Operation "First Things First"

What benefit is there in being a citizen of any country? Think about it.. You are born into one because your parents are here,or choose to become a citizen of a country because it has something to offer you. Something better than you left behind... What is that? What should it be?

Is it merely to exist..to be born, to struggle for 3/4 of a century, and then die?

Is it to offer you an opportunity to thrive, by virtue of your wits? The atmosphere of a country greatly determines how successful you will be. A brilliant person, with a keen sense of business just might not do all that well in Myanmar.. Why would that be? Could it be because the government stinks, the infrastructure is missing, and people spend too much time just trying to find enough food to stay alive, to worry about what a great business you have started.

Countries are successful because there is an implicit bargain between the government and the citizens. Citizens willingly (well some, not so much) hand over a portion of their earned money, so that the government can handle the large infrastructure needs, the defense, the printing and stewardship of a currency, banking system and to make sure there is a justice system and a myriad of other things we cannot do as individuals.

Since we cannot all do all things, the people we choose to represent us, have to have our best interests at heart, or there is no reason to even have them...or any of it.

Families take first things first...and what's left over is for fun things...for wants instead of needs.

Our legislature has been robbing us blind for way too many years now, and if we don't stop them soon, we will be very sorry.

With 50 states and almost 300 million people, there are needs that not all of us have, but somewhere there is a middle ground. Other advanced countries have managed to get a plan, and make it work.

People say.."Well it won;t work here because the other countries are small, and we are so big".. That's not true, because, even though we are bigger, we ALSO have a LOT more money at our disposal, so things would even out.. IF we had the guts and the smarts to JUST DO IT..

Even if it were as a "test program" for say..10 years.. We have wasted a lot of money for a lot longer before the facts proved how wrongheaded a particular program was.

The first item on the agenda would have to be health care (with vision care, dental & pharmacy services)..

Everyone gets sick and everyone has medical needs. (The super-rich would be free to spend all the extra cash they wanted). Some would say that would create a two-tier system, but we already have a two-tier system.. Have and Have NOT.
This would no doubt, upset a lot of paper-pushers at Insurance companies and HMOs, but we have tried it their way for decades now, and we are not getting our money's worth. It's time to try something new.

The second item would have to be FAIR wages...

a minimum wage that a person could actually live on. I realize that in some areas, it would have to be higher than in others, but those states would also be contributing (via the citizens) a much larger proportion of tax money, so it should even out...

The third item would be to beef up our school system so that our children will be prepared in a Global world.

Our kids are graduating (More and more fail to even graduate these days) with a slipshod education and colleges are spending a lot of time teaching freshmen things that they should have learned in high school.

The fourth item would be to create a truly fair election system that uses paper.

No more temperamental machines that can be (an probably have been) rigged.

The fifth item would be to start a sincere effort to become energy self-sufficient, and to do it as quickly as possible.

We have the brainpower, and we have the money..IF we chose to do it. Just a minor thing like solar panels would be a good start. If every roof had solar panels, we would save a lot of energy, but most people have no "extra" money to even install them. The government should step up to the plate and take this on.

Sixth on the list..Infrastructure

We have bridges and roads that are literally falling apart. Some of these bridges are nearly a hundred years old. our electrical grid and sewer systems are ancient too. Privatizing them has NOT improved them. It has only poured money into the pockets of a few greedy men.

Seventh on the list would be PUBLIC financing of candidates standing for elections.

The ONLY way to save what's left of our democracy. The fact that politicians have to pay so much for advertising on TV, is the driving force than makes them money-grubbing whores. Public financing, with LIMITS, and making outside money a CRIME, would go a long way to getting some new blood into the system. It would also make them less vulnerable to lobbyists. Since the TV networks get the use of our airwaves for FREE, they would be OBLIGATED to provide a special channel JUST for political candidates (people tune out the lame commercials already, so it would be a small loss of viewership..and who knows..it might even spur some attention to them if they had their own channel)
And districts should be drawn based on zipcodes..not gerrymandered like they are now.

Eighth on the list has to be addressing retirement/pensions/old age..

People get OLD, and not everyone has the money to live with dignity. A society is judged by how they treat the poor, the sick, the young and the elderly. We don't even deserve a "gentleman's 'C" on that one.

Ninth would have to be reinstatement of the Fairness Doctrine in the media

The system we have now is largely responsible for a lot of the problems we have in this country. It's high time we had a media that was truly responsive to the broad spectrum that is America.

Tenth would be a REAl environmental protection agency.

the fact that it's 10th does not mean that it could not have been #1 or # 4 or #5. ANY of these issues are important enough to be NUMBER ONE, but every list has to have to start and an end. We need clean air, clean water, safe food, sane development, wild places and so much more. all we have gotten for decades is lip service, and if something's not done soon, NONE of the above items will mean anything at all.

One thing noticeably absent from my list is MILITARY..and that's by design.

In this day and age, the fancy tools ,gizmos, weapons and vehicles are a WASTE OF MONEY. Asymmetrical warfare is the NEW warfare, and has been since Viet Nam, but the contractors are making too much money to admit it.

Diplomacy is the only hope for the future. People living decent lives are not likely to need to start wars...and even if they do, we certainly would have enough left over to protect our country. 9-11 pretty much proved that even with all the weaponry we have, it was not enough to prevent it... There would be plenty of money left over to secure our freedom. Any wacko with a nuke "could" do us harm, but then most likely they will not.

We need a real budget..posted online if necessary, and we need real accountants (not political hacks) making sure that our money is spent well.

We have enough.. we just waste too much of it..

the only rub is that , like the countries with generous and humane services, we would have to limit these to citizens only. To do that would mean getting used to a new identity situation. We grew up as a country of "rugged individuals" (the underlying reason for a lot of our problems) and lots of people would object to being "identified, but we are headed that way already, so why not have that card be our "ticket" to health care, education, and voting ease while we are at it?

If only we had leaders that would put together a plan like this,there would be hope for this country.Not just for the rich but for all of us!!!!

that's why they only nibble at the edges. If they ever made real changes, their own jobs would be at stake. That's the ultimate irony, they are the ones who would have to cahnge the laws..The laws they have in place guarantee their own jobs.. Why would they change anything? For US?? Not likely.

I don't know if states could put these things on a referendum on their own ballots.. That might be the only way we could even get their attention

Cut defense spending by at least 50%.

This is the kind of thread I love to see on the DU!

and needed a diversion :)

No more profiteering scams like "missile defense."

There is a reason missile defense was the Bush cabal's priority prior to 9-11.

Massive amounts of money funneled to profiteering corporations, which then contribute to republicans.

Without that you have very little if none of the others.