Abolish senate and scotus? Wtf is this?
The Senate has the exact same problem that the electoral college does.
For the SCOTUS, we do need a "highest court" but I'm certainly open to things like ethics requirements that are actually enforced. Don't know how I feel about lifetime appointments. Pros and cons there.
Implement armed street judges that operate as judge, jury, and executioner.
Who needs those pesky checks and balances? They just slow things down. I want my candidate to do what I want, without interference. I’m sure Bernie will be the next President and we can build trains just like China!
VAT is regressive, disproportionally taxing those who have to spend more of their income.
An income tax with a wide untaxed bracket and steeper rates for higher brackets would be more equitable.
The Supreme Court serves a purpose, but is being coopted by political interests and effectively controlled by the Senate, so changes are needed (e.g. eliminating the Senate, moving to elections, setting term limits).
Everything else is reasonable and necessary for a functioning democracy.
VAT can be tailored to not include certain staple items. It can focus frivolous purchases like private jets, yachts, etc.
No. What kind of crazy shit is this?
Income tax is one of the only tools that could be used to combat inequalityHere, if you'd actually like to learn why income tax doesn't work and why it disproportionately impacts the poorest workers: https://www.propublica.org/article/the-secret-irs-files-trove-of-never-before-seen-records-reveal-how-the-wealthiest-avoid-income-tax
This is incredibly misleading. I thought propublica was better than this. They calculated these billionaires “true tax rates” based on unrealized gains. Until they cash out they don’t actually make the money.
You can argue for higher income tax brackets, or a more progressive capital gains ladder, or regulations in banking stopping rich people from using other peoples money based on equity they have or any number of way more complicated things that aren’t income related, but outside of just a wealth tax which is something entirely different, these true tax rate numbers are nonsense.
The poorest workers have an effective tax rate of 0%, and are given extra money when they file their returns if they have kids. How does income tax hurt people who don't pay it and only receive the benefits from it?
You must not understand how the rich make money. Unfortunate, hopefully you learn some day.
Leave income tax (VAT is useful but ultimately a regressive tax in that it relies on consumption and therefore disproportionately affects the poor).
Leave the Supreme Court but add term limits-I like 13 years because it keeps the chances that any one person will be able to transform the court very small.
Add in universal pre-k and post-secondary education. Pre-k in particular benefits society at large because it teaches children how to interact with peers in an equitable fashion.
It would require a Constitutional Convention, large amendment, or several amendments. So really hard. Furthermore getting rid of SCOTUS and the income tax aren't good ideas. We need a court of last resort and a VAT is incredibly regressive compared to an income tax.
The supreme court should probably be a random selection of judges from the lower courts, rather than a set of jerks. Maybe they serve a short term, or are selected for each case.
Not sure why abolishing income tax is on here. That's usually a right wing fever dream.
There's other stuff that would probably help, too.
- Enforce monopoly laws.
- Break up existing orgs that are too much.
- Nationalize ISPs.
- Do.. something.. about police. Just don't let it devolve into outright private police. Probably need to unbundle all the responsibilities the police currently have into separate institutions, increase licensing requirements, increase accountability. I don't have a fully baked answer, but if the state doesn't provide an answer for "Someone broke into my house" then the private market will, and that's probably going to be worse.
I like the idea of 18 year staggered terms offset by 2 years. Each president gets to nominate 2 justices each presidential term. It needs something to prevent the Senate from essentially saying “no” to every nominee like McConnell did, but it’s better than lifetime appointments.
We can thank the fucked system for allowing the orange reality TV show star to appoint 3 of the 9 current supreme court justices.
I agree, the anti-trust laws have been butchered and Citizens United v. FEC fucked everything up.
I'm waiting with baited breath for stand your ground laws to be used by armed security to kill homeless people.
a good start re: Police - nationalize training standards, ROE, and accountability nationwide, and prohibit police unions.
Income tax disproportionately impacts blue collar workers and the wealthy just avoid them, our tax system is designed to fuck working Americans. https://www.propublica.org/article/the-secret-irs-files-trove-of-never-before-seen-records-reveal-how-the-wealthiest-avoid-income-tax
This was an interesting read.
Sounds like we need a wealth tax and to tax unrealized gains
It really isn't possible to abolish the Supreme Court without undoing the constitution entirely. You do that, and you aren't fixing things, you're starting over. And yeah, in theory you could amend the constitution to do it, but trying to make that happen is the same as undoing it in reality.
I'm not saying that's an invalid choice (viva la revolution!), I'm just saying that it is a different concept entirely.
But yeah, if you just changed the first one on that list (which could be done without drastic measures), it would fix 90% of the rest.
Where do you get the money for UBI if income tax is abolished?
Land value tax, also popularly known as georgism.
Fairies!
Where do they get the money for the military budget?
Yes yes no no yes yes yes no
Yes.
*Undo citizens united
- Star Voting
- Voting is a national federal holiday
- Universal mail in voting
- UBI
- Medicare for all And things start getting better from there.
I probably should have added UBI to the list. Maybe I'll make an updated list in the future when I spend some more time doing research. Just read about STAR voting and I still think ranked choice is simpler and better.
Income tax and senate are important.
Fuck the Senate and giving representation unequally.
Why the fuck do CA and WY get the same representation in the Senate other than because some old slave owners pitched a fit about not having power over more populated states.
The Senate makes sense under two circumstances:
- The US is a confederation, with the majority of the sovereignty resting with individual states rather than the Federal government, and
- Senators are appointed by state legislatures and not directly elected, giving them a meaningfully different constituency and perspective than House reps.
Those circumstances existed when the Senate was initially conceived of by the founding fathers, but no longer do.
That is why the House exists.
some old slave owners pitched a fit about not having power over more populated states.
You are aware that when Congress as a whole was established, everyone owned slaves. Everyone.
The House prevents all of the red states from getting together and patently overruling California.
The Senate prevents the entire country being ruled by California.
Only through striking balance through both checks can a law that impacts everyone be advanced.
The system is build the way it is built for a reason.
California can pass all the state legislation it wants. It needs to get a bill through both house and senate to impose their will on the other 49 states.
If anything, the idea of the House of Representatives at a FEDERAL level is the stupid one.
If we got rid of the Senate, we should just change the name of the country to The United State of California.
The last two points reminds me of the Fair Tax proposal that was popular among Libertarian circles for a bit.
(I should note that the Fair Tax was the name and not necessarily an accurate description)
Here's my modified list:
- RCV, Approval Voting, or STAR voting. Make voting day a mandatory national holiday, half-day for hospital employees etc. Protect write-in voting. Allow nationwide referendums on a separate ballot on the same day, in case there's something popular that no candidate is offering
- Abolish electoral college, and abolish state legislative districts or at least implement a simple district-drawing algorithm
- Keep the senate and house I guess idk it seems fine to me
- Give the supreme court term limits without reelection (no campaigning for reelection = less bribery & they can focus on their jobs). They serve for like 10 years or whatever and then you go back to being a normal circuit judge or whatever else you want to do. Give them a bunch of bonus money at the end so they're less likely to take bribes. Institute strict ethics regulations. These can be arbitrated by a committee of circuit courts. Maybe expand SCOTUS to 13 seats (1 per circuit)
- idk anything about the house rep cap
- Universal healthcare
- UBI, universal unemployment, or shorten the workweek. As we increase automation, we require less labor for a decent standard of living
- Crank up income tax and close tax loopholes. Double IRS funding, they make more money by catching millionaires+ than they spend on doing so
- Criminal prosecution for company leaders if they authorize illegal or extremely harmful activities. Any managerial position that accepts orders to carry that stuff out without formally objecting is also liable. Any higher position that allows a lower-position employee to carry out harmful acts without stopping it is also liable. The board is liable if they know what's happening and do not object.
- Monetary crimes are resolved by paying back all profits made from the crime, then adding damages on top. Profiting from a crime should not be possible. Non-monetary crimes (bribing government officials, extreme pollution, conspiracy to harm the general population, knowingly selling dangerously defective products without a recall, etc.) should have a large monetary fine AND accumulate "points" against the company. Accumulate enough in a certain period of time (several years at least) and the company is immediately liquidated, with the proceeds going to the same place that taxes do. Or maybe give a little to everyone's tax refund lmao
A bi-cameral system makes sense in a federated state. But it’s reasonable to graduate the power of one chamber to ensure legislation can’t be blocked forever.
A Supreme Court is necessary if you have a constitution. But judges shouldn’t be political appointees only. Many other countries have a selection process whereby the nominees are selected by a wide group of judges and the selection is done by an approval process in parliament (often not a majority vote, but an approval system that enables centrist candidates to emerge).
Keep the Senate, but give them seats according to the number of citizens.
See that sales tax applies to financial products, too. Mitigate the impact by giving everyone a fixed discount on that. Make basic food, hygiene products, and books/newspapers exempt.
- Yes.
- Yes.
- Basically because influence in the senate isn't scaled by population? I can get behind that. Any other reasons?
- Why? (Aside from that it's stuffed with Trump appointees and insurrectionists right now, I mean.)
- Hadn't heard of this before, but what little I'm seeing about it sounds good.
- Obviously.
- I'm definitely not up on this one.
- Maybe, but only if we introduce something else that'll have rich people actually paying taxes (for real). Otherwise, reform income tax.
And ones you've neglected:
- Abolish corporate personhood
- Wealth tax
- UBI
- Constitutionally-protected reproductive rights
- Abolish 2A
- Abolish private prisons
- Abolish forced labor
And if we're allowed to include things probably well outside the Overton Window:
- Abolish private property, prison, cops, military, borders, employment, the profit motive, corporations
- To each according to need
That's just off the top of my head.
Abolish corporate personhood
This to me is a big one.
One big issue in bigger corporations is how the C-suite execs are inherently not being held responsible for any damages caused by their decisions, as due to the raw size of the company, these happen too late, and they can take a golden parachute and go to the next company to focus on shortest-term gains, raise stock prices, then get bonuses based on that.
But, a few things can be done to improve that, and requiring companies to have someone legally be responsible for the shit happening under them would be a huge step. Personal accountability. Either be responsible as the CEO, or have a legal document that delineates which issues fall under whose manager's umbrella.
I'd go a step further and make C-suites / management with profit sharing or stock-based bonuses also automatically lose money for losses in said performances, even after they leave the company, based on the percentage of money they were responsible for (You worked there 12y ago to 8y ago, you were the CEO so 100% responsibility, company now lost 6 mil, you have to pay back bonuses based on 2 millions "performance").
For government overhaul would add abolishing the presidency and per district voting (just divide seats in the house based on percentage of the vote overall, I.e. one big district).
For the rest of society: abolish private ownership of companies, but award stocks to the employees instead. This will align incentives of the company with the people most impacted by its decisions.
Income tax can stay as long as its very progressive.
Only if you want to maintain the capitalist status quo by making sure the population is just comfortable enough not to turn on those few who actually benefit from it, while the rest of us scramble for these kinds of bare minimum, not even all-our-human-rights-being-met scraps, some even thanking our overlords for their generosity as they
pisstrickle down all over us.No, it doesn't. First, changing constitution would be impossible. Two, even if you did all this it would just make right wing states get even more extreme (there's nothing in the plan that would let central government protect human and constitutional rights in red states).
Unfortunately US political system wasn't designed in a way that let's it change with time. To introduce big reforms like this it would pretty much have to collapse and be rebuild from scratch. Realistic way to make things better is simply organizing locally to inform/educate people about progressive/socialist policies, electing moderate/progressive politicians to take over Democratic party and simply creating a political force that can actually oppose Republicans instead of trying to comprise all the time.
No so long ago it was generally accepted that Republicans will always be a minority party. They managed to take over the government though smart PR, well organized (dis)information campaigns and long term, bottom-up work to take over institutions. Now Democrats have to do the same.
None of this will ever happen, but it sure makes for a nice meme.
VAT is theft
