I can solve ALL of our problems in four simple steps

[Taverner]

Step One - Legalize all drugs. That's right, Meth, Heroin, Crack, Pot, LSD, PCP - you name it. While you might ask "but then people will take drugs!" well, they already do. A junkie never says "man I'm not going to shoot junk in my veins because it's illegal!" They will find a way. And the drug cartels are more than happy to accommodate. As a result, we get drugs that are much more toxic than the drugs themselves (think: black tar heroin. Here's a picture.



Now tell me you'd rather have junkies shooting that in their veins than pharmaceutical grade heroin.)

On top of that, if the drug companies make the drugs, the cartels are out of business. Drug violence on the border goes away. Sure, there will still be gun running. that is why...

Step Two - Legalize most weapons. People are going to get them anyway, and the only people who profit are the black marketers. Make guns safe, affordable, accessible, and make the public knowlegable about how to shoot, use a gun, etc. Now from this you might think of me as a closed-minded gun nut (an undeserved caricature) - I am not. I do not want to ever buy a gun, and I don't want to ever need one. But it is true that a well armed society is a polite society. Government would fear its citizens. Cops wouldn't bust down random people's doors because they think something illegal might be going on in there. Cops will pause before stripping us of our rights. There has to be no list of owners, no government database of who has what. Right now they cops know they can get away with almost anything. Who's going to stop them? The courts? Internal affairs? Sorry, the only one left to protect us is us.

Step Three - Rebuild our Safety nets. At this point, all of our safety nets have been so cut, rendered so dysfunctional that the lives of the poor are miserable and many are in holes they can't dig themselves out of. We need rehab services (see step one), welfare programs - and programs that will not penalize you for going to school or taking a part-time job. Get rid of "welfare to work" - it failed, stick a fork in it. Sure there will be abusers, but we tolerate abuse on Wall Street. We tolerate abuse if you're a big Fortune 500 company. And that abuse is far more costlier.

Step Four - Rebuild our infrastructure to be better than it was when first built. Rebuild the Golden Gate bridge to have an upper and lower deck. Build that fucking bridge to nowhere. Rebuild our highways. Make some of them earthquake proof AND triple decker. Build that bullet train that gets you from SF to NYC in 8 hours. Fund R&D for safe supersonic travel. Fund R&D for self driving cars. Fund R&D for alternative energy. Put up huge, government owned solar and wind farms, with the goal of having them pay for themselves in a few years. Our infrastructure hasn't been modernized since the 70s. Build it and they will come.

How to pay for it? Shut down 90% of our overseas bases. Why the hell do we need an Air Force Base in Scotland? Why the hell do we need one in Germany? I can see staying in South Korea for a few more years, but that's it. The money we save will be measured in billions. And you don't have to lay off the troops either. Bring them home, and have them work on our national defense. Not intel gathering, but building a line of defense on our coasts. We're still freaking out about Al Queda, right? I could walk across the US Canada border today without incident.

OK, so I've just solved our budget problems, our economy, border violence, inner city violence, the drug problem, and the SF>Marin traffic problem.

Who's game?

[slackmaster]

1. Your plan doesn't address our ongoing failure to fully adopt and embrace the Metric System

[Taverner]

2. LOL - I've always felt our rejection of the metric system is sytemic of our collective stupidity

[Riftaxe]

8. We don't need any foreign rulers! (nt)

[Romulox]

4. Not sure what the practical impact of a switch would be.

I'd still need two sets of tools, and the gov't already uses metric for most things. So... :shrug:

[slackmaster]

6. Practicality is not the issue

This is a matter of morality.

[Webster Green]

3. Agree, except for the Golden Gate Bridge.

Don't fuck with the bridge. Tunnel under the bay to extend Bart into the North Bay.

[Taverner]

5. That works too

A Santa Rosa BART station would be very nice

[Shagbark Hickory]

7. Yeah we should also legalize bank robbery.

Because you know, a bank robber was never dissuaded from robbing a bank because it was illegal.

[NNN0LHI]

9. Step Five - Make everyone where their underwear on the outside

That way we know they have them on.

Don