I have the solutions for the country's problems!

Opinions and solutions
It is very easy to express opinions about our current political situation. It is just as easy to point fingers and lay blame on any easy target. Politicians put themselves out in the public and have to accept the mud-slinging and criticism that comes their way. It is easy for any politician to respond to any verbal attack with a verbal response designed to show a negative side of his or her opponent. I have decided that I have maligned the actions of professional politicians without actually offering any solutions. This article will be a step toward correcting that failure. I will offer solutions to our current problems as a country.
These are real suggestions that I believe can be made to work. We have seen that our current system is failing and recent elections have shown the voters are looking for some kind of changes. Here are my proposed changes.


1: None of the above
As a general population we have lost trust in our government. We have seen the proof of how politicians and bureaucrats put more effort into protecting their jobs than in serving the electorate. Professional politicians are interested in getting the power and recognition that goes with being elected to office. They revel in attention from powerful people who want something. They really believe the deals they make are the reason they were elected.
Being elected to public office is actually a demonstration of fundraising and the effectiveness of the support group assembled to manage the campaign. It is not a reflection on the integrity or ability of the candidate. Politicians’ greatest skill is in their ability to follow a script and never say anything that can be used by the opposition’s spin doctors in attack ads. The American people do not trust professional politicians as a group. Few of us take the time or effort to understand why we distrust politicians.
Politicians have made a science of making others look bad by twisting their own words against them. The concept, distilled down to its essence, is: “If you are not good enough at what you do to make your self look good, your only hope is to make everyone around you look bad.” It is the evil of office politics expanded to a larger political arena.
To restore trust in our government we need to make real changes in the election process. The party system has become an impediment to effective government. My suggestion for diluting the power of national political parties is a simple change in election law. In any election for Federal public office President, Senator, Representative or whatever, add one additional election option: “NONE OF THE ABOVE” (hereinafter called NOTA). This way the public can express the distrust they have in the candidates offered for election. If NOTA wins a simple majority it will be obvious that the offered candidates are unacceptable. A new election is called with a new slate of candidates. The previous candidates are not allowed to run in the new election. This will assure a new selection of publically acceptable office holders with minimal ties to national parties.

2: Stop paying elected officials from public funds.Everyone in the country that is willing to think for themselves can see that the salary paid to elected officials is not the motivation for seeking elected office. From state level offices to the Presidency the cost of running a successful campaign is many times the potential salary of the job. The lure of the office is power and notoriety. We should not pay people to be self-serving.
One of the reasons we distrust politicians is the fact that they are subject to the influence of political action committees, business sector cooperatives, powerful, well-heeled special interests…etc. If these groups wish to influence a politician’s actions they should pay the “bought” person’s salary.
To make sure the public has some control over their elected officials, each candidate must completely disclose what groups he works for and how much they are paying. As voters we can make our choices based on the organizations that are paying for the legislative votes of a candidate. Any changes during the elected official’s term in office must be disclosed immediately. There will be potential for a popular candidate to receive a very large salary from a large number of paying supporters. As voters we will have the responsibility to learn the positions of the paying organizations and remove the politician if his alliances disagree with our own. Combining this change with the NOTA change described above will make officials more responsible for their actions and easier to remove if they forget who they ultimately answer to.

3: Stop wasting money on drug enforcement. Throughout history, banning any popular substance, activity…etc has proven ineffective. Even the morally indefensible practice of abortion cannot be effectively banned. Prohibition proved how banning something promotes the development of increasingly powerful criminal elements to satisfy the demand. The money flowing through the drug black market probably contributed to the economic collapse we recently endured. We can increase our tax base by producing quality and safe drugs to sell to real addicts while using the revenue to provide treatment and reduce the demand. The only way to remove the criminal element from recreational drugs is to de-criminalize the substances and tax the hell out of them to just below the level where criminal distribution becomes profitable. We cannot ban smoking but it has become a valuable tax resource. Alcohol is a valuable tax resource. Gambling is a valuable tax resource. So too can recreational drugs be. I have not worked out the details of how this could work but the concept has possibilities.

4: Increase government inspections and regulatory enforcement.This can have a positive effect on both tax revenue and unemployment. To help make sure that any company, large or small, does not put profit ahead of public safety we need vigorous inspections and significant, escalating fines for violators. This will add thousands of government jobs and private sector jobs to assure compliance. Again the details are fuzzy but there is some potential.

5: Progressive taxationThis is my favorite. I believe we should select a personal income level at (for instance) 5 times the current poverty level where we start adding taxation based on unemployment rates. If a person has gross income of $200,000 or more per year he will pay an unemployment tax based on the average unemployment rate for the year. If the average unemployment rate is 10% hit him with a 10% unemployment tax. This will certainly promote the creation of jobs and make offshore outsourcing look much less attractive on a personal level. People respond when their own money is threatened. Laying-off people will hurt the managers as well as the laid-off workers.

6: Limited compensationI believe there is no moral justification for personal compensation in excess of $50,000,000 per year. There are ways to reward successful top level managers for their knowledge and experience that makes a company successful besides padding their bank accounts. A large donation to a group of charities in the name of the manager, CEO…etc would be more acceptable. Here is a possible headline on a full page ad in a national publication or on a popular website:
XYZ Corporation wants to thank John C Doe Jr. for his very successful year at the helm of our company. In appreciation for his skills and contributions to our success we have donated a total of $25,000,000 to the following charities in his name. [Followed by a list of charities] Thank you John C Doe Jr.This is public recognition of the contributions made by the executive without making him immorally and wastefully wealthier.


These are some revolutionary ideas and I realize that they may seem absurd on first blush. If you take these ideas as a jump-off point for further discussion, they might lead to some real solutions for the problems at hand. If nothing else, you can respond by telling me how wrong I am. Some of these ideas have been discussed here before. I believe there is some validity to the concepts so I keep bringing them back.