August 29, 2007

• You have absolute power in your country for 1 hour; what do you do?

  If I had absolute power in my country for one hour, and I take this to mean that whatever I accomplished in that hour could not be undone as soon as I was no longer in power, I’d overhaul our education system, work on social and health care reforms, create stricter guidelines to protect our environment, and ensure that future presidents really were elected by the people and upheld their campaign promises or faced hefty fines at the end of their terms.

  Grade school teachers would get raises. Children would be taught according to learning styles, not by rote memorization, and classes would have no more than ten students per teacher. College and University professors would receive raises from a board which took into account student opinion and general class grades. Any college/university student that maintained a 3.5 GPA or higher would have a full scholarship provided they were a citizen of the United States. Any college/university student that maintained a 3.0 GPA while working a fulltime job in order to make ends-meet would also receive a full scholarship. There would be no more sports scholarships. They make enough money when they go pro that they don’t need scholarships that cater to a meathead mentality.

  Anyone who worked in a service industry would receive significant raises. The more a person’s job brings them into direct contact with an often rude and ignorant public, the better the raise for that group… think restaurant wait-staff and retail salespeople. People who put their lives in danger as part of their job – firefighters, police officers, etc would also receive raises. Necessary health care would be covered up to at least half of the bill, though I wouldn’t touch elective surgeries. People would still have to pay for their liposuction unless their health was endangered by their weight. Retired citizens and children would receive free medical coverage for doctor and hospital visits and medicine. I would also create a fund to inspire civic pride and increase knowledge and respect for the various cultures and religions in the US.

  Car and factory emissions would be subject to fines if they contained too many harmful pollutants. I’d push to reward any car companies that went completely green, with zero emissions. The greener a company, the better the bonus at the end of the year, with Grammy-Oscar like awards for the most environmentally/worker friendly companies in the USA and outside it. We can’t control pollution elsewhere even though it impacts people everywhere, so maybe a system of rewards/awards might inspire them to curb their actions. I would legalize hemp because it’s better than cutting down trees for paper. It just looks like marijuana; it doesn’t contain any THC, and it does nothing if smoked. It grows faster than trees and has a wide variety of uses.

  And finally, I would do away with our electoral college. Presidents would henceforth be elected by popular vote only, tabulated by computers and not subject to a turn around from representatives. We would become a true democracy, not a republic. All government decisions with far-reaching ramifications would be subject to a public opinion poll prior to action. Our technological capabilities have evolved to the point where it is entirely possible to not only have a paperless election process for every level of the government, but also to have every elected official actually be elected by the people, not another elected official. Every presidential candidate would receive equal funding from the government, no matter what their party, and I would create a free wiki-like community board wherein the presidential candidates would be compared and criticized. Any citizen could go to get the complete story on any candidate and add their opinions as well. Any president, once elected, would have till the end of his or her term to fulfill their campaign promises. If they failed to do so, they would be fined the earnings of one year. As it stands, presidents receive $200,000 a year.

  I would have a VERY busy hour. Can you tell that I wanted to be president once upon a time?

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  • 11:13 am
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