i was just thinking about politicians and how nothing improves when they get into power. they blame budgets among other things. i was thinking about usa and obama in particular. since he has come into power so far it has been what any other government would have done. the same funding restraints argument and not being able to do this or that. i would have thought to myself someone with such strong views would have already had ideas to change things. and even if they didn't they would ask people what they would do if it pained them so much to change things. i have plans that i would introduce to improve peoples lives. most not all do not need money or little of it. so i thought what can he and other leaders do to improve the country without costing money. 1. ten percent of the usa are food insecure. he could make it law that shops can only display food until it passes its best before and then has to give it away to charities. he could also change laws on food production to make sure less is wasted or thrown away because it does not look like the food people want to buy. he could at a small cost buy up some land and pay unemployed people to farm it and give the food to food charities. 2. he could introduce laws to prohibit the profit margins on drugs so that they become more affordable and cost the individual less to have health insurance. he could make it that doctors have to do so many years pro bono work as part of the qualifying process to become a doctor, to prove they are in a selfless profession. he could make unemployed people do jobs in hospitals like cleaning to earn their welfare payment. 3. he could introduce a minimum income for people who receive welfare and make them do jobs like street cleaning for their welfare money. 4. he could have stronger punishments for things that cost the economy money such as alcohol and drug abuse. 5. he could get people recycling goods they do not use like freecycle. so people that don't use something that is useful to someone else can make a difference. 6. he could introduce local initiatives to get unemployed people to help the elderly to lower the social security cost. i am sure there are many others too. any suggestions. to my knowledge none of these methods are used in any country yet the politicians say they care. they could make a difference with little or no cost. do you agree.
Be careful what you wish, you've just pictured the great visions of Germany under Hitler, Soviet Russia or modern day Cuba!
This is the kind of stuff that makes a marked difference. A lot of times its the little things that make all the difference in the world. What I'd like to see is all current inmates escorted back to their neighborhoods and (under proper supervision of course) paint all graffiti, clean all the trash, maintain all public areas, rebuild decrepid buildings - essentially become free labor for the lower income nieghborhoods.
Most of your suggestions would actually cost a great deal of money and political will, unless you're able to force entire constituencies to behave according to new rules. The other poster is right, also, that lots of these/similar measures (e.g. 3,4 and 6) were actually tried in the Soviet Union.
We used to have a state program here like that. Inmates who were considered not a threat were let out on details to clean some of the state parks, chop the brush down, etc. Some of them started getting small injuries, insect bites, poison ivy, etc. They all started suing the State Government. In ways, they have more rights than we do (free legal, health care, education, etc.) Stuff sounds nice, but doesn't work.
what about 1, 2 and 5 could they be used. i think you would find there are a lot of charities that do these things already and have the infrastructure too. they would have willing workforces due to the people needing the food volunteering. i do not see why this would cost money. if people aren't working and need food this seems like the most agreeable way of getting it.
Enslaving everyone to each other is not freedom, and placing artificial price controls on pharmaceuticals is the surest way to stifle new innovation. The path to prosperity is paved with <b>less</b> interference in people's lives, not more of it.
thank you for your comments. however i have noticed no one has come up with any other suggestions or suggestions that might work if they disagree with mine. do any of you have any. i would appreciate it if you do it would be helpful.