What Would I as King of the US Do?
Goal: Power corrupts. Absolute power corrupts quickly. My independent ideas on how to fix the mess we are in
In my last article(10/22/20) I spoke about not fitting in nicely in either political party and being an independent. I believe our founding fathers would disapprove of both parties and what they have become. They are not solving the problems that need to be solved.
Last night’s debate(10/22/20) showed the clear divide between the political parties: Republicans want to support businesses and screw people. Democrats want to support people and screw businesses.
Can we help both succeed?
So what would I do to solve the problems in the US? In no particular order…
Education
Our systems are outdated. They are based on preparing kids to become employees. That needs to change.
Due to this Covid pandemic we have brought online education to the front. Teachers who are not the most academically gifted people are struggling teaching hard subjects. Why not take the experts who wrote the book or someone who can best teach the course to prepare the lectures for the students. Let the students watch the best video and then come to school to work on applying the material. The teachers could hold the students hand as they do their training while the education is left to the master of the subject.
Every kid needs to have a suffice-like device that they keep from grade 1–12 with all of the books downloaded to it at the beginning of the semesters.
We need a nationwide internet just for kids and education that any kid can tap into.
Arts are just as important as engineering. The reason Apple is successful is because it marries science with art and design. Our kids need to have both liberal arts and hard science to be successful.
Immigration
Before 70s our border used to be porous. People came over and worked and went home for holidays. They came back in spring when there was work and went back late in the fall. Once we became stringent with the boarder we forced people to stay in the US because they could not guarantee they can get back. Some people have not seen their families for 30+ years. It is a sad story.
The problem we have today is due to Regan giving amnesty and a path to citizenship in the 80s. That created an incentive for people to come in illegally. It was an idiotic move.
The people we have here because there is a need they fill. We should give everyone that is here a labor card that is valid for 5 years. God bless them because we need them. Often they do work that no one wants to do.
They are to go to social security and get a number, be fingerprinted, picture taken, and all of their information gathered so we know who is in the country. Every 3–6 months they are to check in and provide an update.
Tell them to take their families back home and apply to become legal immigrants. Make a copy of all of your paperwork and submit it to our government. If they do not commit any crimes we will put them on the same path of citizenship that every person that comes here legally.
Joe wanting to give amnesty and path to citizenship is LUDICROUS. Reagan was an idiot because he did the same thing in the 80s. This will just invite the next 12 million people to come over illegally and wait for the next amnesty.
On a related topic, once the illegals are registered and have a work permit, any company that hires an illegal will be shut down. It is easy to verify whether a social security number is valid. If it is not then you don’t hire the person. The threat of shutting them down will make sure we don’t hire any more illegals in the future.
Lastly, build the damn wall. We need to control our boarders.
Military
Our military is way too large. Who are we going to fight? China? Maybe? We need to reduce our military to half of its current size. Most of the future wars will be fought through technology and advanced weapons and less with troops on the ground.
Infrastructure
We all have driven across bridges and wondered what keeps them standing. One in every nine bridges is in poor condition. Our infrastructure is in poor condition. Provide incentives for kids to become civil and structural engineers by doubling their pay.
Do you think kids will not fall in love with the civil engineering if they knew they can come out of school making 200k? I think that incentive will make them run towards civil engineering.
We need to set 20% of our budget to be dedicated to infrastructure.
Taxes
We got to stop with the class envy bull#$%#. Everyone wants to do well in their life. Why would you hate anyone for doing well. Most people that do well help others. There are many rich people that give away considerable amounts of money to charity. Stop hating millionaires and billionaires. Most of them became rich because they provided a service or a product that we all need.
Make everyone pay a flat 20% on their income. No deductions for anything and anyone. No house deduction. No car deduction for your business. No deduction because you own XYZ. Why should the rest of us subsidize your choices?
At the end of the year we will see how much money comes in and adjust the rate. If we need less, we lower it.
This will eliminate a lot of tax preparation services. They are very smart and will change fields as needed.
Business write offs
Companies need to be treated as individuals. How can Amazon make so much money and not pay taxes? Not one person agrees with that.
No company write-off would be allowed. You want to wine and dine your customers that is not going to be written off. You want to travel to your customer sites. That is not going to be written off. You need paper and pens. Nope… You assumed the risk of being in the business. If you can not make it on your own, why should we give you a handout?
Technology
Our immigration policy is stupid when it comes to technological talent. We need super smart people to want to come here and generate new ideas. Most people from other countries that come to US to get their masters of Ph.D. go home. WHAT A LOSS!! Do you realize that 40%+ of silicon valley is from India? Do you realize we stole a lot of technical talent after WWII from all of the world. People wanted to come here for the opportunity. We sold it as freedom BUT it was the opportunity.
Who is benefiting from our immigration policy? Canada!!!
We are worried about our intellectual property being copied by China. Wake up! For the last 40 years China has been sending some of their best engineers to study in US to get their masters and doctorate. Those folks are back in China starting businesses. They don’t need to copy they can create.
Remember that smartest 20% of Chinese is more people than we have. Let that sink in. They have more smart people than we have people.
Our strategy needs to be to steel people from the world as best as we can and get busy creating the next wave of innovation products.
We will be in the business of copying China unless we start creating.
The reason Trump wants to block Hiewei is because that Chinese company is ahead of our American 5G companies. It has nothing to do with Chinese spying. Are we naïve to believe that our government does not spy on other countries? Maybe that is why they are worried?
Entrepreneurship
There should be an entrepreneur class from K1-K12 and all four years of university degree. Why? We need the mindset to be such that kids want to continue creating jobs instead of filling a job.
But entrepreneur education without action will fail. It must be connected to real problems, real solution, and real funding. Offer kids seed money if the idea gets traction.
Craft Schools
We need to encourage kids to learn how to do basic carpentry, mechanics, welding, plumbing, electrical, etc. These professions are badly needed in order to construct anything. AND they make a great income.
I think that some kids could start in their craft after 10th grade and by the time they are 12th grade test for a journeyman card.
Not all of our kids need to go to college. There are plenty of high paying jobs that involve working in crafts. The education lobby does not want this.
Pandemic Response
I have been amazed about how ignorant people can be. Even highly educated people consider wearing masks a conspiracy. WHAT!!!! This is just a sign of stupidity. Certain things need to be mandatory. Based on what we know now, wear a mask and do your best to distance yourself from others. If the information changes, we will let you know. Stop regurgitating stupid ideas because your party support it.
We should have shut down the whole county for one month. Told everyone that you can not go outside without a mask. Mortgages are forgiven. Rents are forgiven for that months. We send everyone 100 per month per person for food. Learn to cook at home. Only things open are grocery stores and gas stations. After a month we all could go outside and celebrate the war that we won.
Purposeful stupidity by Trump and Republicans is what has created this mess. Attacking scientists that are sharing the latest information they got is beyond idiotic BUT dangerous.
Climate Change
The science on the left is just as stupid as the one on the right about the pandemic. In the 70–90s scientists could not figure out whether we were cooling or warming for 30 years. When it was cooling they called it global cooling. When it started warming they called it global warming. Since they could not figure out what will happen next they simply rebranded it to be climate change.
There have been periods in past when we had no humans on the planet BUT we had higher CO levels. Huh!!!!
We only have accurate temperature data for the last 100–200 years. The Earth warms and cools. There have been periods before when the earth was warmer and cooler so focusing on the last 200 years is like noticing a single pixel on your TV and ignoring the rest.
We should do everything to not pollute and make sure we are good stewards of the Earth. It is the best little planet we got.
Getting rid of oil and gas industry that Joe wants to do is crazy. We need to make EPA do its job and maybe place stricter regulations to make sure companies do the right things.
No one is stopping the country from investing in solar and wind BUT economics have to be there. Just because you throw money at them does not make them viable. Yes auto emissions need to be more and more stringent. Yes plant emissions need to be more stringent. Everyone wants clean water and air.
The problem with pollution is not a US only problem. We don’t need to hurt our businesses to prove to the world that we need to do something. Carbon taxes and credits are simply a scam to make someone money. Make each environmental law slightly stringent each year. This will drive innovation. And for products that are bought from those countries that pollute reduce their access to our market. Don’t need to put tariffs which only hurt our people. Just simply tell the polluting countries that they can only bring in less products next year unless they reduce their pollutions. Hit them in their pocketbook NOT Our.
Health Care
The republicans are idiots when it comes to health care. Why should my health care be tied to my employer. This only came about after WWII in order to attract employees.
The moment I lose a job I also loose my health care. As someone who has had to pay COBRA it is amazing to me that anyone can afford it.
Insurance is the biggest fraud being jammed down an employee’s throat. You are paying the full cost but being told that the company is giving you a benefit. I pay 1/3 for my insurance that I paid while employed by my last employer.
By throwing the word socialized medicine around the Republicans don’t want to fix the problem. They are cronies of the health care lobby and will never come up with a plan to fix the health care mess.
Trump has not been able to come up with a new plan except that he does not like Obama’s plan. Again tell me what you will do NOT what you are against. They got nothing.
The best thing we can do is create a safety net for people. If you loose your job, you are eligible for a basic plan that covers basic care and dental. Unless it is life threatening, you can not just show up at a hospital without going to see a doctor. If this was done by Obama we would have just covered 40 million people instead of screwing up everybody.
Most older people with Covid will have pre-existing conditions. Without a safety net we will put many people on the street.
Conclusion
Our strength is how we are connected. By dividing us these parties are winning. We are all Americans and need to be given a mission for us to work towards. Our mission should be to be the #1 producer of AI/Machine Learning/Robotics/Innovation in the world with the best infrastructure.
These are just my ideas. I do believe that most of our problems are easily fixable BUT these parties have very little incentive to think and do together. If someone starts thinking and proposing ideas they push them out themselves. They want people to keep raising money to be re-elected NOT serve us needs.
My two cents… that is what I earned last month from Medium
