Simplify Government

[Mark V Anderson]

I have published an e-book to Amazon.com called Simplify Government! I would like to talk about these ideas whether or not you read my book, but I do hope that some of you are intrigued enough to read it. It costs only $5 and is short – the first Word doc I uploaded to Amazon was only 82 pages. So even if you find it dry the pain will be short.

If you don’t have a Kindle app on your computer, the app can be downloaded from Amazon for free.

https://www.amazon.com/Simplify-Gov...98&sr=1-1&keywords=simplify+government#navbar

The thesis of my book is that simplification is greatly needed to increase government effectiveness and for voters to hold politicians accountable. Our government can barely be called a democracy when voters can only comprehend a tiny portion of the government. And even politicians and government officials only understand a small part of the immense government monster.

The principles of simplification are:
1) Each jurisdiction should not overlap the functions of the other jurisdictions.
2) Government should be limited to only those functions that make sense for them to do.
3) Government officials must tell constituents that they cannot solve all their problems.

In addition, every government activity must be to either supply public goods or to re-distribute income, or should be rejected. No activity should be a combination of supplying public goods and redistribution. Combining those activities greatly complicates the process and lowers government effectiveness and voter accountability.

The rest of the book details what these principles mean when it comes to actual policy. I also include one chapter explaining in detail how simplifying our incredibly complicated welfare system could easily pull every person out of poverty with no change in funding. Plus I have one chapter explaining the why’s and how’s of simplifying our terrible tax system.

 

[Velvet Elvis]

So basically, you just joined here to whore some book?

 

[MACS-24]

Are you asking for a discussion on simplifying government (after purchase) or just selling? You may have put this thread in wrong spot.

 

[Captain Adverse]

The thesis of my book is that simplification is greatly needed to increase government effectiveness and for voters to hold politicians accountable. Our government can barely be called a democracy when voters can only comprehend a tiny portion of the government. And even politicians and government officials only understand a small part of the immense government monster.

The principles of simplification are:
1) Each jurisdiction should not overlap the functions of the other jurisdictions.
2) Government should be limited to only those functions that make sense for them to do.
3) Government officials must tell constituents that they cannot solve all their problems.

Wow. Such an original idea.

I have never seen this idea before.

I wonder why no one has ever come up with this idea.

Nobel prize-worthy...

Shall I go on or have I provided sufficient faux praise to demonstrate sarcasm? :coffeepap:

 

[TobyOne]

Does your ebook give examples and compare and contrast with the current government structure? If so, it may be worth a read.

Also, how are you going to fund this more efficient government and what do you say about recognizing (or granting) individual liberties?

I have published an e-book to Amazon.com called Simplify Government! I would like to talk about these ideas whether or not you read my book, but I do hope that some of you are intrigued enough to read it. It costs only $5 and is short – the first Word doc I uploaded to Amazon was only 82 pages. So even if you find it dry the pain will be short.

If you don’t have a Kindle app on your computer, the app can be downloaded from Amazon for free.

https://www.amazon.com/Simplify-Gov...98&sr=1-1&keywords=simplify+government#navbar

The thesis of my book is that simplification is greatly needed to increase government effectiveness and for voters to hold politicians accountable. Our government can barely be called a democracy when voters can only comprehend a tiny portion of the government. And even politicians and government officials only understand a small part of the immense government monster.

The principles of simplification are:
1) Each jurisdiction should not overlap the functions of the other jurisdictions.
2) Government should be limited to only those functions that make sense for them to do.
3) Government officials must tell constituents that they cannot solve all their problems.

In addition, every government activity must be to either supply public goods or to re-distribute income, or should be rejected. No activity should be a combination of supplying public goods and redistribution. Combining those activities greatly complicates the process and lowers government effectiveness and voter accountability.

The rest of the book details what these principles mean when it comes to actual policy. I also include one chapter explaining in detail how simplifying our incredibly complicated welfare system could easily pull every person out of poverty with no change in funding. Plus I have one chapter explaining the why’s and how’s of simplifying our terrible tax system.

 

[Lethargic Aptitude]

I have published an e-book to Amazon.com called Simplify Government! I would like to talk about these ideas whether or not you read my book, but I do hope that some of you are intrigued enough to read it. It costs only $5 and is short – the first Word doc I uploaded to Amazon was only 82 pages. So even if you find it dry the pain will be short.

If you don’t have a Kindle app on your computer, the app can be downloaded from Amazon for free.

https://www.amazon.com/Simplify-Gov...98&sr=1-1&keywords=simplify+government#navbar

The thesis of my book is that simplification is greatly needed to increase government effectiveness and for voters to hold politicians accountable. Our government can barely be called a democracy when voters can only comprehend a tiny portion of the government. And even politicians and government officials only understand a small part of the immense government monster.

The principles of simplification are:
1) Each jurisdiction should not overlap the functions of the other jurisdictions.
2) Government should be limited to only those functions that make sense for them to do.
3) Government officials must tell constituents that they cannot solve all their problems.

In addition, every government activity must be to either supply public goods or to re-distribute income, or should be rejected. No activity should be a combination of supplying public goods and redistribution. Combining those activities greatly complicates the process and lowers government effectiveness and voter accountability.

The rest of the book details what these principles mean when it comes to actual policy. I also include one chapter explaining in detail how simplifying our incredibly complicated welfare system could easily pull every person out of poverty with no change in funding. Plus I have one chapter explaining the why’s and how’s of simplifying our terrible tax system.

Spam.

 

[Redress]

So basically, you just joined here to whore some book?

And a short one for the price.

 

[Redress]

I have published an e-book to Amazon.com called Simplify Government! I would like to talk about these ideas whether or not you read my book, but I do hope that some of you are intrigued enough to read it. It costs only $5 and is short – the first Word doc I uploaded to Amazon was only 82 pages. So even if you find it dry the pain will be short.

If you don’t have a Kindle app on your computer, the app can be downloaded from Amazon for free.

https://www.amazon.com/Simplify-Gov...98&sr=1-1&keywords=simplify+government#navbar

The thesis of my book is that simplification is greatly needed to increase government effectiveness and for voters to hold politicians accountable. Our government can barely be called a democracy when voters can only comprehend a tiny portion of the government. And even politicians and government officials only understand a small part of the immense government monster.

The principles of simplification are:
1) Each jurisdiction should not overlap the functions of the other jurisdictions.
2) Government should be limited to only those functions that make sense for them to do.
3) Government officials must tell constituents that they cannot solve all their problems.

In addition, every government activity must be to either supply public goods or to re-distribute income, or should be rejected. No activity should be a combination of supplying public goods and redistribution. Combining those activities greatly complicates the process and lowers government effectiveness and voter accountability.

The rest of the book details what these principles mean when it comes to actual policy. I also include one chapter explaining in detail how simplifying our incredibly complicated welfare system could easily pull every person out of poverty with no change in funding. Plus I have one chapter explaining the why’s and how’s of simplifying our terrible tax system.

We as a country have over 300 million people. Over 3.5 million square miles. Every ethnic group in existence, every religion. We are the leading super-power in the world, the most important country politically and socially. The idea that the government for such a large, diverse people is going to be simple is simply laughable.

 

[Mark V Anderson]

Does your ebook give examples and compare and contrast with the current government structure? If so, it may be worth a read.

Also, how are you going to fund this more efficient government and what do you say about recognizing (or granting) individual liberties?

I discuss the activities I think the government should be doing at each level of government. Maybe more interesting for debate here is I also give examples of activities that governments do now that they should not be doing, because they do not supply public goods or re-distribute. My list of examples of what governments shouldn't do is as follows:
Economic development
Sports stadiums
Subsidize firms' expansion or to keep them from leaving
Tax Increment Financing
Business Licenses
Revenue Sharing between jurisdictions
Mass Transit
Drug prohibition
Prostitution prohibition
Higher Education
Affordable Care Act
Minimum wages

I will discuss any of these further if you wish.
My thoughts on financing government are not a lot different from what we have now, except it should be much simpler, such as tax as a straight percentage of income.
People can say that this is spam but my book is just my way of expressing my views, which is no different from anyone else putting up a new topic, except that this is too long to put in one post.

 

[Velvet Elvis]

People can say that this is spam but my book is just my way of expressing my views, which is no different from anyone else putting up a new topic, except that this is too long to put in one post.

Thank you for your permission. This is spam.

 

[Mark V Anderson]

We as a country have over 300 million people. Over 3.5 million square miles. Every ethnic group in existence, every religion. We are the leading super-power in the world, the most important country politically and socially. The idea that the government for such a large, diverse people is going to be simple is simply laughable.

Obviously there are some things that are inherently complicated. That doesn't mean the government couldn't be a whole lot simpler.

I n 1982, the Justice Department tried to count all the laws, but were not successful. They did find 23,000 pages of criminal law. This is just Federal law, and it was 34 years ago. Our lawmakers don't have time to even read the laws they pass. I think this country is barely a democracy when the voters know of only a tiny fraction of what the government does. Even the office-holders know only a little piece of the whole. There are 78 means-tested welfare programs just in the Federal government. If we changed welfare to one centralized program, and spent what we do now, we could easily bring every person out of poverty. Our extremely complex system greatly degrades the effectiveness of the government. I think if simplification were a major guiding principle at all levels of government, it would be much more effective in achieving everyone's goals.