Ask HN: What would you do if you were president?

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29613399

by saadalem • 5 years ago

3 16 5 years ago

news.ycombinator.com

the title says it all, I want to hear HNers ideas and plans

fsflover2• 5 years ago

Pardon Snowden and Assange.

usrbinbash2• 5 years ago

Depends: President of what country exactly?

readonthegoapp3• 5 years ago

fsflover2• 5 years ago

How do you know? You're not OP.

jvln• 5 years ago

Call in all inteligence heads and ask the most important question: do aliens exist?

1cvmask• 5 years ago

Abolish civil forfeiture. Limit qualified immunity for all government employees especially police and prosecutors. Pardon Snowden, Assange and Daniel Hale etc. Remove the absurd restrictions of the Treasury regarding KYC and AML thus lowering the costs for the poor to be banked. Cut back on the sprawl of over 800 foreign military bases. Stop economic sanctions as a weapon against poor countries. Stop meddling in other countries affairs. Strengthen following the UN and its laws. Eliminate illegal activities like the surveillance state. Save money from the 1.25 trillion national security budget and spend it on Medicare for all. Remove a lot of the rules and regulations and onerous compliance on startups and smaller companies. Change federal procurement rules that currently favor the large elite companies and the entrenched. Limit the effects of bribery, corruption and "lobbying" in setting government rules and regulations.

readonthegoapp3• 5 years ago

This plus

Worldwide no nukes policy -- nuclear-free zone called earth and space

Attack global warming like the wwiii-style emergency it is

Truth and reconciliation commission

Limit power of supreme court and balance it out, term limits, and more

Support worker co-ops

Push for publicly funded campaigns

End corporate personhood

Allow black people and dem voters to vote

Nationalize big pharma and healthcare and energy -- thus ending covid, etc.

Try for all of the above at least

8bitsrule• 5 years ago

Great lists. We'll need a benevolent Monarchy though.

sigmaprimus• 5 years ago

Mandate Mandarin language classes for everyone 30 years old and younger. Pull another Roosevelt and buy/confiscate American gold at 5000 USD/ounce, then re tie the US dollar to gold at 10000 USD/ounce to ensure hegemony for the next 100 years..(Before China does it first with their citizens gold)

LinuxBender• 5 years ago

Probably nowhere near as much as I intended once I find out how that office actually works. I like the things that people are proposing in this thread but I also imagine there is some unseen barrier that seems to prevent the same intelligent well meaning people from reaching that level of office.

Honest question for to your question for the people of HN. Can anyone think of a time in history where someone with the intelligent and critical thinking qualities of the people on this thread have ever attained even close to that level of office? FDR? I am not a historian but I suspect some of you are. Am I being too cynical?

giantg2• 5 years ago

Nothing - because it's never going to happen.

ldjkfkdsjnv• 5 years ago

I would turn areas of government bureaucracy into some sort of capitalist system, where employees of the government seek to get huge bonuses for reducing inefficiency.

simonblack• 5 years ago

Throw away zero-sum policies. Introduce only win-win policies.

mikewarot• 5 years ago

Stop the policy of drone strike kill lists every Tuesday. Explain why it's a bad idea to make it harder for the next guy. Declassify all the cases where we killed civilians because of bad intel. (probably 90% of all strikes?)

Pardon all the whistleblowers, and make a concerted PR push as to the good they do for the country.

That's about all I could actually do, everything else would be stopped by the RepubliCratic donor class who actually control things in Washington, DC.

Ask HN: What would you do if you were president?

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