Geoff's Manifesto edit
I've often thought "this is silly, they should just change the law or fix this". So for my own sanity, I've started writing them down. I welcome any and all constructive comments, suggestions and counter-arguments.
Garbage edit
The cost of disposal should be included in the cost of consumer goods. The cost should factor in the lifespan of the goods and the proper disposal compliance rates. The goal is to make environmentally friendly products more profitable than disposable ones.
Advertising edit
We now have the technology and infrastructure advertise in more places than ever before. However, these ads are in competition for the same fixed resource: our brains. If things continue as they are, advertisers will be in a "race to the bottom" resulting in, literally, ads everywhere. As such, I'd like to see:
- regulation of advertising space:
- how many minutes of TV shows can be advertising (including product placements)
- size/use of billboards in public spaces
- size/use of ads in semi-public spaces (private restaurants, malls, etc)
- No restriction of who can place ads nor for what purpose
- psychosocial studies on the effect of advertising (do ads depress people? Can we fix that?)
- higher standards of truth in advertising
- use of trademarked names in ingredients to avoid listing actual ingredients
- use of trademarks to give companies an image that is not representative of what they are
- implied claims
Note: most people I talk to believe they are media-savy, immune to advertising claims and always make purchase decisions based on their own good judgement. I disagree: advertisers wouldn't be spending money if it wasn't helping their bottom line. Every social group is targeted including the rich and educated (eg. CPS, the Canadian drug index, is filled with full-colour ads from drug companies.). And yet few people read Consumer Reports, or otherwise research their purchases.
Large Corporations edit
Larger Corporations should be held to higher standards than small businesses. Consequences for anti-competitive behaviour, endangering the public safety, and interference with government should be real and directly affect investors and directors. Penalties for insider trading should include re-paying stolen money and banning the guilty-party from further trading.
Crime and Punishment edit
Police edit
- Police uniforms should bright, friendly and have lots of reflectors.
- I've heard rumour the current uniforms create are more like to create a fear response, than cooperation. Some have gone as far to call it "gang colours".
- traffic cops have a high injury/mortality rate.. possibly because their dark-blue uniforms are almost invisible at night. At night, 9/10 I see cops not wearing their reflective vests.
- Police should be trained (and continuously re-trained) as front-line social workers, skilled in crisis intervention
- Police shouldn't carry weapons. Instead there should be:
- a hidden "Panic Button" on each officer, that would dispatch SWAT teams immediately to their location
- for extreme emergencies needing a rapid response, there could be rifles or shotguns locked in squad car trucks. The act of removing the weapon would trigger a "panic call" and dispatch SWAT.
Prison edit
Prisons should aim to re-rehabilitate people as productive members of society, instead of punishing or isolating them. Prisons are known to be places where criminal behaviour is re-enforced instead of unlearned. When released, former inmates are poorly equipped to deal with life on the outside, to the point where some commit crimes just so they can be sent back.
Mental Health edit
1 in 5 Canadians experience are estimated to experience a mental illness over their lifetime, costing society unknown ammounts of hours in lost productivity, not to mention the stress and burden places on their friends and families. And yet there is virtually no funding for it.
Most homeless people have a mental illness of some sort: they spend their lives in and out of shelters, courts and/or prison system. Their life expectancy is low. Treatment is cheaper and more humane than incarceration.
Medical Professionals edit
Currently, the people who become doctors are those that have achieved the very best undergraduate grades and/or have outstanding achievements in life. The side-effects on university undergraduates are particularly nasty: fields regarded as "pre med" (such as biochemistry) are highly competitive, even though there is no official "pre med" programme.
Meanwhile, we are constantly short of nurses and it's unlikely to get better because enrolment is low. Historically, nurses are the women of medicine, cast as "second rate doctors": unfortunately, the social status, pay scale, and job mobility stands unchanged today. Interestingly, paramedics are becoming more highly trained: level III paramedics must undergo 3 years of college training, and can legally administer a number of drugs.
My solution: make the medical profession a gradient of same profession. Have people start as hospital orderlies with comprehensive first-aid training, and give them more advanced jobs as their experience increases and their training advances. Encourage continuous re-training and/or upgrades, including specialization. Pay everyone well.
Child Allowances edit
"It take a village to raise a child." Children are expensive. One estimate is it takes $750,000 CAD to raise a child to the age of 18 in Canada. Everyone should participate in raising children, not just the parents. The state should fund parents so economics does not factor the decision to have children. This includes single parents. The reasons are pretty simple:
- well-cared children become well adjusted adults. Lower crime rates, better productivity, happier people.. (insert your cause here): everyone benefits.
- women without a steady partner and an unplanned pregnancy has to choose either poverty or abortion. Let's replace "poverty" with another option. As a bonus, abortion rates may drop to a point where the AbortionDebate becomes academic. (Everyone wins.)
- economic burden of raising children ultimately falls to women.
Further, non-traditional families should be encouraged. Those involving grandparents, neighbours and friends as children's immediate family and/or guardians would be lovely. (And rumour has it, this is more "traditional" than the nuclear family.)
Energy edit
Whether we cut back on oil consumption in an attempt to stop Global Warming or because there's none left, it doesn't matter. The end socio-economic effect is the same: oil will get prohibitively expensive, and those dependant on it will be hit hardest. As such, Canada should setup economic incentives to move our society away from oil. Done properly, this would likely look like this:
- lighter, smaller and more efficient vehicles
- more mass transit, less urban sprawl
- higher building efficiency (insulation, etc)
- research into fission and fusion (despite their downsides, they're currently the only viable alternatives)
- more rail and shipping, less trucking and single-passenger cars
Easy Targets:
- outdoor patio heaters
- power usage minimum requirements for appliances and electronics
Price Tags edit
Price tags should include everything compulsory, such as: sales tax, "system access fees", "landing fees", "fuel surcharges".. etc. In contrast, credit card royalties should never be hidden in the price, and must be added to the price tag they are used.
Advertised prices should "include the fine print". If a vehicle is $20/day to rent + insurance ($15) + $1 per km + gas.. it should say so. Eg "$35/day + $1/km + gas", instead of "$20/day!" Also, they should seriously consider adding gas costs as well.
(Rant: I think it's horrible governments aren't allowed to hide sales taxes in the price of goods, while credit card companies are allowed to charge 3% per purchase _and_ force the vendor to keep the price the same. Fundamentally, this is an inversion of rights: the government, by definition, has the power to do things like this. Private companies, should not.)