but it's a very clever idea I heard proposed once. When a citizen is born, the government creates a bank account in their name, with say $10,000 in it to collect interest over 18 years. This account may only be accessed by the kid, not the family, and the kid only gets it if they a) graduate high school, b)keep a clean criminal record, and c) they register to vote.

This gives kids a significant incentive to keep on the straight and narrow, to receive a decent education, and participate in society and government. Just as importantly, it turns the kid into a participant in the economy. They can afford to go to college, or move to a new state, or just kickstart their adult lives in general, thanks to their newfound reasonable amount of wealth.

This would be particularly important in disadvantaged areas. It would provide significant reward for those who stay on the straight and narrow, and if they still turn out to be hoodlums then they just don't get the money and the government still collects a small return on investment. It's kind of a win-win for everyone.


3. Flat tax. The USA's current tax system is incredibly complex. Literally billions of dollars each year are wasted paying accountants to fill out over-complicated forms. A simple flat tax, or at the very least a mildly incremented tax system with no special exemptions, caveats, or other overly complex mechanisms, would put billions of dollars each year back into the economy, plus significantly shrink the size of the IRS.


4. Reform the Pentagon's defense acquisition system. The USA has two military forces; the actual military, and the Pentagon and its massive, complex, clumsy, and inefficient bureaucracy. The Pentagon is run by REMFs, politicians, and defense contractors. I'm sure anyone who's worked for or with the military can attest to its inefficiency. And, in this case, it's not just incredibly wasteful, but it often costs lives. There are too many examples to count. Probably anyone who's ever served, let alone worked with military money, has stories about this. More could be done to 'protect' our troops by reigning in this than probably anything else.


5. Destroy teacher's unions. Everything I've seen has led me to believe that teacher's unions as they currently exist are the root cause of pretty much all of America's education woes (college pricing bubble aside). I'm not saying that teachers bad, or even particularly well compensated, just that the unions are a massive obstacle to any type of reform.


6. Reign in credit. Capitalism works great. Assuming you maintain fair trade. The problem with credit is that if it's too abundant, people start making risky investments. Soon, significant portions of money in the economy exist only on paper, and it's only a matter of time until that imaginary money disappears.

There are actually certain implicit assumptions in place that are required for capitalism to work properly. You need enough regulation to ensure these conditions are in place, but not so much that you go overboard and start impeding the system again. Overabundance of credit is one way you can break down the system. Make risky loans, and you essentially pour money down the drain, consumers get stuck with massive debt, banks don't have any money, and businesses can't get any money or sell any product. A little credit is great, a lot is bad.

[Psychosplodge]

Point 7. If you wish, and you can afford Private Healthcare, you may opt out of the NHS, in return for a reduced National Insurance contribution. Reduces unnecessary burden on the service, and offers an incentive to seek private healthcare. Win/Win.

Slight ammendment to the education one.....If your degree is of immediate use to the Public Sector, then you have the *option* of having the state pay your way. Allow for a minimum grade (2:1 or better, 3rds show you're not working hard enough) and if you hit that, the state waives your fees, settles a fixed amount of your student debt, in return for a minimum term of service in the public sector. If you wish only to work in the Private Sector once you qualify, then you can pay for your own education, regardless of whether you wind up working for the state.

Sorry too complicated, if you want to go private, feel free, but you still fulfil your social obligation to pay your national insurance, and plus everytime you add an exemption it complicates the system and costs money...

I would legalise all drugs in the UK, provide registered addicts with as much smack as they could shove into their veins and sit back and watch the useless f*ckers all die within a couple of months whilst the crime rate dropped by 90%.

Eldargal would also be required to perform various popular hits in Trafalgar square twice daily in the woman's beach volleyball uniform.

Both very reasonable ideas I can support.

Darklink while the rest is more geared to your system, I like your 2nd point, think that could work anywhere...

[Wolfshade]

I have a simple solution, brought to us by the great minds of GW.

Have a totalitarian regime, where everyone is forced to work for the good of society, those unable to do so are renounced as heritic and executed.

This should squish peoples' free will and independant thinking and reduce incidents of dissent.

[eldargal]

The only popular hit I know the words to is I'm a Little Teapot. I can perform an operatic version though.

Eldargal would also be required to perform various popular hits in Trafalgar square twice daily in the woman's beach volleyball uniform.