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What Single Significant Change to Govt Would You like to See in your Lifetime?

jonny5 said:
Im talking about big ideas, something big that changes everything, happens rarely, like womens sufferage, civil rights, going to the moon. Think about something youve been passionate about for a long time, that you hope someone new will champion every election. What is that one big thing you want to happen nationally? For me it would be a complete change in the tax system. No other system affects so many people negatively, is so inefficient, and abused for political gain. No other system hurts me directly to whats most important and valuable to me, my property.

Thoughts?
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The creation of provincial governments to create most laws and policies for the states in their region with the federal government being divested of most power other than things like defense, social security, federal reserve and the big picture stuff in a narrowly tailored fashion. Won't happen, but if you dream, dream big.
 
Moon mining. I would have voted for Newt to see this happen. Even a piece of lunar rock is worth millions. The US could get out of debt by selling souvenirs, vacations and the goodies from the asteroids that have hit on the moon.

I'm completely serious. They could do this for the cost of a dozen golf outings by the owners.

images.webp
 
Single term limit for all elected officials.
 
I'd love to see a complete overhaul of the government starting with a redesign of the constitution to create a government that resembles something more like what exists in Switzerland. Ultimately, it would be a dual confederacy (think state's rights) with a more representative parliamentary system and an executive committee rather than all of the executive power being possessed by a single individual.

But that just ain't going to happen in my lifetime.
 
Universal Healthcare and the required structural changes to make the healthcare system effiecient and unrivalled for all Americans.
 
Tax and budget reform. None of this "fair tax" or "flat tax" fairy tale nonsense, but a simple progressive personal income tax system with no corporate tax, no capital gains, no deductions, no exemptions, and no pandering for votes by buggering the brackets.

Every head of household files a tax return with a number of dependents. There's zero income tax on income up to the poverty line for a household of that size, X% tax on income after poverty line up to twice the poverty line, 1.5X% tax on income between twice and four times poverty, 2X% on income between four and eight times poverty, and then an extra X% tax every time income doubles. Every non-head member of the household files as a household of one. What's X? Whatever X needs to be, to keep a balanced budget; if the budget isn't balanced, raise X or spend less money.

No corporate tax? No capital gains? Everyone pays a flat .X% tax on all sales of securities, whether they gained or lost. Discourages idle speculation. Proceeds would go into the Social Security general fund.

I've got other ideas regarding Social Security and contracycle spending, but this thread is about the one change you'd most like to see.
 
Viktyr Gehrig said:
Tax and budget reform. None of this "fair tax" or "flat tax" fairy tale nonsense, but a simple progressive personal income tax system with no corporate tax, no capital gains, no deductions, no exemptions, and no pandering for votes by buggering the brackets.

Every head of household files a tax return with a number of dependents. There's zero income tax on income up to the poverty line for a household of that size, X% tax on income after poverty line up to twice the poverty line, 1.5X% tax on income between twice and four times poverty, 2X% on income between four and eight times poverty, and then an extra X% tax every time income doubles. Every non-head member of the household files as a household of one. What's X? Whatever X needs to be, to keep a balanced budget; if the budget isn't balanced, raise X or spend less money.

No corporate tax? No capital gains? Everyone pays a flat .X% tax on all sales of securities, whether they gained or lost. Discourages idle speculation. Proceeds would go into the Social Security general fund.

I've got other ideas regarding Social Security, but this thread is about the one change you'd most like to see.
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So how is income from capital gains treated?
 
I'd like to see the end of groups lobbying the govt. It'd be better if groups were forced to lobby the electorate instead.
As it is now, there's a short circuit that cuts the electorate out of the loop.
 
jonny5 said:
Im talking about big ideas, something big that changes everything, happens rarely, like womens sufferage, civil rights, going to the moon. Think about something youve been passionate about for a long time, that you hope someone new will champion every election. What is that one big thing you want to happen nationally? For me it would be a complete change in the tax system. No other system affects so many people negatively, is so inefficient, and abused for political gain. No other system hurts me directly to whats most important and valuable to me, my property.

Thoughts?
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there are many. the first that comes to mind is ending gerrymandering nationally by having a computer draw the districts using census data. there are more important issues, but this affects every one of them. gerrymandering is an affront to democracy, and is the ultimate conflict of interest in politics.
 
Viktyr Gehrig said:
Tax and budget reform. None of this "fair tax" or "flat tax" fairy tale nonsense, but a simple progressive personal income tax system with no corporate tax, no capital gains, no deductions, no exemptions, and no pandering for votes by buggering the brackets.

Every head of household files a tax return with a number of dependents. There's zero income tax on income up to the poverty line for a household of that size, X% tax on income after poverty line up to twice the poverty line, 1.5X% tax on income between twice and four times poverty, 2X% on income between four and eight times poverty, and then an extra X% tax every time income doubles. Every non-head member of the household files as a household of one. What's X? Whatever X needs to be, to keep a balanced budget; if the budget isn't balanced, raise X or spend less money.

No corporate tax? No capital gains? Everyone pays a flat .X% tax on all sales of securities, whether they gained or lost. Discourages idle speculation. Proceeds would go into the Social Security general fund.

I've got other ideas regarding Social Security, but this thread is about the one change you'd most like to see.
Click to expand...

Whenever a "poverty" measure is included, the tax system becomes bastardized. I don't want to tax income (e.g. productivity). To reach the end you seem to want to achieve, you may want to consider a tax on all financial transactions...
 
Masada said:
Flat tax, and the elimination of the IRS. No more lifetime appointments for Judges. Term limits.

Those four things would solve 80% of our problems right there. Term limits would render lobbyists almost useless. Elimination of the IRS and implementation of a flat tax would give certainty to individuals and businesses, and everyone would have skin in the game so to speak. Term limits for judges would act as a self balancing apparatus for and against Judges who try to legislate from the bench.
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A flat tax will not eliminate the need for a government agency to process and enforce income tax. You would have to eliminate the income tax and any other taxes that the IRS is responsible for to do that.
 
imagep said:
A flat tax will not eliminate the need for a government agency to process and enforce income tax. You would have to eliminate the income tax and any other taxes that the IRS is responsible for to do that.
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No matter the makeup of the country's revenue stream, there will be an agency like the IRS...
 
specklebang said:
Moon mining. I would have voted for Newt to see this happen. Even a piece of lunar rock is worth millions. The US could get out of debt by selling souvenirs, vacations and the goodies from the asteroids that have hit on the moon.

I'm completely serious. They could do this for the cost of a dozen golf outings by the owners.

View attachment 67148255
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If moon rocks became common, they would no longer be worth millions.
 
AlabamaPaul said:
Whenever a "poverty" measure is included, the tax system becomes bastardized.
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Progressive income taxation is the only economically feasible means of paying for the amount of government necessary to maintain a civilized state.

AlabamaPaul said:
I don't want to tax income (e.g. productivity). To reach the end you seem to want to achieve, you may want to consider a tax on all financial transactions...
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One... income is not a measure of productivity.

Two, I don't want to tax all financial transactions. I don't want to monitor all financial transactions. I want to fund the government we need in the least economically damaging way possible. That means no more ideological nonsense from either the Right or the Left.
 
Viktyr Gehrig said:
Progressive income taxation is the only economically feasible means of paying for the amount of government necessary to maintain a civilized state.
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Hmm?? Why do we need that much money to maintain a civilized society?

That is what you mean by a civilized state, right?
 
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Viktyr Gehrig said:
Progressive income taxation is the only economically feasible means of paying for the amount of government necessary to maintain a civilized state.



One... income is not a measure of productivity.

Two, I don't want to tax all financial transactions. I don't want to monitor all financial transactions. I want to fund the government we need in the least economically damaging way possible. That means no more ideological nonsense from either the Right or the Left.
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Do you want to reduce unemployment levels in the country? If so, you should be against any form of taxation that involves productive output. The government should be funded through those activities where no productive output is derived...
 
A change to all of the House and Senate rules that undermine representational democracy would make the legislative processes more efficient, fair and transparent.

The rules that should be changed include:
  • Official recognition of political parties
  • Seniority privileges and power
  • Obstacles to pulling legislation out of committee
  • Filibusters
 
1) Term limits (this is the one thing that no one seems to disagree with)
2) Outlawing lobbying
3) A flat tax with a $125,000 per income earner deduction (although I would possibly consider a figure as high as $400k/yr), not based upon family size, and no other deductions, which treats all forms of income, including capital gains, inheritance, earned income, business profits, identically.
4) Transformation of the social security system into a true old age insurance program which provides living wage benefits, but not until one exceeds the average age of death, and the elimination of any separate ss tax, funding ss out of the general funds.
5) A universal high deductable major medical policy for all citizens, and an automatic deposit of $3,000 per citizen into their own personal HSA, funded by defunding all other government health care programs
6) Elimination of all forms of means tested government benefits (aka welfare)
7) A full employment policy consisting of whatever it takes to have an unemployment rate of no more than 5%.
 
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AlabamaPaul said:
Sorry, but I'm not familiar with its structure...
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Senators here are appointed by the prime minister and they are next to useless, they just pass whatever the house passes. Unless it's something that passed the house unanimously of course but oh well. They basically get 100,000$/year to do nothing, one senator in ten years only showed up to work five times.
 
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