To all SSC Station occupants
Thank you for the donations over the past year (2024), it is much appreciated. I am still trying to figure out how to migrate the forums to another community software (probably phpbb) but in the meantime I have updated the forum software to the latest version. SSC has been around a while so their is some very long time members here still using the site, thanks for making SSC home and sorry I haven't been as vocal as I should be in the forums I will try to improve my posting frequency.
Thank you again to all of the members that do take the time to donate a little, it helps keep this station functioning on the outer reaches of space.
-D1-
What do you think of my idea for a government? Also, if you want, please share how would you set up a country if you could.
Government
The government would be a federal representative democracy with a separated oligarchy. The representative democracy would be have two separate congresses, the House of Representatives and the Senate. The House would be made up of members of each state, with each state having representation based on their population. The Senate would be made up of two representatives from each state, regardless of the states population. The country's head of government would be a democratically elected president. The leader of the oligarchy would be the head of state. The oligarchy members would consist of a select few people that I have handpicked. The oligarchy would act as a third congress. In order for a motion to be passed, it must receive 2/3 vote in at least 2/3 of the congresses. If/when all of the members of the oligarchy are retired or deceased, their successors will take their place. Every member of the oligarchy chooses his or her own personal successor, as well as multiple back-up successor in order of succession (back-ups in case something happens to their first choice of successor). And then when the successor oligarchy member takes office, he/she must list who his/her successor will be, as well as their own back-ups, so on and so fourth. There will also be a separation between the judicial, executive, and legislative branches, and the branches will run checks and balances on each other.
Elections
Members of both congresses would be democratically elected by the people of each state, as would the Office of the President, and other political offices. Citizens must be at least 18 to run for any public office or vote. Ages would be categorized as: 0-12 (kids), 13-17 (young adults), 18-64 (adults), and 65+ (senior adults).
Bureaucracy
The government would be have a federal level of government, as well as governments for individual territories in our nation, called 'states'. The state governments would be in charge of setting up city, county, and other local governments within that state.
Civil Rights
Citizens of my country will have freedom of speech, self expression, assembly, fashion, religion, the rights to life, liberty, the pursuit of happiness, a fair trial, own private property, bear arms, and the right to peacefully change their government. These rights and freedoms may not be used to infringe upon the rights and freedoms of others.
Economy
The economy will be a mixed economy. It will be capitalist, however the government will intervene if necessary. Monopolies and trusts will be illegal.
Military
The military would be divided into various branches, the Army, Marines, Navy, Coast Guard, Air Force, and Strategic Rocket Command. The Army would be our main ground fighting force, the Navy would be our main naval fighting force, the Air Force would be our main aerial fighting force, the Strategic Rocket Command would be in charge of conventional missiles as well as our nuclear arsenal, the Coast Guard would protect our waters, and the Marines would be for amphibious assaults. We would also have highly skilled and trained special forces units, and each individual state would have their own militia. You must be 17 or older to enlist in the military.
Foreign Policy
Our government will negotiate with other countries as we see fit. If necessary, we will impose sanctions on countries that violate human and/or civil rights, commit genocide, and commit other atrocities. My nation would be a member of the United Nations Security Council with veto power.
Minority Rights
Individuals will not be discriminated against for their race, gender, sexuality, ethnicity, nationality, religious beliefs, or political ideologies.
Censorship & Media Regulation
We will have a rating system for movies (like the MPAA), and video games (like the ESRB), but they will not be enforceable, and would serve only as advisory. We will not ban or censor media or entertainment.
Education
Our K-12 education would be the best in the world. We would disallow teachers to beat students as punishment, we would however punish severe offenses with suspensions and expulsions. We would never force students to wear school uniforms or have an excessively strict dress code. However we would allow each public high school to create their own school uniform that students can purchase should they wish to wear that, but it would be absolutely a voluntary choice by the student. We would have a "no child left behind" program where we would help students with unsatisfactory grades get their grades back up through various programs set around the individual student. School districts be separated by grade with a school(s) for K-6, a a different school for 7-8, and another different school for 9-12. Community colleges would be relatively cheap to attend and provided to the public. Higher quality state universities would cost more money than community colleges. Private and religious K-12 schools would be allowed, however at the age of 13 private school students can choose if he/she wants to go to a public school or keep going to the private school. Private colleges and universities would also be allowed. K-12 public education will be free.
Immigration & Citizenship
Illegal immigrants would be deported. Immigrants can run for president if they have been a citizen for over half of their life, which must at least be 25 years. Individuals who are born in our country are legal citizens. Individuals born outside the country, but have a biological parent who is a citizen of our country is a legal citizen. Individuals whose parents come to our country for the sole purpose of gaming the system and getting their kid to be a free citizen will not have their child be considered a legal citizen, nor will they, at least not until they go through the proper channels of citizenship.
Public Health & Safety
High quality health care would be provided to all citizens. Health care fees would be relatively cheap however, as compared to current United States health care costs. However I would not entirely socialize health care. Government agencies will inspect food, water, restaurants, public sewers, and medicine to ensure they meet with health and safety standards.
Abortion
Abortion would be allowed for the first and second trimester.
Drug Regulation
Marijuana would be legal but regulated. Cocaine, meth and other extremely dangerous drugs would be illegal. Alcohol and tobacco would be legal however. Some illegal drugs would be allowed for medicinal use however. Research will be conducted into the possible legalization of marijuana (and possibly other drugs) in the future.
Energy
Our country would use solar power, wind power, geothermal power, and other renewable resources.
Animal Rights
It will be illegal for animals to be tortured or killed without reason or purpose. The exceptions to this are hunting, fishing, if the animal poses a clear and present danger, or the animal is causing trouble.
Environment
Companies and corporations must meet with certain environmental standards set by the government. Government agencies will also work to conserve endangered species and protect the government. The government will also maintain parks, wildlife reserves, and zoos.
Internet
The government will not censor the internet. In order to sign up for internet message boards, social networks, and other account-related websites you must be at least 13 years of age or older.
Science & Technology
Research into stem cell research, cloning, and eugenics will be legal. We will also maintain a heavily founded space program.
Sex & Sexuality
The age of consent will be 13. Marital age will be 18 standalone or 13 with parental consent. Gay marriage will be legal. Marriage between multiple people will be legal, if all individuals are aware of it and consent. Marriage between a person and an inanimate object will also be legal.
Law & Order
Every individual who is accused of a crime will be given a fair trial. The accused can choose between having either a jury trial or not. Should the accused choose to have a jury trial, he/she will be tried by a jury of his/her peers who do are not personal involved with the case or the defendant in any way. Civil trials will be held on the same principal, with the same choice given between a jury trial and a judge trial. The military will have a separate court system based on military law. The death penalty will be outlawed. Accused individuals will be given the right to an attorney, should they want one, and they don't have to incriminate themselves.
Hmmm too much like the current system which is corrupt anyway... want to change things and make people work and take accountability for there actions.
- Abolish all unions and make guidelines for employers to not be able to take advantage of employees.
- Put a cap on state/govt pension plans. Heard about that retired chief of police in California making $500k+ per year!
- Max 2 term limit for elected officials
- Make all judges (incl Supreme Court) elected by people every 4 yrs
- No universal/free health care. Revamp current medical system
- Kids today are disrespectful, think they are entitled and in some areas really threatening society. Let parents be parents again and I have no problem with a teacher whacking a kid for disrespect or threatening violence.
- Only allow unemployment for elderly and disabled/injured. Everyone not in that category will be placed into a job and or made to work for any hand out. No more sitting on your ass.
- Legal system is a joke and needs to be more harsh to help limit violent crimes.
- Stop all this political correctness crap
Maybe I am old fashioned but there needs to be more tough love in the world and sacrifice. People don't want to work for what they have any more. Most people have the ability to improve their situations its just having the motivation and drive to do it.
- Abolish all unions and make guidelines for employers to not be able to take advantage of employees.
- Put a cap on state/govt pension plans. Heard about that retired chief of police in California making $500k+ per year!
- Max 2 term limit for elected officials
- Make all judges (incl Supreme Court) elected by people every 4 yrs
- No universal/free health care. Revamp current medical system
- Kids today are disrespectful, think they are entitled and in some areas really threatening society. Let parents be parents again and I have no problem with a teacher whacking a kid for disrespect or threatening violence.
- Only allow unemployment for elderly and disabled/injured. Everyone not in that category will be placed into a job and or made to work for any hand out. No more sitting on your ass.
- Legal system is a joke and needs to be more harsh to help limit violent crimes.
- Stop all this political correctness crap
Maybe I am old fashioned but there needs to be more tough love in the world and sacrifice. People don't want to work for what they have any more. Most people have the ability to improve their situations its just having the motivation and drive to do it.
A-fucking-greed.
I wish I had the money and the speaking ability/charisma to run for President because I would be all over it 🙂 Yeah my views may sound harsh to some but how can some of the states and cities in the USA be billions of dollars in debt.
For example. The teachers and other unions in Wisconsin are protesting what the Governor wants to do and to me it sound very reasonable. Currently the Wi teachers pay a whole .02-.05% of there pay into their pension fund and the taxpayers pickup the rest of the 99%. Sounds fair huh, then the governor wants to have the employees pay a bit more of there medical insurance coverage from 4-6% they pay now to 8-12%. I don't remember the exact argument on what the unions themselves will loose if the bill is adopted but they will loose some power.
Most private sector employees don't have a pension and save there asses off to try to save for the time when they are not working or pass some money on to there families. All we have is what we save and maybe some money from social security if it is still around in 30 yrs. People and state and federal government have to live within there means. We cannot just give away the moon and tax the citizens to death. Over 30% of all the money the US govt takes in is spent on entitlement programs.
There has to be some tough changes made and soon to stop the bleeding of the US economy. People themselves have to be responsible, pay your bills and debt and don't buy anything you cannot buy in cash. Credit has ruined our society and now we are paying for it.
Enough ranting back to work 🙂
- Abolish all unions and make guidelines for employers to not be able to take advantage of employees.
- Put a cap on state/govt pension plans. Heard about that retired chief of police in California making $500k+ per year!
- Max 2 term limit for elected officials
- Make all judges (incl Supreme Court) elected by people every 4 yrs
- No universal/free health care. Revamp current medical system
- Kids today are disrespectful, think they are entitled and in some areas really threatening society. Let parents be parents again and I have no problem with a teacher whacking a kid for disrespect or threatening violence.
- Only allow unemployment for elderly and disabled/injured. Everyone not in that category will be placed into a job and or made to work for any hand out. No more sitting on your ass.
- Legal system is a joke and needs to be more harsh to help limit violent crimes.
- Stop all this political correctness crap.
As usual I agree with Darkone, we seem to share pretty similar political opinions 🙂 Although saying that, theres one bullet point I didn't agree with : No universal/free health care. Revamp current medical system.
A national health service is a good thing IMO. I really dont like spending fortunes on dental work or to have a wound stitched up, or for medicine. Although it has some very large negative points also. It is literally a money sink for the government, but only because people take advantage of the system, especially here in the UK. Specifically I mean people who work within the system, who overcharge the government and charge for work that was never even done, it is a common practice.
A big fat yes on this one! What an idea, can you imagine... Get rid of Judge Judy to start with! One less fascist 😉
My reasoning behind my statement was mainly because I haven't seen any plan that is worth doing. The govt cannot manage a retirement system so how in the heck could it manage the health care system. Would I like to see a healthcare system that everyone could use, hell yes I would. But there would have to be a lot of regulation involved with going to see the doctor and dentist in the first place.
I remember when I was in the Army and at that time we had Champus and think it went TriCare and that is a universal plan for the soldiers and their families. Soldiers are treated 100% with never a fee and the families are so reduced its like paying nothing at all anyway. This seemed to work but that is only managing a few hundred thousand peoples care and not sure what the yearly cost of that program is? But the one thing you would notice was that dependents/family members would come in and crowd the waiting rooms for cuts, sprains, colds, etc... things that could be treated at home with mom and dad. The pharmacy was abused badly because all medicines were free.
Its almost in our nature to take advantage of free things which is a shame. Because if everyone would only take what they NEED to get by we could possibly do the universal health care.
And I know I will get a lot of flak on this one if you are not a naturalized or legal citizen of your country you should not be allowed general medical care accept for life and death situations. The illegal aliens are costing the USA and i'm sure other countries, millions and possibly billions of dollars in medical fees that they don't pay for. And that the citizens of that country have to pay, with taxes or the hospitals have to write it off as a loss.
I'm all for it Dan, but there has to be a legit plan to stop waste and fraud to make it cost effective for the populous. But that's only my opinion. And I feel your pain I have to pay the med/den for 5 kids so I definitely feel the pinch on the wallet but will gladly keep taking it if it means keeping my country from going down the tubes.
Look, statism will never work as a viable for a sustainable society.
Giving a small group of people a monopoly of violence, theft and fraud is, of and by itself, self-destructive.
The rational for the state is that evil people exist, and that there must be some way to control and punish those "evil" people. The problem arises when the general populous give a small group of people a monopoly of violence, than those "evil" will naturally gravitate to the power of the State, given that the State has a monopoly of violence and can not be effectively challenged. So these "evil" people that the State is supposedly created to contain and punish, become the State and than those same evil people can do whatever they want because they now own the monopoly of violence of the State.
Another rational of the creation of the State is that there would be no "public" services; such and roadways, water power and the like. Currently these "services are controlled by a very small portion of the population and can raise prices whenever they want. Not to mention that the infrastructure of these services were built with "public" funds, so these people basically gained control of essential service at no cost to them.
What people don't seem to consider is that all these service are maintained through mutual consent. Individual agree to perform these services. Actually there is no need for any government to have them. People would create these service even without a government.
Statism is a failed ideology. It only works for the few who control the guns of the State, forcing the individual to pay for their own slavery.
May I be picky?
Damn the autorization - it is far easier to ask for forgiveness afterwards anyway 😉
Government
...The country's head of government would be a democratically elected president. The leader of the oligarchy would be the head of state. The oligarchy members would consist of a select few people that I have handpicked. The oligarchy would act as a third congress. In order for a motion to be passed, it must receive 2/3 vote in at least 2/3 of the congresses. If/when all of the members of the oligarchy are retired or deceased, their successors will take their place. Every member of the oligarchy chooses his or her own personal successor, as well as multiple back-up successor in order of succession (back-ups in case something happens to their first choice of successor). And then when the successor oligarchy member takes office, he/she must list who his/her successor will be, as well as their own back-ups, so on and so fourth. There will also be a separation between the judicial, executive, and legislative branches, and the branches will run checks and balances on each other.
Who is "I"? - drawing how would your optimal hipotetical government work or playing iluminated dictator? 😉
Do you know that a 2/3 majority in more than one place is almost guaranteed blocked system? Even in one is damn hard. Makes sense for constitutional or high impact changes (eg the political system itself), but to day to day law making?
Regarding the hereditary House of Lords, I'd strongly advise you to include excluding mechanisms (expulsion of disqualifying for voting).
Economy
The economy will be a mixed economy. It will be capitalist, however the government will intervene if necessary. Monopolies and trusts will be illegal.
You are skipping what is probably one of the two major things in a society - what is the actual economic government role and cabinet organization. Example - would there be state owned public transport (civil servants), a state owned company(ies), private companies with state funding or no intervention?
Btw, I think you mean a mixed market economy (a free market economy with regulatory oversight)
Foreign Policy
Our government will negotiate with other countries as we see fit. If necessary, we will impose sanctions on countries that violate human and/or civil rights, commit genocide, and commit other atrocities. My nation would be a member of the United Nations Security Council with veto power.
Veto power? You cannot determine beforehand that your country would have veto power - unless all countries would have veto power (and the UN would be mostly useless)
Censorship & Media Regulation
We will have a rating system for movies (like the MPAA), and video games (like the ESRB), but they will not be enforceable, and would serve only as advisory. We will not ban or censor media or entertainment.
So no problem in pushing porn based advertising in those tepid Sunday mornings, right? 😉
Education
Our K-12 education would be the best in the world.
You may say that the K-12 education would have high standards and would have as an objective to be the best in the world. But to be the best in the world it would depend on many factors 😉
Btw, it seems reasonable that a student could change from private to public education at any time.
Abortion
Abortion would be allowed for the first and second trimester.
Second? That is quite ahead, specialy in the 5th and 6th months of pregnancy (a 6 month old fetus can be viable outside the mother womb, although in many cases in a not very nice way). Most countries that legalized abortion have a 12 week limit.
Internet
The government will not censor the internet. In order to sign up for internet message boards, social networks, and other account-related websites you must be at least 13 years of age or older.
Can't Disney have a Kids club or Mattel a virtual barbie site? Maybe you should rephrase into sign up services that allowed (or targeted) sub 13 yo ("kids"), would be required to be registered (or needed a special permit beforehand).
Sex & Sexuality
The age of consent will be 13. Marital age will be 18 standalone or 13 with parental consent. Gay marriage will be legal. Marriage between multiple people will be legal, if all individuals are aware of it and consent. Marriage between a person and an inanimate object will also be legal.
And what would be the effects of the marriage? - for example, if the taxable revenue is globalized and divided by the number of members in the marriage, I think I'll multimarry all my gear just to get a nice tax reduction 😉
Maybe you should do away with marriage altogether? (on a side note why would you give any positive discrimination to a group? - there is an answear, but it has its meaning :))
Cheers
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