My First Blog Post

So what do you say in your first blog post? I figure it has to be something really stupendously interesting or people seeing it for the first time won't come back. I was going to post my plan for ending poverty in the United States (for starters), but then I came across MakePovertyHistory.org today and that's better than my idea.

But I don't really have anything else, so here's my idea....

It's based on the open source software development model. The idea is that if I try to come up with something on my own, it will be miserably flawed. But someone somewhere will know how to solve the most obvious problem. This will leave (and maybe even create) a next most obvious problem, but someone will have an idea to solve that. And so on. Eventually, we'll have pieced together something good enough to do the job. (This is how Linux became what it is.) Then we'll take the idea to the lawmakers, and it will be so good they'll adopt it.

I know, Reinhold Niebuhr is RIHGL (rolling in his grave laughing) at my naivete at thinking there is a perfect solution to the problem waiting to be discovered, but that's what I've got.

My base idea is that we pass a law banning jobs, including part-time jobs, which pay below the poverty level. This way, everyone who has a job will have a certain level of income. The most obvious problem is that a whole lot of people would find themselves out of work as a result of this law. I'd solve that by passing a law that requires the government to hire every able-bodied person who wants a job and pay them at the previously set minimum salary. This part could be partially privitized if someone wants to start a company drawing on this talent pool. ;-) The next most obvious problem is that the government would need a lot of money to pay all of those workers. I'd solve that by ruthlessly taxing the wealthiest people in the country. They'll scream bloody murder, but the poorest 90 percent of our country have more than enough votes to make it happen.

Hi. I'm Melancthon, and I'm a dreamer.

Who's got the next idea?