UNIVERSAL HEALTH CARE
Everyone should be able to see a doctor, dentist, or nurse, with no worries about money. Nobody should need to have a job or get their poverty notarized and approved before seeing a doctor. Nobody should go bankrupt because they got sick.
UNIVERSAL BASIC INCOME
A paycheck available for every adult, with no means testing, and no exceptions. I’d suggest $1,000 p/month, with annual increases based on inflation. That’s a low but livable sum, so no American needs to fear homelessness or hunger, and you don’t lose that money when you have a job.
PUBLIC MEDIA
We need hard-nosed, well-funded, no bullshit journalism, funded by the federal government but hands-off, with a mandate for pissing people off
by telling the truth. See: BBC News in England, CBC News in Canada.
NEW IMPROVED CAPITALISM
There needs to me vigorous anti-trust enforcement ensuring competition, with regulations not written by lobbyists, and with enforcement of those rules, and with fines, arrests, and imprisonment for illegal acts. It’s capitalism that would have many more small businesses, and no huge businesses at all. You wouldn’t recognize it.
END OUTSOURCING
Everything sold in America must be made in America, or if it’s imported, the importer pays a tariff equal to the cost difference.
FREE COLLEGE
Open admission to any publicly-funded college or university, for anyone who’s able to keep up with the curriculum.
LEGALIZE IT
End the prohibition of marijuana, certainly, but not just pot. End the prohibition of all recreational drugs. Maybe prescription drugs should be available, too, with warnings where warnings would be wise, and with regulated safety same as food and water. For dangerous and addictive drugs, let’s have safe use rooms and counseling, but no arrests.
A SANE FOREIGN POLICY
America’s international relations should be built around helping people and countries that need help, doing business with nations that respect human rights, and doing less business or no business with countries that don’t.
NO MORE COVERT ASSASSINATIONS
Nothing much is more un-American than the CIA, so no more bombing people and nations we’re not at war with. No more secret ops designed to topple foreign governments.
End the secrecy about what the US has done in the past, and stop doing it in the future. Issue formal apologies and reparations to the survivors, everywhere the CIA has committed atrocities, and arrest the people who ordered the atrocities, assassinations, and insurrections.
NO MORE WARS
When the old farts in charge want to attack, invade, blockade, or bomb another nation, they must be required to present a valid and easily understood reason. This would rule out all American wars since World War II.
AND IN CONCLUSION
That’s enough for this morning, but I have more ideas. Lots more, and you probably do, too, because “the way things are” is obviously an ongoing hell designed to keep the rich and powerful rich and powerful, and keep the poor and powerless poor and powerless.
1/27/2021
Republished 1/13/2025
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