Let's make this thread a combination of what you would do if you could, as President of the United States of America and a critique of what others post as thier solution to today's problems. This will assume that you would be allowed to do whatever you suggest and no one within the USA would stop you from doing it. Please, no bullshit like "I'd turn the entire Mideast into glass", because if thought out, that would kill the entire planet from only the pollution caused by the event as it spread world-wide. Let's keep it within possible parameters that would allow most, if not all of the people of the world to survive and evolve into a better global society of mankind. Go for it! Tell us all how you would make the world better for all mankind.
I would campaign for a law that creates a better wealth distribution in corporations in the United States. I would try to make it so the highest paid exec. could only make something like 5 (maybe 10) times as much as the lowest paid employee. So the highest paid McDonald's exec could only make something like 30$/hour. These compainies would be forced to pay their employees a living wage before they raid the cofers for their 5 mil/year salaries...
I'll start it off with my own thoughts. I'd like to see the USA become an isolationist country for about 20 years. I mean this in totality. 1. Withdraw all troops and civilian "contractors" from any and every country other than the USA. 2. Close every USA embassy in the world. 3. Use Government money within the USA to develop a massive mass transit system throughout the country using hybrid systems to transport people to and from cities and work places. Restructure our society to encompass this to reduce oil usage to it's barest necessity. 4. Use the troops withdrawn from other countries to do two things in the absolute: 1. Put enough of them on each border to make infiltration impossible. This would end any "Illegal Aliens" from entering the USA. 2. Use other troops to search for and find any existing "Illegal Aliens" and send them back out of the USA, anchor kids or not. 5. Stop any and all funding of anything outside of the USA. Spend our money at home on our own problems and stay the hell out of other countries problems. Let what happens, happen. This is what every other country on the globe wants anyway. Let's give it to them. No relief funding, no charities, no distribution of our products, no exports, no imports. NOTHING. 6. The money and resources saved in the very first 5 years would pay off most of the debts we owe in the world. Pay them all. Every last cent...after deducting the unpaid debts those countries owe us and have not paid. 7. Restructure our legal system to reality. It doesn't work. It's a joke within our own country and in every country of the world. Our crime rates show this to be true when compared to other countries crime rates. Make our prisons someplace that no person in thier right mind would ever want to return to. Make the punishment for violent crime "Life at hard labor with no possibility of parole". Then work them until they die, making products for the poor of our society. EDIT: 8. Stop any and all new citizenships or entry of non-citizens into the USA for 20 years. No more people! We have enough now! We can't feed, cloth and provide work for those who are already here. Stop allowing more to enter for at least 2 decades. Well, that's my ideas in part. I could go on, but that gives an idea of where I'd like to see the USA go. Next? Ideas? Thoughts? (Of course, weed would immediately become completely legal throughout the country.)
If I were President, I'd slowly ween then Federal government off of power. If I suddenly took it away, I'd probably be assassinated.
Can we start with getting cannabis removed from schedule one of the controlled substances act? I know, that one is a little obvious... The President can do that, right? Oh, and those two fake wars can be over as well. Since I'm being obvious today... Recall all US troops to American soil at once, in order to audit and realistically assess the need for an overweight military budget. Also, National Defense is best played at home, not by committing National Offense(s) elsewhere. Order an immediate independent audit of all government spending, to find out who's cooking the books. The National Security Act is hereby suspended. I am the President of Obvious. I could keep this up for as long as it took to get shot.
How would you stop corporations from moving out of the US, or encourage corporations to invest in the US?
I would tax them out of the idea. For every dollar made by a USA Citizen or USA Corporation or Business *outside* the USA or by using as much as a single Non-USA Citizen, tax it 90 cents. That would end that game and force corporations to use USA Citizens for jobs and products. As I already said, I'd also stop ALL exports from the USA and imports into it. At first, that would create shortages until USA corporations picked up the slack by hiring USA Citizens and created what is now imported from other countries. You think other countries hate the USA now? Wait until that front tit is extracted from thier greedy little sucking mouths and they have no USA Billions falling into thier pockets from imbalanced trade practices. Don't get me wrong. I don't dislike other countries people. I dislike other countries governments that take all they can while giving as little as possible and causing hate and harm to the USA in the mean time.
Supply equals demand in Marketing. Watch what would happen if everyone stopped paying to watch those games and events on TV or live. The price and the pay scales would drop like a rock after a year. As long as someone wants to pay $50 to watch one fight on TV, they will continue to charge $50 per/fight. When title fights went past $20 per/fight, I quit watching them. I'll read the results of the fight on the net for free.
Another idea I had was that I would be a *working* President. All the glitz and grandeur of the Presidency would cease with me in office. I would stay put in the White House and work as I was elected to do. I would put off any and all vacations, all ballroom celebrations, all the hand-shaking and bullshit ceremonies with visiting diplomats and all the spending for travel. I would work, work and work some more. That's what Presidents should be doing instead of acting like celebrities. Periodic entertainment could still be brought into the White House on weekends maybe once a month. I would limit my fun to that which is done by all the working people in the world. That way, the security risk is minimized, the security costs are minimized and I would stay close to the job that I'm there to do. All senior government travel and costs would be examined for necessity and canceled if not justified as a *real* need. Just doing what I've said above would save many, many millions of dollars each year that could be redirected to something that would help the people of the USA instead of padding the pockets of the weathly.
So just because someone was smart enough to use their brain and get ahead of the game, their going to get penalized for it? If poor Jimmy didn't graduate high school then why the fuck should Timmy be penalized? Fuck that, If I'm going to school for six plus years I'm sure as hell going to enjoy every last penny I make once my career gets up and going. No remorse for Jimmy not getting up off his ass.
So what is the incentive for working hard ? Whats the point of going to school for 8 years so you can be a CEO? Why go to law school if i will only make 5 times more then the middle school drop out? Do you not see the fail?
That's what you would be doing, taxing out of the idea of investing in US jobs. If I were a mega corporation with the power to hire hundreds of thousands of workers I would certainly avoid your country.
Ha! No. In my entire life, I've never even seen a strip act. It would bore me. Just like *using* a prostitute. All fake as can be and nothing but a bored, non-caring person acting with fake desire, so I'm told. I'll stick with real people. I would be more interested in something like a comedy act or such and tipping high quality performers is an insult to them. They make what they make via thier regular wages for thier act. When someone performs at the White House, they aren't paid. It's considered a privilege to do so. Performers line up to perform at the WH. That would be something that would happen only rarely if I were President. I see a show like that only rarely as it is and that wouldn't change. A working President shouldn't waste time doing that very often. He/She has real work to do.
Then we would do without your product or make it ourselves, "In Country" and using USA Citizens. If your Corporation wants USA dollars, they will hire only USA citizens and work only within the USA in USA owned businesses. Tough luck for everyone else. My idea would resolve unemployment in the USA and end the unfair trade imbalances.