How Would You Change America For the Better?

This question came to me today as I read the thread "What Do You Hate About America?" Flaming aside, I thought that the thread had a lot of merit with its deconstruction of the "American mythos".

Instead, I would like to know how you would change America for the better?

Disclaimer: This is not to bait anyone. I would genuinely like to know, because on the board, people are always talking about what's wrong with the United States. Instead, wouldn't it be better to think about changes to the country to make it a better place?

Ceci

Hi ceci2006

Instead, I would like to know how you would change America for the better?

Very good question that probably doesn't have an answer. My best thought would be to return to the times where America was a respected superpower (although I'm young and realize I don't know when this was or the exact policies that led things to be better. Honestly we can't change the world, we can recognize its faults and try to inform others but in our society and single individual can't make much a difference on something of that scope but groups of people can (although one person can help organize the cause. Personally, I think a massive purging of the system is necesary but that's easier said than done.

Oh well, I didn't come to any solid conclusions so don't hate too much.

Thank you

[edit on 5-4-2006 by Kwyjibo]

Off the top of my head:

•Eliminate fractional reserve banking and currency devaluation.
•Throw out Keynesian economics in exchange for the Austrian School of economics.
•Stop monetary predation on the working class.
•Start using the Swiss model of direct democracy.
•Disband congress, arrest the executive branch and begin war crimes and treason trials.
•Hold efficiency above all other priorities.
•Make advance education free and funded by corporate taxes.





[edit on 5-4-2006 by Regenmacher]

Hi Regenmacher

You summed up pretty well what needs to be changed in the world. I thought the original poster was referring to what one individual person can do. What you are suggesting would take a great movement of people waking up and fighting the good fight. If I could snap fingers and have what you suggest happen than I would. Then again if I could get wishes from snapping my fingers I would be a sex god right now.

Thank you

Actually, I didn't ask what one person could do. But I did request what changes needed to be made to make America better.

Judging from the comments so far, I think the suggestions are great.

As for me, I am still dwelling on this subject and will come back with my two cents in a future post.

Ceci

I like Regen's suggestions.

I have one of my own to add as well. De-centralize the food supply and PROTECT the water supply at all costs.

Change the paradigm of public interest, returning the focus to responsibilities in addition to rights. Helping people become self-reliant is a goal with real dividends.

How to improve America?

Well, its pretty simple. I would remove all the warning labels from all products and let natural selection run it's course.

Joking aside, I would have to say that the view from the outside-in shows pretty much the same as the state of Great Britain.

They need to get their own house in order before they can even consider being a self elected peace keeper of the world.

Hi All,
I just wanted to apologize to Ceci2006 and Reganmacher for misinterpreting the topic and posting nonsense. Hopefull ya'll can forgive a newb. Anyway, I was targeting my resopnse to this:

..I would like to know how you would change America for the better?

My bad for thinking the change would be on an individual level. Excellent points have already been made. I'd add that I would make the markets truly open and free. What this means is legalize all drugs and other such illegal things (not murder and rape, btw). Now I know this isn't the topic at hand, so please don't flame me for being dumb. IMHO, our market has been manipulated by corporate interest, which has taken over the role of the "invisible hand" in the economy. I could go on about this but mostly I wanted to apologize for posting pointless things (although by posting this I'm continuing that).

Thank you

Hmmm...what changes to make to improve America. One would be to encourage a true multi-party political enviroment, that might help to curtail the polarisatin of American politic, as witnessed in this forum on a daily basis, a microcosm of America if you will. Plus think of all the fun we'd have argueing, I mean discussing politics then .

Societal morality...I know its a tough issue, but I feel it needs to be addressed. My biggest bugaboo is a lack of common courtesy...being rude is cool. Or so it seems, as exampled in current popular culture...and I don't mean rap, or hip-hop, or whatever. It's everywhere in popular culture Denigrate women, or the police, or blacks or hispanics, whites, whatever. You ain't hip, if you don't dis somebody (did I even say that correctly?).

I keep hearing...there is no good or evil, there is only opinion. When did this happen? You see evil everyday, no it's not Satan incarnate or anything like that...it's little things like not saying thankyou, or maybe instead of helping that little old man mow his grass, you walk right on by. Instead of talking to that lonely little old lady who has no one left on this earth, you ignore her. I am sure things like this have always happened and will continue to, but it is one of the things that would improve America, and make it the shining example that some of us say it is, or maybe wish it was.

Politeness, a return to civility in public discourse, would go a long ways toward improving America.

I am as guilty as any of a lack of politeness in public. Instead of politely correcting someone, I zing them. A small evil perhaps in the grand scheme of things...but an evil nevertheless.

I don't mean to get on a soapbox here, but this does seem to be an oportunity to vent a little.

[edit on 6-4-2006 by seagull]

Hi Seagull

Very good points raised, I hope you don't mind my response.

encourage a true multi-party political enviroment, that might help to curtail the polarisatin of American politic, as witnessed in this forum on a daily basis, a microcosm of America if you will. Plus think of all the fun we'd have argueing, I mean discussing politics then

.

Do you think having more political parties would actually increase the polarization of the public. Instead of 1 vs. 1, there would be so many parties specific to certain groups of people that there could never be a general agreement on which is best. You're right that it would the result would be more discussion (arguing) of points, which at the very least might help people become more aware of issues.

...there is no good or evil, there is only opinion. When did this happen?

I think this happened when Nietzsche declared God is dead (although he wasn't the first). I'd suggest reading Beyond Good and Evil, as it goes into the more metaphysical properties of morality and whatnot.

Politeness, a return to civility in public discourse, would go a long ways toward improving America.

I think you're spot on here. Politeness of the masses would increase once people evolve the consciousness enough to realize that we're all in this together. Excellent post btw.

Thank you

I never mind when people respond to my posts. Thanks for doing so. I never mind discussing ideas with people.

I will attempt to answer further after I sleep, it was a long night. But it's my dayoff, so staytuned...or not..

How to make America better?

How about starting with firing all the corrupt politicians that are the ones holding the power in our nation?

No offense but its sorta hard to fire the corrupt politicians because they are the one's with the power. Any ideas on how we can introduce politicians to the idea of responsibility to the people? I think the only way is to educate the masses (more-so that we do now) so that they can stand up to the crap going on. The idea of America is great because it's run by the people, and when the people are unsatisfied they should demand change. It seems the movement is growing but so far not too much progress. Although YAY for Delay quitting.

[edit on 6-4-2006 by Kwyjibo]

Originally posted by seagull
Hmmm...what changes to make to improve America. One would be to encourage a true multi-party political enviroment, that might help to curtail the polarisatin of American politic, as witnessed in this forum on a daily basis, a microcosm of America if you will. Plus think of all the fun we'd have argueing, I mean discussing politics then

.
[edit on 6-4-2006 by seagull]

Hi,
I think too that multi-party political thing would good for you.
Example in Finland there are 8 parties in parlament as you can see.
There is no way one group can decide alone what is done. So it forces parties to compromise and make a lot of deals with others. So also small intrest groups can have their issues throught by giving support to big party issues.
Also there was twice that parties in last elections trying to get their people elected, so we have where to chose in Finland

1995-2003 there was so called "rainbow-government" (don't laught)
It included:
Social Democratics
National Coalition Party
Left Alliance
Green Parliamentary Group
Swedish Parliamentary Group
Christian Democratics
Can you imagine anything like that in USA? In finnish politics there is not very much room for ideological fundamentalism.
Nobody can have major dominance in politics, and IMO it's good.

Parliamentary Group and Seats:
Finnish Centre Party 55 - Middle - right, represents mostly countryside people

The Social Democratic Parliamentary Group 53 - Leftist - not communists

National Coalition Party 41 - Rightwing - like democrats in USA

Left Alliance 19 - Old communist parties

Green Parliamentary Group 14 - Ecological values

Swedish Parliamentary Group 9 - Represents swedish speaking minority, Middle - right

Christian Democratic Parliamentary Group 6 - Christian values

True Finns Party 3 - Defences poor peoples rights, against immigrants



Finnish parliament



[edit on 7-4-2006 by HoHoFoo]

I don't want to say that we have perfect democracy, I mean that we don't have that kind of problems that 2-party democraties like USA and England have

i've said it before and i'll say it again...


if one has the ambition to hold an office higher than the local level then they are automatically disqualiffied to hold said office!

not very practicle but certainly true.

First of all, I would like to thank all of you for reviving this thread. This was one of the first threads I did.

Originally quoted by Kwyjibo
I just wanted to apologize to Ceci2006 and Reganmacher for misinterpreting the topic and posting nonsense. Hopefull ya'll can forgive a newb.

Kwyjibo,
It's all right. I left the topic pretty open for people to interpret the meaning for themselves. After all, I'm a new member too. BTW, I appreciate your honesty and politeness.

With that being said, I would like to change America in a couple of ways:

1. I would place more emphasis on education. Education at all levels has been neglected. I would love for college to be free. But that is an ideal world. What would be more applicable, would that the tuition for college to be readjusted so that it would be more managable to get an higher education. I would also like creative arts to return back to school because a lot of the tax cuts would get rid of great programs that allow kids to expres themselves. And, I would change the climate that makes Americans suspicious of intellectuals. If we encouraged more thinkers to envelop themselves on working out some of the issues of America, we would be in a better place.

2. I would also suggest that America could be changed for the better by helping the poor and the homeless more. People who are poor or homeless are often stigmatized in the American culture. I would hope that a future government would try and suggest ways to help them so that they can also have a chance to achieve the American dream--a goal only attainable by the rich.

I have more suggestions, but I will put them in a future post.

Get Americans out of America.

Require anyone who wants to vote or hold public office, to spend 3 years in a third world country that's being "assisted" by American investment, living and working (or not, as the case may be) under totally local conditions.

Sure it's radical, but America's, "WE'RE NUMBER ONE!" disease, needs radical surgery.

First up: Why? Its just fine as it is.




But really:

1 - Lock the boarders down. People can come here, but just not illegally.
2 - Bring all the troops home; let the rest of the world kill themselves. Stop sending aid.
3 - Spend all the saved money we are spending abroad to develop into a self sufficient nation, especially energy. If Brazil can do it, so can we.
4 - Destroy any nation that attacks us. No occupations, no reform or puppet governments, just obliterate them. Nothing is a better deterrent from killing Americans than total annihilation. Trust me when I say you would only have to do this once.
5 - Flat tax, everybody pays the same %, no matter what the circumstances. No other taxes at all!
6 - Privatized socialized medicine (u2u me and ill explain if you need to know what I mean)
7 - National lottery, proceeds go to free state college tuition for "B" or better students
8 - National smoking ban, smokers can only smoke at home and never in the presence of a minor.
9 - Three strikes and you're out policy for all alcohol and drug infractions. And when I say you're out, I mean you're OUT.
10 - No more summer vacations for students (1 week, not 3 months), year round school. Standardized national uniforms and curricula. Teachers must also undertake yearly competency exams. Create a bonus structure for teachers and schools who produce. Teach better, get paid more. Fire any staffers that pass even one child that cant read or locate countries on a map. Man that’s embarrassing.

Hi skippytjc, I hope you don't mind my respons to your statement.

1. The Borders need to be locked down, but for whatever reason it's not being handled efficiently. The cheap labor is necesary for the sustainment of our current economic situation (not that I agree it's morally right). Also, what do you suggest we do with the 11 million + illegals already here?

2. Sure we could let the rest of the world kill itself, it seems the easiest way to deal with this situation. However, we are economically linked globally with countries and what happens to them has a direct effect on our own economy. Plus if we let all the countries just go at it eventually they could come for us.

3. The money we are spending abroad can be seen as investment. In the future (if we ever get these countries on their feet), we could gain massive profits from these countries.

4. We can't just destroy a nation, its taking the easy way out and would have massive repercussions. I suggest reading The Art of War as it goes into why we can't be barbarians and just destroy at will.

5. Completely agree with the flat tax. In addition I would suggest eliminating the tax loopholes that benefit the mega-rich.

6. Privitizing health care will destroy the poor class. I don't know if this is what you want, as you could argue if a person can't afford health care it's their own fault and responsibility.

7) Again, good idea, but the lottery is a scam and I don't think much of the money goes to anything to help society at this point in time.

8) I disagree here, and would like to make smoking mandatory by everyone in all places (j/k). Us smokers do have a responsibility to keep it away from children and the weaker ones who can't handle it, but it's not right to ban a substance in so many places when it is sold legally. At the very least the should let us smoke in bars.

9) This is wicked harsh here. What (besides DUIs) are any reasons to incarcerate people for pursuing "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness." Our capitalistic system strives on the free market, which the pharm industry has usurped so they can make massive profits from drugs that don't necesarily work.

10) We need serious education reform, no doubts there. Its pretty harsh to limit kids vacations, although I'm sure a lot of parents wish they could send their kids away to school at all time just to avoid their hassle. Also mandatory uniforms at a public school is UnAmerican and will further alienate the youth. What happened to freedom of expression?

Thank You