Forum Post: A few simple ideas...
Posted 12 years ago on Nov. 22, 2011, 10:25 p.m. EST by painvolved
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...one of the challenges many organizations such as this face is that they try to achieve too much and don't have a few specific goals to strive towards. As much as I love Michael Moore, his list of 10 goals is way too ambitious and won't ever come to fruition.
What are one or two goals that can be fought for right now that have a chance of success?
Goal of personal income tax reform could finance many other changes. We should change it to a simple tax code that increases taxes for family income above $350K (1%), and more heavily for family income above $500K. Currently, there are many tax loopholes that only benefit rapid growing number of US millionaires. We can eliminate the personal greed by adopting income taxing systems of Scandinavian countries. This will also affect job creation and corporate greed (driven by personal greed). People of Scandinavian countries enjoy all US freedoms, plus free higher education and healthcare. In addition they have the highest rating for personal happiness in the World.
Real, Loop-hole free, CAMPAIGN FINANCE REFORM!!! Not the fake reforms the incumbents have been promising for years, but real reform with real teeth!!! Then the American people can truly decide for themselves the other reforms they want to see. Here's my 2 cents: For decades now the corporations and special interests have had our "representatives" bought and paid for (both on the right and the left). Don't get distracted by the symptoms - we need to address the root cause. Concentrating our efforts on getting the money out of our politics is the best way we can create an environment in which further reforms can be realized. Until we end the current system of legalized bribery (campaign donations) and paid lobbying our politicians will continue to be the LAP DOGS of the corporations and special interests. What we need first and foremost is real, loop-hole free CAMPAIGN FINANCE REFORM!!!! If the corruption is not dealt with first, the chance of any other meaningful reforms becoming a reality is almost zero - the special interests will just use their money to buy votes and put forward bills that create loop-holes or otherwise twist the law in their favor. If we want our children to live in a country where there vote matters, we need to get the money out of our politics, otherwise they will increasingly become the 21st century version of the "landless peasant." Spread the word - End the LEGALIZED BRIBERY!!! CAMPAIGN FINANCE REFORM needs to be THE main goal of the protests!!!
I totally agree, get rid of the corruption (bribes,perks...) and empower the American voters. If someone cant live on a politicians salary, then they sure as hell cannot be trusted with tax payers money!
If I had to pick one issue, right now I'd pick gerrymandering. In this computer age, we could write a program to best draw district lines based on population, not on the whims of an incumbent who only cares about getting re-elected instead of those whom he or she represents. It's simple, doable, and I believe would have a much larger impact than people would guess.
holding a National General Assembly July 4th in Philadelphia. QED
I agree too ambitious! I posted my ideas on the other thread . I believe there are a lot of intelligent people already involved, but more ideas sure cant hurt.