State of my union
When it
comes to politics, I do not take any sides although I tend to bash Republicans
more frequently. Me personally I think our democracy has become a joke compared
to what it was supposed to be. It has become polarized and turned into a game
of manipulation of the populace, public office has become a career instead of a
civil duty. Corporations have taken a hold, lobbyists have spread like a
cancer, and the dream is slowly becoming a nightmare.
Our
monetary policy has been put in the hands of a private bank called the Federal
Reserve, our foreign policy has turned into a contest of measuring who has the
bigger gun. Our infrastructure which was once considered to be state-of-the-art
has become stagnant and out of date, yet our military has spared no expense.
Not that I am against being able to protect ourselves, the soldiers that put
their lives on the line are brave individuals and should be respected. However
they should be rewarded with a country that holds no boundary with what it can
achieve.
I could
go on forever with the things that are wrong with our country, I tend to do it
a lot but mostly out of concern as to where we are headed. We are stuck with
the same old ideas, and never any new solutions. I have always shared a few
ideas with others about different solutions that I have come up with, that I
would try to get implemented if I were a statesman or a civil servant. Which
are the things I am going to focus on from here on.
Our
first main obstacle I see is the problem of career politicians, that usually
tend to be law makers and lawyers, with a doctor here and a businessman there.
Our founding fathers wanted people from all walks of life in public office. Our
Senators and Congressmen, as well as the executive branch to be people who are
scientists, teachers, engineers, farmers, business owners, doctors, lawyers,
soldiers, builders, community organizers, religious leaders, philosophers,
nurses, students, the elderly, the youth, the rich, the poor, everyone in
between, so on and so forth. Having fresh ideas from all those different points
of views would yield all sorts of ideas, not just the same old ideas, that have
failed over and over.
Not
only do we need these fresh minds from all over the place, we need to get to
the voting populace to learn about the people, and not worry about their
political parties. In fact I think we should do away with political parties.
What happens with our system of two parties, is anyone in the middle gets
completely overshadowed, then you get two opposing sides that will not agree on
anything or make much compromise. So many elected officials vote for issues
strictly on party lines and policy, and less critical thinking for themselves,
taking stands on their own grounds of morality.
This is
the 21st-century, the age of information and technology. People can literally
access loads of information with a handheld device. This opens up so many doors
for a democracy, it gives a chance for people to participate in self government
in ways people could have never dreamed of 100 years ago or 200 years ago. We
need to stop being afraid of changing things with the times. So here are a few
things we should do.
·
Limit terms for all offices, including the
Senate and the House, to just two terms just like the presidency
·
encourage people of all walks of life to
participate in civic duty
·
eliminate political parties or at least their
power when it comes to elections and debates
·
public funding for political campaigns where
everyone gets the same amount of money, and allow no donations toward
campaigns.
·
Leverage technology so people have access to
information and more transparency than ever before
Another main issue that concerns me
is our spending, I think we spend way too much money on defense. I think we can
afford to slim down just a little bit and it would save loads of money. We do
not need military bases all over the world. Ever since World War II other
countries spend way less on the military's especially our allies, and let us
spend all of our money to protect them. However I am not going to focus on this
because I am no expert, and really am no armchair military genius or strategist.
Now a place where I have loads and
loads ideas, comes with welfare, Social Security, Medicaid, Medicare,
especially when it comes to the disabled. Which when people talk about these
things they usually focus on children and the elderly, as well as medical
expenses such as pharmaceuticals.
First I will talk about
unemployment and people on welfare. We are currently in a job crisis where lots
of people are unemployed. Our elected officials really just go with the two
same answers, claiming that their solution works and the others solutions do
not work. When in truth neither side's answers are actually working properly.
That's why I like I stated earlier we really need some fresh blood, with new
ideas and solutions. I think those will fix the short-term problems. However I
foresee problems within the next 50 or 100 years. Probably even sooner these
problems will arise.
For starters technology in
manufacturing, especially with the complexity in which 3-D printers are
becoming more and more advanced really quickly. In the future, manufacturing
will be done pretty much completely by machines. This is going to cause a big
gap in population and jobs available. Pretty much one day we are going back to
come to terms with the fact there is not going to be a job for everyone. My
idea for this is to change our food production systems, to be more locally
based, where farms will be focused less on mass production on certain products
that get delivered all over the place.
By simply having local farms
focusing on local market to feed the populations, you open up a few more jobs
in agriculture to try and maybe offset the jobs that will be lost due to completely
mechanized manufacturing.
I also see another opportunity with
people that cannot find a job and are relying on government assistance. There
should be a system much like the military, that is a volunteer service for the
government, but focused on development of infrastructure, like roads, highways,
high-speed rails and stuff like that. And these people would get paid like
soldiers do, and like soldiers they would be fighting for their country, but
instead a fight to keep up with the rest of the world when it comes to
infrastructure and making life easier for the citizens.
By doing it this way the government
can control the pricing better, instead of contracting out these projects to
private companies that charge extra money, and take their time for job
security. There are lots of citizens out there that want to improve the quality
of everyday life for themselves, their families, their neighborhoods, and near
future generations. I think a system like this would also bring communities
together, get people involved in working together, and promoting a sense of
accomplishing something together.
Another big issue with all these
people that are unemployed and need welfare, but are completely capable to work
and for the most part want to work but have no jobs. I think we should set up programs where we open up volunteer
work at national parks, and city beautification and cleanup, and things of that
nature, instead of paying people to do those jobs we could have a system where
people that cannot find jobs can do that work while they are on government
assistance.
As a disabled person this next
issue that I have an idea about has to do with Social Security and Medicaid. At
the moment both of these programs were set up originally for the elderly that
are going to retirement. It is also supplemental income for the poor and the
disabled. Now as a disabled person that requires lots of medical care, but is
completely capable mentally to work, and contribute to society I get stuck in
the system.
Now you may be asking how does that
happen, basically what happens is when you make over a certain amount of money
or have over $2000 in the bank you will lose the services. Now the issue here
is that fact that if I made say about $75,000 a year I would definitely not be
getting Social Security and Medicaid. At that point one would not need supplemental
income to live, however if someone lost Medicaid in my condition that salary
would not be enough to cover nowhere near my medical expenses. For me to be
able to be fiscally responsible on my own, and able to pay for nursing, medical
equipment, visits to the doctor, transportation, stays in the hospital I would
have to make over $400,000 a year.
This is the way this system does
not work, I think for disabled people there should be a totally different
system apart from Social Security but get similar benefits as Medicaid and
Medicare but not so much salary based but based on the needs of the person.
There are many disabled people out there that want to get out there and work
and be a tax paying citizen but they just cannot get out of the hole they are
in. I believe they should be guaranteed these benefits strictly when it comes
to the health care portion. A disabled person did not choose their situation,
but they have their right to make the best of what they have.
These are just a few of my ideas, I do not think
they are exactly the answer to everything. However it is just a start and an
example of how someone's ideas could come up with different solutions, in a
future blog I might go into even more detail. For now however my brain has just
put out a small portion of ideas. I hope everyone enjoys.
