This I Vote: Spreading the Wealth
28 October 2008
This I Vote: Spreading the Wealth
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Neither candidate really needs to raise any taxes. America just needs to do the following:
1. Just cut wasteful spending. Reader's Digest always has stories how government wastes money or gets defrauded. Remember the $100 hammers? Now, if they aren't building a superbunker at Area 51 (as in "Independence Day") with those hammers, just stop overpaying. Open contract bidding to more than just Dick Cheney's former corporation.
2. Bring home military around the world (let everyone fend for themselves). This might wreck the local foreign economy for a while, but let them figure it out. In SF, they closed down the Presidio military base. Imagine all the money we're just spending on flying packages for soldiers from home to some remote secret base. Just bring them all home.
3. Recognize George Bush sent more money to Africa to fight AIDS than even Bill Clinton ever did and eliminate that. Let Africans figure it out or allow nature to resolve overpopulation. After all, Bill Maher and the Reason Project ridicule "creationism" and think evolution is the bomb. Well, then, survival of the fittest should be allowed to go to its logical conclusion.
4. Legalize marijuana (and tax it) and stop the war on drugs. Ever watch "Traffic" - we're not winning, we are actually making it worse. Decriminalize certain drugs. Criminalization has not hindered any drug abuse. In fact, assign certain regions (the non "pro-American" areas) as "New Jack Cities," give moving coupons to those who want to move out for safety, and then give financial incentive to those drug abusers to move in, and then lock them in. Allow them as much drugs as they would like, and let them kill themselves. This can be considered passive euthanasia.
5. Stop the war on terror (we went to war on an idea and methodology? might as well go to war on fear or depression or partying). Instead, hold the world hostage with our nuclear arsenal, and tell them, give up these wanted individuals, or we will systematically drop these nuclear (non-conventional) bombs on one city per day until you do or until your entire nation is wiped off this earth. We already paid for these bombs, so might as well use them.
6. Privatize all prisons. We already have this happening anyway. Let the free market help private prisons compete to reduce recidivism rates by rehabilitation . . . the less recidivism, the more money we reward those prisons. Everybody wins.
7. Privatize all schools. Same idea as above. Everybody complains about the failure of public schools and the incompetence of public school teachers (not all of them, but don't you just get tired of hearing about teachers who can barely pass the proficiency exams their students can't pass?). No federal vouchers for private schools. If you can't afford to send your kids to school, they don't go. They get to work in the mines. That would give incentive for parents to work hard, not abuse drugs, etc. If they don't want to do that . . . survival of the fittest.
8. Legalize and enforce euthanasia on all terminally-ill patients. All that money wasted on keeping a coma patient alive could pay for a lot of health insurance for others.
9. Bomb areas that are not "pro-American" so as to reduce the need to improve domestic infrastructure - all that money spend on collapsed bridges in Minnesota or elsewhere - they not even pro-American anyway, so give up on them.
10. Outsource our military projects to the People's Republic of China for much cheaper (we wouldn't need to take care of their traumatized veterans!). They've got a lot of soldiers! In fact, outsource the National Guard (although that would be a great irony). Establish a "French Foreign Legion" mercenary army . . . wait we've already got that going - Blackwater USA security who abuse their power in Iraq.
11. Chemically castrate all sex offenders (to reduce recidivism and associated costs to victims) . . . We used to do that in California years ago. Bring that back. That, or pump them full of Lunestra so they're just too sleepy to assault anyone anymore.
12. Eliminate the manufacture and sale of cigarettes, because we spend more money on smoking than Russia of China spends on their military budget. If you want to be patriotic, and crush other superpower threats, discourage smoking.
13. Require everyone to move into urban projects, so no more cars guzzle gasoline: no more foreign oil dependence, less building materials (buildings are also the number one source of pollution), healthier people (I went to Manhattan where everybody walks - no fat people there!), etc.
14. Give every child an Xbox 360 or Sony Playstation or Nintendo Wii so they are too busy and tired to commit any crimes. We'd save so much money on juvenile detention, rehabilitation, and potentially nurturing career criminals - nip it in the bud.
Then, and only then, can America not have to raise any taxes, on Joe Sixpack or anyone else. We can also afford to reward Wall Street for unregulated and undisciplined greed. Let the good times roll.
Search
- Elaine Nelson on Fascinating Adventist Mathematics
- Steve Moran on Mt. Ellis on the Brink of Winning Big
- Bonnie Dwyer on Mt. Ellis on the Brink of Winning Big
- Donna Haerich on Fascinating Adventist Mathematics
- victor on Fascinating Adventist Mathematics
- Andre Reis on Hate Speech?
- Your Friend on Fascinating Adventist Mathematics
- Your Friend on Hate Speech?
- Donna Haerich on Hate Speech?
- Your Friend on Laughing in Church
Comments
"11. Chemically castrate all sex offenders (to reduce recidivism and associated costs to victims) . . . We used to do that in California years ago. Bring that back. That, or pump them full of Lunestra so they're just too sleepy to assault anyone anymore."
98% of all sex offenses are committed by family members and friends of the family. Once caught, they do not re-offend. 95% of all NEW sex crimes are committed by individuals NOT on the registries. So, even if you put everyone on an island, it would not make a difference on new sex crimes.
In my opinion, "knee jerk" reaction needs to stop. Prevention through Education is the KEY to reducing child sexual abuse.
http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs/pub/press/rsorp94pr.htm
Highlights include the following:
* Released prisoners with the highest rearrest rates were robbers (70.2%),
burglars (74.0%),
larcenists (74.6%),
motor vehicle thieves (78.8%),
those in prison for possessing or selling stolen property (77.4%),
and those in prison for possessing, using, or selling illegal weapons (70.2%).
* Within 3 years, 2.5% of released rapists were arrested for another rape,
and 1.2% of those who had served time for homicide were arrested for homicide.
* The 272,111 offenders discharged in 1994 had accumulated 4.1 million arrest charges before their most recent imprisonment and another 744,000 charges within 3 years of release.
US Department of Justice, 2003
http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs/pub/press/rsorp94pr.htm
• Sample size – 9,700 sex offenders
• Length of time – 3 years
• Re-offense trigger – reconviction (Doesn't mean a new sex crime)
• Results – 5.3% sexual offence. 3.3% child molestation.
Read more at www.cfcoklahoma.org
There's a quote about satire and fundamentalism becoming indistinguishable at their extremes. How does it go, again?
David Hamstra
apokalupto
Hi Dave:
I can't remember the exact quotation, but I think it's about satire and liberalism (I mean to that funny attitude we Americans call "liberalism"). If it isn't it should be. For example, did you see the stuff on that recently (accidentally) deleted Spectrum blog on Prop 8, where, if you didn't agree with the folks who were urging a No vote, you were an un-Christlike "homophobe" (their word, not mine)?
And thanks for the link to Apokalupto. I made my first visit. A good-looking website!
Cheerz.
David:
You're right. It's satire and fundamentalism. The quotation (or at least the idea) is in a 2006 FSU MA thesis, mostly about movies, by a Jared Champion, entitled "Crumbling Masculinities: Adaptations, Filtration, and the Crisis of Masculinity." As you can probably tell from the title, the thesis is a (I hope deliberate) satire of itself, full of precious sentences like, "In other words, postmodern satire is aware of its inherently fragmented structure as well as its goal of critiquing social structures, and therefore postmodern satire deliberately avoids becoming a part of, or suggesting, any form of true metanarrative." Needless to say, the degree was awarded.
Enjoy.
Sharing an E mail I just received. Thought it interesting. Tom
This is quite interesting. I didn't try to verify any of the numbers (seems ok) but it's the proposal I like.
"The Proposal"
When a company falls on difficult times, one of the things that seems to happen is they reduce their staff and workers. The remaining workers need to find ways to continue to do a good job or risk that their job would be eliminated as well. Wall street, and the media normally congratulate the CEO for making this type of "tough decision", and his board of directors gives him a big bonus.
Our government should not be immune from similar risks.
Therefore: Reduce the House of Representatives from the current 435 members to 218 members and Senate members from 100 to 50 (one per State). Also reduce remaining staff by 25%.
Accomplish this over the next 8 years. (two steps / two elections) and of course this would require some redistricting.
Some Yearly Monetary Gains Include:
$44,108,400 for elimination of base pay for congress. (267 members X $165,200 pay / member / yr.)
$97,175,000 for elimination of the above people's staff. (estimate $1.3 Million in staff per each member of the House, and $3 Million in staff per each member of the Senate every year)
$240,294 for the reduction in remaining staff by 25%.
$7,500,000,000 reduction in pork barrel ear-marks each year. (those members whose jobs are gone. Current estimates for total government pork earmarks are at $15 Billion / yr)
The remaining representatives would need to work smarter and would need to improve efficiencies. It might even be in their best interests to work together for the good of our country?
We may also expect that smaller committees might lead to a more efficient resolution of issues as well. It might even be easier to keep track of what your representative is doing.
Congress has more tools available to do their jobs than it had back in 1911 when the current number of representatives was established. (telephone, computers, cell phones to name a few)
Note:
Congress did not hesitate to head home when it was a holiday, when the nation needed a real fix to the economic problems. Also, we have 3 senators that have not been doing their jobs for the past 18+ months (on the campaign trail) and still they all have been accepting full pay. These facts alone support a reduction in senators & congress.
Summary of opportunity:
$ 44,108,400 reduction of congress members.
$282,100, 000 for elimination of the reduced house member staff.
$150,000,000 for elimination of reduced senate member staff.
$59,675,000 for 25% reduction of staff for remaining house members.
$37,500,000 for 25% reduction of staff for remaining senate members.
$7,500,000,000 reduction in pork added to bills by the reduction of congress members.
$8,073,383,400 per year, estimated total savings. (that's 8-BILLION just to start!)
Big business does these types of cuts all the time.
If Congresspersons were required to serve 20, 25 or 30 years (like everyone else) in order to collect retirement benefits there is no telling how much we would save. Now they get full retirement after serving only ONE term.
IF you are happy how the Congress spends our taxes, then just delete this message. IF you are NOT at all happy, then I assume you know what to do.
I hope it gets legs. Tom
Tom,
Most of those suggestions are good common sense.
However, suggesting that congresspersons were required to serve 20, 25 or 30 years in order to receive retirement benefits brings problems of entrenchement which resuls in the feeling of lifetime security and more possibilities for entitlement that seniority often brings. If the state is happy with a congressperson, fine; but if very unhappy, what then?
Of course, it is well known that the pension benefits received removes them from the problems that the ordinary citizen risks in their jobs.
Here in California, it has gotten completely out of hand with no budget yet and the possibility of the state running out of money. Many are suggesting that the legislators be denied any salary and perks until a budget is reached.
Citizens have too long been like sheep and with the financial debacle on Wall Street and their executives using taxpayers bailout money for paying huge bonuses and office decorating, even new private jets, it's time for a march on Washington to demonstrate our muscles--and the fact that we are funding all of these exorbitant salaries and perks.
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