Comment on If the 2028 United States presidential election was held today, who would you vote for?

• Flauschige_Lemmata@lemmy.world ⁨7⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

  Yes. I’m talking about an extremely direct legislative system.

  Democracy is supposed to put decisions in the hands of the people. But in our current system, that doesn’t seem to be the case. Germany is the 13th most democratic country. And still lobbyists have such a heavy influence that they might as well be considered our legislative.

  Some people might be annoyed to be called for citizens’s assembly duty. But democratic participation is vital if we want a fair system.

  source

  • DylanMc6@lemmy.dbzer0.com ⁨6⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

    Do you think the US should’ve been a socialist country years ago?

    source

    • Flauschige_Lemmata@lemmy.world ⁨5⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

      No. To my knowledge, putting the means of production into the hands of the people was never a majority opinion. And democracy is important.

      However, there are many social democratic policies that I believe have very broad support, and that still aren’t being implemented:

      • Universal healthcare (e.g. through mandatory insurance with central price negotiations)
      • Ban on pharmaceutical rebates
      • Universal free preschool
      • Free school lunch
      • Incentivising local governments to zone more medium density housing.

      Then there are other policies that I think would be really good for the US, but I am not sure the support is bipartisan:

      • Tighter control on monopolies
      • Unlimited sick days with a doctor’s note
      • Minimum vacation days
      • Raising minimum wage and implementing an automatic inflation adjustment
      • Maximum weekly work hours
      • Banning false self-employment
      • Union protections
      • Parental leave
      • Free college admission

      The latter category is also where I would place steps towards market socialism. For example federal laws that allow worker cooperatives (currently only some states allow them). And potentially even lowering the tax on worker co-ops compared to conventional companies.

      What’s your opinion on those questions?

      source
• Flauschige_Lemmata@lemmy.world ⁨8⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

  The executive system would be slightly more technocratic than our current system. Expertise would definitely give candidates an edge.

  For many posts the votes would mostly be cast according to morals. Like how I chose the green candidate, regardless of qualifications, for the ministry of transportation. I want trams and bike lanes. Not a transportation engineer that knows how to build even bigger parking lots.

  But during a pandemic, I don’t want Spahn or Kennedy as health minister. I want someone like Lauterbach or Fauci. So maybe some technocracy is a good thing.

  source