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Ask HN: If you could enact one Law, what would it be?
With all the bickering in politics and inertia in many areas I've always asked myself what I would do in a position of power. How would I be different?
In that spirit, I would love to know what others here would do given the premise:
You find yourself in a position to enact one Law (or small number of related laws) - what would it be?
Without writing a thesis, being too legalistic, or being
too USA-centric, here is what I would do:
Like paying taxes, jury duty, I would also make it a legal
obligation to vote. You can abstain if you wish, or spoil your
vote, but you need to turn up in person to do so. You don't vote,
you pay a fine (much like a traffic violation...)
All those in office, or running for office, are forbidden from
any donations or gifts. Instead a legitimate candidate would
be given a set budget and a certain amount of ad and airtime in
the relevant locality - this would be reviewed every 2 years
to account for local costs (ex. New York versus Little Rock and
changes in pricing, inflation etc)
With that in mind, voting would take place over a long weekend
which in itself would be a national holiday.
Political candidates would be obliged to take part in publicly
accessible or viewable debates.
Yes, there are a ton of holes in the above and ideas that need much explanation, but you get the idea.
Okay - your turn...
- DarrenMills 16y agoI would enact a more strict system against those who attempt to create regulations based on religious ideas. For example, trying to outlaw anything on the basis of long-taught religious ideas would instantly be thrown out. From a legal perspective this would push the first amendment under the umbrella of stare decisis and allow a court to overturn any law found to be based on those religious ideas.(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stare_decisis http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stare_decisis)
- duck 16y agoA law is only good if you can enforce it... and I don't see anyway you could enforce any of these. So what would be the point? And do we really want everyone to vote in the USA?
- mindcrime 16y ago<sigh /> My ideas about how our legal system should change are pretty radical (anarcho-capitalist / libertarian here), so it's hard to say just one simple law without making it either something that sounds glib, or something that I actually consider fairly insignificant. That said... As long as we have our more-or-less current government, I'd say maybe more term-limits at all levels of government. Something to try and prevent the existence of "career politicians." I'd like to cycle these folks through quick enough that they don't have time to become totally corrupt. Edit: Oh, wait, here's one I'd like to go with that could actually help. Require judges to inform all juries of their right to nullify based on finding the law invalid, regardless of the facts. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jury_nullification http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jury_nullification
- ajuc 16y agoAny new law must wait 6 years after approving before going to production. That way corruption and making holes in law on purpose will be less worth it, and people would be sure law won't change under their business in short term.