EDITED 10/9/19
EDITED 10/19/19
This is written from my own limited understanding. I am well aware that I am not an expert in any particular field, but I think my ideas could help a lot of people. They might need work. It’s my hope that these get you thinking even if you think all these ideas are crap. Feel free to leave a comment below to tell me I’m stupid, or otherwise debate me.
-NEW IDEA: Work with our most trusted allies to gradually get rid of immigration hassle between specific countries. It should be as easy to move from say, Canada or Japan, to the U.S., and vice versa, as it should be to move from state to state. We need to solidify our relations with our allies and there is no better way. Everyone will benefit.
-NEW IDEA: Make paywalls illegal for all online research articles. This is killing our innovation and education.
-Make leveraged buyouts illegal. These cause monopolies and endanger the health of the economy. They are also a major reason why health care costs are so high. No more.
-Tax the hell out of credit cards and loans for businesses that already exist. This is why the stock market exists. This is why budgeting exists. Poor financial choices on an individual level can help to get us out of our national debt. Heh.
-Ban HELOCs. No more home equity lines of credit. Castles in the sky. They helped crash our economy before and they can do it again.
-No more business taxes. At all. This is killing our economy, and it is the number one greatest hurdle in opening a new small business. I’ve actually opened my own business before but couldn’t handle the tax accounting necessary for it and had to close it within a few months. It was ridiculously complicated – I didn’t have the time. Picture this happening on a large scale and look at all the productivity and potential – wasted.
-Lump all tax raises into one thing: Tax Day, on individuals. No more cuts taken out of a person’s paycheck. No more taxes on businesses. No more sales tax! JUST ONE BIG TAX DAY. Yeah, you’ll probably have to raise taxes for that one day. It’s still much better for the economy.
-Eliminate the legal definition that a corporation is classified as an individual. Instead, split the legal liability for its actions among its senior officials, and the taxation that it’s getting amongst all the people who profit from it. No more hiding behind the corporate shield and avoiding accountability or prison time. Also, no more corporate tax rate.
-Remember that one big test I want children to take which, if they pass it (and it needs to be pass/fail, not rated on a F-to-A gradient), they graduate high school? That one? Here’s the content it must have.
—Math up to Calculus 1. No more Precalc bullshit for you guys. Learn Calculus. It’s useful. Also: the math must be proof-based. They have to know how to construct a proof, and why it is important.
—Calculus-based Physics, like one of those 101 classes in college
—Family, Health, and Home Economics stuff. How to make an omelet. How to diaper a baby. How to discipline a child. Everything about birth control. How the human body works, reproduction-wise. Things like that.
—Driving and vehicle maintenance
—Basic first aid
—Basic nutrition and fitness routines
—Basic biology
—Basic chemistry
—Advanced English
—English literature and Western classics
—World culture and history
—American culture and history
—Ecology
—Logic
—How to file taxes
—Basic United States law
—How the United States political system works
—Financial literacy/career savvy, including how to write a resume, how to draw up a budget, and go to a job interview
—Camping, homesteading, and basic survival
You might be thinking “Dear God, why?!” and the answer is that this is the kind of education that princes got during the time when we had monarchs. We now have the opportunity to give our children education at the same level that royalty used to get, simply because we have the technology. And therefore, we should do it. I actually studied the things that are HELPFUL and necessary to learn for a good five years to see what’s nice to learn and what is actually WORTH IT to learn – and this is the list I came up with. It’s actually pared down from the list I had, which was like 3x as big. No one will regret learning any of those subjects. Also, given that these kids won’t have any teachers to crack the whip to make them study, they’ll have to figure out study techniques on their own AND with their peers. I have seen firsthand how peer-assisted education yields miraculous results. Finally, kids have rights. No one will force them to complete high school or even go to school at all – but the harder they work, the more rewards they will get. It’s a far more merit-based system than the school system that is currently in place… and it has no human rights violations. Also, since that test would be taken as many times as the student would like, they could try it out at the beginning of school to see how far they have to go, and then retake it after a lot of studying to see how they were getting along.
I estimate that if my idea was adopted, most students would graduate high school at the age of 15, and then graduate from college with more advanced degrees. Also, more of them would stay in college and stick it out instead of dropping out there. Long term, this would improve America in every arena: political, social, technological, economic, diplomatic. We would go back to being a force to be reckoned with on a global scale.
In that vein, this would only work if:
-Libraries got enough funding to actually compete with big-box bookstores AND college bookstores. Namely, we need libraries with college textbooks in them. Current, recently-published, good… okay you get the idea.
-Libraries started to be linked up with public learning facilities. As in, physically. No more crappy school library to rely on if you have the real thing right next door, yeah?
-Police officers funded to guard these learning facilities at all times
-College recruiters could demonstrate the merits of their colleges to students age 12-up by teaching them or otherwise promoting their agenda at these learning facilities
-Same deal with local businesses and trade school recruiters looking for new talent.
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