Government Proposals

This is a sketch of a policy platform for the United States.

Welfare programs

Replace all welfare programs with a single basic income to be received by all people permanently residing in the US.

The amount received varies based on the primary region of residence of the individual. Each region should establish the basic monthly income by adding up the following costs:

• 98th percentile of the monthly rent of a one-bedroom, one-bathroom apartment across the whole region.

• 98th percentile of the monthly cost of making daily return trips using the cheapest combination of public transport and chartered transport (e.g. taxi) from a residence to the furthest of:

  • the nearest DMV facility
  • the nearest abortion provider
  • the nearest poll station
  • the nearest emergency room (that includes a behavioral health unit)
  • the nearest general practitioner
  • the nearest school (of each mandatory level)
  • the nearest childcare facility (for children younger than the minimum mandatory age)
  • the nearest grocery store
  • the nearest recycling center

• 20th percentile of the monthly cost of private healthcare insurance plans available in the region which cover at least the "mandatory healthcare plan" coverage discussed below.

• 50th percentile of the monthly cost of eating two meals daily at restaurants in the region.

• 50th percentile of four hours of legal advice on criminal cases in the region.

The income received by children can only be spent on the children. This is enforced by having the money received by kids be provided in the form of a credit card that can only be spent on certain services, such as healthcare and childcare (in the name of the child), clothes for children, and child-appropriate foods (i.e. not including alcohol). Additional money can be obtained to pay for specific services for the child beyond this, for example to pay for legal services for the child, an expense request can be made and the money will be directly paid to the service provider.

Immigration

Entrance into the country is open to anyone at any time. However, the president may limit the rate at times where the rate of immigration is greater than can be economically sustained.

At times where the rate of immigration is limited, visitor visas may be made available to allow people to enter the country on the basis that they will leave within a small time frame. People on visitor visas do not earn a basic income and cannot vote.

Basic income can be applied for immediately upon entering the country but each of the first twelve payments is only made when the entire month is spent in the country.

Any adult who has received twelve months of basic income over a 16 month period is automatically granted citizenship and therefore may vote and be eligible for jury duty.

Taxes

All taxes are collected federally. State and local taxes are collected federally. Where possible taxes are expressed as income (or revenue) taxes. For example, sales taxes are expressed as corporate income taxes on sales revenue.

Each year, any legal entity (e.g. adults, children, companies) which spent any time in the US with a total taxable income above the reporting threshold in that year, must file taxes. They are known as taxpayers.

Filing taxes works as follows:

• The federal government sends each taxpayer a report of all income that the government is aware of, how much of it is taxable, and how it was calculated.
• The taxpayer may challenge this by creating a new report in the same format and sending that. A taxpayer is required to do this if they have income that was not reported and which would result in them owing more taxes.
• The taxpayer then pays the extra taxes owed, if any.
• The government then pays back any excess taxes paid, if any.

All taxes are put into a single treasury. There is no correspondence between collected taxes and specific programs.

Generally, only individual income is taxed, not corporate income. Personal income includes products and services from another legal entity.

For example, if a company buys a company jet but then an executive uses that jet to travel to his vacation, the value of that trip is income.

The basic income is not taxable.

The tax rate for income other than the basic income is computed according to a formula to be determined by economic advisors so as to optimise for:

• Ensuring that all the expenses of the government are covered by all the tax revenues of the government, with a margin to allow the government to save money for likely emergencies.
• Taxing people with more income at a greater rate than people with less income.
• Keeping the tax system simple for citizens to understand, as determined by usability studies.

Specifically, salaries, bonuses, commissions, revenue from personally selling goods or services, revenue from selling stock or other financial instruments, are all taxable income.

Additionally, taxes can be levied on specific actions that the government wishes to discourage. For example, to discourage smoking tobacco, taxes could be levied specifically on tobacco-related revenue (e.g. corporate income from sales of cigarettes). Specifically:

• Income from the sale of any substance known to be harmful when used in its intended manner (e.g. a spanner whose handle contains lead) is subject to an additional fee that offsets the savings of using the harmful substance or design instead of a safe substance and design (if any), plus an additional arbitrary fee.
• Income form the sale of any product which in some manner guarantees a payment to a medical professional or company offering medical services in the event of medical need (i.e. sale of health insurance), and that does not require that the purchaser be directly or indirectly already covered by a product that qualifies as a "mandatory healthcare plan" is subject to an additional fee per day of coverage that the product does not qualify as a "mandatory healthcare plan". The fee applies for a fee period. The fee must be computed each fee period as follows: Let single cost be the 20th percentile of the cost of private healthcare insurance plans available in the region where the product is being sold which cover at least the "mandatory healthcare plan" for one day, during the past fee period. Let population be the estimated number of people in the region where the product is being sold, as of the start of the fee period. Let sales be the number of days covered by sales of all such products in the past fee period. The fee is the product of single cost and population, divided by sales, capped at twice the 80% percentile of the cost of private healthcare insurance plans available in the region where the product is being sold which cover at least the "mandatory healthcare plan" for one day, during the past fee period.

There are no tax breaks, exemptions, or credits. Charities are not exempt from taxes, though they typically would not pay any because corporations in general do not pay any.

There are no property taxes, wealth taxes, inheritance taxes, head taxes, poll taxes, or any other kinds of taxes, other than those described above.

Fines, penalties, and other charges paid to the government

When an authority levies a fine, e.g. a police department charging a fine for speeding, or money is collected as evidence by a police department as part of a raid, or money is collected from park entrance fees, or money is obtained by a public entity in any other fashion, the money collected must provided to the federal treasury. All government services are funded (directly or indirectly) from the federal treasury, not via any local source.

Education

The administration of school districts is handled locally, within the following federal guidelines:

• Federal funding is apportioned to education districts according to the number of students, the costs of bringing the students to the school, and the costs of obtaining competent teachers in that region.
• Teachers shall be paid a highly competitive wage so as to encourage more people to enter education as a career. Teachers will be required to be highly qualified before starting to teach full-time in classes (though student teaching will be an important component of obtaining such qualifications).
• The federal government will provide and administer tests that can be used by employers to determine the credentials of graduated students. These tests will be based on recommended curricula and will cover a broad range of subjects including literature, world geography, world history, many branches of mathematics, many branches of science, many branches of engineering, computer science, social sciences, the study of the world's religions, sex and relationships, languages (literacy, for whatever two languages are most commonly used within the country and whatever two languages are most used world-wide), sport, music, and civics.
• Further changes as recommended by education research scientists, in particular considering how and whether to deploy new techniques effectively such as remote teaching, multiple teachers per class combined with peer review feedback for teachers.
• Home schooling will be allowed but the qualification requirements for home school teachers and the test requirements for home school students are the same as for teachers and students in public schools. Home schools do not receive federal funding.
• Private schooling will be allowed but the qualification requirements for private school teachers and the test requirements for private school students are the same as for teachers and students in public schools. Private schools do not receive federal funding.

Marriage

Marriage to multiple partners simultaneously is legal. There are no limits based on gender.

A legal framework to equitably handle issues regarding guardianship of children in situations involving multiple parents (whether current partners or former partners) must be established. It must prioritise the welfare and autonomy of the child.

Healthcare

Everyone is required to purchase healthcare that covers at least the following services without limit (the "mandatory healthcare plan"):

• abortions*
• birth control*
• care for acute and chronic physical conditions
• fertility treatments
• in-patient drug rehabilitation programs
• maternity and newborn care
• mental health care (including regular psychiatrist and therapist visits at the median cost for such visits in the individual's home region)*
• occupational therapy (including care for people with physical, sensory, or cognitive disabilities)
• pediatric services
• physical therapy and other rehabilitative services
• prescribed drugs and devices*
• preventative services
• sexual reassignment surgery
• unlimited emergency care world-wide
• all locally recommended vaccines
• laboratory services in support of other care described herein
• other healthcare services as recommended by a panel of experienced healthcare professionals

Where local services are available, the plan must cover local services unless they exceed the 80th percentile for the price of those services across the nation. For those issues marked with an asterisk, the plan must provide for local services, regardless of cost (in some regions, this may imply e.g. medical helicopter services).

Digital law

Manipulating bits that are not redistributed to other people is never illegal. For example, writing software to break DRM is not illegal. Using such software is not illegal. Making multiple copies of a file within a cloud service provider is not illegal.

Distributing bits of your own creation to voluntary recipients is never illegal. For example, distributing software to break DRM is not illegal.

Patents for digital or mathematical concepts are either abolished or their time drastically reduced (no more than 12 months).

Copyright law applies to digital works. Distributing bits to which one does not own the rights of redistribution, and whose rights of redistribution have not expired, to another person is illegal. Rights expire once the existence of the owner of the rights ends without an heir (e.g. someone dies and nobody inherits their rights, or a company shuts down without selling its digital assets).

Drug law

Creating, owning, or personally using narcotics, stimulants, psychoactive drugs, and other such products is never illegal.

Certain products can be illegal to sell without a license. For example, pharmaceuticals are regulated and some may only be sold with a prescription and by a pharmacist. Recreational drugs are to be sold by licensed pharmacists who can advise on their dangers and provide references for treatment in case of problems. Sale of alcohol is handled by specially licensed stores who are also required to offer references for treatment in case of problems.

Crimes that are the result of addiction are to be handled primarily by treatment rather than imprisonment (though the seriousness of the crime may justify some imprisonment as well).

Patents for pharmaceuticals or genetics are either abolished or their time drastically reduced (no more than 12 months).

Laws around ownership and operation of dangerous tools (e.g. cars, guns)

All such products can be legally owned, up to and including nuclear, biological, or chemical weapons, provided that the owner fulfill specific safety requirements determined by expert panels.

Here are some examples:

• Owning a car requires the owner to pass a written test verifying their understanding of the risks and responsibilities of driving a car, and an in-person test verifying their ability to safely operate the vehicle. In addition, continued ownership requires adherence to safety rules such as honouring traffic signals and not operating the vehicle while under the influence of mind-altering substances, and requires regular verification by professionals that the vehicle is operating within certain norms.
• Owning a gun requires the owner to pass a written test verifying that they understand gun safety, and an in-person test wherein they demonstrate their ability to use the weapon. In addition, they must follow certain rules to ensure it is safely stored, they cannot carry it in a loaded state in a crowd, they cannot point it at someone, and they must submit to regular checks that their gun is safely stored and maintained.
• Owning a nuclear weapon requires passing a detailed test regarding the fundamentals of the device, both its physics and its engineering, proving the ability to extremely securely store the device even in the face of natural forces such as earthquakes or tornadoes and sustained attack from motivated state-level actors, submitting to frequent and regular tests from the IAEA or other competent authority, and demonstrating continued extremely sound judgement.

Ownership of such products will be tightly traced. For example, as with VINs and registration papers for cars.

Ownership of such products may come with mandatory insurance requirements (with an allowance for self-insurance with a suitable deposit).

Failure to fulfill one's responsibilities will result in suitable penalties. For example, if one's gun is stolen due to an insecure safe, this is considered criminally negligent. If that gun is subsequently used in a homicide, this correspondingly increases the seriousness of the crime. These penalties are to include precluding the person from owning or operating such devices for certain periods.

Laws relating to driving

Speed limits are absolute. All stretches of road may have a defined speed limit, and non-emergency vehicles are never allowed to exceed the speed limit within that stretch of road. Stretches of road without a defined speed limit have no legal limit.

Speed limits are to be rigorously enforced. Stretches of road with a limit that is not rigorously enforced must have that limit removed. Enforcement may be in the form of automatic fines via speed cameras.

Laws relating to representation

An elected official who is incarcerated is considered incapacitated for the duration of their incarceration. No official is above the law, all officials can be indicted.

Issues explicitly not considered

• The proposal above attempts to make no change to the status of self-governing Native American communities.