"boxrocket" (boxrocket)
10/17/2015 at 00:25 • Filed to: qotn, question of the night, potus
0
17|
"boxrocket" (boxrocket)
10/17/2015 at 00:25 • Filed to: qotn, question of the night, potus | 0
| 17 |
It’s more than a year before the next US Presidential election, but there’s much jockeying for position and untold millions of dollars being spent to try to buy mindshare and loyalty, and my internal cynic and pragmatist wonders how much better such monies would be spent - and what they could be spent on.
I’ll be the first to admit that the Presidency is mostly a puppet position, and that it’s not - and deliberately so - a monarchical position of supreme executive power.
However, it is certainly a high-profile position, and there are ways for the resident of the position to try to execute an agenda, for better or for worse. So what if the “leader of the free world” were a hardcore automotive enthusiast, one who was not just aware of various automotive cultures and subcultures, but an avid participant as well?
First, I imagine there’d be a drastic modification to the laws and measures known as the “Chicken Tax”, and an effort to standardize international safety standards so that vehicles that are considered “safe” by regulatory agencies - like NCAP and NHTSA - are equivalent to each other, allowing for vehicles to be more easily developed for worldwide deployment and sale, for both indigenous domestically-sold (and exported) and imported vehicles, and a greater potential variety to the vehicles sold to keep competition sharp and beneficial to both consumer and corporation.
There’s many other things I believe someone in that position might seek to accomplish, and could realistically attain. I don’t think they’d do anything as drastic as redrawing state boundaries to reflect the state capitol being based around notable race tracks - though what a power and paradigm shift that might be would be fascinating - or a general abolishment of bike lanes and cargo transport on public roads, but there might be certain changes I’d overlook. So I put it to you, fellow Oppos: What would an Opponaut-card-carrying POTUS change and do that’d be different than what’s been and being done?
Sportwägen, Driver Of The Red Sportwagen
> boxrocket
10/17/2015 at 00:32 |
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No more 25 year rule, per executive order
TheHondaBro
> boxrocket
10/17/2015 at 00:32 |
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If I were the president, I’d push Congress to help benefit the middle class, impose higher taxes on the wealthy, give tax breaks to those with very little income, you know, to close the wealth gap that has been plaguing our country for a long time.
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TheHondaBro
> Sportwägen, Driver Of The Red Sportwagen
10/17/2015 at 00:36 |
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Good luck getting past all those powerful lobbies as President. You’d have to be an influential Congressman in order to overcome that.
M54B30
> boxrocket
10/17/2015 at 00:37 |
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A true Oppo would repeal the chicken tax, make gas $1/gallon and eliminate the 25 year rule
Steve in Manhattan
> boxrocket
10/17/2015 at 00:39 |
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We’d be driving 30K Model S coupes with a 400 mile range and a sexy ass.
Supreme Chancellor and Glorious Leader SaveTheIntegras
> TheHondaBro
10/17/2015 at 00:48 |
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You’d be call a communist somewhere
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Supreme Chancellor and Glorious Leader SaveTheIntegras
> boxrocket
10/17/2015 at 00:49 |
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If I were POTUS (be relieved i wasn’t born stateside so that will never happen), I’d have a lot more important things to do right off the bat rather than get rid of the chicken tax and 25 yr import ban
AddictedToM3s - Drives a GC
> boxrocket
10/17/2015 at 00:50 |
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No 25 year rule.
Foreign policy would be to consolidate the crash test ratings to get rid of the stupid American crash test ratings not allowing us to have some cool cars.
Laser lights are legal. OLED lights are legal.
Autobahn infrastructure.
High speed trains for public transport for commuting and relieving traffic.
Make friends with rich car guys. Get the hookup for after the presidential term.
Donuts and drifts around the white house just because. (What are you going to do? Arrest the president? HAHAHA!)
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TheHondaBro
> Supreme Chancellor and Glorious Leader SaveTheIntegras
10/17/2015 at 00:50 |
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In principle, communism is a beautiful thing. Unfortunately human nature corrupts it quickly.
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Supreme Chancellor and Glorious Leader SaveTheIntegras
> TheHondaBro
10/17/2015 at 00:51 |
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It works perfectly on paper, as does any form of economic policy
colorfulyawn
> boxrocket
10/17/2015 at 01:07 |
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I don’t know that it’d be all that different. But, hey, VPOTUS sounds like an Opponaut. Maybe a President Biden would have us all driving ‘Vettes.
That would be cool.
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colorfulyawn
> TheHondaBro
10/17/2015 at 01:08 |
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Sweet. I could afford more car mods, then.
Wheelerguy
> Supreme Chancellor and Glorious Leader SaveTheIntegras
10/17/2015 at 01:50 |
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Also take note of the citizens you’re serving. A substantial number of people forget that there’s a whole lot of different kinds of people the President will have to serve, and changing some things can completely change another end of the community and country. Every aspect is interconnected, every bloke is dependent.
Still, seriously, how hard is it to make even * just * 10% of the poor get a better life? I don’t think the rich will lose a lot just by helping the poor get a better-enough life—and I’ve known rich people in my city who helps by heart and actually changed lives. And no, not by dole-outs.
OK, so removing all illegal drugs will be tough (though shit, can you imaging living in a world with no illegal drugs, dude?), but hey, look, there are ordinary people who are willing to make enough of a change in their own community. These days, they’re good as saints, and can be given the Golden Ticket to The Pearly Gates right this moment. If the government can do that, pretty sure even the Adult Jesus (aka Bob Geldof—Christianity is a lie!!!) would reserve seats.
The last government I know that actually changed lives was this guy’s , and then he suddenly died in a plane crash. I haven’t really heard or seen another since.
Oh, and there’s a freakin’ Gundam carrier named in his honor.
BoxerFanatic, troublesome iconoclast.
> TheHondaBro
10/17/2015 at 01:56 |
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Beware any politico-economic system that promotes equality, ruled by elites.
It defeats itself, and has no concept of self interest, which defines human nature... It denies self interest in providing for one’s own family by providing goods or services to others in exchange for a living, instead resorting on government benevolence, which can’t exist. It also denies self interest of the people who would seek power over others, and by not addressing that, it is unable to resist the rise of the ruthless to rule over everyone else.
Every communist, many of the socialist regimes are ruled by the ruthless, because they are the ones willing to cheat, and work outside the rules that they portend for everyone else.
It is a fatally flawed system that is an academic pipe dream. Anyone with practical experience with economics can see that on it’s face.
Cronyism isn’t capitalism, and we don’t have capitalism, we have cronyism, and the policy makers and their cronies aren’t going to go against their own self interests without severe conditions. The “people” and the “middle class” are buzz words for the electorate, not their self interest.
Capitalism is actually the study of how people naturally interact outside their own family, as microeconomics, and those trends society-wide as macroeconomics. The trading of time, talent, resources, and effort for needed resources, for mutual benefit.
The difference is that it is not for a politically self-interested third party’s jurisdiction and redistribution as they see fit.
As Margaret Thatcher aptly summarized... eventually you run out of other people’s money. Mostly because other people get tired of working to provide you with it, at their own expense.
samssun
> TheHondaBro
10/17/2015 at 02:00 |
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Those with very little income don’t pay taxes, they get paid taxes (EITC). And “wealthy” always seems to ratchet lower down the food chain, because with a marginal tax rate in the 40-50% range, there’s just not much higher you can go.
In other words: the good news is the rich will pay for everything. The bad news is, you’re the rich.
pip bip - choose Corrour
> boxrocket
10/17/2015 at 05:25 |
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manual transmissions mandatory.
LongbowMkII
> M54B30
10/17/2015 at 07:33 |
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Subsidize the pump rather than the corporations.