I wouldn’t mind that being part of the solution. Far as I can tell, people who are too wealthy go insane. A very blunt method like yours has merit, especially if it were terminal.

That said, what I put forward is more about preventing the existence of bad bosses, political corruption, and so forth. We shouldn’t just eliminate the wealthy, but also eradicate poverty and give people the means to live a full life. That would be key to preventing the shit that brought American society to this point. Americans cannot afford the time and education needed to have political agency, with unfettered Capitalism being the culprit.

An idea that I didn’t cover here, is the concept of an asset/wealth cap for corporations themselves. It could be based on how many employees they have, worth half of a rank’s income. So a clerk adds $20,000 to a company’s asset cap, while an head researcher grants $50k. I figure something like this would help a company’s usefulness to society dictate how much money it can have stockpiled. We don’t want any given organization to get too powerful.

Additionally, I am thinking corporations who don’t need employees, but an increased cap, can sponsor income brackets. These can be given out in a lotto for workers that are being replaced by AI. This would allow society to transition into AI workflows, without disruption that can ruin people’s lives.

I think that making a whole new system would be the way: there are too many loopholes and inconsistencies with legacy economics and rules that are not fit for a UBIfied society.

The first thing is to write up a sort of Constitution, that lays out economic rights. After that, I think using an Universal Ranked Income would be key to having the best of socialism with a dash of highly controlled capitalism. That latter bit is used for guiding the pricing of goods and services, but socialism should define the income of people, plus their minimum and maximum wealth. Capitalism should be driven by the circumstances of the everyday person, not the other way around.

I am thinking there can be five or so central “Obligate” ranks, which determines the income of a person, but the default rank everyone has gives a number of benefits that they will always have access to. By ensuring the survival and wellbeing of everyone, the role of money itself transforms - it isn’t for survival, but rather to upgrade a lifestyle. If money is optional, that means that workers can freely strike or protest.

Further, the problem of inflation can be addressed by making income brackets absolute. A waiter on the East Coast makes just as much as her male counterpart on the West Coast. Everyone within a job class gets the same income, no matter their personal skill or connections. Everyone can be subject to a $100,000 income cap from all combined sources, so it would be relatively easy to keep millionaires and the like from existing. By having everyone relatively equal in the economy, prices should naturally reflect reality.

I was raised in the boondocks. You couldn’t get reception there back in the 90’s, and there weren’t any kids or neighbors that I could visit without having to be driven. My parents didn’t have any community at all, so I in turn never learned how to socialize properly. To say the least, I never became comfortable with phones, even after moving into civilization. It just wasn’t part of me.

Isolation from people is a huge disadvantage in life, you don’t get to make friends, network, or learn what it means to be part of society. Here’s hoping that cellphones and whatnot become rights, as you have said.

However, some states might provide SSI recipients a LifeConnect program. You get a free smartphone and low-end plan.

I am still on a flip phone. It is usually silent, and I don’t spend much time with it at all. While I am missing out on discounts and such, I simply hate the idea of constantly using a phone. Email is my telecommunication of choice, but receptionists don’t understand the idea, unfortunately.

My household bought a Rinnai water heater, and the bastard needed a phone to set the temperature. Thing is, it couldn’t communicate with the two or three phones that were used on it. Fortunately, there was an old-school modification for a physical keypad, but that had to be bought separately.

Phones are just not my thing.

I am hoping California ditches SSN and other identifiers from the US Treasury. That information is no longer safe, so we need a fresh database that is secure from DOGE fuckery, among many other hostile actors.

More than fair. It would be nice to rub the back of my neck and feel embarrassed for overreacting. Here’s hoping your timeline is what happens.

I have an ABLE account, for people on SSI. It is untaxed, though there is a small fee for just the money to be managed. It is handy, since there is a $2,000 limit on the wealth beneficiaries can have - the ABLE account allows for up to $100,000 to be in there before most benefits are lost. It also invests the money into a stock/bonds/FDIC portfolio of your choosing. If you have enough wealth, you can just deposit money in there until you reach $500,000ish cap for what you can add.

It is really helpful for the poor, since we don’t have many methods for storing wealth that doesn’t involve a mattress. Also, ABLE accounts should be state owned - theoretically insulating them from Musk’s grubby paws. Unfortunately, my state’s ABLE program doesn’t permit Euros, so I suspect no ABLE to be safe from hyperinflation.

I think economy, in the sense of money as a concept, is an illusion. We all just agree that money is worth something. When our belief in the American Dollar fails, so would follow any stocks tied up in businesses that rely upon it. Those trillions and tax cuts that Musk has? Worthless.

shrug

That is my hypothesis, anyways. My guess is that we are into a Weimer Germany sort of scenario. I have been converting my money into Euros, with the assumption that America as we knew it is going to die horribly within years. Hopefully, my efforts are pragmatic, not paranoid. 😕

Canadian Moose Cavalry, anyone?

Having term limits on politicians (including judges) would be key. At some point, an old person simply can’t relate to the world that younger people grew up in. More importantly, they either become angry codgers (Republicans) or domesticated sheep (Geronocrats), which is innately an imbalance in political influence. An assertive person, in most situations, gets a bigger piece of the pie, be it political, fiscal, sexual, or some other thing.

I think if there is a new Constitution, it would need to incorporate economic rights. People can’t abandon work to strike or protest, which negates the voice of the poor and working man alike. The wealthy can afford to voice their politics, which is likely the biggest reason why Yarvin’s Cabal succeeded. Ordinary people simply can’t dedicate the time to research nor influence politics.

Bullet box has yet to be opened. But I can hear the hinges creaking.

I would say so. The only question is whether the good guys win a civil war. My money is on ‘yes’, since Yarvin’s Cabal is hellbent on exiling all of the competent people from their society, along with being jackasses who have alienated many peoples. It will be a bloody struggle, but I think that Dogey America will ultimately receive the Old Yeller treatment. I only hope that every member of Yarvin’s Cabal are executed - Elon, Thiel, ect.

Let’s not make the mistakes of the 1st Civil War, 1st Business Plot, and 2nd World War, where many high ranking members were permitted to escape justice.

Looking up the Vilvaladirt, I am guessing it is a group of Let’s Players who do a Mystery Science Theater 3,000 take on their gameplay? If so, that would be neat.

It is good to hear what a full DeepSeek can do. I am really looking forward to having a better, localized version in 2030. Thank you for relating your experience, it is helpful. :)

Can the full-size DeepSeek handle dice and numbers? I have been using the distilled 70b of DeepSeek, and it definitely doesn’t understand how dice work, nor the ranges I set out in my ruleset. For example, a 1d100 being used to determine character class, with the classes falling into certain parts of the distribution. I did it this way, since some classes are intended to be rarer than others.

For the martial masters among us, this is one way to dispose of a Nazi.

I want Captain America punching Elon, and Wonder Woman doing the same to Trump. Honestly, we have a rogue’s gallery of villains in Project 2025.

The way things are going, this would probably become a legit political platform…

PRESIDENT ARMSTRONG: You still don’t get it, ITS ABOUT THOSE WHO WILL NOT, NOT THOSE WHO CANNOT, IN MY NEW AMERICA THE POOR WILL BE ENSURED OF THE RIGHT TO BEAR ARMS, WAR WILL BE FOUGHT BY EVERY MAN, NOT BY INTEREST GROUPS, AGAINST EVERY MAN