It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas, Day 8: Merry Christmas America, Part III
Last day of this question from reader T.B. in Powell, OH: "Imagine you were going to give a
Christmas gift to the United States. Specifically, a law, institution, initiative, civic structure, or like commodity
imported from some other nation. What gift would you bestow?"
We didn't have a chance to compile a list yesterday, so we're going with ten answers instead of six today:
- K.H. in Scotch Plains, NJ: I think my main one might actually be a UBI. Maybe $1,000 a
month to everyone 18 and over. I'm not anywhere near close to an expert on economics, but in this theoretical exercise
where I get to choose the gift, I think it's more than fair and could help people out immensely. This should not go to
people in the 1% or 0.1%, but for most other Americans, it would do a lot to even the playing field and reduce stress
and create opportunities as well.
In addition to that, I'd strongly consider doing something that mandates voting rights across the board for every
American citizen who is 18 or over, with no bullshit restrictions like so many states have, much of them added after
Biden won in 2020.
- K.J. in Challex, France: The metric system. It's about time for the U.S. to join the rest
of the world and adopt the metric system of weights and measures. Even the U.K. and Canada switched over several years
ago. Gone are the days when you would get extra miles when buying gas in Canada (they were using Imperial gallons).
Let's go metric!
- D.E. in Lancaster, PA: I wish the U.S. the fortitude and spine of the Australians, who, when faced
with a horrible and senseless mass shooting tragedy, found it in their national soul to actually do something about it by
passing reasonable and sane gun control laws.
A sane and not completely corrupt Supreme Court would be nice; but that's getting into "I want a pony" land.
- M.D.K. in Portland, OR: One South Korean spine, for every American.
- M.T. In Linköping, Sweden: When I and another Swedish friend volunteered for the Obama
campaign in 2008, we started to talk about writing a book: 1000 Things the United States Could Learn from Sweden. We quickly
realized that the first chapter had to be about creating a mandatory population register, administrated by, for instance,
the IRS.
That way, a census every tenth year will be superfluous and could not be manipulated. You can't suspect anybody of voting
more than once, since you only can vote where you live. And talking about voting: There would be no need to register to
vote since, from the population register, you can tell who is eligible to vote and thereby send information about when,
where and how to vote to all of them.
Our book, you want a copy? Well, we haven't had time to write it yet but we will notify you when it's available. We will
have time any century, now...
- S.S. In Chapala, Jalisco, Mexico: A 30-hour work week (with corresponding hourly pay
adjustment to retain workers' income levels), overtime pay for work over thirty hours, strong unions in every sector of
the economy to balance the power of corporations, and a minimum wage of $20. Confiscation and redistribution of any
personal wealth over one billion dollars wouldn't bother me either. Socialism, baby!
- E.K. in Amsterdam, The Netherlands: I wish the U.S. and the majority of its citizens a dose
of modesty to dilute the hubris.
- K.F. in Framingham, MA: The gift I would give the United States is a time machine built
inside a DeLorean. The U.S. can set the time machine to November 5, 1755. And after that baby hits 88 miles per hour,
you're gonna see some serious... er, stuff. That should give the country plenty of time to go back and convince the
Founding Parents to form the union the way it ought to have been set up from the start. Maybe, just maybe, this time
they would actually create something very similar to an actual functioning democracy.
- L.C. in Centennial, CO: A permanent endowment to support local press and investigative
reporting. (Re)growing the Fifth Estate from in the ground up is our best insurance against tyranny.
- A.G. in Scranton, PA: From Scandinavia, I would import a progressive and effective system
of corrections that:
- Corrects
- Doesn't punish through brutality
- Keeps abusive guards from deciding that their abuses are part of the punishment
- Treats criminals with the "kid gloves" that provide the conditions for miniscule recidivism rates and safer cities and towns.
Next week, the question is: What picture or image would you suggest appear on this year's Christmas (or Hanukkah) card
from...
Make sure to send an image! Explainer text is welcome, but you can also let your chosen image stand on its own. And
have a good weekend, all! (Z)
This item appeared on www.electoral-vote.com. Read it Monday through Friday for political and election news,
Saturday for answers to reader's questions, and Sunday for letters from readers.
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