Policies and Positions for Maximum Liberty
Our laws should lean toward treating us as adults with a personal moral and ethical regime that go only so far as to protect everyone's right to their life, to their liberty and to their property.
As I shared yesterday, for those who are 18 years and older, I believe each of you possesses all the knowledge you need to lead your life without anyone else telling you what to do. I think our laws at the local, state and federal levels should enable this straightforward proposition.
When I think of how to get to Maximum Liberty, these are some of the policies and positions I imagine we collectively rally behind:
It’s not a, “perfect Union.” It’s a, “more perfect Union.”
We only have one voting rights document, and it’s the Constitution. And giving every single one of us immediate access to a ballot of equal weight for every vote is the best tool we have to continuously approach the more perfect Union.
A voting rights constitutional amendment that is clear and precise:
Any natural born citizen or naturalized citizen that is 18 years or older on election day has the absolute right to vote in a municipal, county, local board, regional board, state and federal election. There are no exceptions to this right to vote, including for prisoners, former prisoners, debtors or any other classification of citizen.
Time to abolish the Electoral College in favor of majority vote for POTUS and VPOTUS
The President of the United States and the Vice President of the United States will be elected by winning the majority of votes cast amongst the natural born citizens and naturalized citizens of the States, Washington, D.C., and the Territories. If there is a tie of all the votes cast, then the House of Representatives sworn in at the beginning of the new term of the House will elect the winner with the majority vote cast from all Members of the House.
An anti-gerrymandering constitutional amendment
Each apportioned district of a State shall be drawn in a rectangular fashion to include no more than 4 sides and shall be apportioned to encompass an equal number of number of all residents including natural born citizens, naturalized citizens, non-citizen residents and unregistered residents as determined by the decennial census.
Triple the size of the House of Representatives from 435 members to 1,305 members.
The Civil War was a war of treason by the Confederate States of America against the United States of America. The USA won the war. We need to be clear that this treasonous act is not something to celebrate. In fact, we should start celebrating a national the USA beat the CSA day.
Have many in the South, with the complicity of many of the rest of us, somewhat successfully told a different story since the War’s end? Yes. Is it time to shut that down and get the correct narrative? Yes.
I propose a General Sherman Day! In fact, let’s replace Andrew Jackson on the $20 bill with General Sherman.
The Confederate Flag is a loser’s flag. You back the Confederacy, you back a Loser.A constitutional amendment enshrining the right to abortion
A pregnant person, including all natural born citizens, naturalized citizens, non-citizen residents and unregistered residents, has the right to full bodily autonomy to terminate a pregnancy at any time.
If you, an individual pregnant person, don’t want to have an abortion, then don’t have an abortion.
That you might be tempted to have an abortion is not reason enough to prohibit others from the same.
If you are not a pregnant person, you have no say over what a pregnant person can do to their body.
The Bible, both the Hebrew text and New Testament, say nothing about abortion, nor do they ever imply a fetus has full moral and legal personhood. The closest the bible comes to mentioning a fetus at all is unsurprisingly as the property of the husband of a pregnant wife.
Updates to the tax code
One flat corporate profits tax
End all corporate subsidies
Corporations can still use GAAP for deprecations and write-offs
Tax every dollar of corporate profit starting at the first dollar at 35%
One flat income and capital gains tax
Tax debt secured and collateralized by stock
Tax capital gains
Do not tax unrealized gains. By taxing debt secured and collateralized by stock in effect taxes the equivalent to income that is derived from using this method
Tax only individuals, marriage status should not be considered for tax purposes
Original idea: The first $200,000 of income and capital gains should not be taxed, and then each marginal dollar should be taxed at xx%
Updated idea: Every dollar of income and capital gains starting at the first dollar should be taxed at xx%No more deductions of any kinds, for dependents, mortgage interest, local and state taxes, charity, etc.
Update payroll tax
Social Security tax should not have a cap, every dollar earned starting at one dollar and should be taxed at 14% (7% employee, 7% employer)
Continue the Medicare tax at 1.45% on every dollar earned as is
Maybe this is what gets tweaked to pay for healthcare for every American
Criminal justice and police reform
There is no moral justification to prohibit an adult their inalienable Liberty from doing as they see fit. In fact, it is immoral and an act against the individual and humanity to prohibit individual Liberty that does not violate another’s right to Life, Liberty, Property and Happiness.
Violate another’s Life, Liberty, Property and Happiness, then it’s time to have moral outrage for the perpetrator of those violations to face strong penalties.Prison destroys individuals and their families, and that destruction has serious negative repercussions for society. We should endeavor to make prison the punishment for crimes where restitution will not lead to justice for the victim..
Crimes against Life require the convicted to go to jail. I believe the current laws for Murder and Manslaughter are mostly corrected in how they are applied. Not sure what to change here
Crimes against Liberty probably require some time in jail, and a large component of restitution. Will the victim ever be made whole, from their trauma, probably not. Can we make it so the criminal gets as close to making the victim whole and society whole without having them languish in prison? This would be in line with Liberty, would offer the criminal a chance at redemption, help the criminal’s family and aid society.
Most importantly, let’s really define what are crimes against Liberty. We’ll start by defining what’s not a crime against Liberty, and this is all the vice laws and prohibition laws that restrict the liberty of an individual adult to do with their body, mind and spirit as they see fit, as well as for more consenting adults to do with each other whatever they choose to do to their collective bodies, minds and spirits. Of course, consent is the big word here, because without consent is when we have a violation of an individual’s liberty.
End all prohibitions on all drugs for individual adults and consenting adults. If an adult wants to ingest cigarettes, marijuana, cocaine (in any of its forms), opiates, etc.
If you, an individual, don’t want to do drugs, then don’t do drugs.
That you might be tempted to drugs is not reason enough to prohibit others from the same.
There should absolutely be social support for an individual who takes drugs and wants to stop.
Regulate it for safety. Tax it. Get it off the streets.
End all prohibitions on all prostitution for individual adults and consenting adults.
If you, an individual, don’t want to engage in prostitution, then don’t engage in prostitution.
That you might be tempted to engage in prostitution is not reason enough to prohibit others from the same.
There should absolutely be social support for an individual who participates in prostitution and wants to stop.
Regulate it for safety. Tax it. Get it off the streets.
End all prohibitions on all pornography for adults and consenting adults.
If you, an individual, don’t want to engage in pornography, then don’t engage in pornography.
That you might be tempted to engage in pornography is not reason enough to prohibit others from the same.
There should absolutely be social support for an individual who participates in pornography and wants to stop.
Regulate it. Tax it. Get it off the streets.
Also, this one is special, as it is absolutely protected by the First Amendment.
End all prohibitions on loitering for individual adults and consenting adults.
If you, an individual, don’t want to engage in loitering, then don’t engage in loitering.
That you might be tempted to engage in loitering is not reason enough to prohibit others from the same.
There should absolutely be social support for an individual who participates in loitering and wants to stop.
End all prohibitions on polygamy for individual adults and consenting adults.
If you, an individual, don’t want to engage in polygamy, then don’t engage in polygamy.
That you might be tempted to engage in polygamy is not reason enough to prohibit others from the same.
You know, a wife having multiple husbands if that’s what she wants!
There should absolutely be social and legal (divorce) support for an individual who wants to leave a polygamous relationship.
End all prohibitions on gambling for individual adults and consenting adults.
If you, an individual, don’t want to engage in gambling, then don’t engage in gambling.
That you might be tempted to engage in gambling is not reason enough to prohibit others from the same.
There should absolutely be social support for an individual who participates in gambling and wants to stop.
Regulate it. Tax it. Get it off the streets.
Guarantee every American healthcare
In our current system, we pay the most, have absolutely horrible health outcomes compared to other wealthy countries, and when you combine those two facts, we have the worst dollar-for-dollar outcomes of any country in the world.
This is the definition of stupid.
Lots of excellent data to be found at https://healthsystemsfacts.org/
Tying healthcare to employment for approximately 40% of the population shackles people to jobs for healthcare, and that’s not the purpose of a job. (I can do better here)
We would collectively be better off with automatic Universal Health Coverage and Supplemental Private Insurance
Here’s where I need you! Policy wonks, think tanks, academics, industry experts, doctors, medical groups, insurance companies, let’s see your comprehensive automatic Universal Health Coverage plus Supplemental Private Insurance Plans that cover:
What’s the role of the Federal Government?
What’s the role of States Governments?
What’s the role of Supplemental Private Insurance?
Who would determine what’s covered under automatic Universal Health Coverage?
Who would determine what’s covered under Supplemental Private Insurance?
What percentage of the Federal budget would go to UHC?
How would taxes be raised for UHC?
A tax on income, like Social Security, paid half by the employee and half by the employer, and paid fully by the self-employed
This seems the most common way to raise revenue amongst countries that have UHC and SPI
A Federal Consumption (Use) Tax
A mix
like Australia
Funding for health care comes primarily from general tax revenues. In addition to a broad mix of taxes, Australia’s federal government collects a 1.5% Medicare levy from those above a certain income threshold and imposes an additional 1% surcharge for high-income earners who choose to not purchase private insurance cover for hospital treatment. States, in addition to levying taxes on property and payrolls, receive two types of funding from the federal government: general support and health-specific funding. General support comes in part through a 100% sharing of federal goods and services tax (GST)14 revenue. (www.fraserinstitute.org / Fraser Institute, Health Care Lessons from Australia, https://www.fraserinstitute.org/sites/default/files/health-care-lessons-from-australia-rev.pdf)
Germany
Netherlands
Mental health and drug policy
Mental health should be part of healthcare
Drug policy should be part of the police reform mentioned above
We should not punish people with mental health or drug addiction issues. They can choose to live their life however they see fit. When, and if, they want to seek help, that help should be readily available, free and non-punitive.
Divorce
The primary goal is to place both spouses at the start of the marriage at an equal footing with an understanding that everything happens is part of an equal partnership.
Should be templated default 50-50 split of everything created from the day of the marriage to its dissolution.
Custody of children
Assets and wealth creation
Loans and debts
To change the split from the default 50-50 should require going to court and proving an extremely high burden of why the balance should be shifted.
Assets that are brought into the marriage can remain outside of the marriage if the couple agrees. However, any appreciating value of the assets during the time of the marriage is considered the property of the marriage and subject to the default 50-50 split. Basically, a spouse can get their original contribution back, but any appreciation to the contribution during the marriage is part of the communal property.
Student loans
Allow student loan debt to be discharged in a bankruptcy like all other debts
By allowing student loan debt to be discharged in a bankruptcy, the need for debt forgiveness goes away
By allowing student loan debt to be discharged in a bankruptcy, the need for sliding scale repayment programs based on income and ability to pay goes away
Unions
Organize away, good luck
The ability to organize and strike should be protected by the government
The government should not care about the results of the attempt to organize
Let me know your thoughts if you believe these policies and positions would move us to Maximum Liberty for all. Share your own!