Your ideal country

[epicmemesbro]

If you were to create a country what would it be like? What type of government would it be? What policies would be enacted? What values would be established? What type of culture would you create or adopt? Do you think creating such a country is possible, and if so, how?

[Flash Flyer - Sakura]

Keeping this in a spoiler, because I wrote a lot.

 

[spoiler=Ideal country]

Country: Not really sure, but probably would have a diverse range of climates or preferably some place that has mild temperatures all year round.

 

Government: Probably a democratic process where the population chooses their leaders, but doing away with the two-party system. Not sure what would replace that, but probably introduce another main party. Would probably be similar to the US model, but eliminating the amount of gridlock that goes on nowadays in Washington.

 

Policies:

 

1. Stuff to protect citizen's rights and defend our interests abroad if any. However, any wartime policies would be enacted only when necessary (see interests and allies). This means that we're not going to send troops to attack another country unless it's absolutely necessary, however we would build up our arms on the home front.

 

2. Ease burden on middle class; not saying that the rich should be subject to more taxes, but rather to make it easier for most citizens to live a normal life without landing on the street. 

 

3. Things to address homelessness (partly motivated because my state has one of the highest amounts in this country due to land shortage [and outside interests buying up the available houses]). Partly tied to (2).

 

4. Definitive rules on how law enforcement functions would be set into place, just so we don't end up with more people getting shot for no reason (either people of a certain race/faith, etc.) or cops in retaliation.

 

5. Anti-terrorism measures. I'm a bit on the fence about this one and would need to think of a way that this country would be able to efficiently crack down on terrorist plots while not infringing on the privacy of the populace.

 

6. Keep our debt to a minimum (and not go $20+ trillion)

 

7. Firearm legislation. (If we get an NRA in this country, they'd likely complain, but we would take proactive steps to ensure that firearms don't end up in the wrong hands and mass shootings are nonexistent).

 

8. Investment in local economy (keep jobs in the country, and not export them to other countries unless there are resources available that we don't have easy access to.). Also improve infrastructure and support building roads to keep the country connected.

 

Values:

1. Work hard to get ahead; don't rely on other people to do your work for you.

2. Tolerance for other nationalities, cultures, ideas, faiths and so on. There is no one best idea.

3. Plan wisely for the future.

4. "Anyone can be anything"; yeah, I ripped this from Zootopia, but basically, don't be afraid to be yourself.

 

Culture: Ideally, one that is free from racism and bigotry towards people of other religions, sexual identity, nationalities and so forth. Also one that embraces the past, present and future; adapt to the changing times, but never forget where we came from. Basically, embrace other ideas that you may not necessarily have, and accepting of them. (Well, obviously this doesn't extend to hate speech, but the acceptance values are supposed to cut down on said hate speech). It would be a multicultural thing; that much is certain.

 

Probably would have something concerning when an appropriate age for a child to start having talks about intimate matters, or be exposed to more sensitive things. I'll keep that discussion thing out of here, but some of the stigma that exists would be dealt with (or at least try to).

 

Is this plausible?: As much as I'd like to believe that this type of country would be possible, recent events have proven that some of these things simply cannot occur (at least with the acceptance). People are still going to be discriminatory against other cultures and beliefs that aren't part of their own; granted, I'm probably lucky to have been exposed to various ethnic cultures in Hawai'i but that may not be the case elsewhere).

 

Even the government, despite the removal of the two-party system, may still run into issues and continue to get gridlocked during sessions.

 

Probably would work, but I'm not a politics major so can't see how this would turn out in practice. Most I would be able to see is the amount of infrastructure that gets designed (bridges, roads, buildings, etc), because I'm engineering.

 

 

[Delibirb]

[spoiler=I'll just copy Sakura's layout]

Country:

Location not relevant. Shouldn't be too big, certainly not as big as America. Germany-sized is probably the biggest acceptable before efficiency is sacrificed.

 

Government:

An Artificial Super Intelligence is considered the "president" or equivalent, but has no inherent power. Rather, it's vast knowledge and unparalleled predicting abilities would be used more for suggestions. It's suggestions would stream in with much regularity, and would be public knowledge. A small council or parliament of elected officials then decides whether to follow those suggestions, or to what degree adjustments need to be made based on the current situation and tensions (As I don't expect the ASI to understand that humanity sometimes doesn't want to be the most efficient if it means other values are sacrificed). Term limits on these representatives, probably 3-5 years.

 

Policies:

 

1. Freedom of speech is going to be a big one I suspect, and not everyone will enjoy the shadow rule of a computer. Hopefully the way it is laid out, people would see that the ASI merely acts as an adviser, not a true leader. But, they should have the freedom to voice their opinions. However, protest will not be quite as unconstrained as in the US. But, countermeasures won't be as violent, either.

 

2. Communism/Socialism of a sort, at least to start. This, as with most policies, could change later at the suggestion of the ASI.

 

Most everything else would be decided on by the ASI and it's council in the first days of the country's conception.

 

Values:

1. Success and progress are a right of humanity, not of the individual.

2. Combat is an inefficient and unnecessary response to disagreement. Discussion breeds new ideas.

3. General respect of others, even enemies.

 

Culture:

Ideally, my country would be of an elevated culture. Most social problems the world faces right now would be irrelevant, thanks to the objective laws suggested by the ASI and tuned by the council maintaining order and removing systemic barriers to create true equality of spirit.

 

Is this plausible?:

In theory, yes. It couldn't exist literally today, but with more effort put into ASI development, it isn't out of the question for the near-to-mid future.

 

The problems it would encounter, I suspect, is human stupidity. Failure to understand the benefits of an objective, but inherently powerless, adviser, having the best for the country and humanity as a whole, rather than of individuals or groups, in mind. Also maybe people disliking the communist/socialist aspect, even though it's sound in theory and kept in check by the ASI, assuming the population elects just council members and removes them from office if they collectively ignore ASI suggestions that the population agrees with.

 

[epicmemesbro]

Country: Doesn't matter, but my country of origin would work best. I would also prefer one with some corruption and other internal issues such as organized crime. Toppling those institutions will give me the favor of the public. An ethnically homogeneous country would be easier to work with.

 

Government: I will create a change in regime whose transition will require a totalitarian state (temporarily) but there will be no violation of freedoms, just overhauling government systems. Afterwards it will make use of a more efficient legislative system that I have created. Think U.S. but less bureaucratic, and with more civilian involvement. This could result in political parties losing power to the point of redundancy, no worries though. Economically Centrist, socially conservative. 

 

Policies:

 

1. Regulation of large corporations with making sure products distributed are safe and are trustworthy.

 

2. Create incentive for corporations to establish to certain countries I would deem preferable allies. That way foreign aid on the government's part is limited

 

3. slightly progressive federal income tax. 20-30 percent minimum and maximum respectively.

 

4. Increase military spending, especially in technology.

 

5. strict immigration laws to ensure homogeneity within the countries borders to lessen ethnic conflict.

 

6. Ensure the government to be secular but with maintaining religious freedom (if there is a large religious population I will ensure a few weeks abortion period / can refuse to marry homosexual couples ect.)

 

7. Major infrastructure programs to drive the country towards the first world direction while lowering unemployment

 

8. Create a competent police force that won't get militarized 

 

9. Create a third party anti-corruption organization to ensure a corruption free government

 

 

 

Values:

 

Politically active

altruistic

hard-nosed

 

 

Culture: I will make sure that the country adopts a nationalistic identity all whist avoiding any ethnocentric thinking should be just enough to motivate the country to strive for it to be in what I consider to be best for them.

 

Is this plausible?:

If one had the resources it can, especially right now in Cuba or any Latin American country really.

 

I would also propose the use of a sovereign empire, which will be more than just an alliance of countries but not exactly a traditional empire in the sense that countries will maintain their independence and especially not be bound by the same currency standard as the EU. These countries would be other second or third world ones.

In order to establish some sort of might I suppose one can over through a totalitarian regime like North Korea. Liberation and showing the world how powerful your military is will be nice for the country.