Idea for the American Economy

[ping111]

Salutations.

This will sound as dumb as dumb gets, but hopefully some will see light in this speech.

I am not American. I do not know the true harshness of the economy. I am the 4%.() Yet, I have come up with a foolish, but somewhat plausible idea to solve all this money mumbo-jumbo: Remove it entirely. That\'s right, I suggest that the US (and all other countries) eradicate the system of monetary superiority. However, everything wouldn\'t be free:

Depending on your work (and how much you serve your country in other ways), you are given a level. You may buy anything that is up to that level or lower. A lowly fry cook would be, maybe, a level 6, but if he served in the army as a lieutenant, he would be a level 11, perhaps. However, a rich lawyer will be a level 31, but he commits fraud, and is fined 4 levels. He could have \'bought\' a nice TV, but now he can only \'afford\' a smaller one. This would discourage crimes. Not only robbery or mugging, but any other crimes, because its punishment is like an irrefutable fine. This would also avoid things like the Occupy movements or the London Riots, because there are no \'fatcats\': You work hard, you get levels. You slack, you lose them.

Discuss...

(P.S. No flame wars. At all.)

[Kryten]

How does a lawyer work 5 times more than a frycook? They both do a days work.

[NovaSilisko]

[ping111]

How does a lawyer work 5 times more than a frycook? They both do a days work.

Because a fry cook just flips burgers to feed people. A lawyer is an active participant in the Law, and works dilligently to keep his country just. Remember, it\'s not work value, it\'s contribution.

[Gojira]

May I suggest this or this?

I\'ll come with.

[ping111]

I know, I know.

I\'m just trying to help, though I\'m helping as much as a fish pulling a car.

[Phoxtane]

Interesting concept.

I don\'t think it would ever be implemented, though. Money has become so ingrained in our lives that any attempt to remove it would be met with extreme consequences. There\'s also the logistical issue of keeping track of well over 6 billion people, and making that system as secure as possible.

Not to mention, payment in levels doesn\'t seem like a good way to do this...

Depending on your work (and how much you serve your country in other ways), you are given a level. You may buy anything that is up to that level or lower. A lowly fry cook would be, maybe, a level 6, but if he served in the army as a lieutenant, he would be a level 11, perhaps. However, a rich lawyer will be a level 31, but he commits fraud, and is fined 4 levels.

So, working hard gets you a level. That\'s nice, but is there a limit on how much stuff you can get? If I was a level 30, and I wanted to make the biggest computer display EVAR, I could theoretically go to the store and grab as many monitors I wanted -- unless there\'s a limit of some sort. How would you pay for these items, anyway? In levels?

And fining people levels doesn\'t seem like a good way to punish someone for their misdeeds. I steal from a store? Alright, we\'ll dock you ten levels and send you on the way. That\'s no punishment, especially if you can get levels back just by doing hard work. People don\'t learn anything that way. It\'s a 'slap-on-the-wrist' punishment.

I can *sort of* see the benefits, but I can\'t see them for the forest of negatives surrounding them. [Not trying to be rude!]

EDIT: I\'m the first real discussion response.

[Kryten]

Because a fry cook just flips burgers to feed people. A lawyer is an active participant in the Law, and works dilligently to keep his country just. Remember, it\'s not work value, it\'s contribution.

So some people\'s work is inherently more valuable? How is that supposed to result in \'no fatcats\'?

How is this different at all? The people with upper class jobs get more goods than those with lower class jobs. You\'ve just replaced money with \'levels\'.

You could buy so many things a day/month/year. Maybe, with my idea, we could keep things we NEED free, and make things we WANT level-based.

You could just do that by setting up a welfare state-no \'levels\' necessary.

[ping111]

@Phoxtane: Thank you. I agree. That\'s the thing with the economy though: Make a change, and the world goes. Also, you couldn\'t earn those levels back after punishment, except with community service. Maybe that would be like a fine, losing levels, but we\'d have real punishments too, like jail. And yes, there would be a limit. You could buy so many things a day/month/year. Maybe, with my idea, we could keep things we NEED free, and make things we WANT level-based. By the way, levels are like permanent money, but maybe there could be a way to spend them...

[JupiterII]

Once the replicator is invented, all these problems will be solved.

[ping111]

So some people\'s work is inherently more valuable? How is that supposed to result in \'no fatcats\'?

How is this different at all? The people with upper class jobs get more goods than those with lower class jobs. You\'ve just replaced money with \'levels\'.

Because all jobs are open. Sure, if you can\'t read, they won\'t let you be a doctor, but you don\'t need to spend twenty extra years in school to get a better job. It\'s just that lower-level jobs are easier, and the slackers would do them and face the consequences. However, if you work hard at your job, you will be rewarded.

[Kryten]

Because all jobs are open. Sure, if you can\'t read, they won\'t let you be a doctor, but you don\'t need to spend twenty extra years in school to get a better job. It\'s just that lower-level jobs are easier, and the slackers would do them and face the consequences. However, if you work hard at your job, you will be rewarded.

But you do need to spend twenty years in school to be a doctor, in any real sense of the term-unless you want your medical staff being unskilled labour. It usually isn\'t the case that lower level jobs are easier, but they are the best that a person can get-jobs like fry cook and janitor are often considered some of the worse-because, despite what you seem to think think, people don\'t like mindless drudgery.

[nasa123]

IDK but i live in the USA and i hate the prices of stuff!!!!

[C7Studios]

Sure, that sounds like a great idea. I think I\'ll be the one to assign the levels, ah look at that. I\'ve just leveled myself up to 50 due to how important I am. Excellent, you know what, I don\'t think the work you do is very valid at all.... yes I think I\'ll downgrade your level. Excellent, now everyone is happy.

[Guest GroundHOG-2010]

This wouldn\'t also stop some people from doing crime. People who canabalise people generally arn\'t just doing it for money as they actually would still do it, even if there was levels involved.

[Phoxtane]

This wouldn\'t also stop some people from doing crime. People who canabalise people generally arn\'t just doing it for money as they actually would still do it, even if there was levels involved.

Since when have people cannibalized each other in the USA? :-\

You\'re going to find a link of that and post it here, aren\'t you?

[Kryten]

Since when have people cannibalized each other in the USA? :-\

Since 1846

[Phoxtane]

Since 1846

*cough* Regularly?

[JupiterII]

Would there be Rare Candys?

[Kryten]

*cough* Regularly?

It was just a joke-although it\'s probably funnier that grounghog can\'t think of a crime that\'s not robbery or mugging other than cannibalism.

[Spoot Knight]

Would there be Rare Candys?

[NovaSilisko]

I\'m pretty sure he didn\'t mean cannibalism in the literal sense. I think he meant it like 'people who commit crimes for the only purpose of committing a crime'

Edit: Actually, a better wording would be 'commit crimes exclusively to harm other people'

[Guest GroundHOG-2010]

I\'m pretty sure he didn\'t mean cannibalism in the literal sense. I think he meant it like 'people who commit crimes for the only purpose of committing a crime'

Edit: Actually, a better wording would be 'commit crimes exclusively to harm other people'

That was basically what I was pointing at. Another examples is serial killing, serial rape, disembowelment and cutting people into multiple pieces.

The only way to stop crime almost completely is make anyone sentenced go up on a hill and no one comes down unless they are in a coffin. That means that the people are still help everyone else (they arn\'t staying in jail) and still getting a decent life.

It was just a joke-although it\'s probably funnier that grounghog can\'t think of a crime that\'s not robbery or mugging other than cannibalism.

Do you want me to list some?

[Herpderpsslerps]

Salutations.

This will sound as dumb as dumb gets, but hopefully some will see light in this speech.

I am not American. I do not know the true harshness of the economy. I am the 4%.() Yet, I have come up with a foolish, but somewhat plausible idea to solve all this money mumbo-jumbo: Remove it entirely. That\'s right, I suggest that the US (and all other countries) eradicate the system of monetary superiority. However, everything wouldn\'t be free:

Depending on your work (and how much you serve your country in other ways), you are given a level. You may buy anything that is up to that level or lower. A lowly fry cook would be, maybe, a level 6, but if he served in the army as a lieutenant, he would be a level 11, perhaps. However, a rich lawyer will be a level 31, but he commits fraud, and is fined 4 levels. He could have \'bought\' a nice TV, but now he can only \'afford\' a smaller one. This would discourage crimes. Not only robbery or mugging, but any other crimes, because its punishment is like an irrefutable fine. This would also avoid things like the Occupy movements or the London Riots, because there are no \'fatcats\': You work hard, you get levels. You slack, you lose them.

Discuss...

(P.S. No flame wars. At all.)

Fucking Commie. You see how well that worked for Soviet Russia, right?

The way you fix this is by promoting hiring in house, buying in house, and taxing out of house items. Meaning you put more people in your country to work producing for your country. If it comes from out of country, guess what bud, its got one hell of a tariff. Your an American/German/English/etc. company and you make your shit out of country guess what, you get a heavier tax that removes the benefits of paying those people slave wages.

You get rid of the current welfare system that allows people to abuse it. If you can work in any capacity, you have to work, I don\'t care that your back is fucked up, if you can sit your ass down then you get to work as a Secretary for all I care. If you don\'t work you don\'t get money. Yes you\'ll get a supplement, but you won\'t get an entire wage.

[Guest GroundHOG-2010]

Fucking Commie. You see how well that worked for Soviet Russia, right?

At actually worked well for a very long time, and it did also in a large amount of other countrys. But I assumes that your the type of american that believes that your way is the only way. Guess what, your country is in deep debt, heaps of Americans are losing there homes. But you don\'t give two shits about them, and would rather stay in your dream world. Wake up.

And as for soviet russia, they had a great system that had some flaws. They could have worked around those flaws but didn\'t.