Rewire the Government

If you were to re-plan our government, how would you do it?

Here are some things I'd do.

First off, money earned in the form of fines or tickets (a la speeding ticket, moving violation, etc) would not go into the coffers of those who collect them. This would prevent fines from getting out of hand and cops from feeling the "need" to issue tickets. Remember, the police are a service of the government to serve and protect. When was the last time you felt they served and protected you? I'm not saying it isn't experienced, as there are a lot of great and good cops out there, but it doesn't feel like a common occurrence anymore. The money would go to charities and charitable services, distributed as the people see fit. The force itself would be provided as a service via taxes, not fines.

Healthcare would be socialistic, but not given to non-citizens. It is the same reason we went to a socialistic highway system; it is cheaper when payed for en mass and spreading the cost around put's everyone at ease in times of financial struggle with health problems on the horizon. This would reduce costs, remove the need for pricey insurance companies and plans, and drugs would not be controlled by megacorps. Throw in tort reform so someone with a screwed up surgery doesn't rape the community for more money than they would have made in 10 lifetimes, and you reduce it even further. Unfortunately, mistakes happen and doctors and nurses are no more perfect than you or me. Their mistakes shouldn't make an individual rich. I'm not saying that someone who dies on an operating table from a stupid mistake shouldn't have repercussions, or someone who gets the wrong eye taken out in a surgery shouldn't be covered financially, but they certainly shouldn't become rich overnight. Instead, take the money for more training and a better reviewing process for practicing doctors and nurses. I for one would like to have our doctors more abundant, better paid, and have it become a desired position again. I have many health service providers in my family, and it seems DRs are under more and more stress, more and more scrutiny, less and less pay, and less and less appreciation.

Law in general would be wiped out and we'd try a different avenue. First off, individual court cases would not set precedent. What this means is, a bad judge can't decide for everyone how to interpret laws and rulings. Right now, a bad judge can make a bad call and that now becomes precedent for everyone. I'm not happy with that at all. I think laws in general would best be created by select teams around the country, written in a non-lawyeristic writing and written in spirit as opposed to explicit lawyer speak. Laws would then be voted by general public with IQ above 100. That means, you have to be intelligent to vote, above average. Now I gather that this could lead toward an elitist set of laws, but I think it would actually be better controlled by intelligent public decision. Laws could be voted on to be re-written, good to go, or no go. A 60% general population vote would enact them. The idea here is to control the amount of law that goes into place, make it readable by your near-average person, and ensure that it makes sense to the population. The laws being written today are ridiculous. How about a health bill that nobody, NOT ONE PERSON, can understand the entire context and/or impact of. That is shameful on the part of our government today, and is outrageous. Doing this method also ensures that there is no more lobbying, no more log-rolling, and no more pork. A reduction in pork of our government would mean huge impact on our overall taxes.

Which leads me to my next point. Taxes in general will be controlled in the location they are gathered for the services provided. Things like defense and health care, which are national services, would be taken from everyone, but I'm talking about preventing someone's tax base from El Paso TX contributing to putting up a new statue in New York, New York. I'm talking about putting an ax to pork for good.

These ideas are just a start, but this is the direction I would take. They're not perfect, but I think they're sure as hell better than what we have today.