A Hypothetical Scenario

[RonaldReagansGhost666]

Imagine if you were suddenly granted de facto dictatorial status over the United States? What reforms would you pursue?
For me the list is quite large:
* Raise Corporate tax to 75%
* Eliminate loopholes (like capital gains tax)
* Implement a progressive tax on both income taxes and Social Security
* Try the Bush administration for war crimes
* Expand subsidized food benefits
* Implement universal health care
* Cut military funding by 1/2
* Shut down Fox News
* Pull out of NATO
* Withdraw from foreign bases
* Remodel the education system and base it on Finland's education system
* Raise minimum wage to >$15/hour
* Make it illegal too fire workers simply due to membership in a union
* Make the maximum workweek without overtime pay 35 hours
* and much more

[vorlon13]

Try Ronald Reagan in absentia for crimes against humanity.

Nancy is still around, so she can be tried and convicted of witchcraft.

Really. Joan Quigley is the lead witch in their coven.

IANMTU

[CapnAwesome]

I'd:
End the drug war
Abolish most of the military
Get rid of all the shitty subsides for corporations and agriculture
Prosecute all the living presidents for war crimes,
Get rid of the electoral college
Make bikini mud wrestling our national sport
call Oprah a bitch in my dictatorial address.
Resign and restore democracy.

---

Try Ronald Reagan in absentia for crimes against humanity.

Nancy is still around, so she can be tried and convicted of witchcraft.

Really. Joan Quigley is the lead witch in their coven.

IANMTU

Why is it that you guys don't think Bill Clinton and Obama have committed war crimes? Is drone striking weddings not a war crime? Is starving to death a half a million people in Iraq not a war crime?

[vorlon13]

I might not kill all the Islamites, but I'd be pretty obvious about entertaining the idea.


hock:

[Nope]

End the drug wars would be a biggie. It costs us a lot of money to fight something that we can't win. I would put money into education and rehabilitation instead

Make prostitution legal and require that the sex workers form a union for their own safety.

Let some southern states secede if they wish. NC has to stay in the union because I am the dictator and I say so

Halloween, which is my bday, would be a national holiday and Reeses Peanut Butter Cups would be the national candy.

Congress members could only earn what the average person in their individual districts do. I realize that they need to maintain a household in both their own districts and Washington D.C so I would build them barracks or military type housing for the families of enlisted personal.

Congress members would only serve two years.

Only individuals could donate to politicians and then only a certain amount.

Religious institutions would have to pay taxes

Science teachers would have to take an oath that they accept the truth of evolution

Free birth control because unwanted pregnancies end up costing the country a lot of money
That is all I can think of for now.

[BrianSoddingBoru4]

-Require that all USians learn Maori as a second language. Street signs and official documents printed in same.

-Terminate all government employees with four or more words in their title. For example, 'Assistant Undersecretary, Commerce' could stay. 'Assistant Undersecretary, Bolivian Jockstrap Weaving', however, would have to clean out his desk.

-Require all fast-food eateries (can't bring myself to call them 'restaurants') to have the words 'Eat A Fucking Salad, Fer Chirssakes' incorporated into all menus and advertising.

-Ban celebrities (athletes, film stars, television personalities, fiction authors) from giving opinions on fields not their specialty, on pain of deportation. The next time Angelina Jolie starts banging on about the evils of nuclear power, she would have to go live in Zambia for a year.

-Ditto for people who take these celebrities seriously.

-All creationist organisations will be required to add '...And Clown College' to their official letterhead.

-CEOs who make more than 10 times the annual salary of their average employee will be required to live on the salary of their lowest paid employee for one year, and we all get to watch.

-Physicians and lawyers will be required to perform 500 pro bono hours work per year.

-Parents who refuse to have their children vaccinated will be charged with child endangerment, their children will be vaccinated anyway.

-Ditto parents who refuse medical treatment for a child on religious or any other grounds.

Boru

[Jenny A]

-Require that all USians learn Maori as a second language. Street signs and official documents printed in same.

Why? And if the reason is so that Americans might be more likely to learn a second language, I suspect there are better ways of going about it and more useful languages to learn.

-Terminate all government employees with four or more words in their title. For example, 'Assistant Undersecretary, Commerce' could stay. 'Assistant Undersecretary, Bolivian Jockstrap Weaving', however, would have to clean out his desk.

So? You don't like specialization?

-Ban celebrities (athletes, film stars, television personalities, fiction authors) from giving opinions on fields not their specialty, on pain of deportation. The next time Angelina Jolie starts banging on about the evils of nuclear power, she would have to go live in Zambia for a year.

Ah yes, no opinions unless we're experts, got it.

-Ditto for people who take these celebrities seriously.

Not sure how to figure out if a person takes celebrity opinions seriously. I do understand thought crimes though. . .

-All creationist organisations will be required to add '...And Clown College' to their official letterhead.

I do find this one amusing, but no, entertaining as it might be, no. But I would be in favor on anyone applying Dr., PHD, etc. to their name to add unaccredited to the title is that be the case.

-CEOs who make more than 10 times the annual salary of their average employee will be required to live on the salary of their lowest paid employee for one year, and we all get to watch.

Can't imagine why. Really, I can't. I think the lowest paid worker should be adequately paid. And I think CEOs should be paid what they are worth not what their friends on the board of directors think they should, but the discrepancy from bottom to top doesn't bother me much.

-Physicians and lawyers will be required to perform 500 pro bono hours work per year.

Either you think basic legal representation and basic medical care are a human right in which case society as a whole not doctors or lawyers should pay for it; or, you think doctors and lawyers having learned to provide a valuable service, should be punished for having learned it. Neither view makes much sense.

-Parents who refuse to have their children vaccinated will be charged with child endangerment, their children will be vaccinated anyway.

YES

-Ditto parents who refuse medical treatment for a child on religious or any other grounds.

Well, on religious grounds anyway. People often have good reasons for refusing medical treatment, and parents might also have good reasons for refusing the same treatment for their children.

---

All recreational drugs will be legal, taxed equally, and penalized equally for driving under the influence.

There shall be no religious tax exemptions whatsoever.

All children shall be taught comparative religion and skepticism.

World history including the last 100 years in the Middle East and Asia shall be taught in schools.

Creationism shall not just be banned, but laughed out of schools.

Evolutionary theory shall be a required subject in middle school and high school.

Immigration shall not be limited for persons who do no pose a physical threat to the nation and who can demonstrate either the ability to earn a living wage here or the ability to live here by other means

High School graduates should be required to meet some minimal national standards.

Corporations and other business entities should not be considered persons for the purposes of political speech.

[CapnAwesome]

-Require that all USians learn Maori as a second language. Street signs and official documents printed in same.

Why? And if the reason is so that Americans might be more likely to learn a second language, I suspect there are better ways of going about it and more useful languages to learn.

-Terminate all government employees with four or more words in their title. For example, 'Assistant Undersecretary, Commerce' could stay. 'Assistant Undersecretary, Bolivian Jockstrap Weaving', however, would have to clean out his desk.

So? You don't like specialization?

-Ban celebrities (athletes, film stars, television personalities, fiction authors) from giving opinions on fields not their specialty, on pain of deportation. The next time Angelina Jolie starts banging on about the evils of nuclear power, she would have to go live in Zambia for a year.

Ah yes, no opinions unless we're experts, got it.

Etc. Etc

I think mostly he was joking.

[Jenny A]

Why? And if the reason is so that Americans might be more likely to learn a second language, I suspect there are better ways of going about it and more useful languages to learn.


So? You don't like specialization?


Ah yes, no opinions unless we're experts, got it.

Etc. Etc

I think mostly he was joking.

If so, I'm sorry.

[BrianSoddingBoru4]

I think mostly he was joking.

If so, I'm sorry.

Nothing to be sorry over, Jenny. I assumed the OP was joking, and I was trying to follow suit. I should have been clearer.

I apologize for getting serious towards then end of my post. I'm not usually like that...

Boru