Public Policy Positions

Category: Policy

For each, I should write down my current, cached position. Then I’ll try to ideologically turing test (ITT) the opposite of my position. Finally I’ll do research into each and come to an improved position and an improved ITT.

This choice of issues to decide on is so limited and arbitrary, as it’s what the population has decided to have political conversations about. The positions truly worth having positions on need to be added.

Criminal Justice 2 Death Penalty 2 Drugs 3 Gun Control 3 Incarceration 3 Culture and Society 3 Abortion 3 Arts 3 Civil Rights 3 Economic Affairs 4 Budgets 4 Taxes 4 Federal Reserve 4 Education 4 Elementary and Secondary School 4 Higher Education 4 Environment 4 Air Quality 4 Global Warming 5 Government Operations 5 Campaign Finance Reform 5 Privatization 5 Health 5 Health Insurance 5 Medicare 5 Social Welfare 5 Social Security 5 Welfare 5 Foreign Affairs and National Security 5 Defence Spending 5 Types of Intervention 6

Criminal Justice Death Penalty Position 1: The death penalty, at present, in an ineffective deterrant. It either needs to be dramatically sped up and be made more visceral, or it needs to be disbanded (because it’s enormously expensive).

Because death is deeply irreversible, it requires certainty both in the person’s guilt and in the value system of the society casting judgement. Personally, I prefer exile (where exile violation leads to the death penalty).

A preferable alternative to the death penalty would be a punishment so painful that you never have to use it.

Drugs

Drug Legalization

Policy: Legalize most drugs use, collapsing the illegal economy. No advertising of addictive or dangerous drugs. Open centers for detoxification & life realignment of addicts. Release prisoners convicted on drug use charges to reintegration program.

Gun Control Policy: Stringent mental health requirements. Background checks. No guns to felons. Incarceration Insanely and unreasonably expensive. Damaging feedback loop. Culture and Society Abortion Consistency means being pro-infanticide. But there’s a schelling point at birth. Arts Funding of the arts, perhaps? Seems incredibly weird and arbitrary for the government to decide what art deserves funding… public museums? Better to fund programs for the creation of artists (music, visual art, etc.) for children and young adults. Civil Rights Race, Gender, Sexual Orientation.

Extremely pro judicial rights - fair trial, due process, innocent until proven guilty, right to a lawyer.

Overwhelmingly pro religious freedom, ideological freedom, free speech, right to assembly. Economic Affairs Budgets Should budgets be balanced? I say yes. Make cuts / increase taxes elsewhere. Clinton did it, so can we. Taxes

Increasing taxes on high income brackets seems unlikely to damage the economy, to me. Federal Reserve

Ray Dalio’s position. Education Elementary and Secondary School Mass experimentation. Variance. Heavy private freedom.

Higher Education Allow IQ tests for jobs, undercutting degree value. Eliminate degree requirements for jobs. Separate research from teaching. Make the price of education equal the price of producing it.

Eliminate accreditation and replace it with a test for each department’s students. Make creating new universities simple and legal. Environment Air Quality Force the internalization of externalities. Global Warming Fund geoengineering efforts. Force the internalization of externalities (via carbon tax). Government Operations Campaign Finance Reform Campaigns should be set up to not benefit from money differentials. Health Health Insurance

Universal health care. Dismantle the corrupt insurance system. Medicare Replaced by universal health care. Social Welfare Social Security Welfare Eliminate disincentive to continue applying to work by transitioning to universal basic income. Foreign Affairs and National Security Defence Spending Be the world’s policeman. Solve problems that require third party actors, consistently. No genocides allowed.

Civil Rights Free Speech Guarantee that monopolies cannot exclude any major voices or enforce political intolerance of any kind. Freedom of Press Necessary. Especially disallow authoritarian government intervention. Right to Privacy Promote pseudoanonymity. Make anonymous payments easy. Make a privacy first operating system that makes tracking nearly impossible a large government project. Eliminate Prism and NSA surveillance. Encryption everywhere.

Types of Intervention

Taxes
1. Affordances
  1. Add a new tax
  2. Abolish an old tax
  3. Change the tax rate
  4. Change the tax base
  5. Improve collection machinery
  6. Tax an externality
2. Reason
  1. Inadequate Government Revenue
  2. Market prices don’t capture important externalities & opportunity costs
3. Downsides
  1. Deadweight Loss
  2. Inhibiting Useful Economic / Social Activity
Regulation
1. Affordances
  1. Add a new regulatory regime or abolish an existing one
  2. Write new standards or remove old standards
  3. Tighten or loosen existing standards
  4. Ban or prohibit something entirely
  5. Improve the scientific and technical basis for writing standards
  6. Close or open loopholes
  7. Add, train, or better supervise enforcement personnel
  8. Improve targeting of enforcement to catch bad apples, to increase deterrence, or to increase resource efficiency
  9. Raise or lower the level of effective sanctions
  10. Tighten or loosen appeals procedures
  11. Change reporting and auditing procedures
  12. Add, subtract, or improve complaint mechanisms for workers or the public
2. Reason
  1. A monopolists’ abuse needs to be curtailed
  2. The health and safety of the population is a greater priority than corporate freedom
3. Downsides
  1. Higher barrier to entry
  2. Information load
  3. Regulatory capture
Subsidies and Grants
1. Affordances
  1. Add a new one
  2. Abolish an old one
  3. Change the level
  4. Change the marginal rate
  5. Introduce, abolish, or change a formula that’s allocating subsidies
  6. Modify the conditions of receipt or eligibility
  7. Loosen or tighten enforcement
2. Reason
  1. Stimulating valuable action that wouldn’t happen otherwise
3. Downsides
  1. Subsidy can prop up an industry, or make destroy incentives to work
Service Provision
1. Affordances
  1. Add a new service
  2. Expand and existing service
  3. Organize outreache to potential beneficiaries who aren’t using the service
  4. Customize an existing service ot a subpopulation
  5. Provide voutures for a specific service
  6. Link multiple existing service deliveries for efficiency / ease of use
  7. Reduce users’ difficulty in accessing service by going online, simplifying forms, colocating services, or allowing phone appointments
2. Reason
  1. Many people want services (ex. public schools) or want others to have services (ex. homeless shelters).
3. Downsides
  1. Replacing market potential
  2. Cost
Agency Budgets
1. Affordances
  1. Add a lot, or a little to the budget
  2. Hold budget level
  3. Cut the budget a little, or a lot
  4. Shift allocations from one budget item to another
2. Reason
  1. Getting preferred actions out of the agency
Private Rights
1. Affordances
  1. Modify or Create
    1. Contract rights and duties
    2. Property Rights
    3. Liability Duties
    4. Family Law
    5. Constitutional Rights
    6. Labor Law
    7. Corporate Law
    8. Criminal Law
    9. Dispute-resolving institutions
2. Reason
  1. Economic stability and growth
  2. Social harmony
The Framework of Economic Activity
1. Affordances
  1. Encourage Competition
  2. Encourage Concentration
  3. Control Prices and Wages (and Profits)
  4. Decontrol Prices and Wages (and Profits)
  5. Control Output Levels
  6. Decontrol Output Levels
  7. Change Tax Incentives
  8. Provide Public Jobs
  9. Abolish Public Jobs
2. Reason
  1. Increasing collective output
  2. Protecting vulnerable consumers
Education and Consultation
1. Affordances
  1. Warn of Hazards or Dangers
  2. Raise consciousness through exhortation or inspiration
  3. Provide technical assistance
  4. Upgrade skills and competencies
  5. Change Values
  6. Professionalize the providers of a service
2. Reasons
  1. People are often unaware of problems and opportunities.
  2. There may be too many untrained or unskilled workers for important jobs.
Financing and Contracting
1. Affordances
  1. Create a new (governmental) market
  2. Abolish an existing (governmental) market
  3. Alter reimbursement rates
  4. Change the basis for reimbursement
  5. Lease governmentally held resources
  6. Alter user fee structure
  7. Redesign bidding systems
  8. Change contract enforcement methods
  9. Furnish loans
  10. Guarantee loans
  11. Subsidize loans
  12. Set up a public enterprise
  13. Privatize a public enterprise
  14. Modifiy insurance arrangements
  15. Change procurement practices
2. Reason
  1. Capital markets may have become inefficient
Bureaucratic and Political Reforms
Affordances
1. Reorganize existing organizations
2. Replace leadership of organizations
3. Improve information transfer within organizations
4. Modify the wages and salaries of existing positions
5. Add or remove positions
Reasons
1. An improved political and bureaucratic system

Source: Original Google Doc