Skip to main content

Political Reform Wishlist

I'm getting into more and more political discussions especially with all the GOP debates.
Just FYI: I think most of the culture war between conservatives and liberals, rich and poor, socialists and libertarians is completely fabricated for political marketing efforts.  But here's my wishlist for politics:

1. SuperVoucher: Convert all social spending programs on retirement, healthcare, education, student loans into one large simple safety net fund.  Basically give every American an account to spend the money however they need to.

The catch: however you spend the money is public knowledge from the instant you swipe the debit card. If you bought pot in Colorado, or a prosthetic leg overseas, or food at a grocery store with your share of the safety net fund it's public knowledge.  Stock investors could use the data for updating stock predictions.  Universities could use the info  for Economic research. CDC could track purchases of medicine to respond early to flu outbreaks.

The Hope: Americans would spend it on stuff that creates a lot of value for themselves and their community.  Instead of creating bubbles in college debt people could use to fund a small business or franchise that or turn their backyard into a farm. It's Trickle Down Theory for everybody.
Design Benefits: everyone gets the same flat amount regardless of age, criminal record, taxes paid, income level.  For the upper middle class/ rich this would basically seem like a rebate on taxes paid.  There would not be any bureaucratic mess or waste or political maneuvering on who gets the voucher.   We could banish unsustainable spending programs, leverage the benefits of Big Data, get rid of government slowdown and waste.


The Risks: People would forget to save their SuperVoucher for healthcare expenses.  Heroin addicts probably don't care about public shame enough to avoid spending their SuperVoucher on heroin.


2. Replace the FDA with mandatory product liability insurance. The problem of getting useful drugs approved takes over a decade and billions in investment.  The cost of inaction for many delayed drugs far exceeds the cost of approving a drug with side effects for some people.  An insurance company would have to balance the risk of future lawsuits with the profit opportunity of a new drug.  The Hope: the insurance company would research and vet drugs more efficiently than FDA. They would balance the creation of a portfolio of drugs.

3. Completely Decriminalize drug usage.  Treat addicts instead of incarcerating.
Benefits: reduced prison populations.  It would be cheaper to get people the help they need rather than.
 No more civil forfeiture of goods for


Comments

Popular posts from this blog

How effective is Blogger at sharing now.

This works great for 1 day trips somewhere if you have a fridge and laptop plugged in.  

Yes I'm reading parenting articles quite pre-emptively. I liked this one

It seems like modern parenting is an exhausting pain in the ass.  Somehow the task has become more difficult not less even with technology to help us do everything.   By the way, why are there still not washing machines for babies.  How has this been overlooked.  There are enough engineering couples who have tied the knot and started a family.  There's no excuse for this to not exist yet. https://www.romper.com/p/i-tried-minimalist-parenting-for-a-week-it-was-a-total-game-changer-74237 Romper Home Flowcharts News Moms Unfiltered Pregnancy Sex & Relationships Baby Toddler Kid Health Entertainment Motherhood Food Fashion & Beauty Company About Contact Terms Privacy Courtesy of goodmoments/Fotolia I Tried Minimalist Parenting For A Week, & It Was A Total Game Changer By  Ambrosia Brody 4 days ago SHARE Being present at all times with my children is an elusive goal. There are times when I am 100

Rant: I hate Google Cloud but I don't want to.

I just wasted 3 hours trying to get Google Cloud SQL to work.  After digging through docs and support forums I couldn't set up IPv6 access to my sql instance. This isn't the first time I've wasted tremendous time getting such a basic access feature to work.  I went through a nearly  parallel issue with Google Compute Engine.  It took over a week to get the answers I needed to get a network access working for Google Compute Engine. I have a problem and I admit it. :  I know Google Cloud will eventually dominate.  I can't help myself from trying to use the inevitable technological leader in the cloud wars, but damn give me back all the money and months I wasted learning these platforms.  If I could just turn off my engineering supremacy OCD ... just get prototypes working on traditional boring crappy tech,  I'd have way more streams of income by now and hate my tech life far less. Speaking of money:  There's still no clearcut way to cap monthly spend on Goog