> The world is a good place, mostly.

Very much so. There are several problems we need to solve that, I believe, are crucial for the advancement of society.

In no particular order:

1- Lies in the media. Social is hard, however, traditional media should not be protected at all if they lie. In the US, I do not believe the protections afforded to the press were intended as a license to lie and manipulate.

2- Politicians should not be legally protected if they lie. That is the case today in the US. A politician can say someone is a terrorist pedophile a million times and they suffer no legal consequences. This is most often used to smear each other during elections and beyond.

3- The forcing function driving the behavior and focus of politicians does not include a variable measuring good, positive, useful, constructive or beneficial outcomes of the work they might do. Given this, their entire focus is consumed by winning elections and engaging in never-ending smear battles with the opposition. The end result is they rarely accomplish anything of note.

4- Bills must be focused on the relevant matter and nothing else. It is truly counterproductive and dangerous to allow politicians to stuff bills with unrelated matter. At the very least, this material is never really exposed to enough daylight and debate.

5- Laws have to have expiration, review or re-ratification dates. Perhaps this should apply to a certain category of laws, not all. However, it is clear that there are likely a massive body of laws that should not be in the books today, at least in the form they were originally created or intended. Three that come to mind are the Postal Agreement (which subsidizes millions of shipments per year from China), the First and Second amendments. The first needs to evaporate. The other two are in serious need for changes. Media and politicians should not be protected if they lie. Gun rights and responsibilities need clearer treatment.

6- Again, in the US, we have a huge problem of being taxed with no political representation or influence. If, for example, you are an independent or republican voter in states like California, your vote is, effectively suppressed, erased, discarded. The same is true of other states and political perspectives if they are “winner take all”. I have lived in CA for about 40 years. Despite the fact that I pay federal and state taxes like everyone else, my vote has never had any value at all. It is summarily discarded in each and every election where that mechanism comes into play. That, objectively speaking, isn’t right, regardless of party or state. If people pay taxes, their vote should be counted. This is part of the reasons for which a third party is doomed to fail in this nation.

7- Anyone should be able to run for office without requiring hundreds of millions or billions of dollars. Every candidate should have equal footing and no advantages afforded by money. No more political donations. We should have a national elections website where every candidate gets a free space to post essays, position papers, plans, proposals, videos, etc. Rule #1: You can’t smear anyone.

There are more. These, I believe might be the most important. Imagine the news without lies and real investigative reporting behind everything asserted. Imagine politics without the constant bombardment of lies. Imagine politician’s jobs depending on merit and outcomes rather than lies told for votes and words, outright buying of votes through various means. Imagine if every law was required to be reviewed, ratified, modified or eliminated every few decades. Imagine if your vote counted, regardless of where you happen to live. Imagine if we took money out of politics and implemented an equitable system that allowed anyone to run and removed the influence of big money from our political system.

I happen to think this would make for a better society. Not perfect. Can’t have that. We could have better. Definitely.