It is no secret that Post-Y2K is ever on my mind....I have a discussion forum about what we might create.

My question is: If your visions include a post-y2k civilization, how fleshed out is your vision...are you relying on movies? If you were in charge of starting things up afresh...what would you do?

-- Donna Barthuley (moment@pacbell.net), November 30, 1998

Answers

For starters, gotta' think about that one overnight. Back later.

-- Diane J. Squire (sacredspaces@yahoo.com), November 30, 1998.

Blue capitalism.

(Doesn't mean a thing to anyone, I know, go read Mister Blue when I finish writing it, it'll make sense then).

Basically, a free society. A constitution that requires a 95% majority to change and encompasses things including:

-There *must* be a balanced budget.

-Taxes must be flat and may not exceed 10% unless there is a state of emergency.

-Education up to 10th grade is compulsory. All school education is free, *if* the parents have undergone a means test and are proven to be unable to pay. (i.e. upper-class parents will have to pay the full burden of their children's education. Middle-class parents may recieve discounts.)

-College is the same as the American system, *not* the gravy-train Australian system where anyone can go to uni for free.

-The government can and should operate commercial ventures *if* they run at a profit. This would be a welcome alternative to taxes. Welfare will take this form, if it is to be instituted; the government rents out apartments at low cost to those who can prove by a means test that they need it. The government can also sell certain staple foods at a token profit in order to prevent people from starving. -No civil lawsuits are allowed unless the plaintiff can clearly prove that the defendant's actions were deliberate or deliberately negligent. A woman who burns herself while drinking hot coffee at McDonalds will not be allowed to sue the company.

-All boards and government offices responsible for dealing with sexism or racism will be disbanded immediately. Sexism and racism are incompatible with basic capitalism, which says that the best people will get the job. Employers who employ inferior people because of gender or race are idiots and their business suffers by that. There is no need for anti-discrimination boards (which seem to be abused ten times as often as they are used decently.)

-No government regulations may exist that discriminate against people on the basis of birth. One American citizen is as good as another, even if the first was born elsewhere and became a citizen at age 20. Also, no age limits may be set for public office. If someone aged 35 is not good enough to be President then he will not win office. If he can win office, then he has displayed by his ability that he is good enough to have the job. If he does not have the ability then no Constitutional amendment is neccessary.

That's a start, anyway. While I'm at it, I may as well put in a plug for my unpublished (unwritten, except for 6,000 words or so) novel, Mister Blue: When it comes out, buy it!

--Leo

-- Leo (leo_champion@hotmail.com), November 30, 1998.

Leo--

" If he can win office, then he has displayed by his ability that he is good enough to have the job."

How can you say this in the face of our history? All a canditate has to be good at is raising money. Raise enough, you win. Fail to do that, and you lose. This is not a true measure of a candidate's political, executive or leadership skills.

-- Tom Carey (tomcarey@mindspring.com), December 01, 1998.

Tom- yes, I agree with that. Our "leaders" tend to be not visionary achievers but smooth-talking hucksters who are more skilled at acting than leadership.

What I meant was that if *voters* felt a given leader was good enough, not if he (or she) actually was.

--Leo

-- Leo (leo_champion@hotmail.com), December 01, 1998.

Well,IMHO a lot of our problems stem from the fact we are just too big so the bureacracy has been able to take over.Look at the fact that Texas, California and Florida to name a few are as big landwise and population wise as many foreign countries. No wonder we can't keep control.I often thought there should be someway to take the politics out of government(and those fantastic election costs). Maybe we need some kind of system where everybody has to serve in some capacity at some time or other at very little or no pay.Well, I've managed to get rid of big government, bureacracy, and politicians. Next I'll start on lawyers.

-- sue (deco100@aol.com), December 01, 1998.

Sue, it's "FIRST we kill the lawyers", right? ;-)

-- Tricia the Canuck (jayles@telusplanet.net), December 02, 1998.

Leo for President!

-- Richard Dale (rdale@figroup.co.uk), December 02, 1998.

Isn't Leo an Aussie? Now Americans have to worry about an Aussie invasion on top of the Canucks?

-- chris (catsy@pond.com), December 02, 1998.