Originally Posted By schoolsinger I propose that we should have a new political party. This party does not exist yet. But I hope it will become a real party someday. The name of this party will be the Simplicity party. Here are the two main principles of the Simplicity party. 1. GOVERNMENT SHOULD BE STRICK ON THE LAWS IT HAS. This shows the Government is serious about crimes. Prison should be something that people should be really fearful of, and not a place where you just chill and watch cable TV. The message will be clear that you don’t mess with the law. AT THE SAME TIME 2. THERE SHOULD NOT BE MANY LAWS. For every law that the government gets rid of, there are a whole bunch of laws that made. As a result, the law is getting more and more complex. This country is only 229 years old, and look how complicated the law has got. Just imagine how complicated the law would get in another 229 years if this trend continues. It would be insane! The more laws there are the smaller percentage of them any person will know. And the more laws a person is ignorant of the more likely they will accidentally break one. A goal of the Simplicity party is to make the law so simple, that the average person will be able to memorize ALL of it. In order to accomplish that goal, the government needs to focus on what is really important and stop making a bunch of nitpicky laws. Everyone should know what is expected of them, and no one is who is not causing harm to others should accidentally find themselves in trouble with the law. SOME POSITIONS OF THE SIMPLICITY PARTY Taxes are way too complicated. This problem is so bad, that the people who make tax laws don’t even do their own taxes! The tax system should be so simple almost anyone can understand it. Private employers should be able to hire and fire whoever they want for any reason. They should be able to pay any amount they want, give any benefits they want, and can require employees to work however many hours they want. And if someone does not like it, they have the right not to work for them. Anyone should be able to freely give anyone, any amount of money, for any reason. The only exception is if someone bribes someone to do something illegal. People should only be allowed to sue if there are damages. Suing a store for not having enough handicap parking spots is an example of a law suit without damages. The only grounds for taking a human life, is to save a human life. Killing humans for any other reason should not be allowed. This simple principle is to be applied in all situations including abortion, and the US war ethic. People should be able to easily start a business without any legal headaches as long as they are not harming others, or are engaged in deceptive business practices. Adults should have the right to cause bodily harm to themselves as long as they are not harming others. This includes surgery, drugs, dangerous stunts, and not wearing seatbelts. The movies, music, TV shows, and video games children are exposed to should be up to parents, and not government. People should be able to build whatever they want on their property as long as it does not cause a safety or environmental problem. There should not be nitpicky laws, like ones that require houses to use only certain colors. There should be a third house in congress whose whole job is to get rid of unneeded laws. Bureaucracy should be reduced, because they are a major source of nitpicky laws. All laws the government makes should meet this criteria: A. It must be really necessary. B. It must be easy to understand. C. It must be easy to enforce. D. It must be easy to comply with.
Originally Posted By DlandDug I propose the first amendment to the Party Platform: NO LAWS OF GRAMMAR OR SPELLING MAY BE BROKEN OR ABRIDGED IN THE ADVANCEMENT OF THE GOALS OF THE SIMPLICITY PARTY.
Originally Posted By EdisYoda Well, I tend to agree in principle on most of these with the exception of: "Private employers should be able to hire and fire whoever they want for any reason. They should be able to pay any amount they want, give any benefits they want, and can require employees to work however many hours they want. And if someone does not like it, they have the right not to work for them." There do need to be at least minimal laws in place to safeguard the individual worker. I don't trust America's corporations enough to even realize that it's in their own best interest to pay decent wages. As for amendments to the platform, single terms for all elected officials. No exceptions. As part of this I would suggest changing those terms that currently run for 2 years to 4 years, and those that run 4 years, increased to 6 years. Also to level the playing field, campaign funds should come from a general fund, not from private contributions. People should be able to run for any political office whether they make $10,000 a year or $10,000,000 a year.
Originally Posted By cmpaley That's the libertarian party platform. It's as unworkable as communism because it fails to take human nature into account.
Originally Posted By Spree ^It does sound a lot like the libertarians. Many believe that the Republican party is just the "moderate" version of libertarianism just as many believe that the Democratic party is the "moderate" version of Communism.
Originally Posted By schoolsinger I actually took an online survey that is supposed to tell me my party affiliation, and it said I was a Libertarian. I tend to agree with Libertarians on many things, but I find them too liberal on some moral issues. An example is abortion. The Libertarians think the government should not interfere with a mother’s decision to have an abortion. I think the government should make no legal distinction between a fetus and a baby. Killing is killing. Unless the mother is at risk of dying, abortion should be banned. Remember my stand. The only grounds for taking a human life, is to save a human life.
Originally Posted By Spree My Unlce is a libertarian(and has actually won an election as one). I have to agree with cmpaley though...it just doesn't allow for human nature.
Originally Posted By cmpaley Actually, there are pro-life libertarians out there based on the notion of the nonagression ideology that libertarianism is based on. I've read about it and you can google pro-life libertarian and read for yourself.
Originally Posted By Kar2oonMan >>Taxes are way too complicated. This problem is so bad, that the people who make tax laws don’t even do their own taxes! The tax system should be so simple almost anyone can understand it.<< I like that one. Simplifying would mean skewering some sacred cows, however. But it's a worthy goal.
Originally Posted By Kar2oonMan Adults should have the right to cause bodily harm to themselves as long as they are not harming others. This includes surgery, drugs, dangerous stunts, and not wearing seatbelts.<< A few problems with this one is that, for example, not wearing seat belts could actually cause injury to more than just the person not wearing the belts. With a seat belt, a driver might be able to retain control of his car to prevent careening into a school playground. So in that case, his choosing not to wear a seatbelt infringes on this idea: >>The only grounds for taking a human life, is to save a human life. Killing humans for any other reason should not be allowed.<< Also, someone choosing to end their life by jumping out of a window might land on some poor schmo walking down the street minding his own business. How would the Simplicity Party deal with issues like those?
Originally Posted By schoolsinger >>>Also, someone choosing to end their life by jumping out of a window might land on some poor schmo walking down the street minding his own business.<<< What good will it be to make a law saying that a person can’t commit suicide? I don’t think a person expecting to be dead soon will be concerned about going to jail.
Originally Posted By StillThePassHolder "it fails to take human nature into account." I'll bet there are a lot of ex-priests who could talk a long time about that.
Originally Posted By WorldDisney >>>Also, someone choosing to end their life by jumping out of a window might land on some poor schmo walking down the street minding his own business.<<< <<What good will it be to make a law saying that a person can’t commit suicide? I don’t think a person expecting to be dead soon will be concerned about going to jail.>> Good point. It's the same reason why it's getting harder to curtail terriosm. How do you threaten a group of people with jail time or retaliation if they already plan to strap a bomb to their chest?? Suicide is one of those situations where the punishment can NEVER be worse than the crime .
Originally Posted By Spree <<<Good point. It's the same reason why it's getting harder to curtail terriosm. How do you threaten a group of people with jail time or retaliation if they already plan to strap a bomb to their chest??>>> Throw PC out the window and go after their families.....or was that a rhetorical ??
Originally Posted By Dabob2 <"Private employers should be able to hire and fire whoever they want for any reason. They should be able to pay any amount they want, give any benefits they want, and can require employees to work however many hours they want. And if someone does not like it, they have the right not to work for them."> A system like that used to be in place, pretty much, in many countries. I suggest you read a little Dickens to discover what it was like. But this does sound very libertarian, at least an the economic side. On the social side, of course, most (not all) libertarians are indeed pro-choice, plus favor gay marriage, legalization of most drugs and other things that social conservatives tend not to favor.
Originally Posted By cmpaley >>"it fails to take human nature into account." I'll bet there are a lot of ex-priests who could talk a long time about that.<< You must really hate the Catholic (and Orthodox) Church to bring that up. It is one thing to choose to follow a vocation into the priesthood, which includes the discipline of living in continent chastity. It is another to expect people to do what is in the best interest of themselves AND everyone else at the same time. Human nature is that people will do only what seems to be the right thing at the moment and to hell with the consequences.
