Armchair governing dictator - new rule for 2025 (fun)

Many of the global or federal level issues tend to be wicked problems with lots of externalities and effects that are above my pay grade, so I'm joining much lower on the totem pole.

I'd be joining our town's municipal city council and enacting a vacancy tax - both residential and commercial. I live in an odd combination of vacation town, retirement town, and more recently, investment town. Of the roughly 12,000 homes available in the town limits, only around half are lived in full time. New buyers tend to be investors or retirees, and a solid quarter of the town is owned by 4 linage lines - or "the golden sperm club" as they are colloquially known. New projects are scuttled by NIMBYism and water restrictions, so new construction and high density construction is effectively nonexistent. Prospective retirees continue to sit on properties they leave vacant (including 3 of the 4 houses surrounding our own), unregulated airbnbs continue to expand in the face of municipal regulations to limit them, while the viable housing stock (both to rent and own) dwindles.

This has caused rents to skyrocket (~50-100% in the last 3 years) and the rental market to remain tiny, even with the incredible number of vacant homes. A progressive vacancy tax (increasing percentages based on duration of vacancy) would either garner a war chest of taxes for the city government to put towards new high density, non-market housing projects or drastically increase the number of affordable rentable properties in the town. The real magic would be the combination that would likely occur.

This vacancy tax would also apply in our downtown area where we currently have a 35% commercial vacancy rate - on our main street! Again this would help to lower rents for prospective businesses, making their endeavors less risky and their goods potentially more affordable. And for us living in town, it makes for a more vibrant and community oriented downtown.

So while it would likely be unpopular (hence the magic policy window of this thread) a vacancy tax would have by far and away the biggest impact on the local community.

The year is 2025. I usurp the throne from my 3 year old, and declare that clothes will be changed by 8am, again by 7pm each day, and at other occasional intervals such as needed for various swim and dance classes. No fussing permitted. Everyone is happy, start times not missed, bedtimes accomplished within 15 minutes.

End scene.

Thanks for the question, it's good to have these crazy dreams every once in a while.

As dictator in chief of the US, I would more or less copy the Japanese Zoning Regulations, or lackthereof, compared to the current state of the US. In particular, like in Japan, zoning power would broadly be wrestled to be controlled at a national level, so that the local democratic power of homeowners (e.g, NIMBYism) is weakened.

I tried to think of a serious answer but couldn't, so I'm going with this:

I become Queen of America. I institute UFN - Universal Free Nachos. Government-funded 24-7-365 establishments are established in towns and cities across the nation where anyone can get as many nachos as they want with a variety of toppings, completely free. A national committee of dads is tasked with naming them things like Nacho Ordinary Dinner and Chip Off The Old Block. There would be takeout and delivery options and mail service options (DIY ingredient kits) for rural residents.

Not only is the building and staffing an economic stimulus, but ingredients are sourced locally whenever possible, leading to a major surge in urban farming. Instead of suing each other in court, people work out their differences over nachos. Peace ensues, and no child ever grows up in ignorance of the joys of melted cheese.

I will be the Mighty and Supreme Leader of Canada and the hill I will die on for love of country is Electoral Reform.

Our current first-past-the-post system is a travesty, especially since we have 4 or even 5 viable options for federal politics. The unfortunate reality is that one can have a majority government where 60% of the populace voted against the party that ends up in power.

I am not a political expert, and I'm not 100% sure what system would be best, but I would likely lean towards a Proportional Representation system.

The irony of being made a supreme dictator and then implementing a rule to prevent dictatorships is not lost on me.

I have no idea how to improve one country or world with one rule or regulation that will not backfire or will be twisted in a some way. So... Any software or hardware that become obsolete, or unsupported after period of time, let's say 3 years should be open sourced. Same for books, movies, etc. If you don't sell it, in any way, then it should be public domain.

Upd: lets make it 5 year without restriction. Any creative thing should become fully open source. Thats all.

Any answer that does not directly address climate change and our upcoming near-inevitable extinction is non-viable, IMO. However, since this is tagged with fun and not be a serious downer, let's be creative. I'll assume this is an alternate universe where the world is no longer ending and basic needs are taken care of.

As Grand Benevolent Dictator of the United States for one single day, I'd establish a national service and civic engagement program aimed at redefining what it means to be an American citizen. This wouldn't quite be a mandatory draft (though I would find some way to make it extremely encouraged without necessarily forcing you into it), but an open, flexible opportunity for anyone aged 18 to 28 to engage in meaningful service across a range of pathways: rebuilding broken communities, helping the environment, or contributing to innovation and infrastructural challenges we face. Think of it as a multifaceted, mandatory-adjacent national project where young people could do anything from teaching in rural schools, to restoring forests, to working on our crumbling bridges.

Participants would earn a bonus to their Universal Basic Income (which I'm skipping over because, again, fun alternate universe where we don't have to worry about boring things like "our people dying from starvation") and access to skill-building opportunities--all within a flexible commitment ranging from six months to two years, depending on the project. The program would be designed to include and empower people from all backgrounds and abilities.

Why focus on this? Because it could address so many tangled issues at once. At a time when societal polarization is as deep as it has ever been, a program like this would create shared experiences that bridge geographic, economic, and cultural divides. It would give young people not just practical skills and career opportunities, but also a deeper sense of connection to their fellow citizens and the challenges facing us. By channeling human energy into areas like education, sustainability, and innovation, we'd be planting seeds for long-term growth and individual development. Also, moral responsibility and anti-apathy.

More than anything, it's about turning citizenship into something active and collaborative rather than passive or boorishly tribalistic. Of course, I'm aware this is the kind of grand vision that lives and dies in the fine print. Implementation would demand thoughtful design, robust funding, and a keen eye for avoiding bureaucratic pitfalls. But that's also not fun, so I won't worry about that here.

It's like pitching America as a startup for collective good--mission-driven, skill-focused, and full of potential for collaboration. Would it fix everything? No. Not even most things, probably--adults with decades of experience are probably better-positioned, intellectually speaking, to fix Major Problems™. But in my fleeting moment as Grand Benevolent Dictator, I'd like to think it would offer a little more connection, joy, and imagination. And anything that kicks apathy's ass is basically the best metagoal we can have.

If I were dictator of the world, or at least the US, I'd start a Manhattan project/moonshot type program to get us off this rock. Colonizing Mars, asteroids, and viable moons within the solar system would be a good first step, but I'd also want the program to massively fund advanced physics research to brainstorm any remotely plausible hypothetical FTL mechanisms. I'd expect that advanced energy production (e.g., fusion) would be a nice by-product of this program.

Basically, I want all the cool optimistic sci-fi stuff I read about or watched as a kid, and I'd like some redundancy in case anything catastrophic happens to Earth.

I don't feel like I know enough about the political situation in Sweden yet to start meddling, but I know exactly what I would do as Supreme Ruler of America.

We're getting rid of the "Justice" System and installing instead a "Peace and Compassion System". This is going to have a lot of moving parts, all of them equally important. We're going to tackle criminogenic conditions so we prevent crime before it even happens. We're going to establish trade schools, educational programs, and jobs programs. There is work to do, and people who need work, and we're going to connect those dots to make it easier to live in way that helps society instead of harming it. We're going to treat drug addiction as a public health issue, not a criminal issue, and those affected will receive free treatment, which will likely be assisted by the jobs program. We're going to take "white collar crime" much more seriously - wage theft, embezzlement, other currently unaddressed forms of exploitation. If you're found guilty of one of these crimes, you're banned from holding a position in which you would be capable of committing them ever again. If you're in charge of someone who commits one of these crimes once, and can prove you didn't know about it, you get to keep going. If it happens twice, you're banned as well, you should be paying more attention. No prison time or anything, you can basically just never get promoted to any level of management or above, and your assets above a reasonable living wage are confiscated and distributed amongst the people affected by your crimes. That should take care of quite a lot of poverty all on its own. We'll also work on lead abatement and other environmental toxins that might be negatively affecting impulse control, and contact sports with significant risk of head trauma are banned.

The buildings that used to be prisons and the resources that used to go towards keeping people in inhumane conditions will be retrofitted into these hospitals and educational centers, and made significantly more comfortable in doing so. There will still be some people who are dangerous and need to be sequestered from the public, but they will be kept in comfortable conditions conducive to both physical and mental health. They will be restricted only so much as is required to keep others safe, not to save money or inflict suffering. They will receive mental healthcare and if it is possible to rehabilitate them, we will work to do so. We'll be spending quite a lot of research resources on determining how feasible this is.

The police force that we have will be completely transformed. There will be an extremely small, extremely well-trained group that will still have guns and weapons and will be able to respond to violent threats, but their priority will be conflict de-escalation and preservation of life. They'll have all the equipment required to asses questionable scenes, like for example if they think someone might be holding a gun, but it's actually a toy gun or a cell phone or a toy truck. Some pretty good binoculars should do the trick. They will be deployed only in the event of an acute, violent threat, such as a mass shooting or hostage situation. Whenever possible, less volatile situations will be handled by unarmed personnel trained specifically for the issue that they are responding to. Social workers with psychological training will handle issues like truancy and mental health crises. Trained fact-finders whose only priority is determining the truth will be dispatched in the event of a crime that has already occurred and cannot be prevented. Traffic "cops" will be pairs that consist of one trained mechanic and one social worker. They'll address moving violations like speeding and drunk driving by discussing the motivations with the driver, and assisting where possible. The mechanic can address busted tail lights, blinkers, and other issues, and bill the driver a reasonable fee for any parts needed. These pairs will drive tow-trucks rather than pursuit vehicles.

The courts will be reworked so that true information is prioritized, first in determining what has occurred, and second in determining what can be done to remedy the situation. Fact finders will present any evidence that they can find to the jury, and will receive no benefit for "conviction" or "acquittal" (not sure if we'd still call them that) but rather for thoroughness and accurate conveyance of the information that they find. Panels of impartial experts will review this information and advise juries. Anyone fact-finders or experts found to have purposefully misrepresented evidence will no longer be able to participate in this process and will need to find other work. Anyone found to have done to unintentionally more than twice will no longer be able to participate in this process. I don't know how to fix juries, but we'll work on that as well.

"Sentencing" will not be done in simple terms of years or fines or community service. It will focus first on making victims whole, second on rehabilitating the offender, and a distant third on deterrence. Most crimes will result in therapy for the victim and offender, and the offender working to restore what they've taken from the victim. If that would require interaction with the victim that the victim does not feel comfortable with, the offender will be directed to alleviate that suffering in a more abstract way. For example an assailant who has a background in IT may be required to volunteer doing IT work for a clinic that treats PTSD in victims of assault.

Mmm, this one is difficult. My country, the Netherlands, has some problems that are difficult to solve without really, really pissing off one demographic or the other. That said - ending the huge factory farms for livestock, at least to the point we produce enough for ourselves rather than export, would be on my list. They slurp subsidies up, which would be far better to use to make other farms more sustainable, construct housing, and more. They're also really bad for the environment and don't get me started on the way they deal with the animals. :|

Nationalizing some parts of healthcare (ideally all but that'd be a fuckton in one go) would also be high on the list.

On something more EU-wide, streamlining our systems of rules, particularly for IT, would do us all well. The way our economies interact with each other is so complex that it's... not helpful to keep it all separate. Another one would be to have the EU parliament being able to write its own legislative proposals. The backroom politics is really not sustainable.

I become ruler of the world and now everyone has to work together to make everything better for everyone and if you're ever not making everything better for everyone, the police will have to take you to jail. And they have to continue making everything better for everyone the entire time, otherwise the secret police will get them. And if the secret police don't keep making everything better for everyone the whole time...the double secret police will be after them.