If I become benign Emperor

Appeared in Benicia Herald 101/5/10:

In my humble opinion (is that an oxymoron), if I should be appointed emperor, I would need to have in place a detailed agenda of “To Do’s”. There is cliché that says that, “Success comes about when opportunity meets with preparation”. My first step is to prepare my agenda list as follows:
 “Prop 13” would be repealed, as its original intent was to give seniors, who owned and occupied their homes a property tax break. All properties, commercial, industrial, religious, and residential would be appraised yearly at full market value. Those whose primary residence is occupied by them, would be income means tested based on the average of the last three years of income, both earned, unearned, and capital gains. This change would encourage home ownership and eliminate subsidies to the wealthy and long time property owners. The goal is to lower taxes on new owners and raise taxes on long time owners.
 All personal relationship activities of consenting adults, including sexual, consenting prostitution, marriage, gender orientation, and behavioral would not come under any government regulations. Any of the above activity that resulted in non-consensual physical or emotional abuse would be controlled by existing statutory criminal laws.
 All drugs would be legalized in concert with some government oversight, user education, and taxation. This change would greatly reduce costs in our penal system.
 Capital punishment would be abolished, as studies have clearly proven that it falls unjustly on the poor and minorities, is non-reversible, is too costly for the taxpayers, and does not lower the murder rate. California savings estimated to be $138 million per year.
 Repeal all agricultural subsidies. Farming is now big corporate business. Primarily subsidizing corn, sugar cane, wheat, soy, and other grains promotes the use of unhealthy sugar intake and prepared foods. Farming is a business, and in our capitalistic system should compete based on healthy competition and good business practices.
 Do no try to outlaw guns, as this is an unrealistic and unfair expectation. People who are able to prove the safe handling and storage of guns should not be penalized for the unlawful or irresponsible behavior of others. Having guns for target practice or responsible hunting for food is not unreasonable. People should not be allowed to own automatic weaponry, hand grenades, and other military ordinance, unless it has been made inoperable for collection purposes.
 The tax exempt status of religious institutions would be repealed. Tax exemptions are a subsidy to a special interest class that does not include agnostics, atheists, and others who do not pay to belong to religious organizations. To the extent that religious institutions perform charity work, they would receive the same tax benefits of other non-profit benevolent organizations. Religion serves no higher benefit to society than yoga, meditation, personal growth therapy, belonging to a gym, traveling in nature, going to a spiritual retreat, or visiting a wilderness in Hawaii.
 Any politician at the local, state, or national level who receives a campaign contribution from a special interest group would be punishable as a federal offense to vote on an issue involving the special interest. The offending politician would be subject to fines, and public service.
 At the basic level for profit health insurance companies would be replaced by many non-profit companies that could compete nationally. There would be a requirement that companies could not merge if it decreased the competition base. Drugs and medical equipment could be purchased internationally, with quality oversight, in order to bring down prices.
 The inheritance tax would be progressive. Inheritance is not an important skill in the national interest such as intellect, hard work, capital, and labor. Billionaires such as Buffet, Turner, and Gates do not believe that building of continuing wealthy family dynasties is in the best public interest.
 A transparent and open media is essential to a healthy democracy. National media outlets being owned by a half dozen multi-lateral corporations is not in the public interest. Major corporations such as Viacom, Disney, News Corporation, GE, Disney, AOL Time Warner would be required to divest themselves of major media outlets that created a monopoly on information.
 Independent journalists would have complete access to all government spending and government operations information. It would be the full responsibility of the government to prove that keeping particular information classified would be in the national interest.
 Government employees could belong to unions without the ability to strike. Teachers would be paid based on merit, and tenure would be modified. Governments would be required to sub-contract out services such as security, public works, and grounds/building maintenance on an open bid basis. Government workers, because of better job security could only receive 90% of the average prevailing wages.
 The government would have to be totally transparent about any incidences of False Flag events such as 911. It would be the government’s responsibility, not the public’s, to prove that there was no malfeasance related to any actions that involved the public security or fiscal expenditures.
 There would be no bailouts of private companies. Banks and financial institutions would be regulated so that they had to be totally transparent and not too big to fail. All consumer borrowing would require that buyer be made totally aware of all the potential risks, and would be required to sign off on each risk.
 The Federal Reserve being an integral part of our financial system would be required to be totally transparent to the public.
 Men and women who are financially irresponsible and abusive, who continue to create children, would be required to have birth control implants that would render them infertile until they could show a history of parental responsibility.
 Corporations would be limited as to their ability to contribute to political campaigns. It is not in the public interest to concentrate so much power in the hands of a few large entities.
 There would be no job discrimination privately, publicly, or militarily based on race, gender, nationality, or sexual orientation.
 Startup small businesses that are R&D related, would receive extra tax credits for successful innovation.
 A long term plan would be put in place to phase out fossil burning fuels.
 Any laws that supported “Crony Capitalism” would be abolished. Government officials would be personally liable for handing out special conflict of interest contracts.
 Issues involving civil and human rights would be decided by the judiciary, as history has proven that electorate is too ignorant, fearful, and uneducated to decide how the fair rights of minority groups should be determined.
If you have items you would like to add to the above, please send them to the “Letters to the Editor”.
Harvey is a Benicia businessman. You may visit Harvey’s Blog and leave comments at: http://harveysrantsraves.blogspot.com/