Our land use policies and subsidies.

The UK definitely does need to improve.

Cancelling Brexshit and more funding for the NHS should help.

Also more money specifically into NHS dentistry. So many dentists aren't taking any more NHS patients which basically means I may never get a dentist again.

For fuck's sake.

(March 1, 2017 at 2:06 pm)Tazzycorn Wrote:

(March 1, 2017 at 11:04 am)vorlon13 Wrote: Meat and taters from Wiki:

The final plan was broken down into six major components (savings are 2012-2020):

1. $1,661 billion of discretionary spending cuts by putting in place discretionary spending caps into law lower than what is projected to be spent.
   
2. $995 billion in additional revenue with $785 billion in new revenues from tax reform by lowering income and corporate tax rates and broadening the base by eliminating tax expenditures. An additional $210 billion in revenue is also raised in other revenue by switching to the Chained-CPI and an increase in the federal gasoline tax
   
3. $341 billion in federal health care savings by reforming the Sustainable Growth Rate for Medicare, repeals the CLASS Act (which has already happened), increase Medicare cost sharing, reform health-care tort, change provider payments, increase drug rebates and establishes a long-term budget for total federal health-care spending after 2020 to GDP + 1 percent.
   
4. $215 billion in other mandatory savings by moving to the Chained CPI for all inflation-indexed programs, reform the military and civil service retirement system, reduce farm subsidies, reduce student loans and various other reforms.
   
5. $238 billion in Social Security reform, to be used to ensure the program is sustainably solvent in the infinite horizon by slowing benefit growth for high and medium-income workers, increase the early and normal retirement age to 68 by 2050 and 69 by 2075 by indexing it to longevity, index cost of living adjustments to the Chained-CPI, include newly hired state and local workers after 2020, increase the payroll tax cap to cover 90 percent of wages by 2050 and creates a new minimum and old-age benefit.
   
6. Budget Process Reforms by creating discretionary spending caps and caps total federal revenue at 20 percent of GDP.
   

An additional $673 billion is saved due to lower projected spending interest payments as a result from lower deficits.


The interesting thing about Simpson Bowles was the plan had equal support among Dems and Pubs.  While this is a fatal flaw obviously, it is still something to think about.

2) Oh, great let's increase our tax take by reducing the amount of money we can collect in taxes. Yeah I can see that working, just like the pound note I buried in the back garden when I was a kid grew into a magical money tree.

No matter how many times the Republican tax plan fails to work the way they say it will, they won't change it for the better.

Believe it or not a republican himself, George H.W. Bush called it "voodoo economics."


Sent from my LGL52VL using Tapatalk

The funny bit about Simpson Bowles was Obama's endorsement and the bipartisan support.

U.S.A.

I think we need an electorate with better critical thinking skills and enough skepticism to perpetually question authority.
Too many people eat the naked lunch.

Oz.

Keeping the same PM for more than a year.

Some stability in government

(March 1, 2017 at 9:28 pm)The Valkyrie Wrote: Oz.  

Keeping the same PM for more than a year.

Some stability in government

 USA : Impeaching our president every year.

(March 1, 2017 at 9:25 pm)chimp3 Wrote: U.S.A.

I think we need an electorate with better critical thinking skills and enough skepticism to perpetually question authority.
Too many people eat the naked lunch.

I agree 100% and for that the education system in the US needs vast improvements. I don't see it happening any time soon, unfortunately.

Ireland

Take religion out of schools.
Take religion out of hospitals.
Make the health service public only. If private companies want hospital beds let the build 'em.
Adopt a proper public transport policy and keep it publuc.
Put manners on the guards.
Actively engage in the peace process, and act as a counterweight to the Tory/DUP axis who don't give two fucks about the north.
Adopt abortion legislation that allows women bodily autonomy, without having to pay for a trip to the UK; and which also ensures that women aren't kept on life support while their brain liquifies just because they were pregnant when they suffered a fatal accident.
Get money out of politics. Don't be so beholden to property developers.
Stop being an offshore tax haven for the likes of Apple, Google, Yahoo, Pfizer, Dell, Tesco &c.

I've barely been abroad before and don't know from experience how good my country is compared to other countries.

But according to lists online about what everyone hates about the UK,

The culture of getting very very drunk is on so many lists for what they hate about the culture of this country.  That's one thing that was on the list of things people hated who came from the UK to go to other countries and people who came from other countries to the UK.

That and public transport.

The NHS is probably bad these days.

I haven't been out drinking, caught public transport or had to go to hospital or the doctor for a while but I have experience of these things and I think we probably could improve on those things.

But from what I've heard from people who I personally know from other places such as Ireland, Nigeria, Sierra leone, Syria, Pakistan and so on the UK is a pretty good place to be.