YOU ARE DICTATOR OF THE UNITED STATES: What would you do?

Why is America the only western first world country that debates abortion so much?

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Good idea. I would probably do this too. There are too many countries. The world would probably operate smoother if there were less countries, 5 or 10 or 12 or something.

Where do you get the time to write posts this long?

thebrofessor

only 1 of these is sarcastic, and most of these are hairbrained ideas I've often thought of but wrote out hastily, the spirit of my points is pretty solid even if I've fudged some of the explanation

1. immediately put in term limits for legislature and government appointed positions (those where there's no open application process), no more than 12 years. make a term limit for myself of 2 terms of 6 years and make there be a democratic election in 6 years

2. fix social security through more liberal investment policy, life expectancy keeping up with reality, and expansion of tax base

3. ban lobbyists

4. complete overhaul of tax code eliminating loopholes and favoritism of certain industries. I wrote about this at length elsewhere, but eliminate all deductions that aren't generating another tax. as an example, employee wages should be deductible since those are taxed at W2 level, but eliminate the deductibility of interest on debt. also, why TF do we have a QBI deduction or favoritism for RE development? business decisions should be made on intrinsic merits, not tax incentives

5. reinstate redundancy and self sufficiency in most everything so we don't have shit like the chip shortage and a devastating power outage in a state that has the most energy in the continental 48

6. break up most unions

7. mandate that legislators have a blood relative going into a combat zone for which they authorize invasion/occupation

8. ban politicians from private employment in the industries they regulate/oversee. no more Ben Bernanke going to work for PIMCO, Bob Rubin going to Shittibank, Tim Geithner going to Warburg Pincus, and ditto goes to speaking tours. public servitude should NOT be a golden ticket. nothing wrong with making money, but using your post as a means to an end is not what public service was intended for

9. end racial classifications on all federal documents including the census, mandate all states and any institution that receives any federal aid (including tax breaks or 501c3 status) to do the same. this would enable us to further policy based upon socioeconomic need, which may solve many of the same problems we're discussing today, but categorization is idiotic

10. make skin in the game a theme for EVERYTHING. student loans sit on balance sheets of the schools issuing them, bankers for FDIC insured institutions sharing in risk taking they offload to clients (e.g. bonus pays out when bond matures/meets call date, not when the debenture is signed). the theme is this - if you're getting protection from taxpayers, you better have skin in the game to not fuck over taxpayers. if you're not seeking tax breaks or FDIC coverage, the free market is still operative, but the free lunch is not. 

11. eliminate subsidies on corn and soy in favor of regenerative farming practices for ruminants (either free range bison or cattle)

12. treat ISPs the same way we treat telephone providers, free and open should be the goal here

13. invade canada - we want all the maple syrup

14. legalize all drugs for recreational use by adults and regulate contents for purity

15. ban advertising by drug manufacturers

16. get the FDA to correct the record on things like red meat, cholesterol, sodium, soda and bread. ban substances not naturally occurring from being food.

17. formulate a plan to end single use plastics or at least have it be 100% sustainable (either biodegradable ones or something similar)

18. make a pre-requisite to public service be at least 1 guided experience with a classic psychedelic

19. mandate conscription - 2 years

20. mandate all financial and political commentators/guests when speaking about things to the public have their personal portfolio (in percent, not dollars) disclosed alongside their comment. ditto for forecasters having their track record disclosed on everything, and research analysts having their accuracy ratings public knowledge. regardless of that half baked disclaimer "this is not investing advice" it is in fact investing advice, and should be treated with the same or higher levels of scrutiny than PWM because it's reaching millions, not a few hundred HNW families. I realize this would nuke the careers of jim cramer and most equity research analysts, but I say good riddance. if you opine on something about which you don't have a track record, people ought to know your accuracy and weigh the potential impacts accordingly

21. any time a normal distribution/correlation/regression analysis is used to justify a policy, either disallow that data or mandate that it must go to external organizations (e.g. think tanks, universities) for private review. too many times we've used policies that assume economics is a hard science and can be observed as such, when it's so very clearly not

22. also, since I'd be all powerful, I'd immediately host a dinner with Queens Letizia of Spain and Rania of Jordan, for rapport purposes obviously

3. How do you ban ''lobbyists''? Because as the field was born, it's simply private sector/citizens talking to politicians... in private. Sure, now it's a lot more professionalized and as it works, you have business paying lobby companies to identify favourable politicians so that companies can achieve policies better suited to then. Lobbyists today are basically brokers acting between a supply of politicians and a demand coming from the private sector. You can cut out the brokers but are you going to make it illegal for politicians to talk to companies?

4, 8, 9, 10, 20 YES

22 STOP LUSTING AFTER MED WOMEN REEEEE

thebrofessor

19. mandate conscription - 2 years

I agree with virtually all of your list. In relation to this specific point, one of my coworkers who is politically different from me but pleasant to talk to and I were talking about how to get people more engaged in civic affairs. He is ex-military, I am not (though looking back I wish I had pursued it). We were brainstorming some ideas on a long walk and were thinking about some kind of national service would be an interesting concept, and not just have it be military service. We were thinking of something like the CCC/WPA, AmeriCorps, teach for America, the Peace Corps, and a physical construction one for rebuilding infrastructure. One feature I thought would also be useful is that if you were to do this, your duty assignment would be somewhere in another part of the country which would also help people learn more about the country overall and build a better sense of camaraderie imo. We were also looking at including apprenticeship programs for companies as a bridge between high school and full employment, given the demise of things like home economics and workshop classes. The overall idea would be to use industrial policy to alleviate the issues of not having enough Americans interested in STEM fields.

This is a somewhat niche one, but I'd look at merging several federal financing opportunities (both grant and lending programs) since many of them cover similar areas but have slightly differing eligibility criteria and cause agencies/depts not to talk to each other, which silos off a lot of talent and expertise that isn't shared. Somewhat on that topic, I'd propose the US think about creating a very professional national infrastructure bank. There are many federal lending programs that currently exist across a variety of depts that should be reformed/standardized and brought into a one-stop shop (e.g., DOE's Title 17 lending, DOT's TIFIA/RRIF, EPA's WIFIA, USDA's broadband loan programs, etc.).

I'd personally also look at changing election systems that would produce less extremist candidates (maybe something like a ranked choice or other vote). This is one of the biggest issues today since we have only 2 parties, and they are increasingly radicalized and polarized, leading to a hollowing out of the electorate.

I'd also look to reform the Senate a bit and style it more as an American House of Lords that serves in a more advisory and auditory function.

Just give them Covid, should take care of most of them and hopefully scare the rest into losing weight.