quote:

Originally posted by metalgearsolid http://www.csmonitor.com/2007/0112/p25s02-wogi.html

When did Tokyo get that big!? That can't be right...

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There's no denying the fact that the world is becoming more urban, but that also includes cities of 20,000 people, not just ones with half a million and up. It also includes urban areas where there's a central city yet most of the population resides in nearby smaller cities and unincorporated communities.

There's also another problem you're overlooking: What if everyone in the world that wanted to move to NYC or London would do so? Let's say, for arguments sake, that 1 percent of the world's population moved to NYC - That's 60 million people! Way more than it could ever handle.
Furthermore, what would states like Maine or Montana do if everyone fled their states to live in a big city?

quote:

Originally posted by CHRles Furthermore, what would states like Maine or Montana do if everyone fled their states to live in a big city?

They'd become national parks than.

quote:

Originally posted by Lira When did Tokyo get that big!? That can't be right...

That includes metropolitan Tokyo, and is right on the money:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tokyo

35 million people live in metropolitan Tokyo

quote:

Originally posted by CHRles Dumbest thing ever. You can't outlaw such a basic choice that all people have had since the dawn of time. Personally I love big cities, but not everyone feels this way. Some people like to live in rural small towns, or in a small town atmosphere, but still close to the amenities of big cities.

uhmmm you're an idiot. i never said anything about OUTLAWING suburbs, just that we should try to focus more on cities...instead of having really spread out places

You haven't been paying attention have you? Go back and read Metal's suggestions on the matter in the first page.

Eh, what the hell, I'll thrown in my two cents.

1. Secure borders - this isn't meant to be any sort of a totalitarian act, but the ability to control who and what goes in and out of your country is important to security and livelihood.

2. Shift power from federal government to state government - I'm still a big believer that government is best done on a local level, and I think the "founding fathers" would agree. The idea of having a collective pool of money that is collected and distributed by a national entity in my opinion is wrong. The federal government is important, but not for the reasons we see them as having today.

3. Increase focus on education - I'm a big libertarian, but I think along with liberties, you must have the knowledge to use them wisely. If we want to do away with Social Security, welfare, etc., you need to know how to take care of yourself. You also need to learn how to do something that will sustain you during your working life into retirement.

4. Reduce bureaucracy - we are currently in a system that tries to establish laws, codes and policies for every conceivable situation, which does not work. What it does is add "hoops" to jump through, armies of paper-pushers and enough inefficiencies and waste to lead any country into bankruptcy. The idea of writing all of these laws, bylaws and sublaws was to reduce the ability of the individual to do wrong. However, it's lead to a atmosphere where no one can be held accountable. Going back to my libertarian roots; personal freedom equals personal responsibility. If you mess up, or are doing wrong, you get discovered and you get fired. We need to stop writing crazy laws that could easily be eliminated by allowing elected officials do their job; judge decisions on a case by case basis.

5. Legalize marijuana - someday we as a collective society will have the responsibility to do away with most, if not all bans on recreational drugs; but that day is not today. In my opinion marijuana is a gateway drug, but a gateway into a sane drug policy. If this country can realize that allowing people to smoke a plant will not make them lazy, insane or a burden on society, they way we vilify drugs will change. Also, by removing the atmosphere around marijuana smoking you will make the drug appear more "normal" and less "cool, shady underworld" that attracts so many to it in the first place. You'd also have the added benefit of freeing up officers and capital that currently go into tracking, arresting and imprisoning non-violent pot smokers.

6. Flat tax, all groups - and with it no loopholes. The only deductions you can take are charitable contributions, educational expenses and retirement/medical savings plans. There does need to be a national tax, there's no way to get around it. It should however, be made simple and easy to calculate and almost impossible to cheat your way out of. Keeping with taxation, the majority of funds should go to local (city) and state governments. One look at my pay check tells me that my money is going away from the places it will do the most good (local) and to places where more than likely I will never see its effects. That needs changed.

7. Promote a notion of self-responsibility. We are increasingly falling into an entitlement attitude towards life and government. We feel that we are "owed" things for both just being a citizen and for the bad things that happen to us, even if we were the ones who caused harm on ourselves. The first question anyone jumps to if something goes wrong in any aspect of life is suing the shit out of the other person. You go to the doctor, have a medical condition that makes it difficult to have a child, yet through modern science and technology, you become pregnant and give birth. 12 years later you realize that your "miracle baby" has a learning deficit and you sue the shit out of your OB/GYN, the guy that let you have the impossible to begin with. You buy a ladder, set it up in an unsafe manner, get hurt and then sue the shit out of the ladder company because there wasn't a warning label against using a ladder being drug behind a truck. Those of course are extreme stories, but it happens on a lesser scale everyday. People do stupid stuff, or bad things just happen, out of no ones control and they feel that they are the victim and everyone must be responsible. Guess what? You're responsible and you can deal with it.

8. Adopt a pseudo-isolationist policy - It does not need to be total, but does need to be much more than it is now. We over-extend ourselves on our whims as well as the whims of other nations. When action needs to be taken in a regional conflict, who's help does that region call for? When the UN has a situation arise, who's help is asked for first? The US has become the international police department and it's got to stop. First, I believe that it uses the military for unconstitutional purposes and secondly, it backfires and causes more animosity towards us. So, in a business sense, things need to carry on, but in a political/military sense, we need to get back behind our borders and let the world spin as it may, until it definitely does effect us.

9. Better environmental/science initiatives - I don't know if global warming exists, and you could line up a panel of "respected" scientists who could argue for years in each way with no unanimous answer to the problem. However, here's what I believe; even if we aren't raping the environment, we still need to be as environmentally friendly as humanly impossible. Does that mean we cripple industries and economies in the search for a more environmentally friendly policy? No, it means we compromise and invent, to find ways to continue production without destroying the environment. Science initiatives fall in this category, but more so I think a strong set of science goals for a nation give that nation a set of common goals as well as sparks interest into science and technology (education).

10. (Most controversial) Do away or reduce as many entitlement/equal opportunity programs as possible - beyond undergraduate admissions and low-level hiring, and making the basis of entitlement be economic history alone. The idea of using an entitlement program to equalize hiring and admissions is faulty logic at best. Giving preference to one group in order to overcome the perceived deficits they face due to other groups, or the shortcomings of their own group is wrong. It does not create real equality, only an artificially and unhappily created one that increases animosity between groups and cheapens the accomplishments of those in the affected minority.


The tenants of my time in office would be to:
*Give freedom back to America
*Give every American an excellent education
*Give Americans a sense of responsibility
*Give Americans true equality
*Give Americans an ecological stance that is not an economy killer
*Return our efforts back to our own country, not to the "hot spot" of the minute, world-wide, while maintaining our ability to intercede before disaster occurs.
*Vastly reduce the scope of the war on drugs

--Give Americans a sense of security and freedom in which they feel well educated and able to lead long, happy lives. And smoke a dube or two.


Well, there are ten quick and dirty points that you can roast me over.

Here's a start... but do take it with a grain of salt.

1. Replace federal income tax with federal sales tax, with more expensive items and luxury items taxed at progressively higher rates. Supplement with government run casinos and sports betting.
2. Drastically reduce federal regulations for most industries.
3. Tort reform - no liability unless a crime has been committed. Money tied up in legal wrangling does not promote economic growth or technological advancement.
4. Abolish intellectual property. The supply of an idea is effectively unlimited; consequently its value as a commodity is infinitesimal.
5. End the war on drugs, and additionally allow all medication to be sold over-the-counter.
6. Completely overhaul the public education system. In particular, students advance to the next course in a subject as soon as, and no sooner than, they demonstrate mastery of the content of their current course. Tie the awardment of various civil rights into progress through this system (voting, drinking, etc...)
7. Fortify the seperation of church and state. Individuals openly professing religious belief are barred from public service.
8. Increase the requirement for a bill to pass from a majority vote to a two-thirds majority, three-quarters to override a veto. Bills may still be repealed by a simple majority, however.
9. Terminate all government recognition of racial classifications. All law referring to race as if it were a verifiable characteristic is immediately nullified.
10. Eliminate wasteful anti-terrorism spending. If a terrorist attack occurs, stage a multi-tiered misinformation campaign designed to trick the general public into believing the perpatrators were merely discontent citizens and hold a fake trial in which they are supposedly "brought to justice." Simultaneously plant evidence suggesting that the whole attack was staged by the government.
11. Extort weak nations for resources under threat of military bombardment. Pillage and raid those which do not comply, but make no attempt to invade or occupy them.
12. Sterilize those convicted of serious crimes as an alternative punishment and also to reduce population growth. Reduce duration of incarceration for non-violent offenders. Paying for them to live unproductively at public expense is not a good use of public funds.
13. Change the focus of law enforcement from quantity to quality. Jurisdictions that arrest large numbers of individuals without charging them with anything much less convicting them will have their funding cut along with a manditory wage decrease until they can improve their ratio. Ditto for those getting abnoramlly large numbers of complaints against them.

I'll add more later maybe.

^^^

EDIT: 10, 11, & 12

I can understand 7 from your hatred of religion, although that's a little harsh. Define "openly professing."

4 is just awesome.

EDIT2: In reference to 12, are you borderline Eugenist or something?

EDIT3: I guess 11 is explained by one of your previous sigs, the one quoting that Japanese dude. Although it's fairly problematic, ethicaly.

EDIT4: I'll need to read up on Tort law again to comment on that.

EDIT5: Not sure about 2, what exactly is your intention behind that one?

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"The Greatest enemy of knowledge is not ignorance, it is the illusion of knowledge." -Stephen Hawking
"First they came for the communists, and I did not speak out— because I was not a communist;
Then they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out— because I was not a socialist;
Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out— because I was not a trade unionist;
Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out— because I was not a Jew;
Then they came for me— and there was no one left to speak out for me." -Martin Niemöller

Last edited by shaolin_Z on Jan-16-2007 at 10:37

Bumped for Arbiter to take notice.

___________________
"The Greatest enemy of knowledge is not ignorance, it is the illusion of knowledge." -Stephen Hawking
"First they came for the communists, and I did not speak out— because I was not a communist;
Then they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out— because I was not a socialist;
Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out— because I was not a trade unionist;
Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out— because I was not a Jew;
Then they came for me— and there was no one left to speak out for me." -Martin Niemöller

quote:

Originally posted by shaolin_Z ^^^

Yeah that wasn't really meant to be taken too seriously, it's half genuine and half a satire of my philosophical "extremism." I'll try to explain what I was thinking on the ones you had questions about, though, but don't take it as I am necessarily arguing that all these should be put into practice.

#2 - there are a lot of regulations the cost of which (both the cost to the government to enforce/create them and the cost to business to comply with them) is extremely high compared to the actual benefits. It seems like practically everything is regulated these days from the types of flooring allowed in supermarkets to the height that railings of a specific type have to be in the workplace for a ledge of a specific height. The cost of changing these things every time regulations change (frequently) or when new regulations are developed is passed on to the end user and inflates prices for questionable benefits.

#7 - Basically, this prevents candidates from running a campaign which appeals to religion or pursuing an overtly religious agenda once elected. We can't read their thoughts, but it will at least keep the biggest religious nutbags from being eligible for office and will steer debate on the issues away from religion.

#10 - This one's a little weird and maybe unrealistic. Basically, I think the power that terrorists have is not the actual physical damage they do, but the attention in generates. By denying them the "credit" and attention for what they do, much of what they seek to accomplish is thwarted. However, it's difficult to pull off. A fake trial for a token McVeigh type could probably fool the majority if it was executed well enough and the press was manipulated. There would still be people who would not believe it, though, so the backup plan is to make them think that the government did it instead of the terrorists. Any good conspiracy needs at least one or two layers of misdirection for those who aren't fooled by the initial deception.

#11 - Yeah, this one is pretty out there. I really like tactics and brinksmanship and I tend to be aggressive and uncompromising so it would be hard for me to be president without stirring up some trouble one way or another. But it's definitely not ethically defensible.

#12 - Not really eugenist but I do believe that our population is higher than is ideal. In terms of individual productivity (and therefore individual prosperity) a higher population is good up until a certain point where additional manpower no longer improves a society's ability to obtain and use it's resources effectively as much as additional bodies dilute the fruits of those resources. Tying population control into criminal justice could definitely disproportionately target people with certain characteristics but the main idea is that we're looking to reduce the population in general and why not reduce it where the children are more likely to be born into a bad situation? I'd have to imagine that being the child of a violent criminal is generally a less than ideal starting point for an individual. Plus, criminals are poor more often than not and we don't want the state to have to pay for the child. So it's not really trying to weed out "bad genes" per se, rather trying to reduce the birth rate with a focus on children likely to be born into disadvantageous situations.

I would pull all military funding of Israel & invest it into our education. Tax the rich & big corps an extra 20% & invest that into education. Pull troops outta most countries including Iraq, A'stan & S Korea. Prolly Germany too. All that extra saved money i would invest into enviroment & education. Also i would prolly need some real protection at that time since all the jews would want me dead. I'd prolly have to get the Mob to help with that (secretly). I'd set up the mob to have Casinos in foregn countries in return for thier protection of my interests.

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