Principles:
1. All states deserve an equal share in the common wealth, according to their population.
2. All states deserve an equal share of House vote, and a share of Senate power on the scale 2/3 of power to 1/2 of states
3. Congress shall not bind future Congresses. A simple majority to repeal most legislation, plus "super" legislation passed by 2/3 which requires the same to repeal.
4. Executive shall be a triumvirate, House and Senate leaders, and a 20%+ elected (chosen at random)
5. Any two of the three branches can over-ride the other, by majority and weak super (60%) majority
6. The Judiciary shall be elected by/from among the judiciary, with appointments only at the entry level
7. Prosecutors and defenders shall be drawn from the same pool. Private defenders will be banned.
8. Education shall be federally funded, and any education but federal banned for children up to 16
9. Ensuring a fair intake of all kinds of students, shall be held above the right to choose a place to live
10. Parents satisfactorily fulfilling their duties shall be considered Employed Full Time
11. Every person 16+ is entitled to food, shelter, communications and medical care
12. Union membership will be compulsory, and unions (plural per workplace) federally funded.
13. Wherever a sub-optimal monopoly exists, government shall establish a competitor.
14. Federal govt will know all there is to know about any business, starting with using their tax returns for gain.
15. Culture, unbelievable amounts of culture. People get bored doing nothing!
1. Equalization of state wealth. This has a lot to do with businesses in that state, so businesses already doing badly should be watched carefully to see they are not shifting assets out of the state (or overseas). Persons migrating to a state simply to take advantage of low cost of living (early retirees or conventional retirees) can simply be relocated against their will. Persons contributing to one state then taking their earnings to be unproductive human cattle in another state, should not be permitted.
2. The House remains essentially as it is. The Wyoming Rule hardly inproves equity of representation, though there might be good reasons to increase the House size anyway.
The smallest states currently have 3 times the voting power per citizen. A much milder bias would have the smallest states about double, but more benefit to medium-sized states. The largest states (say Cali and Texas) still get a bit screwed.
3. "Congress shall not bind future Congresses" is supposedly the rule now, however the filibuster screws that up.
4. Yeah, Triumvirate, aka Troika. House and Senate are unlikely to have opposite parties AND one of them have the weak supermajority. The Presidential component would be a much more open race, eg Dem 30%, Rep 32%, Goldwater 28%, Free Bread 20%, Greens 7% and four parties qualify to go in the hat. "Congress shall not bind ..." comes into its own here. If the people really don't like what they got, they can disempower it after 2 years, and replace it after 4. Perhaps have an option to "vote OUT with extreme prejudice" so that party can't run for Troika immediately again.
5. House majority, Senate 60+ could over-rule the Troika. Senate majority, Troika 67% could over-rule the House. What we've got is NOT a balance of powers, it's a three way Mexican Standoff. Three vetos is worse than two, and two ain't great (see most parliamentary systems around the world: mono-cameral is clearly better than bicameral, and the same goes for camels.)
6. The highest level (Supreme Court) shall be elected by Federal Judges, from among their number, using Preference Voting. However, to avoid partisan choices there shall be 3 at once: the most popular, the second most popular, and the third most popular. SC will be larger, about 17 Justices, and to avoid deadlocks when 1 justice down and waiting for elections, the most junior Justice will recuse themselves ... until there are 2 down. Lower appeals courts can follow a similar system, but only from among justices of their region.
7. Prosecutors and Defenders will not be able to specialize, but this is a feature not a bug. Particularly good prosecutors or defenders actually detract from the due process. Simply picking a name at random, for prosecutor, then picking a defender with similar history of win/lose, should make all trials fairer. Ironically, the old idea of "entitlement to own choice of defence" has to go. I would however allow 1 or even 2 "re-rolls" if the defendant thinks the chosen defender is biased against them. Prosecution does not get re-rolls. Say it's a tricky case with a lot of public interest (Zimmerman or Chauvin) and the public are bothered that the Prosecutor isn't that good? Tough. "Better ten guilty men go free, than one innocent man be convicted". Of course privately-retained defenders must be banned: it is impossible by the numbers for the public to provide that same defense to all, and even if it was possible it would be insanely expensive.
8. Local funding of schools is producing awful results, and Federal top-ups don't help much. It's because a poor district managing to raise sufficient for a good school, has to compromise on police, cultural events, drinking water, and low rates. Making it State funding is some improvement, if the state is relatively prosperous. But if it's not, it's the same problem on a larger scale: the community outside the school gates, where kids spend more time than inside, is paupered to pay for education. Federalize it all, and federalize new school building too (it's prone to go over-budget) but there's no reason the school board and Principal can't make major spending decisions. School boards btw, should not give any attention to child-less people. Staff and parents only should vote.
9. Super-bussing. Whole families get told where to live (by a lottery system) in order to homogenize the socio-economic and ethnic composition of each school. Couples having their first child won't get screwed too badly: government will just pay off any mortgage they've managed to accumulate, and compensate them if their former house has increased in price. I expect that within each school catchment, there will still be poorer and richer areas (as long as non-parents are allowed to live where they like) but this is not necessarily a problem.
10. Employed Full Time will be a middle class income. Employed Part Time will be a getting-by working class income. Not Working will be bare survival: nutritious but repetitive food, bunkhouse accommodation (or tents for those who really can't stand sharing)
11. Understanding that some people won't work for money if they don't have to, the Not Working income will be enough to survive but very dull. People do however find a way to do what they enjoy AND get paid for it (art, crafts, minor repairs, gardening) and this would be encouraged with no taxes up to about $100 earned per week, then a very gentle onset of taxes. If people do work Full Time but at minimum wage they still won't be taxed much. Taxes will be for high earners and all financial transactions. There will also be some Looting: occasionally a company will be deemed to have traded in such bad faith that it will be nationalized for zero and stripped.
12. Passing the point of being Full Time Employed, people will be obliged to pick a union to represent them. It doesn't cost them money, but they do get a secret vote in union proceedings. Note that more than one union is optimal per "workplace" or distributed work type. Rather than simply voting for "No strike, I'm happy with my wages" and being over-ruled, the person could vote in the other wing union instead. And since unions typically cover more than one workplace, this would divide employers into Nasty and Nice. The essential principle here is that unions can discriminate between employers in a way that workers are not able.
13. Some products do have essentially monopoly control. Telcos and other utilities come to mind. Some consumer products like the Kindle or the iWhatever, have a reputation that scares consumers away from trying "non compatible" equipment. This can also happen with "churn fatigue" in an actually competitive market. Users just get sick of another introductory offer and stick with some company at random. Government is a helluva brand, they're not going broke any time soon, and if deliberate competition from the Government brand drives the deadwood monopolist right out of business, then start another one. Done right, government brands can also bring in revenue.
14. The 'corporate veil' got us the Auto bailout and the banking collapse. At the very least, information gathered by an IRS audit should be available to government as a whole. But I'd like even more hostile examination: any corporation over about a billion market cap, could be raided without warning, or with a warrant, hacked into by government. How often this would be necessary, with fines pushing them to the edge of bankruptcy and individuals tried in a common court, I'm not sure. But the more the better, because this too is a source of revenue. See 7: they don't get to pick their own legal team.
15. Culture. The Renaissance and Industrial Revolution together created an idle class who for shame spawned Science, not to mention being patrons of all kinds of art. Cathedrals were not built for profit.
1. All states deserve an equal share in the common wealth, according to their population.
2. All states deserve an equal share of House vote, and a share of Senate power on the scale 2/3 of power to 1/2 of states
3. Congress shall not bind future Congresses. A simple majority to repeal most legislation, plus "super" legislation passed by 2/3 which requires the same to repeal.
4. Executive shall be a triumvirate, House and Senate leaders, and a 20%+ elected (chosen at random)
5. Any two of the three branches can over-ride the other, by majority and weak super (60%) majority
6. The Judiciary shall be elected by/from among the judiciary, with appointments only at the entry level
7. Prosecutors and defenders shall be drawn from the same pool. Private defenders will be banned.
8. Education shall be federally funded, and any education but federal banned for children up to 16
9. Ensuring a fair intake of all kinds of students, shall be held above the right to choose a place to live
10. Parents satisfactorily fulfilling their duties shall be considered Employed Full Time
11. Every person 16+ is entitled to food, shelter, communications and medical care
12. Union membership will be compulsory, and unions (plural per workplace) federally funded.
13. Wherever a sub-optimal monopoly exists, government shall establish a competitor.
14. Federal govt will know all there is to know about any business, starting with using their tax returns for gain.
15. Culture, unbelievable amounts of culture. People get bored doing nothing!
1. Equalization of state wealth. This has a lot to do with businesses in that state, so businesses already doing badly should be watched carefully to see they are not shifting assets out of the state (or overseas). Persons migrating to a state simply to take advantage of low cost of living (early retirees or conventional retirees) can simply be relocated against their will. Persons contributing to one state then taking their earnings to be unproductive human cattle in another state, should not be permitted.
2. The House remains essentially as it is. The Wyoming Rule hardly inproves equity of representation, though there might be good reasons to increase the House size anyway.
The smallest states currently have 3 times the voting power per citizen. A much milder bias would have the smallest states about double, but more benefit to medium-sized states. The largest states (say Cali and Texas) still get a bit screwed.
3. "Congress shall not bind future Congresses" is supposedly the rule now, however the filibuster screws that up.
4. Yeah, Triumvirate, aka Troika. House and Senate are unlikely to have opposite parties AND one of them have the weak supermajority. The Presidential component would be a much more open race, eg Dem 30%, Rep 32%, Goldwater 28%, Free Bread 20%, Greens 7% and four parties qualify to go in the hat. "Congress shall not bind ..." comes into its own here. If the people really don't like what they got, they can disempower it after 2 years, and replace it after 4. Perhaps have an option to "vote OUT with extreme prejudice" so that party can't run for Troika immediately again.
5. House majority, Senate 60+ could over-rule the Troika. Senate majority, Troika 67% could over-rule the House. What we've got is NOT a balance of powers, it's a three way Mexican Standoff. Three vetos is worse than two, and two ain't great (see most parliamentary systems around the world: mono-cameral is clearly better than bicameral, and the same goes for camels.)
6. The highest level (Supreme Court) shall be elected by Federal Judges, from among their number, using Preference Voting. However, to avoid partisan choices there shall be 3 at once: the most popular, the second most popular, and the third most popular. SC will be larger, about 17 Justices, and to avoid deadlocks when 1 justice down and waiting for elections, the most junior Justice will recuse themselves ... until there are 2 down. Lower appeals courts can follow a similar system, but only from among justices of their region.
7. Prosecutors and Defenders will not be able to specialize, but this is a feature not a bug. Particularly good prosecutors or defenders actually detract from the due process. Simply picking a name at random, for prosecutor, then picking a defender with similar history of win/lose, should make all trials fairer. Ironically, the old idea of "entitlement to own choice of defence" has to go. I would however allow 1 or even 2 "re-rolls" if the defendant thinks the chosen defender is biased against them. Prosecution does not get re-rolls. Say it's a tricky case with a lot of public interest (Zimmerman or Chauvin) and the public are bothered that the Prosecutor isn't that good? Tough. "Better ten guilty men go free, than one innocent man be convicted". Of course privately-retained defenders must be banned: it is impossible by the numbers for the public to provide that same defense to all, and even if it was possible it would be insanely expensive.
8. Local funding of schools is producing awful results, and Federal top-ups don't help much. It's because a poor district managing to raise sufficient for a good school, has to compromise on police, cultural events, drinking water, and low rates. Making it State funding is some improvement, if the state is relatively prosperous. But if it's not, it's the same problem on a larger scale: the community outside the school gates, where kids spend more time than inside, is paupered to pay for education. Federalize it all, and federalize new school building too (it's prone to go over-budget) but there's no reason the school board and Principal can't make major spending decisions. School boards btw, should not give any attention to child-less people. Staff and parents only should vote.
9. Super-bussing. Whole families get told where to live (by a lottery system) in order to homogenize the socio-economic and ethnic composition of each school. Couples having their first child won't get screwed too badly: government will just pay off any mortgage they've managed to accumulate, and compensate them if their former house has increased in price. I expect that within each school catchment, there will still be poorer and richer areas (as long as non-parents are allowed to live where they like) but this is not necessarily a problem.
10. Employed Full Time will be a middle class income. Employed Part Time will be a getting-by working class income. Not Working will be bare survival: nutritious but repetitive food, bunkhouse accommodation (or tents for those who really can't stand sharing)
11. Understanding that some people won't work for money if they don't have to, the Not Working income will be enough to survive but very dull. People do however find a way to do what they enjoy AND get paid for it (art, crafts, minor repairs, gardening) and this would be encouraged with no taxes up to about $100 earned per week, then a very gentle onset of taxes. If people do work Full Time but at minimum wage they still won't be taxed much. Taxes will be for high earners and all financial transactions. There will also be some Looting: occasionally a company will be deemed to have traded in such bad faith that it will be nationalized for zero and stripped.
12. Passing the point of being Full Time Employed, people will be obliged to pick a union to represent them. It doesn't cost them money, but they do get a secret vote in union proceedings. Note that more than one union is optimal per "workplace" or distributed work type. Rather than simply voting for "No strike, I'm happy with my wages" and being over-ruled, the person could vote in the other wing union instead. And since unions typically cover more than one workplace, this would divide employers into Nasty and Nice. The essential principle here is that unions can discriminate between employers in a way that workers are not able.
13. Some products do have essentially monopoly control. Telcos and other utilities come to mind. Some consumer products like the Kindle or the iWhatever, have a reputation that scares consumers away from trying "non compatible" equipment. This can also happen with "churn fatigue" in an actually competitive market. Users just get sick of another introductory offer and stick with some company at random. Government is a helluva brand, they're not going broke any time soon, and if deliberate competition from the Government brand drives the deadwood monopolist right out of business, then start another one. Done right, government brands can also bring in revenue.
14. The 'corporate veil' got us the Auto bailout and the banking collapse. At the very least, information gathered by an IRS audit should be available to government as a whole. But I'd like even more hostile examination: any corporation over about a billion market cap, could be raided without warning, or with a warrant, hacked into by government. How often this would be necessary, with fines pushing them to the edge of bankruptcy and individuals tried in a common court, I'm not sure. But the more the better, because this too is a source of revenue. See 7: they don't get to pick their own legal team.
15. Culture. The Renaissance and Industrial Revolution together created an idle class who for shame spawned Science, not to mention being patrons of all kinds of art. Cathedrals were not built for profit.