I will admit to not having read the L&O thread yet, but what reason other than pragmatism (i.e. why is it a core of your ideology) could there possibly be for preferring anything over rehabilitation?
Didn't France try this?
As I understand it, if you remove all laws concerning intolerance, you leave the state equally unable to protect minority groups as to oppress them. If there is already any noticeable problem with racism or anything else, you may find this attitude just lets it spin out of control.
No, I don't have an alternative suggestion at this time.
As long as you remember to provide a mechanism for religions and similar groups to be affiliated in some fashion with charities and non-taxable non-profit organisations.
edited 3rd Jun '11 6:42:47 AM by Jinren
- Goverment: small but with an ability to take more control in case of war or major disaster
- Economy: libertarian free-market
- Taxing: low and linear
- Foreign policy: non-interventionist, mildly non-isolationist
- Law and order: more house arrests for petty criminals, less paroles for felons, death penalty for worst cases (serial killers, extremely cruel killers, rapist-murderers etc.)
- Freedoms: according to non-agression principle, might be temporarily lowered in case of war or major disaster
- Culture: no intervention, culture should develop naturally
- Tolerance: equal rights but no forced tolerance, although inciting violence, threats and psychological abuse should be punishable
- Religion: no religious laws, although violent and abusive cults like Scientology should be forcefully disbanded the same way the criminal organizations are
- Gambling: legal but closely watched for frauds and gang activity
- Alcohol: drinking age not regulated but the parents have the right to stop child from buying/drinking booze and shop personnel/bartenders can refuse to serve alcohol
- Consent: what OP said, although actual pedos should be treated mercilessly
- Drugs: all legal
- Prostitution: legal but watched
- Gays: marriage - rather yes, adoption - rather no [not sure about any of this]
- Abortion: only in very specific cases (rape, mother's life threatened etc.)
- Euthanasia: only orthothanasia; doctor should never be forced to actively kill, but lenghtening the suffering when there is no chance of healing is worse
edited 3rd Jun '11 6:57:13 AM by nzm1536
"Take your (...) hippy dream world, I'll take reality and earning my happiness with my own efforts" - Barkey
Age 14? No. I'm guessing you're American, so dropping the drinking age limit to 14 wouldn't work at all for you, since yous have one of the highest legal drinking ages in the world. Well, that's what Wikipedia says anyway. XD You can't drop it seven years, especially not to an age that's younger than most other countries' drinking ages. And when you say the drinking age is 14, do you mean to buy alcohol, or to drink it?
Different countries have different drinking cultures, so the age limit has to sort of work with that. From what I know of American drinking culture, from TV and that, an age limit of 14 wouldn't be sensible.
In saying that though, I do think yous need to relax a bit with your laws on drinking, and lower the age limit to 18.
I'm Irish(yeah, I know, obviously I'd pick out the alcohol one XD) and our age limit is 18 to buy alcohol, though I just learnt there's no age limit to drink alcohol, once it's in a private residence with a guardian's permission.
Not that I was an angel when it came to drinking, I've been drinking for years, and I'm 15. I don't think it's sensible to be drinking so young, especially since I wasn't very responsible when I drank, but anyway. I just think either 16 or 18 are good ages to leave it at.
Needs to be more Evil
OK, here goes:
- Technocratic dictatorship - supreme authority is held by a council of 7 people selected for their organisational skills, intelligence, understanding of economics, statistics, law, history, strategy, etc. - a bit like the supreme court. They can overturn decisions and fire members of the government, but can't go back on contracts. No elections.
- There could be a figurehead king for ceremonial occasions, diplomacy etc.
- Taxation is kept as simple as possible, to prevent friction in the economy - ideally the government's revenue should be through land tax, some resource monopolies (oil, minerals), renting land, and fines. No income tax and no value-added tax reduces the paperwork for individuals and for the government.
- Government money is spent accordly to coldly utilitarian calculations - what's the best for the people in the long run. I don't know enough about economics to tell what that is exactly, but would probably include enforcing contracts and property rights, possibly taking care of some things that work better through central planning (public transport, monetary policy, preventing epidemics and pollution), helping the poor get an education, etc.
- As little laws as possible telling people what they can and can't do. Contracts are only enforced if they are backed by the government, which has requirement on formatting - in essence, a contract is almost a computer program, to reduce ambiguity as much as possible. The goal is to avoid the need for lawyers, and reduce the fear of lawsuits. Laws should always be justified in economic/utilitarian terms (e.g. preventing freerider problems, solving coordination problems), and their usefulness should be subject to experimental validation.
- Most welfare and social security is through private insurance companies (not necessarily for-profit), which may or may not get some government funding (depending on whether the government's statisticians thought it was best).
- Fines are proportional to a person's net worth, which is the only time the government cares about how much somebody owns.
- Eugenics is encouraged - people with genetic diseases or disabilities, or family problems (substance abuse, violence) can get money/preferential treatment if they agree to get sterilized. People who are exceptionally healthy, intelligent, beautiful, nice or successful could get preferential treatment if they have more kids (I don't know about the exact details, this could be delegated to some non-governmental organisation).
- Criminal punishment is calculated so as to maximise deterrence, using the death penalty if necessary. Exile could also be a worthwhile option for those who don't want to play by the rules (it could be worth setting aside a section of "wild" land to drop criminals or whoever wants to).
- Government propaganda praises manual jobs over intellectual ones, there's no shame in being a garbageman or a factory worker.
- Education is highly selective; people who don't like school can drop out early and live normal lives, only nerds keep on studying, and the government only pays for stuff that's needed (no liberal arts majors, unless they pay out of their own pocket). Everybody in school wears a uniform, to avoid class distinctions. It would be interesting to tax employers on the "degree level" of their employees, to prevent them from asking for a higher degree than is actual needed (thus preventing the whole useless "degree arms race" in modern western societies).
- People can buy titles of nobility (which require payment every year), which confer mostly "decorative" benefits (right to hunt certain protected animals, skip queues in museums, front rows in theaters etc.) but are mostly a source of revenue for the government . The government or king could also grant titles of nobility to outstanding individuals, ideally manual workers.
- Companies that obtain a certain predefined monopoly status (defined in terms of size and market share) are automatically bought by the government, at a good enough price that this is what the company's owners would want. The government's statisticians can then decide whether they want to keep the company as it is as an extra source of revenue, or break it up in smaller bits to encourage competition, according to which seems better for the people in the long run. In any case, the government would stop any anti-competitive behavior of the company they aquired (opening closed standards, etc.)
- Citizens can propose social improvement schemes like the above on the internet, though they're expected to do the research theselves to show what will work what will not. This is the main way they take part in the political process.
- Citizens can form local associations that have some juridiction over an area (local laws, local taxes), a bit like city government; those can have any rules they want (elections etc.) as long as they aren't against national laws, which would include a few restrictions (no laws restricting private speech and opinion, no laws discriminating based on race, etc.). So drugs, same-sex marriage and adoption, euthanasia, religious indoctrination and hate speech would be allowed by default, but local districts might forbid them if they want to.
- Bureaucrat-statisticians are selected through a highly selective exam, and are subject to harsher restrictions than normal citizens, and are expected to live simple, monastic lives - they can't own property (but have use of government property), consume drugs or alcohol, etc.
- Occasionally an Executive Dictator may be designated to implement and oversee a particular policy (often, the guy who proposed the policy in the first place). There can be several dictators with different responsibilities at a certain time (for education, the environment, handling a military emergency), and they have wide freedom of action (as long as they don't break laws or contracts; the Higher technocratic Council can still depose them). After their dictatorship is done, they still material privileges (a nice home, servants, a comfortable life of leisure - which they didn't have while in office), but that is taken away if it turns out the policy decisions they made had bad consequences in the long term. If a Dictator of Education implements a new education policy that fails to meet predefined standards, he may be stripped of his title ten years later and sent in exile (so, no short term incentives like elections, but long term incentives)
- Strict immigration limits (only qualified immigrants, possibly with health and IQ criteria, though you can bypass that if you pay enough money)
- Compulsory one-year military service (though you can skip it by paying enough money), that doubles as an apprenticeship in some manual skills (typically roadwork, construction, manufacturing, auto repair, farming ... obedient kids get first choice)
- Formally recognized apprenticeship system, that replaces degrees for some jobs.
- Heavy drugs are a state monopoly (one of it's sources of income), and require a special license to buy. The police doesn't actively try to enforced unlicensed drug sale/consumption (too expensive), but if someone is brought to the hospital for a drug-related problem, and doesn't have a license, the hospital isn't under any obligation to treat him, whatever his insurance. (The same could be true of light drugs and gambling, if someone can come up with a way to enforce the monopoly that doesn't rely on police action or any bureaucratic hassle for legitimate businesses)
Basically the goal is for it to be a very attractive place to start a company (hardly no taxes, very low regulation, low crime), or to retire for rich people (again, hardly no taxes, low crime, neat perks), which should create a decent amount of jobs; and then use carefully targeted social engineering to make sure it's a nice place to live with a solid, stable middle class. Keep the population low to keep comfort levels high.
edited 3rd Jun '11 9:26:20 AM by SlightlyEvilDoctor
Point that somewhere else, or I'll reengage the harmonic tachyon modulator.
>Government propaganda praises manual jobs over intellectual ones, there's no shame in being a garbageman or a factory worker.
That's what Marxist always try to do and it's retarded. Intellectual workers are not parasites
"Take your (...) hippy dream world, I'll take reality and earning my happiness with my own efforts" - Barkey
•Gay Issue: Gay couples should have exactly the same rights as straight couples, including the right to marry and adopt.
•Abortion: Should be legalized
•Euthanasia: Should be legalized, but with restrictions and that, to check no one's getting abused
edited 3rd Jun '11 7:17:40 AM by SheilaStarlight
How do you keep them "checked and balanced"?
One thing which I wonder if is feasible: an elected chamber whose only task is to oversee and fire the technocrats? The idea being to give the government some of the stability of democracy (i.e. remove people before they get too nasty), but not actually voting for incompetent-to-the-last-person politicians to do anything day-to-day.
The hard part is probably setting it up so that the elected chamber actually had the power to enforce the sackings if they didn't have any other executive powers.
edited 3rd Jun '11 7:18:41 AM by Jinren
Needs to be more Evil
![[up]](https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/smiles/arrow_up.png "[up]"){kind=icon}
No checks and balances for the Higher Technocratic Council, except for the strict rules for nominating a new one, and severe restrictions on their lives (they and their family must live inside the Forbidden City, and are not allowed to go out except on official inspection visits, or to own outside property).
The point is that they can still take very unpopular but necessary decisions (like say using nuclear power), so having an electoral oversight would ruin that.
edited 3rd Jun '11 7:31:32 AM by SlightlyEvilDoctor
Point that somewhere else, or I'll reengage the harmonic tachyon modulator.
Decemberist
@Sheila: I live in Serbia, so it's not a problem.
@Jinren: I posted the answer to your question already in the Criminal Justice thread, so here's the copypasted post:
Humans Are Bastards. People are born amoral and selfish, and can redeem themselves only through proper guidance at a young age. Hobbes Was Right, too. The sole reason why we shouldn't start slaughtering new-born babies in the first place is because they still have a chance to redeem themselves and, well, we are the same species. By comitting serious crimes like mass-murder, serial rape or similar, a human has failed the faith society had put in him, and therefore should be terminated. Eliminating the source of crimes itself would be futile, because it would mean destroying our own species - humans themselves are the source of crimes. Face it, humans are evil, but they are still our species.
edited 3rd Jun '11 8:04:26 AM by MilosStefanovic
The sin of silence when they should protest makes cowards of men.
Ah right, sorry I thought you were American, just mostly people on here are. OK, then that's different. Sorry about that. =D
Decemberist
No need to apologize. I got used ot that. 
Anyway, does anybody have an idea which ideology would fit me the closest? I'm planning on possibly starting a minor political club in the near future, so help would be appreciated.
edited 3rd Jun '11 8:17:29 AM by MilosStefanovic
The sin of silence when they should protest makes cowards of men.
Needs to be more Evil
Milos: Seems pretty close to standard european populist nationalism, possibly a bit more libertarian on social issues.
Point that somewhere else, or I'll reengage the harmonic tachyon modulator.
Government: Current system is fine, however massive electoral reform is needed. get rid of the electoral college(or at least make it not be winner takes all) and have better controls in place for election fraud.
Economy: Free Market, but with controls in place to keep companies from manipulating the system. Also as close to unrestricted free trade as we can get, protectionism simply fucks us in the long run.
Taxing: Progressive taxes, mainly centered on the wealthier classes instead of the poor who generally give the state tons of revenue through sales tax anyhow.
Foreign Policy: I'd say be a bit less apt to leap into intervention than we are, but once again, I believe isolationism is about as workable and sane a policy as Reaganomics.
Law and Order:Rehabilitation is top priority. Punishment doesnt solve the problem or stop the problem. Also enact some sort of better laws preventing discrimination for hirees based on criminal records
Immigration issue: Pro-immigration. Without an influx of immigrant workers the popultion slope of a nation won't stabilize, it'll become like Japan's where the old are far more numerous than the young.
Freedoms: Freedoms should be protected, up to the point where they infringe on other people's freedom. Warrants should be obtained before any sort of wiretapping or surveillance without damned good cause, though.
Culture: Censorship needs to die in a fire.
Tolerance: I agree with the OP in that all people should be equal in the eyes of the state..but in reality that just doesnt work. So we need to keep laws on the books to protect minorities from being discriminated with no recourse.
Education: Definitely reform the hell out of education. We need more funding, more teaching aids, better teacher salaries by a mile, and better planning on how to allocate funds. Give students more opportunities from a young age to investigate fields of study they find promising, and eliminate the "teach to the test" mentality. If little jimmy is interested in astrophysics, then give him studies related to that field and so on. Also severely increase funding for PE, Music, Art, etc.
Religion: Seperation of Church and state I agree with.
Gambling: Legal, highly taxed.
Alcohol: Alcohol laws should be a bit more lax, except when it comes to drunk driving. people should be expected to teach kids responsible drinking habits.
Consent: 16's about right. Though weird shit like being 19 and having a 16 year old girlfriend getting you jailed needs to probably be fixed.
Child Abuse: Loosen the laws a little. or at least make it so a kid cant be spanked for doing something wrong and call it child abuse unless it goes far beyond the level of brutality corporal punishment should entail.
Drugs: Legalize and tax light drugs.
Prostitution: Legalize it. It may not be everyone's favorite type of culture, but if we legalize it, we not only deprive pimps of their ability to abuse women into it, but they are able to get state sanctioned condoms and medical care that will decrease likelihood of ST Ds spreading uncontrolled.
Gay Issue: Legalize gay marriage and adoption.
Abortion: Keep abortion legal.
Euthanasia: Only with the patient's explicit consent. Or a will to that effect granting permission to a relative/lover/friend in case of human vegetable-ness
edited 3rd Jun '11 8:34:37 AM by Midgetsnowman
Pro-Freedom Fanatic
- Government: Ideally, none. Alternatively, as little as possible. Assuming we had to have a government it'd be direct democracy, with recallable-at-a-whim offices and very limited government. A system that was positively unable to cater to moral hysterias.
- Economy: Socialized but not statist: Companies would become worker-owned and worker-managed cooperatives.
- Taxing: Ideally, none, since property would be socialized and unions and co-operatives would be encouraged to set up their own public services. If it was neccessary, very progressive but as little as humanly possible (i.e. the rich might have to pay some taxes, and the middle classes might have to pay a few small taxes, but the working classes would not be taxed at all). It would go exclusively for infrastructure: After all, the unions and the co-ops would take care of everything else.
- Foreign Policy: Free trade with free peoples. Normal relations with pretty much everyone and general non-interventionism: the militia might be called to protect allies from aggression, but never to help a government quash a rebellion or to help allies engage in aggressions of their own.
- Law and Order: People's right to keep and bear arms and to effective self defense would be respected. No regular police: Regular people in arms (the militia) would protect people from direct aggression, and detectives would investigate complaints for those aggressions that could not be thwarted.
- Immigration issue: Respect people's freedom of movement. Let people live and work wherever they fancy.
- Freedoms: Many and inviolable: No authority would be able to prohibit consensual conduct that didn't violate the rights of a third party.
- Culture: No censorship, no restrictions. Let people do whatever the Hell they want. Also, legalize non-commercial copyright infringement by private persons, and either abolish patents or make them much shorter: Think 2-5 years instead of 20.
- Tolerance: All people enjoy equal status, autonomy and freedom. To prevent discrimination, hiring standards should be purely meritocratic.
- Education: Move away from rote memorization to a system based on critical thinking, the ability to do research, technical aptitude and general culture and knowledge. It should be made as non-authoritarian as possible, and religiously neutral.
- Religion: Freedom of and from.
- Gambling: Legal, no restrictions, except that recovering addicts might forbid themselves from entering gambling establishments. They would be able to revoke such prohibition after a think-it-carefully period of five natural days, through which presumably self-preservation would prevail.
- Alcohol: Legal, drinking age at the age of majority, which would be set at 16, same as the voting, driving, consent and smoking weed ages. Keep drunk driving banned as reckless endangerment, but abolish random checkpoints. People have a right to privacy: Those who ain't driving sloppily or recklessly enjoy the right not to be stopped.
- Consent: Age 16. However, people under 20 could not be prosecuted for having sex with people older than 14.
- Child Abuse: Fight it without violating the right to privacy.
- Drugs: Legalize the use and sale. No sin taxes.
- Prostitution: Fully legal. Forcing people into prostitution would be a capital offense, though.
- Gay Issue: Full gay rights, including the right to adopt. No government recognition of marriage at all: Partnerships (defined as groups of two or more adults who cohabit and share common finances) would be recognized instead.
- Abortion: Legal, self-ownership reasons.
- Euthanasia: Legal, self-ownership reasons.
edited 7th Jun '11 6:41:29 AM by SavageHeathen
You exist because we allow it and you will end because we demand it.
I see the Awesomeness.
Since I'm lazy, I'll copy pasta from the last version I saw.
Government: minor election reforms, probably more rigid divisions between areas of responsibility.
Economy: Free Market, but with controls in place to keep companies from manipulating the system. Also as close to unrestricted free trade as we can get, protectionism simply fucks us in the long run.
Taxing: Progressive taxes, mainly centered on the wealthier classes instead of the poor who generally give the state tons of revenue through sales tax anyhow.
Foreign Policy: Less interventionist. Focus on protecting ourselves and allies that aren't assholes.
Law and Order:Quarantine and repair, in that order.
Immigration issue: limit, the population growth rate is too positive.
Freedoms: Freedoms should be protected, up to the point where they infringe on other people's freedom. Warrants should be obtained before any sort of wiretapping or surveillance without damned good cause, though.
Culture: kill it, Kill It with Fire, end all support of museums, and other things.
Tolerance: I agree with the OP in that all people should be equal in the eyes of the state.
Education: Definitely reform the hell out of education. We need more funding, more teaching aids, better teacher salaries by a mile, and better planning on how to allocate funds. Give students more opportunities from a young age to investigate fields of study they find promising, and eliminate the "teach to the test" mentality. If little jimmy is interested in astrophysics, then give him studies related to that field and so on. Also severely decrease funding for Music, Art, etc. Reformat gym to be about health rather than raw performance.
Religion: Seperation of Church and state I agree with.
Gambling: Legal.
Alcohol: Alcohol laws should be a bit more lax, except when it comes to drunk driving. People should be expected to teach kids responsible drinking habits.
Consent: 16's about right. Though weird shit like being 19 and having a 16 year old girlfriend getting you jailed needs to probably be fixed.
Child Abuse: Loosen the laws a little. Or at least make it so a kid can't be spanked for doing something wrong and call it child abuse unless it goes far beyond the level of brutality corporal punishment should entail.
Drugs: Legalize them and slap a warning label on anything really hard. Sales tax added.
Prostitution: Legalize it.
Gay Issue: Legalize gay marriage and adoption.
Abortion: Keep abortion legal.
Euthanasia: Only with the patient's explicit consent. Or a will to that effect granting permission to a relative/lover/friend in case of human vegetable-ness
Fight smart, not fair.
Moar and Moar and Moar
I'm more goal oriented than I have an ideology. While I have ideas on how to reach those goals, I'm also open to hearing alternative suggestions. The goal is more important than the journey.
My goals are for a sustainable society, economically, environmentally, socially, etc.
That said, I do have ideas. But I don't consider them to be an ideology. I just think they're interesting ideas.
First, this is my biggest idea. A surtax on the rich tied to employment rates. It's simple. We "let" them become and stay rich because it does a better job of making the pie bigger. But if it's not working and creating jobs, then there's a problem. We need to give the rich incentives (at the very least to balance out the disincentives) to create jobs. But in general, maintaining (or at least ensuring that boom cycles hit) full employment is a must.
For social stability, I fully support and promote gay marriage.
Environmentally, more focus on renewable energy sources, additional research into more effective solar and wind power, etc. Oh and tell the NIMBY's to STFU.
Democracy is the process in which we determine the government that we deserve
vigilantly taxonomish
- Government: Struthiocracy.
- Economy: All work should be paid in duck tokens. Five duck tokens entitles you a racing duck. The ducks are then raced, and silver bottlecaps are to be awarded determined by finishing position and time taken to complete the course. Silver bottlecaps may be exchanged for products. Store owners may then award their bottlecaps to suppliers or send them to the bank, who should exchange them for duck tokens.
- Taxing: Regressive taxation.
- Foreign Policy: Foreigners smell.
- Law and Order: Abolish all existing laws and introduce new ones as and when the government feels like it.
- Immigration issue: All foreigners setting foot in the country should be shot. (Foreigners may be identified by smell).
- Freedoms: Freedoms should be prohibited.
- Culture: Microbial.
- Tolerance: Should not be tolerated.
- Guns: Should be used only as part of the anti-immigration policy (see above).
- Education: Should be supplied by Channel 4.
- Religion: Pastafarianism should be made the state religion.
- Gambling: Should be the primary role of government.
- Alcohol: Citizens should be recommended to drink 5 beers a day.
- Consent: Raise the age of consent to 41.
- Child Abuse: Bring back whipping.
- Drugs: Keep weed prohibited, legalise heroin and crystal meth.
- Prostitution: Should be socialised.
- Gay Issue: All magazines should be required to produce an annual "gay issue", with content deemed appealing to homosexual readers.
- Abortion: Should be mandatory, and administered using a trowel, an egg cup and copious amounts of LSD.
- Euthanasia: Members of the public over the age of 41 to be put down.
More seriously, I don't really have a fixed stance on every issue. There are certain things I am pretty unwilling to compromise on - for example, I believe that if straight people can marry one another, so should gay people be able to - but generally speaking, I just think we should do whatever has the best results, and I don't feel confident in saying I know what would produce those results. Welcome To TV Tropes | How To Write An Example | Text-Formatting Rules | List Of Shows That Need Summary | TV Tropes Forum | Know The Staff
Wandering Student ಠ_ಠ
Cut and pasted from above, edited in a few places for myself.
- Government: the same system, but with greater checks and balances to keep the branches from getting too chummy. Also, any and all acts which could be construed as lobbying will immediately result in a fine of 500,000, and a mandatory suspension for 6 months. organizations such as ALEC would be disbanded. Crack down on Cronyism and Nepotism, scrutinize heavily appointees with familial connections to the appointer.
- Economy: Heavily regulated free-market economy. Nationalize insurance, banks (maybe), healthcare, hospitals, and especially jails. No subsidies to private corporations. Fight private monopolies.
- Taxing: Steep progressive taxing. Those making 500k+ are taxed at 60% income tax.
- Foreign Policy: Non-military cooperation.
- Law and Order: Rehabilitation, focused on segregating offenders based on their crimes so that non-violent offenders are not subject to discrimination based on their jail time. First time violent offenders who are served jail are put with the non-violent offenders.
- Immigration issue: Pro-immigration. If other people want to live here, there's plenty of room.
- Freedoms: Freedoms of speech and privacy - no man can be punished solely for his stances, even if he's a Nazi or something similar (if the State gets the power to decide which views are wrong and which are right, we are screwed), and all kinds of surveillance on non-criminals are strictly forbidden. I would make an exception for suspects in a criminal case or high profile civil case, but only with a judge's consent. Re-instate the Fairness Doctrine so that stations with an incredibly obvious political stance must present both sides of an issue equally. I don't care if it's Fox news or MSNBC, I really want what both sides say, not editorialized crap
- Culture: Not sure. I would try to encourage tolerance and cooperation, but its really up to what the producers think. Though Joss Whedon would get out of his contract with Fox.
- Tolerance: Abolish any laws concerning intolerance or discrimination, since it is a violation of the freedom of speech and association and it also violates the Establishment clause. I would abolish special gifts to minorities, but the fact is that the current cultural climate is set against them.
- Guns: Allow all guns, but registration is a must and more serious weapons such as explosives, rockets, anti-vehicle devices, recoilless rifles and high-rate of fire weapons would be automatically disallowed. Allow murder in self-defence.
- Education: School attendance compulsory. No uniforms. Subsidize it, and increase wages and benefits for teachers but not non-teaching faculty. You are a teacher if you spend more than 50 hours per semester in a classroom instructing students. Allow special grants for experimental teaching methods, monitored by standardized homework developed by committee and an occasional standardized test which is given randomly without warning so the teacher does not have a chance to try and teach the students the test. Remove the laws which treat all crimes equally, its just sheer madness.
- Religion: Complete separation of Church and State. Tax all religious organizations, regardless of size and influence. Encourage Biblical non-literalism.
- Gambling: Legal, highly taxed, but discouraged. Sex ed is focused on teaching all parts of sexual health, including the use of contraceptives. If a parent feels that the curriculum is immoral or something akin to it, they have the option to opt their student out at any time. Creationism is not taught during science classes. Young Earth Creationism is right out.
- Alcohol: No restrictions on alcohol selling, but increase taxes dramatically.
- Consent: Increase the "Romeo and Juliet" laws so we don't have ludicrous situations where two juveniles are considered rapists. Age of sexual consent is separated from age of legal consent.
- Child Abuse: No comment. Have not followed.
- Drugs: Legalize and tax light drugs. Hard drugs such as heroin, cocaine, methamphetamines, morphine not used by a doctor and other drugs with high addictiveness are illegal in all but a few circumstances. The dealer is prosecuted heavily, the people who take them are given the option of free rehab, because they aren't getting any more.
- Prostitution: legal, but scrutinized.
- Gay Issue: Legalize gay marriage and adoption.
- Abortion: the choice to abort is the mother's. The current life of the mother takes priority to the potential life of the child. But the price of the operation should be high so as to encourage sexually active people who got unlucky to not get an abortion but face the consequences of their actions. Abortions because of rape or incest or post-partem (sp? the one which could cause insanity after the birth of the child) deppression is funded by the state, few questions asked.
- Euthanasia: Only with the patient's explicit consent or with the person with power of attorney's explicit consent.
- Public transportation: construct more in efficient manners to ease congestion, increase mobility, and decrease burden and increase employment opportunities for the poor.
edited 3rd Jun '11 10:22:06 AM by Enkufka
Very big Daydream Believer. "That's not knowledge, that's a crapshoot!" -Al Murray "Welcome to QI" -Stephen Fry
Cut and pasted, and edited to fit my views.
•Government: Medium-sized, with a small standing army that can be increased if and when we're actually invaded. Provides for welfare, education, healthcase, and stimulation in times of economic downturn.
•Economy: Regulated free-market. Keep some fairly stringent truth in advertising laws, tax corporations for their air and water pollution, and use the money to provide subsidies for clean, green enterprises. How much tax, and where exactly the money goes, should be determined by a panel of ecologists and economists. Keep the industries that are already nationalized, such as water, electricity, roads, and gas, and add in healthcare.
•Taxing: Moderate taxation, with similar tax brackets as we have now, although moderate increases would not be out of the picture if we actually neede the money for ourselves rather than foreign wars.
•Foreign Policy: Non-interventionist. The only foregin intervetion that is ever acceptable is charitable work that is explicitly asked for by the country in question, or mobilization against a country that has outright threatened war.
•Law and Order: Focus on rehabilitation. Ease up on laws about victimless crimes. Only take in drug abusers when their actions hurt others, and then stick them in rehab. Use the death penalty very, very sparingly, when there is absolutely no question as to who the person is and what they did (for example, in war crimes, since those people generally like to announce their crimes to the public).
•Immigration: Crack down on illegal immigration while making legal immigration much easier and shorter. Open out your arms to immigrants who can stimulate the economy with their work. Jobs are not static and limited, so they are not "taking away American jobs". New jobs can be created, and historically, immigrants helped create them.
•Freedoms: Freedoms of speech and privacy are absolute - no man can be punished solely for his stances, even if he's a Nazi or something similar (if the State gets the power to decide which views are wrong and which are right, we are screwed), and all kinds of surveillance on non-criminals are strictly forbidden.
•Culture: Absolutely no censorship, and no government intervention in any form of popular entertainment, art, and culture. Get rid of the MPAA and allow a bunch of private movie rating services to take its place. That way, parents with puritanical values can pick their favorite puritanical movie rating service, and more liberal parents can pick a more liberal service.
•Tolerance: Abolish any laws concerning intolerance or discrimination, since it is a violation of the freedom of speech. Do not give special benefits to any minority group, but do not discriminate them - all citizens are equal in the eyes of the State.
•Guns: Heavily regulated ownership of non-military and non-automatic arms allowed. Registration, background check, and waiting periods mandatory. Knives are much less regulated, but a background check on anything that could construably be called a sword is mandatory.
•Education: Mandatory public education from first through sixth grade focusing on math, reading comprehension, and essential real-world skills. Mandatory voucher system from seventh through twelfth, with tests to get into the schools. Government will pay for any child whose family can't afford it, to any school that the child makes it into, as long as he/she keeps up the grades and behavioral standards expected of them. The schools themselves will have a lot of freedom in terms of curriculum, but will periodically be checked by a board of scientists, historians, and mathematicians to make sure the information they are giving is correct.
•Religion: Complete separation of Church and State. Tax all religious organizations, regardless of size and influence. However, give them tax deductions if they can prove they are associated with a charity.
•Gambling: Legal, highly taxed.
•Alcohol: Lower the age to buy alcohol to 18. That's when you get to do everything else. From 15 to 18, allow parent's discretion for moderate amounts of alcohol consumption. For example, kids aren't allowed in bars or allowed hard liquor, but they can get a drink or two at a restaurant if their parents are present and say it's okay.
•Child Abuse: It's so hard to catch this stuff, but I like the law where it says a teacher must report possible abuse to the police. And teachers possibly catching an abuse case is also part of the reason why I want school attendance mandatory until adulthood. You can't give abusive parents the opportunity to totally isolate their kids - hell, even with normal parents that would be pretty bad.
•Drugs: Legalize and tax light drugs. With harder drugs, arrest dealers but if someone is caught in possession of them, don't do much more than remove the drugs from their possession and put them under monitoring. If they make it clear that their drug use is a danger to others, take them to rehab.
•Prostitution: Legal, regulated, and taxed, with laws concerning sexual health, pregnancies, and STD's. Require prostitutes to be inoculated against every possible STD, and to either get their tubes tied or always take birth control pills. Go after pimps who force girls into prostitution and arrest them, obviously. Charge them with whatever the sentence is for multiple counts of rape, because that's what they did. Charge any customers at these illegal brothels with rape, as well.
•Homosexuality: Legalize gay marriage and adoption.
•Abortion: Since up to 12 weeks it's been proven that the fetus has no sense of feeling or fear, legalize abortion for any reason within that time. Between 12 and 24 weeks, legalize it in the case of a recently discovered birth defect that would make life difficult for the mother and the child, or a sudden change in circumstance that would make being pregnant very difficult and/or dangerous for the mom, such as breaking up with the father and/or losing a job and home, etc. After 24 weeks, legal in the case of the mother's health being in danger.
•Euthanasia: Only with the patient's explicit consent.
edited 3rd Jun '11 10:26:09 AM by OnTheOtherHandle
"War doesn't prove who's right, only who's left." "Every saint has a past, every sinner has a future."
Decemberist
Many libertarians here, it seems.
The sin of silence when they should protest makes cowards of men.
Oh, I didn't realise we were supposed to post our own interpretations... copy/paste/edit we go then.
- Government: Meritocratic/technocratic unelected council, but with a separate democratic institution to control the executive (as outlined above). Preferably heavy AI involvement when that becomes a possibility. Heavy use of referenda for matters of conscience as soon as the technology is available. Legal protection for parties as organisations, but no recognition of their role. Non-hereditary monarchy with ceremonial constitutional powers, and traditional feudal titles to be integrated into the modernized system (e.g. "Lord" not "Senator", but the job is non-hereditary and only the title is kept after leaving office).
- Healthcare: Universal, free. No room for compromise of any sort.
- Economy: Heavily regulated free-market economy. Fight private monopolies. Publicly-funded R&D departments. Patent reform.
- Taxes: Progressive. High.
- Foreign Policy: Non-military cooperation. Active expansion of the EU, including beyond the borders of Europe (i.e. Russia, Japan). An actual European military. More strongly "tiered" membership to ease states in, or provide a more concrete opt-out for certain policies.
- Law and Order: Rehabilitation. Segregated offenders as described above. No death penalty, fund research into extreme therapy (brainwashing?) instead.
- Immigration issue: undecided (Britain has less space than the US, over there I would be pro).
- Freedoms: Freedoms of speech, restricted for those who have a past history of successfully inciting violence.
- Tolerance: Pro-education (better to treat the cause of discrimination than paste affirmative action over the symptoms)
- Guns: Allow, but make a clear distinction to disallow weapons of war.
- Education: School attendance compulsory. Uniforms. Subsidize it, and increase wages and benefits for teachers but not non-teaching faculty as described by poster above)
- Remove the laws which treat all crimes equally, its just sheer madness.
- Religion: Complete separation of Church and State. Treat the organisations the same as any other company: either taxable or closely scrutinized as charities (or broken up into separate child companies). Officially recognize formally trained priests/ministers/whatever so that access to the individuals can still be provided as a guaranteed right? (totally undecided on how this could possibly work but freedom to spiritual advice is important)
- Gambling: Legal, highly taxed, discouraged. Casinos have to have natural daylight and are hard to set up.
- Sex ed is focused on teaching all parts of sexual health, including the use of contraceptives. Rolled into other parts of the education system.
- Alcohol: The current system (UK, not US) is fine.
- Consent: Allow prosecutors freedom to use their brains; allow appeal on grounds of gross stupidity.
- Child Abuse: No comment.
- Drugs: (copied entirely) Legalize and tax light drugs. Hard drugs such as heroin, cocaine, methamphetamines, morphine not used by a doctor and other drugs with high addictiveness are illegal in all but a few circumstances. The dealer is prosecuted heavily, the people who take them are given the option of free rehab, because they aren't getting any more.
- Prostitution: legal. Protected/regulated/something like that.
- Gay Issue: should be a non-issue.
- Abortion: Similar to current system (again, UK, not US), with a harder attitude towards discouraging its use as a late contraceptive.
- Euthanasia: Should be a non-issue; doctors should never have to be placed in that position, but should be free to give advice to patients. How to engineer this? No idea.
- Public transportation: Major long-distance rail links should be subsidized.
- Space: active, joint-international colonization efforts with the goal of immediate independence of the fledgling nations once they can sustain themselves.
edited 3rd Jun '11 4:05:58 PM by Jinren
Really? Most of people seem to like high taxes and heavily regulated market. Not very libertarian
Decemberist
Well, there are left libertarians and libertarian-leaning liberals.
Copy-pasta
- Government: •Government: Fine as is, where I come from. Maybe some election reform.
- Healthcare: Universal, free.
- Economy: Heavily regulated free-market economy. I like the idea of the government buying corporations that are "too big to fail."
- Taxes: Progressive.
- Foreign Policy: No combat intervention unless we are are on somebody's warpath. Allow use of military for humanitarian aid.
- Law and Order: Rehabilitation with segregated prisons. Prison reserved for criminals who must be separated from society.
- Immigration issue: Crack down on illegal immigration while making legal immigration much easier and shorter. Open out your arms to immigrants who can stimulate the economy with their work.
- Freedoms: Absolute Freedom of speech, undecided on absolute privacy
- Tolerance: Everyone is equal under law, full stop. No positive discrimination or mandatory affirmative action, but incentives for companies to hire a diverse work-force. Focus on solving the causes of inequality, not merely treating the symptoms.
- Guns: Allowed but heavily regulate all arms.
- Education: School attendance compulsory. Uniforms. Subsidize it, and increase wages and benefits for teachers but not non-teaching faculty. In higher education, every student should be guaranteed access to course materials. None of this stuff about dropping a class because you cant afford a textbook.
- Religion: Complete separation of Church and State. Treat the organizations the same as any other company: either taxable or closely scrutinized as charities (or broken up into separate child companies).
- Gambling: Legal, highly taxed.
- Alcohol: Age to buy alcohol set at 18. Parental discretion to allow drinking under 18.
- Drugs: All drugs legal and taxed. Health warnings required.
- Prostitution: legal. Prostitutes are licensed and required to pass regular health checkups, use contraceptives.
- Gay Issue: A non-issue.
- Abortion: Legal...but maybe a limit on how many a woman can have. Like you get only one "undo." Negotiable for rape.
- Euthanasia: Legal with express consent. I imagine euthanasia to be an alternative to the death penalty, so that death-row criminals either make themselves productive or consent to execution.
First of all, I wanted to create this thread for one purpose: My ideology is generally a mish-mash of several political views, so I wanted to post my general opinions on political issues in case someone would be kind enough to tell me which ideology I am closest to.
Also, feel free to post similar questions if you need an answer or try to explain your own ideology, point by point.
So, here it goes;
So, what do you think? I thank any responses in advance.
edited 7th Jun '11 12:10:06 PM by MilosStefanovic
The sin of silence when they should protest makes cowards of men.