• AFK BRB Chocolate
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    694 months ago

    Mostly good stuff. I don’t think I’d merge house and Senate. Some of them need more constraint, like I’d legalize prostitution, but only if it’s regulated like restaurants (health inspectors, workers rights, etc.).

    • @3volver@lemmy.worldOP
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      153 months ago

      What is your solution the massively disproportionate representation in the senate then? There are currently around 66.7 Californians for every Wyomingite. Do you think Wyomingites deserve 66.7 times the representation in the Senate? And yes, legalization would occur with reasonable regulations which would make sure the industry is safer for all those involved. I tried to keep the list as concise as possible for each issue reformed.

      • @stevestevesteve@lemmy.world
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        3 months ago

        Do you think wyoming deserves to be a state? Every state gets the same representation in the Senate and I think that’s fair. I don’t think it’s fair that the proportional side of the legislature isn’t proportional anymore, though, and fixing that goes a very long way.

        • @3volver@lemmy.worldOP
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          123 months ago

          States don’t deserve equal representation. American citizens deserve equal representation, they are the ones who create value.

      • @hakase@lemm.ee
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        3 months ago

        There’s no solution needed, since there isn’t a problem to begin with. Individuals (should) have proportional representation in the House, and states have proportional representation in the Senate, which is how it should be.

        Do you think Wyomingites deserve 66.7 times the representation in the Senate?

        Yes.

        • @3volver@lemmy.worldOP
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          73 months ago

          There’s no solution needed, since there isn’t a problem to begin with.

          This is funny, it’s like an self soothing mantra. I’ll try to repeat this to myself as things get worse.

          • Kalcifer
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            13 months ago

            Beyond what you’ve stated about the disproportionate nature of the Senate, what exact legislative problems are you attributing to the existence of the Senate, and its disproportionate nature? And why do you think a purely proportional body will solve said issues? I’m also curious what you believe the purpose of the Senate, or a bicameral legislature in general, is.

            I’m not trying to be accusatory in my probing, I’m simply curious what your exact rationale is ☺️.

            • @3volver@lemmy.worldOP
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              13 months ago

              The senate exists to maintain an artificial balance and make sure that only the approved things are actually voted on. That is why popular things like marijuana legalization are never voted on.

              • Kalcifer
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                13 months ago

                The senate exists to maintain an artificial balance

                What do you mean by “artifical balance”?

                and make sure that only the approved things are actually voted on

                What do you mean, exactly? Bills are debated as they are presented [See 7.6 and 8.1 of the Senate Manual].

                That is why popular things like marijuana legalization are never voted on.

                I don’t understand this point. If you want a senator to introduce a bill regarding the legalization of marijuana, then vote in a senator that will present such a bill.

                • @3volver@lemmy.worldOP
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                  13 months ago

                  I don’t understand this point.

                  Yup, you don’t.

                  then vote in a senator that will present such a bill.

                  🤡

          • @metaldream@sopuli.xyz
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            13 months ago

            To be fair, Congress wouldn’t be so inept if it weren’t for the filibuster, which was never intended to be abused the way it is now. I’d be somewhat ok with the Senate if filibusters only required a simple majority to break again.

      • AFK BRB Chocolate
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        83 months ago

        The Senate isn’t intended to be a representative body, it’s just two per state. They aren’t doing things like setting funding/budgets. Congress (the house of representatives) is designed to do that, though that needs some tweaking.

        • @3volver@lemmy.worldOP
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          23 months ago

          The Senate isn’t intended to be a representative body

          Both the house and senate vote to pass bills. The disproportionate population increases have led to less representation of citizens in more populated states.

          • AFK BRB Chocolate
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            23 months ago

            But the original states didn’t have balanced populations, the founders knew that, but they still set it to be two senators per state. The house is scaled by population.

            • @metaldream@sopuli.xyz
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              3 months ago

              They did that for as part of a negotiation though. The less populous states refused to join the union without something like the Senate.

              To me it’s an outdated concept because states are much less independent now than they were back then. And we have a national identity that didn’t exist during the revolution.

      • Zombie-Mantis
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        33 months ago

        There are other proposals to solve the Senate’s disproportionate nature, such as apportioning Senate seats by state population. Most proposals I’ve seen for that would leave the Senate with a little more than a hundred seats (with a minimum of 1 seat per state), which would (mostly) solve the problem and make it closer to the house in terms of proportionality. Of course, it all depends on the exact implementation.

        • @3volver@lemmy.worldOP
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          73 months ago

          What’s the purpose of the senate at that point? Seems redundant, like having two house of representatives.

          • @FiniteBanjo@lemmy.today
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            33 months ago

            That is in fact the point. It’s about checks and balances to stop bad actors from completely changing all of the rules the moment their party is in power. Of course, that’s completely pointless in a 2 Party system anyways and we should really reform campaign finance and election laws surrounding how to get on the ballot.

          • Zombie-Mantis
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            13 months ago

            The point of the Senate is that it’s a more deliberative body, representing larger numbers of people, which serves to moderate the power of the House. Mind you, Congress as a whole was more powerful when the nation was founded; they’ve handed off power to the executive over the years, for better or worse (really, a bit of both). The House was also intended to grow with the population, and if we’d followed the general guidelines for growth the Founders suggested, we’d have a House with more than 600 members. The number of seats was capped ~90 years ago, because Congress didn’t want to fund another renovation of the capitol building to fit more people. Also keep in mind that the States had a more uniform population distribution when the country was founded. You didn’t have California and Nebraska sitting with orders of magnitude of difference between them, so the difference in representation in the Senate was not nearly as significant as it is today.

            Wether we need a secondary deliberative body in the legislature or not is a matter of debate and opinion. I can see why you’d want one, but I can also understand why people would think it’s not useful anymore.

      • AFK BRB Chocolate
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        23 months ago

        Interesting, I never really thought about it, but of course that must be true for it to be legal anywhere.

    • @Wanderer@lemm.ee
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      23 months ago

      There is a case for having some cost otherwise people go to university for absolutely worthless degrees just to do something.

    • Kalcifer
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      13 months ago

      I would perhaps reword it to something along the lines of “add economic literacy to the public school curriculum”.

  • @SuddenDownpour@sh.itjust.works
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    313 months ago

    Mandatory voting just adds semi-random votes, skewing the proportion of people who are really voting for their own interests, but rather out of vibes due to obligation. Holiday on voting days and repealing of disenfranchisement measures work much better.

    • @yarr@feddit.nl
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      113 months ago

      One minor twist: the legislation mandates that one reports to the polling center. The uninformed can select “none of the above” if they are not sure what would be best.

  • @distantsounds@lemmy.world
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    264 months ago

    I’m 90-95% on board, which is astounding considering the current options. Now fleshing out the legislation to make this transition possible…

  • @SorteKanin@feddit.dk
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    244 months ago

    All the points are nice but the plan does not “make sense” in the sense that it will probably never happen (at least within our lifetimes).

      • @SorteKanin@feddit.dk
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        124 months ago

        I don’t really see “new countries” being a thing in that way ever again. The USA was new because a “new” piece of land was literally found (well obviously it was already found by other people but you get what I mean).

        There is no new land to find today. You can’t just set off and create a new country - all of the land is already taken. You’ll need to work within the confines of the current countries and try your best to improve them gradually.

        At least, any other approach would probably be very bloody…

        • @daltotron@lemmy.world
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          23 months ago

          I mean, the US was just a colonial state that broke ties to the british monarchy, and that shit happens all the time, so I think through that method, there’s still a pretty good chance. If you’re talking more about like, the establishment of the US as a state through the genocide of the native peoples, intentional or otherwise, I’d say, sure, yeah, that’s hopefully never gonna happen again, but general independence movements happen all the time.

  • Maple Engineer
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    243 months ago

    Free education.

    No private/charter schools.

    Religions are businesses and pay taxes.

    Ban religious-justified discrimination.

    Religion is private between you and God.

    Absolute separation between church and state.

    Repeal all religion based laws.

  • @NIB@lemmy.world
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    193 months ago

    I dont understand why Americans are horny for mandatory voting. Voting is mandatory in Greece, it makes no difference. It is theoretically illegal to not vote but are you going to imprison people for not voting? So it isnt enforced, at all.

    No one is voting because it is mandatory. Greece has 60% participation.

    • Uranium 🟩
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      I believe Australia has mandatory voting and achieves a ~95% participation of registered voters basically every election, though they do enforce it with either a day in court or a fine.

      I do wonder if you fined people, or wasted a day of theirs with court, whether it would have an impact in Greece after a couple of elections?

      • @Event_Horizon@lemmy.world
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        We swing between 93-95% participation

        We alao make voting as easy as possible with voting opening 2-4 weeks in advance of election day, election day is always a weekend and as long as you vote before or on election day it’s counted.

        Also democracy sausages

        I think such a high turn out makes our politicians a bit more honest with less empty promises since they can’t dissuade anyone from voting.

        • @blind3rdeye@lemm.ee
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          63 months ago

          Right. And for people who try to argue that they shouldn’t be forced to choose between people they like like, or whatever, it’s important to understand that it is only mandatory to get your name ticked off the list. You don’t actually have to submit a valid vote. You can choose to just turn in a blank ballot paper, or write “fuck you” or whatever you like. There are no laws against that.

          So the ‘mandatory voting’ just makes it mandatory to put in the small amount of effort required to show up; but doesn’t force you to express an opinion. (Of course, I’d say that you should submit a valid vote. But you don’t have to.)

      • @NIB@lemmy.world
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        You can not enforce new social norms like that. People, including voting ones, will revolt. They will call it undemocratic and a cash grab. You are just asking for trouble.

    • QuokkaA
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      Does your legal system work on imprisonment or nothing at all? Sounds very extreme.

      Here it’s a small fine, but it’s also a day off and takes like 20 mins to go do plus you can get a delicious sausage. So it’s a no brainer that people go vote.

      Greece is a pretty failed state from what I’ve seen, wouldn’t read too much into what they don’t do.

      As for why compulsory voting, it helps moderate extremism and represents most of society as a whole.

      • @spujb@lemmy.cafe
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        43 months ago

        it helps moderate extremism and represents most of society as a whole.

        thoughts on Selb and Lachat, 2009?:

        In particular, the analyses suggest that CV compels a substantial share of uninterested and less knowledgeable voters to the polls. These voters, in turn, cast votes that are clearly less consistent with their own political preferences than those of the more informed and motivated voluntary voters. Claims that CV promotes equal representation of political interests are therefore questionable.

      • @NIB@lemmy.world
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        33 months ago

        Here it’s a small fine

        People will call it a cashgrab, that will mostly affect poor people(since the rich people both vote and also dont care about small fines).

        it’s also a day off

        Greek elections are always on Sunday and people can be given a day off if their voting location is far away(especially back in the day, when moving your voting location was hard).

        Greece is a pretty failed state from what I’ve seen

        I have been shitting on Greece for my entire life, but it aint cool when non greeks do it. Yes, Greece is fucked but i wouldnt really call it a failed state. It is a shithole but only greeks get to call it a shithole. It also relatively shitholey, in comparison to western european countries.

        It just happens to be the worst “western” country. And yes, it is in the East, but the West/East thing was a Cold War thing and Greece was with the “West”. Nowadays, many “eastern european” countries have reached and surpassed Greece.

        In any case, take a look at the wikipedia map, which countries have compulsory voting

        https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Compulsory_voting

        If you exclude Australia, all other countries are shitholes. And i am sure australians will be the first to tell you that Australia is also a shithole and politically fucked.

        As for why compulsory voting, it helps moderate extremism and represents most of society as a whole.

        It doesnt. If anything, it might do exactly the opposite. When a greek neonazi party was popular, a lot of “apolitic” greeks supported it not because they supported neonazism but because “fuck the system, at least they will go in and smash some heads”. When clueless people are forced to vote, they might be clueless about what they are voting.

        America’s issue is the first past the post, winner takes all system. If the US had a more representative system, that allowed third parties and coalitions(like almost all other democratic countries have), things would have been better.

    • @Wanderer@lemm.ee
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      23 months ago

      I wouldnt want idiots having to vote then voting because some friend said some madeup thing or it was the last thing they seen on ticktok. If people don’t care and refuse to do the most minimum of looking into politics why should they decide my future

    • KillingTimeItself
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      13 months ago

      because you could do literally anything else, and it would be more useful. Mandatory voting is the equivalent to asking everyone in the room what they think about every interaction that ever happens. It’s fully redundant.

  • @Seasoned_Greetings@lemm.ee
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    Ok so…

    Mandatory voting

    I think this can get messy. It would require a system to prosecute those who don’t vote. That kind of registry can be very easily used for nefarious purposes by politicians or just anyone with access to that information. Also, it would really depend on what degree of mandatory this is. If you get thrown in jail then we are going to see a lot of poor people in prison for no reason. If you get just a fine then we are essentially introducing the inverse of a poll tax. Not voting is a protected form of free speech for a reason and can be interpreted as protest.

    Merge house into senate

    Last time something like this was posted I got flamed for asking what the point of this one is. The Senate is a representation of the states rights we have in our constitution. It serves as a safeguard against heavily populated areas dictating the laws for much less populated states. I’m all for reform but eliminating the Senate all together seems like a step backwards.

    Ban tipping

    I think this is another one where the spirit of the idea is right but the execution is wrong. What we need to ban is allowing restaurants to pay tipped positions far below minimum wage, and stop allowing restaurants to take a cut of the tip at all.

    The act of tipping itself is a cultural thing that needs to be addressed culturally. If you can’t tip someone for something, complications in the law arise that may disallow giving money to people in general. For example how do you distinguish between tipping a server for a meal and giving the server a dollar as a gift?

    • KillingTimeItself
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      53 months ago

      +1 on the senate, it serves a purpose, if you don’t think it does you clearly don’t understand why it exists lol.

      • @ricecake@sh.itjust.works
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        23 months ago

        It exists because there was a time when we needed buy in from states, not just people. The Senate was how that was accomplished.
        It’s a way of ensuring our democracy isn’t too democratic.

        You can understand the point of the Senate without thinking that we need to ensure that land is adequately represented in our government.

        • KillingTimeItself
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          13 months ago

          legislatively it makes sense. it removes a significant portion of say from large states, like texas and california, over small states like wyoming, who have comparatively little say. The trick is that it’s application specific. Unless we’re restructuring the entire government the senate does exist for a pretty explicit purpose.

          • @ricecake@sh.itjust.works
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            23 months ago

            I think it only makes sense if you think that it matters that Wyoming is fairly represented, and not the people in Wyoming.
            I don’t particularly care about the representation of the land, only the people who live on it, where each person should have as much say as any other.

            The Senate is explicitly antidemocratic, and since I’m a fan of fair representation, I’m not a fan of the Senate.

            Well, I suppose you could also make it so states get equal numbers of senators and representatives. That would also be fine, since there’s a slight use for the Senate having a longer election cycle.

            Since this whole thread is basically playing and dreaming, I’ll easily agree that you can’t just drop the Senate without at least giving a look at how that impacts the rest of the government organization.

            • KillingTimeItself
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              13 months ago

              it depends on the legislation. If it’s something that the states are involved in, and it isn’t particularly relevant to the people of the state like most legislation probably is. And in that scenario, it would be beneficial for wyoming to not be overshadowed by.

              Also i dont think you understand how senate seats work, they’re literally popular votes. We put them there. That’s at least following the basic principles of democracy. I’m not sure how one would argue against that, unless you have a massive problem with the electoral college, would which would be fair i suppose.

              This isn’t a supreme court situation where they’re appointed magically.

              • @ricecake@sh.itjust.works
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                23 months ago

                What? No, I understand how Senate seats work. It’s not undemocratic because they’re not voted on, it’s undemocratic because they over represent some people over others. Wyoming and California should not be on equal ground because California has 80 times the population.
                All issues that impact a state impact the people of the state. States don’t have interests, they’re just collections of people living on a piece of land.

                Giving votes to land is an artifact of getting the country started.

                • KillingTimeItself
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                  13 months ago

                  The problem here though is that the US doesn’t work like the EU does for instance. The EU is the US if it were less federally controlled, and more “formally agreed upon” rather than legislated and codified into law.

                  While it is true that most issues of the state are related to the people, it’s also true that each state government is independent from the federal government. And they do need some level of individualism, in order to function appropriately, without the ability for larger states to pull a shenanigan that can negatively affect smaller states. It’s not about representation of the land, it’s about equal representation of the individual components of the hierarchical government body.

                  This is like saying that because America is 75% white people, that they should have 75% control over everything, which by nature, is true to a degree, but this creates a problem where the majority, can overrule anything a minority says. And they have no course of action in response.

                  A lot of legislation in the government is highly isolated from the average citizen. That’s kind of the whole point of the government, if you truly wanted democracy. Wouldn’t it be prudent to delete both the house and the senate? So that way we truly have democratic rule over the county? Seems like the better option here. Not to mention the fact that the house and senate co-exist in a similar space, and can be utilized to prevent further shenanigans. If we only had the house, it would only take the house in order to push through bullshit legislation that nobody wants. They exist as two separate entities, operating in two independent manners. With a reasonable level of democratic influence over the two.

                  While technically not democratic, the US doesn’t advertise itself as democratic, merely a democratic republic.

    • @evranch@lemmy.ca
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      23 months ago

      Tipping is really hard to rein in. Your suggestion of banning the “tipped wage” is good, but the regular minimum wage is so far below living wage already that paying people minimum wage still leaves them relying on tips.

      As a Canadian I refuse to participate in the “tip for everything” grift that has sprung up recently. However when we’re down at the local bar and the service is great, the food is good, the waitress is friendly and cheerful, I want to leave a tip.

      Also as a Canadian, the Canadian Senate is an irrelevant relic that doesn’t serve the same purpose as the US Senate, and should totally be abolished. But it’s a totally different situation.

    • @ricecake@sh.itjust.works
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      13 months ago

      We already have a registry of who did or didn’t vote.
      That you voted is a matter of public record, as is voter registration information.
      Registration data is used for campaign purposes, and voter participation data is mostly used to encourage people to vote.

    • @kboy101222@sh.itjust.works
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      93 months ago

      As someone who hates this God forsaken measuring system, I genuinely don’t know if the costs of this would ever be worth it. There’d be thousands and thousands of miles marker signs that’d have to be replaced, not to mention having to redo thousands of textbooks.

      Plus, when it comes to some things, imperial is just better. Mostly this is carpentry. 12 is way more divisible than 10 and fractions are way easier for cutting than decimal

      • Liz
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        53 months ago

        It would very much be worth it. Imperial invites mistakes by using weird conversions and factional sizes. I often have to stop and think which factions of an inch are bigger or smaller than each other. When Australia switched from imperial to metric, it’s estimated they save about 10% annually from having a lower error rate. Fewer things need to get fixed or replaced from measurement mistakes.

        A kitchen-scale example: I once mixed up tablespoons and teaspoons when adding baking soda to my pancake mix. They turned out disgusting and we had to re-make breakfast because version 1 was inedible. Such mistakes are less likely to happen under metric.

      • @hobovision@lemm.ee
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        43 months ago

        There are also tons of machines and tools made to work in inches. As more things are becoming computer controlled, it’s easier to convert between inch and mm on the fly, but every drill bit, end mill, and tool holder for the manual mill in my company’s shop is in inch.

        I’m also gonna disagree with you on the 12 better than 10 front. Just use a calculator if you can’t do it in your head and round to the nearest mm. I bet you’ll learn what 10/6 and 10/3 are faster than 12/5 too.

        • @kboy101222@sh.itjust.works
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          33 months ago

          I can actually do all of those in my head, so that wouldn’t be an issue for me.

          But yeah, all of my tools and bits and holders are imperial, and someone else better be paying to get the damn things replaced or they are staying imperial even if we go metric. I think the only things I have in metric are allans (allens? I’ve never had to spell it out), like 2 hole saws from an old project, and a set of calipers I was gifted and have used maybe twice

          • Liz
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            43 months ago

            Everyone thinks the the switch would somehow be overnight and everyone would be required to throw away their old stuff. In reality, you just replace the things when they wear out and all the new equipment is metric. Tada!

      • @Wanderer@lemm.ee
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        The UK did this.

        It’s absolutely worth it. If you are worried about textbooks staying in circulation for a long time especially in 2024 then you got bigger issues to be honest.

      • @daltotron@lemmy.world
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        23 months ago

        Can’t we just have both, and teach both? But like, in a more committed fashion than we currently do. Probably swapping out road signs and textbooks as they naturally need to be swapped out, to include both sets of measurements and the conversions between them.

    • @3volver@lemmy.worldOP
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      This will be considered for v4 as “Transition to metric system”. It would take several years for the transition to completely take place for the average American. I’m also probably going to add “end daylight savings”, which is close to being passed anyway.

  • @DAMunzy@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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    #1. Truly abolish slavery. #2. Change the legal system from punishment to rehabilitation. #3. Congress gets minimum wage. #4. Minimum wage and unemployment must be a livable wage.

  • @JasonDJ@lemmy.zip
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    153 months ago

    I don’t like a 15 year term for scotus.

    A term limit does make sense, but either in the form of a forced retirement age or a 36 year term. They should also be barred from collecting a wage or benefits from any employer after the end of their term (they should get a damn good retirement package, too).

    There are good reasons for SCOTUS to be a life appointment. You don’t want them being bought out with lucrative cushy job offers once they leave. 36 years ensures one appointee per presidential term.

  • @spujb@lemmy.cafe
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    153 months ago

    mandatory voting

    what the fuck lmao? where did this come from, genuinely asking this is so authoritarian and out of place among the rest of the stuff

    • @noisefree@lemmy.world
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      93 months ago

      Australia has had mandatory voting for eligible voters (18+) for a long time. It works like this:

      Prior to elections, the Australian Electoral Commission updates the electoral roll of all eligible voters. On election day, voters have their names crossed off the roll at whichever polling place they attend.

      After the election, the electoral roll is cross-checked against voter records. Anyone who didn’t vote and can’t provide a valid reason (for example - illness, living remotely, religious beliefs) is issued a $20 fine by the AEC. If not paid, this can escalate to further fines of around $180 plus court costs if convicted.

      Over 180,000 penalty notices were issued after the 2022 federal election to enforce the compulsory voting laws. While controversial to some, the system has maintained over 90% voter turnout in Australia for nearly a century.

      A similar system would probably moderate political extremes in the US. I think any fine that is used as a means of enforcement needs to be scaled to the means of the individual being fined in order to not disproportionately target lower wealth individuals (but an elimination of the enforcement fine completely for the lower end of the wealth scale would maybe ironically result in less from that group voting and thus give them disproportionately lower representation in outcomes).

      • KillingTimeItself
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        33 months ago

        if you’re going to require voting, give me a good fucking candidate to vote for, for fucks sake. This does nothing to prevent degradation of the candidacy.

      • @spujb@lemmy.cafe
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        23 months ago

        thanks for this, provided a lot of insight. for those interested, $20 AUD = $13.06 USD.

        i find that this change only might be useful in the US, especially if introduced gradually and after other measures such as a voting holidy (very important!) and vote by mail rather than all-at-once, but i think is less tenable as a position than in Australia due to the following differences:

        • class: the USA generally has a significantly larger wealth gap than Australia; this directly relates to the fee and i agree with your assessment that any fines should be appropriately scaled; still a concern
        • staus quo: the longevity of the policy indicates that the country has the voting infrastructure to handle a 100% turnout without unintentional disenfranchisement, long travel times or long wait times
        • population distribution: this is a lot different in the US and again affects infrastructure. we already know that low income areas are subject to the worst of wait times, travel times, and environmental conditions while voting so it’s super important to be concious of what CV is doing for those populations. vote by mail aids this but is still a concern.

        conclusion: compulsory voting, in my opinion, should not be on this list because it is nowhere near as effective nor feasible as the other election measures already listed.

    • @WhatAmLemmy@lemmy.world
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      73 months ago

      Nothing screams authoritarianism quite like having to spend 10 mins at a local school on a Saturday, once every couple of years, and drawing a big old big on the ballot paper.

      • @spujb@lemmy.cafe
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        3 months ago

        my comment was a genuine question please respect that.

        what is the method of enforcement? like if it’s prison, or even time in court. yeah that’s weird and it gives authoritarianism vibes.

        if it’s a fine, what is the price point? what about those who cannot afford to travel to vote nor to pay? and what is stopping the wealthy from just paying the fine and skipping elections anyway?

        or like what other options of enforcement are there? i just don’t think making voting mandatory is at all needed to ensure free and fair elections and it just has an icky vibe to it.

        edit: also you say “every couple years.” are you aware that elections are held several times per year in most parts of the US? or are we just making federal elections mandatory?

        edit 2: you say “10 minutes.” when waiting times for voting of 30 minutes or even an hour are not rare. so what is the solution there?

        edit 3: what about individuals whose religious convictions forbid them from participating in polls? does this not violate their constitutional rights?

        edit 4: doing my due diligence and found that…

        We empirically explore the effects of a sanctioned compulsory voting law on direct-democratic decision making in Switzerland. We find that compulsory voting significantly increases electoral support for leftist policy positions in referendums by up to 20 percentage points. (Michael M. BechtelDominik HangartnerLukas Schmid)

        …which is cool and admittedly something i was unaware of. nevertheless i still find that the means of obtaining this end questionable.

        • p3n
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          53 months ago

          I think I have a solution, hear me out: The penalty for missing a mandatory vote is you don’t get to vote.

        • @doggle@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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          43 months ago

          Proponents of mandatory voting also tend to be supportive of other voting reforms which would make it faster and easier to vote. For example, vote by mail and removing the selective service requirement for men. With some properly implemented reforms, the time it takes to vote could easily be reduced to ten minutes or less.

          Mandatory voting would also push the responsibility of ensuring that people have an opportunity to vote on the government, which is really how it should be anyway, but it behooves the powers that be to keep turnout lower. At least in theory, this would obviously need to be codified.

          As for religious exemption, I think most mandatory voting advocates would only want to require that every citizen turn in a ballot, but not that it be filled out in any particular way. An objector could turn in a blank ballot or write in a fictitious candidate by that standard. They would have no real sway on the political state, so unless they have a religious objection to filing paperwork they don’t have much to complain about. Even so, there could easily be a way to allow people to apply for an exemption.

          Your right about punishments being a fraught subject here, though I think everyone’s on the same page about them being pretty light. A “realistic” (this whole thread is pretty unrealistic) implementation would probably involve some minor penalty on your tax returns, though personally I’m not happy with that solution.

          The point is to push the onus of providing voting opportunities on the government, and increase overall turnout. As I can anecdotally attest, and as you seem to have found on your own, people who don’t vote often do have strong opinions. They either don’t vote out of laziness or a lack of access. Mandatory voting would fix the former and would necessarily be bundled with legislation to fix the latter.

          • @spujb@lemmy.cafe
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            3 months ago

            thanks. i like your framing of putting the onus of voting opportunities on the government. and i think that any good election reform process would implement CV as the last step of a series of careful and intentional change; it doesn’t really fit as one of three “quick fixes” to voting opportunities, hence my initial reaction.

            appreciate your response!

        • @WhatAmLemmy@lemmy.world
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          3 months ago

          Jail time? Tell me you’re American without telling me you’re American… I happen to be one of the dozens of people who do not live in the US, so my state and local elections are at the same time, and federal is usually in between. They group them together because efficiency. Pretty sure the penalty in every developed economy is a small fine equivalent to a parking ticket. I don’t know exactly, because I’ve been postal voting for a decade due to my debilitating case of “religious reasons”, so I get my ballot in the mail a week in advance, and If I didn’t want to vote I’d just mail it back empty (free fyi). I also voted from my phone at a foreign airport one time. Pretty sure I’ve missed one too, and know several people in their 40’s and 50’s who’ve never enrolled, never voted, and never been fined. Turns out “mandatory” is pretty loose when you aren’t living in a dictatorship.

          The argument FOR mandatory voting is to encourage political parties to reach out and engage all adults (e.g. “we the people”), instead of focusing their policies, campaigning, and financing on specific subsets of the population, or specific geographies (e.g. electoral college), or engage in other methods like voter disenfranchisement, etc, etc — basically to mitigate against the USA’s brand of bastardized anti-democracy, and authoritarianism, from happening.

          • @spujb@lemmy.cafe
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            13 months ago

            so… mandatory voting for you isn’t actually mandatory voting, it’s in fact a much broader series of measures aimed to reduce obstacles to voting and putting the onus of the election on the government rather than the people. got it, and i like that.

            heads up that other comments here swayed my opinion but yours have been truly just disrespectful and unhelpful.

  • @I_Clean_Here@lemmy.world
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    143 months ago

    Start with one thing, mate. Most impact and easiest to implement.

    Why delude yourself with this bullshit fantasy list? Focus on reality.

    • @Ookami38@sh.itjust.works
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      133 months ago

      While I agree with tackling one problem at a time, there’s no issues with listing all of them. Then, when you tackle one, you get to mark it off.

    • @CoggyMcFee@lemmy.world
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      33 months ago

      Yeah, in order to have the slightest chance of doing most of these things, America would already have to be a lot better.

      • Cosmic Cleric
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        13 months ago

        Yeah, in order to have the slightest chance of doing most of these things, America would already have to be a lot better.

        Keep the faith, citizen. These things just take time, but change does happen.

    • @3volver@lemmy.worldOP
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      3 months ago

      I focused on reality and all it did was make me start thinking we’re fucked, so I made a list of solutions.

    • nifty
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      23 months ago

      When you propose things, you have to keep some line items you can remove easily during negotiations to show “good faith” 😬

    • Cosmic Cleric
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      13 months ago

      Why delude yourself with this bullshit fantasy list? Focus on reality.

      “What? Fly?!? If Man could fly, they’d have wings!” /bahhumbug