You all probably remember me. I am the (now former) "liberal populist" with all of the crazy ideas. Let me tell you a bit of what I have realized, and remember, I am just 20. First of all, so much for socialism. I took an extreme demand side stance because of my concern for the poor, but I now realize that my old fiscal plan would have bankrupted the country such that we couldn't help them at all in the future. My top priority now is paying off the national debt. I'll work out the details later, and I'll also ask for the input of fiscal policy experts such as MerlinX. On foreign policy, I'm pretty much the same, though I have become more of a "realist" without any of the liberal tendencies.
My most insane (yes, I admit it) ideas were about social issues. I still hate pornography, but I think that it is not something that the government can just stop. The most that I would do is make an example out of a wealthy pornographer with a heavy fine, and I certainly wouldn't try to ban Hollywood films. I also wouldn't change our trial process- not even to stop evils such as sexual harassment or domestic abuse. I recognize that such a change could be a terrible slippery slope. I still support school prayer, but I recognize that the wording of the First Amendment can be interpreted in more than one way. I also won't keep trying to vilify the ACLU (or the Cato Institute, for that matter). Moreover, I recognize that posting the Ten Commandments would be going too far. My most extreme idea was banning the fashion industry. Again, I still hate it, but as JavaBlack said, education is the safer way of ending its destructive effects.
In conclusion, I've probably written some other ridiculous things as well. I know that it is a lot to ask, but basically I am asking that you forget my former extremism so that I can start with a clean slate. I also apologize to heikstheo, stekim and Sadistic-Savior for the inflammatory things that I wrote to them. I'm 20, I have a lot to learn, and I have made some serious mistakes on this forum. From now on I'll remain open to suggestions on most issues and just plain try to be easier to get along with. Thank you for your patience with me.

I've changed my mind about a lot of things, but I don't think I did THAT much changing in a mere 11 days.

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I wasn't born with enough middle fingers.

Well, two things made me do some serious thinking. Hearing about the death of my friend, who was a beggar, could have made me a hardened socialist, but I thought about what he would say. I realized that, since he at least did get a social security check and Medicaid benefits, he would want the same safety nets to be there for those in need in the future. My economic ideas were short-sighted and didn't take into account the fact that if we continue our current pace of deficit spending, others like him may not have any help at all in the not too distant future.
I also thought about the social issues. I realized that my earlier ideas were simply in the realm of impossibility. The only effect that those ideas would have would be to create an invasive, authoritarian government while the underlying problems remained. It was really JavaBlack who got me to thinking about that. Things like pornography and the abuse of the fashion industry will go away only when unhealthy attitudes go away, which the government can only indirectly influence.

People are listening to me... Yikes!

Yes, JavaBlack, while the site was down I did think about your ideas and I was influenced by your good common sense. Thank you very much.

Helping the poor and disadvantaged should be the main role of all governments.

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"The person who has nothing for which he is willing to fight, nothing which is more important than his own personal safety, is a miserable creature and has no chance of being free unless made and kept so by the exertions of better men than himself. " — John Stuart Mill

The big question, then, should be: how do we do that?

1. Single-payer health care for all (like the rest of the civilized world.)
2. Remove public school funding's local ad valorum taxing base and make in statewide.
3. Stop invading/occupying other countries.
4. End gerrymandering. Install non-partisan committees (even number) to redistrict all congressional districts to make each on as competitive as possible.
5. Return to the constitutional mandate requiring one House of Representative member per 50,000 citizens.
6. Raise minimum wage to living wage.

You know, it occurred to me that welfare is only a strain on the economy if it is involuntary. Now, this is a little "out there", but perhaps all welfare, even social security, could be handed over slowly to private, non-profit organizations. Private charities are more efficient at getting the money to the people who need it, and often people are more generous if they're not forced to be "generous". In other words, voluntary charity is often an incentive rather than a disincentive.
Of course, I would test out the plan very slowly to avoid any shortages or corruption. Now, again, this is very far-fetched, but the "infrastructure" for these programs was already put in place by Roosevelt, Lyndon Johnson and others. If Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security were privatized, I think that there would be less waste. I wouldn't want them going to for-profit corporations, since that might be even worse than government control, but with my friend's recent death, I have to question the effectiveness of 70 years of welfare state economics. He complained about welfare cuts, but he also complained about the red tape involved in getting assistance.
I do know that tax deductions would have to be given for donating to these charities, and I also realize that would cut tax revenue. But if the welfare state disincentive was gone and welfare programs became efficient without being driven by profit, it would appear to me that the deficit could at least be contained and that welfare could be self-sustaining. Now, I don't know whether I am sounding more like Noam Chomsky or Murray Rothbard here, but I have probably just officially gone insane.

1. How do you propose to pay for this?
2. We could solve this problem by taking away idiots' voting rights.
3. And how do you propose to enforce your idealistic abolition of war?
4. And which all-wise ones would do this job?
5. And how many Congressmen would there be? How much would that cost in salaries (not to mention the salaries of all the extra aides, pages, etc.)
6. And how much inflation do you think this will cause?