Forum Post: Solutions #1
Posted 12 years ago on Nov. 11, 2011, 4:39 p.m. EST by StolenCountryBlues
(4)
This content is user submitted and not an official statement
It is time to start solving the America’s problems. These solutions are meant to address the greatest problems of our age. They may be imperfect, but if we work together to perfect them, our government and our society will be far better off than it is now. So even if you don’t agree, read through them all, and propose your own solutions. I am sure we can all come to some accord.
On this Veterans Day, 11/11/2011, God bless the men and women of our armed forces. Now it is time to bring them home so we don't create generations of people who hate us for occupying their country. The "war on terrorism" only perpetuates a never ending cycle of violence. Our soldiers are being misused to secure global corporate control of natural resources. It's time to stop allowing corporate money to decide national policy decisions that affect the lives of our brave men and women in uniform. The military is supposed to be for national defense, not international global corporate superiority. God Bless America!
• Corporations must no longer be considered individuals. Corporations are not people. As groups of people they must be held to a standard that does not permit them to infringe upon the rights, property, or lives of individual people.
• Corporations must not be allowed to give politicians money.
• Individuals must not be allowed to give politicians money.
• Lobbying must be made illegal and considered bribery.
• All politicians must meet a certain number of signature requirements, then once they have reached that number of signatures, say 10,000, then they are allowed to enter the race, given a small public stipend, and automatically entered into all public television debates, and all live debates. Debates among the so called favorites, where the “lesser” candidates are not invited must be eliminated completely.
• The federal election commission must be abolished. It is neither federal, nor a commission, since all of its members are appointed privately, and it consists of only democrats and republicans.
• We need proportional representation in all areas of government. We must make our Republic more like a representative democracy, no more winner takes all. If the Republicans receive 50% of the vote they get 50% of the representation. The same with every party. If the Democrats receive 24%, the Libertarians receive 12%, the Green party 7%, and the Peace and Freedom party 7%, then they all receive representation proportional to the votes they received. This means that the House and the Senate will have to increase in number. Maybe instead of 2 representatives from every state in the Senate it becomes 5 or 6, and instead of one representative from each district of congress it becomes 4 or 5. This will make our Senate and the House larger bodies with far more of the American people’s actual interests represented. It will make it far more difficult for rich individuals or corporations to bribe politicians to influence their political will, because there will be such a diverse range of ideas and viewpoints expressed. Ultimately it means that far fewer laws will be passed, but that those laws that are passed will be far better for the majority of people, rather than just good for people with money, power, and influence.
Solutions # 2 • The Federal Reserve Bank must be abolished, and all of its duties should reside in the hands of congress alone.
• All stipends, subsidy, and handouts to businesses must end. There must be honest and fair competition among businesses.
• There must be no more socialism for the rich, and capitalism for the poor. It must be exactly the opposite. Capitalism for the rich, and socialism for the poor. This means that in a free and just society, we have decided together, collectively, to eliminate homelessness from our streets, by providing all people who don’t have a home with a place to sleep. By providing all people with food, public education, healthcare, and clothing, should they not be able to afford it themselves. By doing this we make our society one of compassion and justice, rather than greed and selfishness. This will also liberate all levels of society to greater achievement, as people will be able to take greater personal risks in business, entrepreneurship, and invention, knowing that there will be some baseline level of shelter, food, healthcare, and education, available to them and their children, even if they can not get a high paying job. The objection of course will be that people will think they don’t have to work for anything anymore, but to own your own home, and be able to buy nice dinners, and shop in nice stores is not a luxury or a comfort most Americans are willing to give up. • We must end our unjust wars in the name of freedom. The wars in Afghanistan and Iraq were not waged for freedom, or to stop terrorism. That is a lie. These wars have been waged to secure economic control of oil, natural gas, and opium, for a very select few international organizations.
• We must end our occupation of foreign countries. Occupying foreign lands only creates terrorism. Every time we kill someone’s child, father, mother, brother or sister, we are creating a whole new family of “terrorists”. People legitimately hate us because we occupy their land with soldiers with guns. This only perpetuates the problem. Our military is meant for defense of our borders, not the invasion of other countries to maintain economic and military superiority. • No group of people should be allowed to infringe upon the God given rights and liberties of other people, even if it is the majority against a minority. Such policies have lead to the greatest massacres and human rights abuses that the world has ever known, including Nazism. • All courts of law must be equal. The idea that a better lawyer, or lawyers, can be afforded by the rich, but not the poor perverts justice. The legal system must not be a venue for the rich to get away with murder, or change laws in their favor, nor a place to scapegoat the poor. As long as money determines justice, justice is dead. So there need to be limits put on the number of lawyers that can represent any client, and on the money a lawyer can make form any case. This is one profession that may need to be considered a public service, and paid only by public stipend. Lawyers may not like this, but how else will we see justice?
Yes! I like this. I never thought having Lawyers being public servants. I might have to think about that (I understand the point you make). Though, everything else you just said gets my full approval!
Have you read the 99% Declaration? It suggests a list of grievances with an attached resolve. maybe the list only needs one thing, "end the corrupting influence of money in politics". The key is to go to the next level and hold the National General Assembly. The process contained here is tried, tested, and true.
https://sites.google.com/site/the99percentdeclaration/
I agree with the first few points. I'm not a fan of Proportional Representation because it keeps power in the hands of Parties (Partisanship). What you said about all candidates having to get the same amount of signatures to get ballot access and then all ballot qualified candidates get in the debates is something I totally agree with. I think that, in combination with Approval Voting, is what we need. Parties get in the way (though I do support working with Third-Parties to get us to a non-partisan system).
http://freeindependentsun.com/republic/we-are-sparta-approval-voting-in-america/
The House should be increased to allow each representative to represent less people (now they each represent 500,000, it should be closer to 100,000). The Senate is suppose to be a State House, adding to the "Balance of Power" and thus should be returned to such.
http://freeindependentsun.com/republic/comprehensive-electoral-reform-and-a-post-partisan-america/
D.C. (New Columbia), Guam and Micronesia (Pacifica), the U.S. Virgin Islands, and Puerto Rico should be granted (or offered) Statehood, this would also increase the Senate and House.
http://freeindependentsun.com/republic/the-american-colonies-a-case-for-statehood/
As far as giving each candidate a stipend I agree, however, there is validity to the "Free Speech" aspect of individuals running ads, putting up signs, etc. I would agree that corporations shouldn't be treated as people, and thus, as long as individuals are allowed to use their own money to independently promote candidates, then the stipend sounds good (assuming this means no contributions directly to the campaign).
*all the articles I posted to are my writings
The problem is getting the changes in a system that is thoroughly infected. And if you do get it set up, it will just become infected again. You elect pretty much everyone in the states and it doesn't stop you being many times more of a cesspit of corruption than say the UK, which still has members of a political chamber selected based on their primary descent from Norman invaders in the 11th century.
I would suggest a better starting point is to get the OWS co-ordinators to organise a boycott. This can change the landscape without requiring any of the machinery of the establishment.
Solutions # 2 • The Federal Reserve Bank must be abolished, and all of its duties should reside in the hands of congress alone.
• All stipends, subsidy, and handouts to businesses must end. There must be honest and fair competition among businesses.
• There must be no more socialism for the rich, and capitalism for the poor. It must be exactly the opposite. Capitalism for the rich, and socialism for the poor. This means that in a free and just society, we have decided together, collectively, to eliminate homelessness from our streets, by providing all people who don’t have a home with a place to sleep. By providing all people with food, public education, healthcare, and clothing, should they not be able to afford it themselves. By doing this we make our society one of compassion and justice, rather than greed and selfishness. This will also liberate all levels of society to greater achievement, as people will be able to take greater personal risks in business, entrepreneurship, and invention, knowing that there will be some baseline level of shelter, food, healthcare, and education, available to them and their children, even if they can not get a high paying job. The objection of course will be that people will think they don’t have to work for anything anymore, but to own your own home, and be able to buy nice dinners, and shop in nice stores is not a luxury or a comfort most Americans are willing to give up. • We must end our unjust wars in the name of freedom. The wars in Afghanistan and Iraq were not waged for freedom, or to stop terrorism. That is a lie. These wars have been waged to secure economic control of oil, natural gas, and opium, for a very select few international organizations.
• We must end our occupation of foreign countries. Occupying foreign lands only creates terrorism. Every time we kill someone’s child, father, mother, brother or sister, we are creating a whole new family of “terrorists”. People legitimately hate us because we occupy their land with soldiers with guns. This only perpetuates the problem. Our military is meant for defense of our borders, not the invasion of other countries to maintain economic and military superiority. • No group of people should be allowed to infringe upon the God given rights and liberties of other people, even if it is the majority against a minority. Such policies have lead to the greatest massacres and human rights abuses that the world has ever known, including Nazism. • All courts of law must be equal. The idea that a better lawyer, or lawyers, can be afforded by the rich, but not the poor perverts justice. The legal system must not be a venue for the rich to get away with murder, or change laws in their favor, nor a place to scapegoat the poor. As long as money determines justice, justice is dead. So there need to be limits put on the number of lawyers that can represent any client, and on the money a lawyer can make form any case. This is one profession that may need to be considered a public service, and paid only by public stipend. Lawyers may not like this, but how else will we see justice?