Category: Let's talk
What would you change about your country if you could be in charge for a day?
A day wouldn't be nearly long enough to invoke change. But, here goes:
I would create a law that made certain that all towns and cities had a full-functioning door-to-door transportation system for its disabled community members. They would either need to improve the system they already had, or work out a voucher system with cab companies. Just some sort of fully working system so that people with disabilities could get to their appointmets, their job, college, shopping and any other place they needed to go.
Wow! This is a tough one, no matter whether I choose the country I was born in or the country I love. So let's do both, or try to. I know, this is only for a day but it would be nice to see everything working as it should. So I'm taking some liberties here. Btw, I love love love the transportation idea above.
America
Socialise healthcare, education and transportation (not that you can't have your own car etc, but better public transportation is in order), remove smoking bans in public places and restore social security to the way it should be. If I had to choose just one thing for America, it would be to get them to wake up and realise what's happening to them.
Greece
Poor Ellada. Where on Earth do I even begin! Give civil rights to Hellenic Polytheists (at least recognise us without trying to condemn us) to the disabled and blind in particular and to homosexuals in general. Restore the death penalty (sorry EU), restore the ports to us instead of selling them, help the poor and the unemployed, try, just for once, to get PASOK and New Democracy to stop arguing and care about the country, improve education and keep university socialised, and get our ancient artifacts back. The one thing for Greece? Get us to realise our full potential, how far we've fallen and how it's not impossible to at least get back to something that deserves dignity and respect. No one should treat us like trash, least of all ourselves!
If I could be in charge of a country for one day, I would change lots of things. Actually it depends what country were talking about. I originally came from the Philippines, so, I can still chose the Philippines for the country that I want to be in charge in, but anyway, I will write about both the Philippines and the U.S. If were talking about the Philippines, I would make the government money budget equally divided to all those different agencies. I will make sure to eliminate corruption among those politicians and those rich people, who gets almost everything from the budget. I will make sure to provide additional funding toward Health Improvement, Education, Employment opportunities, and Vocational training as well as Family Planning and Housing. I want to build more hospitals, schools, and libraries accessible to everyone. I would also like to create different programs geared to the improvement of our environment and promote awareness to prevent water and air pollution, and and garbage segregation policies to avoid the mixture of different waste and to promote recycling. I would also change the driving age. Instead of 16, I would make it 18, and besides the license test paper and application process, I would add another section to the process. I would like every person to get a training session for them to understand the policies and responsibilities of safe driving. I want to promote safety and security not only in driving but also in drunking. I want to remove a rule regarding the right age to drink. I want to make drinking available to everyone, except for children, in my hopes that the people will not abuse it. Freedom coes with responsibilities, so, there. Those are just some things I want to change in the Philippines. Another thing I want to add, I want to eliminate child labor. I want to create a program that gives children with low income an opportunity to study. I also want to create a rule for working age. I want to start probably around 16 and older. I also want to improve their quality of living in that place by providing new programs that allows people to loan money to buy or rent houses. I want to create this program because there are so many people who live in squatters area and who usually sleeps under bridges especially when its raining. There are so many people who don’t even eat three times a day, so, I want to promote a government program that provides food in exchage for labor. Another thing, I want to advocate to make every thing accessible to people with disabilities. I want to implement sound system in trains and buses as well as in public places like schools, libraries, and stores. I want to eliminate descrimination in the working place by giving everyone, including people with disabilities, the right to work equally with others in a normal work settings. That’s what I would do if I had a day to change a country. I can only think of what to change in the Philippines because in the US, almost everything is provided, the only problem is that people don’t know about those unlimited resources. Another problem I see is that people are afraid to disagree with the government that’s why we are in the situation we don’t want to be right now, for instace, the war and such. Democracy does not mean controlling other countries, but that’s whats happening, so there, I don’t want to comment about what I can change in this country because they already have everything they could possibly think of.
Right, I know after people read this, they will call me crazy, cruel and insane, but these are my views.
Well, I’ll do China and U.s.
U.s.
I would go first to discontinue with government policies on interference with trade, except the few links concerning people who have disabilities. I would also Make simple and just moral laws, except the stuff on the constitution, and almost go strictly from the constitution.
I will ensure the market is completely free and voluntary and that it’s very orderly. I will make sure it runs on capitalism, and make rules pertaining it. I will then put people on staff for the government to look out for people who are breaking moral codes and basic trade codes. Then I would go visit Allan Greenspan, convince him to change his views back to what it was before (he had just recently changed his mind) and reinstate Greenspan to the place of the federal reserve’s chairman. Then I would probably make sure that another capitalist can be the president for a good four years. Probably Peikoff.
China
I would do almost the same thing for china, but change it from communism to a republic first and then do all these things. If I couldn’t, I would just make it a republic, instead of a communistic country. Well, of course I’d have to employ different people for the federal reserve, which I would make happen, and same with the president.
Hmm, odd topic, but kind of interesting. One thing I would do is to legalize drugs, remove the price barriers to something managable to prevent violent crime and hve government provide drugs and needles for a reasonable sum and also provide a place for the druggies to shoot up in and pass out. Removing the drug smuggling profits, I think, could reduce violence by a huge percentage and make drug use less hip. Switzerland has been doing this with heroin recently with excellent success, it's gone from being the cool drugs of choice to someting only very sad people do, remove the glamour and the profit to criminals and cartels and you may start eliviating the problem of overcrowded prisons, HIV and other similar stuff.
I'd want to change social security systems so that they provide better incentive for a person to seek eduction, such as reduce or remove income dependent insurance for the first 2 or 3 years after university or allow a student to subtract paid tuition from his or her income before social security income is determined, also provide a program where a certain percentage of the income goes directly to the employer whilst the employee is getting the necessary extra training he or she needs. I'd obviously, in the U.S. remove resources away from the military and concentrate on providing healthcare for everyone, not just Iraqis, even though the U.S. is the biggest cause for their injuries, and divert money away from the Israeli military adventures and towards something that promotes the U.S. as a credible force for middle east peace instead of one-sided, anything-goes backer of Israel, it is in Israel's best interest as well as its neighbours to come up with some sort of credible solution. The peaceful resolution of this dispute may create a whole different world view with much reduce Islam/Christianity tensions, which would benefit hugely in the most efficient use of available resources world wide.
I find thee free market theory above a bit funny, seeing as the free market created the over paid, over comlicated financial incentives that are bringing the whole financial world down, I think, on the contrary, we need increased government oversight of the market, not as a direct participant but as a regulator and protector to the non professional investor.
I am honestly not at all convinced that democracy is the only form of government that works, the U.S. seems to believe that because it works here (more or less), but I don't think it's a magic bullet and can solve any problem. You have to find a system most suitable to each country's customs and situation rather than blindly enforce what works somewhere else in the world.