Fun DU homework assignment: Describe your version of Utopian America.

[Prophet 451]

1. OK, I'll bite

My thoughts are off-the-cuff, so probably not as well thought out as yours.

1 & 2) Essentially capitalism but with a few important alterations.
- Firstly, corporations are banned outright. Businesses can still be formed as small traders or partnerships but a corporation is just a way of achieving private profit while avoiding private responsibility. Small traders and partnerships maintain responsibility.

- Second, minimum wage rises to $17 an hour on the federal level and is henceforth, linked to rise in line with inflation or the CPI, whichever is higher.

- Third, capital gains taxation is abolished entirely. From now, it's all classed as income and taxed accordingly with the sole exception of selling your primary dwelling which is tax-free.

- Fourth, in economics, there is a term called a "captive market". A captive market is one where everyone needs the product (or, at least, the option of it) at all times. That means monopolies and price gouging happen routinely in those sectors. To prevent that, in those sectors which have captive markets (gas, water, electricity, healthcare, mail, telecoms, arguably banking), the state will set up a not-for-profit alternative that provides a minimum level of cash-for-service. That creates a bottom floor below which private industry cannot sink (I call this the "backstop theory" of economics). To use healthcare as an example, that means the state will set up it's own non-profit insurance system (probably be extending Medicare to all) to compete with private insurance. This is roughly how we do things here (UK) and it works pretty well (until the bastard Tories started trying to privatize by stealth).

- Fifth, reorganise the tax structure, adding several new bands at the top end and maxxing out at 50% on household income above $2.5 million.

- Sixth, the creation of the Rebuild America Corps which will directly employ the unemployed to rebuild the crumbling infrastructure. It will work with local charities and rebuilding projects. It will rebuild roads, schools, hospitals; repair infrastructure, both physically and doing stuff like beautifying countryside and clearing graffiti. It will also use on-the-job training so it's workers can get themselves certified in, say, weatherisation as they work. It will be administered almost entirely by unemployed clerical workers.

3) Priorities from highest to lowest: a) welfare. A country that doesn't look after it's poor and sick is barbaric. b) Infrastructure. c) Education. d) healthcare. e) law enforcement (but see note below). f) science & tech. g) Military.

Infrastructure shall be moved to renewable resources as quickly as possible.

4) Rights & Responsibilities. Right to healthcare affirmed. Right to have society support you if you cannot work or find work affirmed. Clinton's horribly immoral gutting of welfare repealed. Goes back to being an unlimited time right but contingent on the recipient actively seeking work. Right to a fair and open trial, no more secret trials, even if it means the jury has to be sworn to secrecy. However, you also have the responsibility to turn up for jury duty and you will be fined (consumerate with your income, we agree on that) if you don't show up without a good excuse.

Tempted to put in an IQ test for voting.

Reorganise the judicial sentencing for crimes to emphasize rehabilitation. I don't go as far as you, I think some non-violent offenders do need to be jailed. However, I also think rehabilitation and education of prisoners should be a much higher priority (except for the lifers, we're just warehousing them until they die). Mental health screening also needs to be massively improved in prisons. I read a study a few weeks ago that suggests up to 20% of American prisoners have serious mental health issues. They need to be screened and helped because at least some of them wouldn't be a danger to society if they were getting treatment.

End the war on (some) drugs, obviously. Possession of banned drugs remains a crime but one treated with rehab, not prison.

Legalize pot. I take four psychotropic drugs a day, all far more powerful than weed (they';re also the reason I don't smoke weed). So pot is legal, under the same conditions as booze: Age restricted and a ban on driving while high. It's an adult pleasure for adults so age regulation. And you shouldn't drive while under the influence of anything that messes with your perceptions. If you choose to grow weed for yourself and/or a few friends, that's just like brewing your own beer and none of the state's business. The state only gets involved when you start doing it for commercial reasons.

I'll get back to teh rest of these once I've thought about them more.