The Big Ideas Project

Charge a social securiity withholding tax of 5% on individuals on up to 118,000 income with an unlimited employment tax ot 5% 0f all income paid in all forms to any one.

Submitted by kenneth j. from NC in Taxes & Budget Dec. 9, 2014, 4:30 p.m.

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#1640

70 votes

Provide public gyms for people who earn less than $35K per year, families with less than $55K per year. The cost will be more than offset by reduced public healthcare costs. To reduce costs, provide an additional incentive to and additional benefit to users, enable the equipment to produce energy to power the facilities and feed the grid. Credit user accounts for energy produced, providing them an additional, albeit small, income source.

Submitted by Timothy Salt in Health Dec. 31, 2014, 11:58 a.m.

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#1640

70 votes

Restore the Amazon:Slash and burn permits, requiring a five to one ratio of acres manured to acres slashed and burned.Jungle then re-grows in three years, can include sustainable crops.Fallow cycle slows advance into old growth.Synthetic shrubbery laced with organic trash, could even be deployed in order to lure those timid little fruit eating seed shitting critters out from the jungle into the scorched spent clearing!Carbon would be sequestered.Other forms of aid to help support and incentivize

Submitted by Aaron Agassi in Environment Jan. 15, 2015, 9:04 a.m.

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#1640

70 votes

Replace social security numbers with a cryptographic database. Each citizen would have a large encrypted value with multiple partial keys, each for different uses, eg, employment verification, credit checks, paying taxes, medical ids, casual social id (like a numeric business card), etc. SSNs are not secure but are used as if they were secure, allowing abuse. Instead of vfyng the last 4 of SSN you could give one or more partial keys to establish levels of id. Crypto has many uses beyond this.

Submitted by jumpy in Government & Elections Dec. 25, 2014, 6:41 p.m.

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#1640

70 votes

Treat health insurance like a business. That way we could cut out the middle man. ( the CEO's ) That way we could have a single payer plan, that covers everyone for far less money. And for the wealthy who want cadillac plans, you could buy a supplemental plan,

Submitted by james kallunki in Health Dec. 19, 2014, 12:41 p.m.

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#1640

70 votes

Cuban embargo, a shameful relic of cold war, has just ended. Yet "economic sanctions" are widely used as political weapon against anyone who dares to challenge US dictate (Russia, Iran, Venezuela). US should stop wielding this cudgel, and its interventionist policies worldwide that bring ever more disasters - from Afghanistan to Iraq, Libya, Syria, Ukraine and on.

Submitted by David_LG in Foreign Policy & Military Dec. 17, 2014, 9:32 p.m.

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#1640

70 votes

Rent Stabilization. While our moderate-income paychecks have not increased in maybe 20 years, our rents have increased to the point where now, moderate- and low-income renters are putting out half or more of their monthly take-home pay just on their monthly rental housing costs. On a moderate single income, buying a house stopped being possible about 15-20 years ago. HELP!

Submitted by Felicia E. in Economy & Jobs Dec. 10, 2014, 9:57 p.m.

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#1640

70 votes

ANIMAL AGRICULTURE WORKERS' UNIONIZATION AS A MEANS TO BETTER PROTECT AG ANIMALS -- AS WELL AS ANIMAL AG WORKERS -- FROM ABUSE: As public support steadily increases for policies to protect the animals we eat from the horrific abuses in factory farms, public support too will increase for public policies that facilitate the unionization of agriculture workers if a push toward toward ag-sector and factory-farm unionization can be shown to increase the welfare of agricultural animals.

Submitted by Gregory Wright, ADA So Cal Board Member in Economy & Jobs Dec. 22, 2014, 6:04 a.m.

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#1640

70 votes

More emphatically than spouses not having to testify against one another -- and more emphatically than an individual not having to testify against him/herself [5th amend't]-- PARENTS SHOULD NOT BE FORCED TO TESTIFY AGAINST THEIR CHILDREN (or vice versa); and legislation should be passed to that effect! I imagine that, between the two, many people would feel considerably more violated testifying against their child than against themselves.

Submitted by Madeleine A. from NY in Civil Rights Dec. 21, 2014, 11:55 p.m.

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#1640

70 votes

Dismantle Homeland Security, the NSA, CIA.

Submitted by activist in Government & Elections Dec. 10, 2014, 7:31 p.m.

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#1650

69 votes

Earthship, the brainchild of revolutionary architect Michael Reynolds, is a way to build permanent, safe, beautiful sustainable housing at a fraction of the cost of a conventional home. They use recycled materials, surrounded by earth on three sides, to create homes that take care of the occupants, using Mother Nature's abundance. Lets provide a real tax subsidy to people and business that build the Earthship way!

Submitted by sure in Infrastructure & Technology Dec. 19, 2014, 10 a.m.

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#1650

69 votes

Educate in student-centered classrooms, rather than focusing on standards. It's ridiculous to expect every child to know the same things at the same time. we don't expect every child to be the same height and weight at a certain age, yet common core standards expect kids' brains to develop and learn at the same rate.

Submitted by Linda M. from HI in Education Jan. 8, 2015, 6:22 p.m.

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#1650

69 votes

Fight back against the private probation industry that sucks money out of low income communities by charging astronomical interest and fees to people who cannot pay small fines and court costs. Set up local bail/fine funds similar to credit unions or free loan societies. Charge a small initial "member ship investment" and a small processing fee for interest free loans with a reasonable payback time.

Submitted by Susan S. from PA in Civil Rights Jan. 15, 2015, 3:46 p.m.

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#1650

69 votes

The world has "women's shelters." As best this woman understands, the world doesn't have a shelter solely for battered men. Battered men have only three possible options: the streets and homeless shelters, which are dangerous, or staying with their abuser.

Submitted by Elka in Society & Community Dec. 18, 2014, 2:05 p.m.

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#1650

69 votes

Institute ranked-choice voting for Presidential and Congressional elections. This will begin to diminish the monopolistic stranglehold of the current two-party system on our government, by increasing the prominence and political "bargaining power" of "minority" parties and candidates.

Submitted by Richard Hoff in Government & Elections Dec. 17, 2014, 5:31 p.m.

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#1650

69 votes

Pass two laws to regulate guns. We lost the gun control argument in the Supreme Court. 1. All weapons sold and possessed in the US must be forensic tested and these tests must be correlated to the serial number. These tests done at manufacturer from this day forward and at testing facilities around the country to bring in compliance by a given date. 2. All weapons must comply to number one and if a person is out of compliance subject to 15 years in addition or stand alone crime.

Submitted by david b. from CA in Society & Community Dec. 19, 2014, 6:21 p.m.

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#1650

69 votes

GET THE GOV'T OUT OF MARRIAGE! It is not for the state or federal government to define marriage, but for the individuals, families, and religious organizations concerned. End the institution of "legal marriage" and the accompanying system of tax discrimination. Things like joint ownership and survivorship should be handled through individual voluntary contracts, regardless of gender.

Submitted by Troval6 in Society & Community Dec. 12, 2014, 11:50 p.m.

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#1650

69 votes

Create a federal agency that has the authority to block the implementation of technologies that will result in a net loss of jobs. Amazon’s drones and Apple’s newest iPhone are not examples of free-market innovation. They represent the destruction of thousands and thousands of jobs in the delivery industry and changes that do not improve society’s well-being. The government needs to protect its’ people from technological changes that harm society and only add to corporate bottom lines.

Submitted by economic p. from DC in Infrastructure & Technology Dec. 19, 2014, 12:33 p.m.

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#1658

68 votes

The policy of 'One Interest Rate Fits All’ by the Fed that favors 'Too Big to Fail' banks over Main Street (average, everyday savers) has to end! There should be different rates for each - one for banks; one for the public! To do otherwise is morally, ethically, and intellectually wrong!

Submitted by tempered1 in Economy & Jobs Dec. 10, 2014, 4:14 p.m.

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#1658

68 votes

Create a national database of debt through the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. By law, creditors must submit all collections information to this database, and allow an easy online way for anyone to see and pay the collections claims against them in one centralized location. This will help bring transparency to the unregulated, shadowy debt industry.

Submitted by Stephanie T. in Infrastructure & Technology Dec. 29, 2014, 6:28 p.m.

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#1658

68 votes

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