Fan-Fiction: The New American Way of Life Options

[__CrUsHeR]

Here's a new fan-fiction about the USA in the universe of ROTR, hope you enjoy.

The Old American Way of Life

Since the end of World War Two and the defeat of the Axis the United States of America became the leading actor of the political and geographical changes of the modern world. In the late 40s began a political, social, cultural, economic and technological competition with the former Union of Soviet Socialist Republics led by Russia bi-polarizing the world into capitalist and socialist precepts. In the following decades of the 20 century the American culture was disseminated around the world through the capitalist ideology that evolved supplying the huge and growing demand of the post-war consumer markets: thus consolidating the American hegemony, especially after the collapse of the socialist bloc. On the wake of these events was born the 'American way of life' which comprising a mixture of nationalism and consumerism being this one a model to be exported of the world.

This way of life so influential worldwide for long prioritized - sometimes only in theory - the practicality, comfort, luxury, ostentation, democracy, justice, equality and freedom of expression for all above other factors or values, sustained by strong investments in advertising and a simplified constitution with well-defined self-protectionist parameters. As part of this 'Americanised system' also have formatted the basic educational training and the media - especially the televised journalism - while that the Hollywood produced successful films which exalting and priding the American society and consequently the most of the Western world; with this imaginary implanted of an genuine way of life has solidified a 'American collective consciousness' that has been preserved intact for generations - more than a century - that the USA would indeed 'the best' and 'the fairer' among states and societies - which were often characterized and stereotyped in different shades of gray from this perspective.

Even with the end of the two great world wars in Europe, the Cold War, with the consolidation of capitalism and the dolar as the dominant economic model in the world the creation of regulatory organizations such as the UN and NATO the USA has continued to invest heavily in its army claiming it would be necessary to have armed forces numerous and ultra-modern to ensure the defense of its interests - and the interests of its strategic allies - against any eventual enemy or opposition.

In the early 21st century the patriotic spirit and the way of life of Americans were abruptly shaken by the terrorist attacks of September 11th and the chaos and confusion have turned upside down, for the first time in history, all the foundations of this system. With a tide of destruction, prejudices and fear the Americans felt cornered by the hands of unknown enemies which soon revealed its true face: the terrorist organization Al-Qaeda of the Osama Bin Laden. The Mujahedin fundamentalist had ties with Al-Qaeda composed by revolutionaries that settled in the Middle East thanks to the political initiatives of the CIA against his old Soviet enemies; however in the medium term the plan backfired and the strategy 'in the American way' failed ironically culminating in the attacks against the homeland.

The response from the government to the most terrible tragedy of the country was the recommendation for the population to 'consume more' - which in the short term has proven to be other error - to revive the economy at the same time began the preparations for the First Global War on Terror which led the Yankees to the Middle East where he fought against Talibans in Afghanistan, regular troops in Iraq - and later militia - alleging the existence of 'weapons of mass destruction', Libya to the deposition of a dictatorial government and conducted in the Pakistan - violating the country's airspace - an operation of 'search and destroy' against the mastermind of the September 11th attacks, Osama Bin Laden; all these countries, cultures and societies have the direct influence of the United States and the western coalition formed to occupations, and throughout the decade of 20 the political/military victory desired by Americans became costly and far from being achieved due to strong armed resistance promoted by terrorists, radicals and militants remembering the inglorious tragedy of the Vietnam War.

As a 'dark age' or depression once again the lifestyle of Americans has been put to the test, this time by a crisis caused by fiscal irresponsibility of outdated neoliberal policies adopted by the government that led to the breakup of the 'housing bubble' that affected the domestic economy spreading quickly to the rest of the world. The American society that had become accustomed to unbridled consumption of goods and services hit the brakes due to high prices motivated by rising inflation generating social insecurity that would affect all classes. Not take long for industrial metropolises entered in decadence as a direct consequence of the economic decline of the country, without a solution in sight traditional large factories closed their doors and resign a large part of its employees which in turn increased inequality and poverty as an outbreak.

In the next decade a new Congress attitude face the crisis and the intense popular pressure caused which the troops in the occupied territories gradually to return go home, leaving behind open wounds of a dual world divided by ethnocentric authoritarianism of the Westerners and fundamentalism extremism of the Mujahedin and their support groups.

During the military inertia the USA in the Middle East after an forced 'winning propaganda' in the First Global War on Terror - as in the case of Vietnam - and an irresponsible position of Russia in relation to terrorism in your satellite-states a vacuum of power has made that 'all worst evils united' under the banner of Global Libertation Army - the newest archenemy of Americans - on a breeding ground for terrorism in the East.

Once again in history the USA has assumed the role of 'universal police' against an enemy, joining efforts with the China - an emerging superpower - and other partner nations on the campaign of 'Second Global War on Terror', come to engage in full war only in 2026 after the terrible chemical-nuclear attack against the naval base in Narvik, Norway, recalling the tragedy of Pearl Harbor and the World Trade Center. In this war that was the most intense since the end of World War II the Americans focused on rooting out the GLA terrorism, for it tearing conventions and treaties on the restriction of the use of unconventional weapons as well have made use of various means of intelligence - dirtiest than the First GWOT - scandalizing the headlines around the world with one more episode against the human rights on the pretext to defend themselves against the 'invisible enemy' which at any moment, as an nightmare, could once again bring chaos and fear into the United States.

The year 2027 proved to be for the Americans was one of the worst since the beginning of the GWOT campaign and the war against the GLA: the aircraft carrier USS Ronald Reagan was shipwrecked on the coast of Greece and the USEUCOM headquarters in Germany was destroyed deteriorating the Pentagon's image causing which all troops involved in overseas conflicts returned to home; the fear stopped the nation again and the crisis asleep was back with great force. At this point the presidential speeches were not enough to calm fears before the crisis that dissolved the law and order; there was no longer the feeling of doubt, only the feeling of disappointment: the America had failed socially, culturally, economically, politically and militarily and the 21 century seemed to be a lost era.

The New American Way of Life

In the half decade that followed the Americans were limited to passively watching the events unfolding around the world, still traumatized by negative experencias the recent past. The same television stations that proudly showed to the whole world he glorious deeds of America now gave space to China which saved Europe from the grip of terror as well as financed the reconstruction of war-torn continent, also showed the inauguration of the modern and promising East Star space station besides consolidating the position of China as an superpower through the GAPA.

In these hard times which comprise the 'Two Global wars on terror, 2001-2011; 2019-2028 and Global Financial Crisis, 2008-2019' the 'American way of life' has undergone several changes which in turn also reflected in the government's stance face several unprecedented crises. Certainly the biggest changes were internal: after September 11 the security agencies improved the projects of global espionage, possibly scouring the privacy of virtually every common American archiving your data as a 'Big Brother'; another controversy measure that gained momentum after the terrorist attacks was the polemical 'Patriot Act' which allowed that the government restrict the lives of citizens without prior judicial authorization, among other 'facilities' that diminished democracy and the right to freedom. Reactionary/libertarian movements gained strength within the country insofar as the government became increasingly authoritarian feeding the idea of a police state that self-preserving against its own people. All these unpopular actions coupled with the poor condition of basic systems: health, safety and education - especially after the period of prolonged crisis - were piling up and eventually as a result of the inexorable pragmatism forming thinkers skeptics, apolitical and extremely criticisms concerning the 'Old American way of life' - much valued, encouraged and defended in the past century.

For the Americans reached the 'point of balance' for the 'new American way of life' - as it was called by the intellectuals, political analysts and the media - profound changes were discussed in the political sphere, and rulers proved susceptible to these changes by understand its benefits to the nation as a more sustainable and fair option for the future. In the package of changes for the "new American way of life' were are included education reform, health and safety, as well as a constitucinal and legal reform in order to better benefit the people above the interests exclusively of state; the neoliberal rules of an economy where the state's interference are minimal were changed, as a direct result of this new administration the state was modernized meeting the new social demands with a real public healthcare service that actually invests in the wellbeing of its citizens; for this in order to preserve the quality of the health system and at the same time reduce the exorbitant costs the laws preventing the sale of health insurance over state lines were repealed breaking up monopolies and allowing insurance companies over and to undercut thus creating a free-market solution to the cost question. Tort reform was conducted too, lowering medical costs as doctors no longer had to worry about unscrupulous lawyers threatening their livelihood with fraudulent malpractice suits. The Department of Education has been completely redesigned allowing for private competition in the education industry, and subsidized vouchers for private schools were made more widely available for poorer families for their children to attend private schools if they so wish. The basic education abandoned the counterproductive fordist model of the last century and included in the new school curriculum disciplines like philosophy and sociology in order to stimulate the formation of a more refined intellect.

The Americans finally learned after the hard period of economic recession to diminish its dependence on non-durable goods and services have become more responsible, concerned about the sustainability at the same time not compromised the quality of life, and began to envision novelties how the electric cars, solar energy, wind energy and cold fusion. Generally the dependence of oil and derivatives decreased considerably after the changes of power sector that replaced most of the fuel for ethanol, as derived from crops such as corn and soybeans.

On the reformulation of the laws the 'Patriot Act' was repealed bringing back to the citizens your rights before the September 11th limiting the powers of the state; an evolution was also the criminalization of racism on American territory banning groups that encourage racial segregation. To ensure that past mistakes are not perpetuated again a new constitutional amendment was created, in this law is forbidden to government support, finance or train any group, organization or entity outside the United States of America to avoid the emergence of new extremist movements like Al-Quaeda or the GLA. Another significant constitutional change that has come to strengthen the democracy making it indeed a 'full democracy' was the changes on how the elections are conducted in the United States; instead of a complex procedure that enables a possible fraud a more simplified and transparent process where the future governor/president was chosen through a local referendum.

Illegal forms of mass espionage promoted by infamous NSA around the world have also been completely reworked being no longer possible to archive data from common citizens in central storage without a real suspicion of threat; new surveillance systems can only monitor Americans under judicial authorization and monitoring of persons outside the United States - exceptional cases - is necessary that the President authorize the action and he is responsible for the direct consequent political implications of these actions thus avoiding abuses and errors of agencies against innocents.

The way that Washington foreign policy was conducted also changed; instead of imposing a global hegemony came to accept a bilateral and bipolarized world with China and later with ECA abandoning the intransigent measures of the past such as economic embargoes, also came to respect more the international law - although not have banned some of its more polemical war weapons as drones and microwaves. The military continued to play an important role in the preservation of democracy within and outside the USA, but unlike the past now were no longer an instrument for imposing democracy or the reversal of an political state, served for purposes of real peacekeeping and to defend exclusively legitimate interests of the United States against global threats such as GLA and other terrorist organizations.

The police forces of the United States turned its origins as a community policeman and friend of the population and not as a paramilitary anti-terrorist group for domestic purposes as had been characterized in the decades of paranoia. This model of integrated police proved to be more efficient to work with society naturally being more effective against crime.

These measures which comprise the "new American way of life' rejuvenated the democracy and the economy bringing more prestige and respect for the American people, serving as a platform for an even more ambitious project of integration between sisters nation: United States, Mexico and Canada, thus making a more cohesive North America through the North American Union - 2033 - which bring back on track the America's economy. With an greater integration and acceptance of the Mexicans being part of American society flourished a new horizon for relations among Latin Americans and North Americans making the schisms of the past a turning page.

The 'New American Way of Life' did not change the whole society to the point of becoming an authentic American in a person unrecognizable but undoubtedly made ​​them to be a more humble and kind society without necessarily losing their secular patriotism; also gained more respect and admiration of foreigners being considered much more of what was once became a model country, worthy to be in fact what it is: a cultural, technological and military superpower and the world's largest economy.


Note01: if you find any error let me know so I can fix.
Note02: made some changes in the fan-fiction making it compatible with the ideas of MARS. Thanks for the suggestions.
Note03: added content about education and healthcare. Thanks DerKrieger for your valuable contribution.

This post has been edited by __CrUsHeR: 4 Jul 2014, 16:01

[__CrUsHeR]

Up this; for some unknown reason this post was not at the top as the last post and I also do not receive +1 on the number of posts, then just up.

[Svea Rike]

Hmm, very intereting fic, Crusher. Been wanting to read more about the United States society.

[__CrUsHeR]

^ Thanks.

Made some changes in the fan-fiction making it compatible with the ideas of MARS. Thanks for the suggestions.

[Cobretti]

Looks alright, but there are some aspects that don't make sense or are incorrect.

The Mujahedin fundamentalist that had turned into Al-Qaeda were revolutionaries that settled in the Middle East thanks to the political initiatives of the CIA against his old Soviet enemies; however in the medium term the plan backfired and the strategy 'in the American way' failed ironically culminating in the attacks against the homeland.

The claim that the CIA founded Al-Qaeda is an insane conspiracy theory along the lines of "the moon landing was fake" or "the Holocaust was a hoax." The CIA did aid the mujahideen against the USSR during the 1980s Afghan War but the Afghan mujahideen was an extremely ideologically diverse group that only had a very loose connection to Al-Qaeda.

The response from the government to the most terrible tragedy of the country was the recommendation for the population to 'consume more' - which in the short term has proven to be other error - to revive the economy at the same time began the preparations for the First Global War on Terror which led the Yankees to the Middle East where he fought against Talibans in Afghanistan, regular troops in Iraq - and later militia - alleging the existence of 'weapons of mass destruction' - proven a controversy fabricated fraud - Libya to the deposition of a dictatorial government and conducted in the Pakistan - violating the country's airspace - an operation of 'search and destroy' against the mastermind of the September 11th attacks, Osama Bin Laden; all these countries, cultures and societies have the direct influence of the United States and the western coalition formed to occupations, and throughout the decade of 20 the political/military victory desired by Americans became costly and far from being achieved due to strong armed resistance promoted by terrorists, radicals and militants remembering the inglorious tragedy of the Vietnam War.

Not much of a "fraud" when every intelligence organization in the world - and the Iraqi military right before the invasion - believed that it was very likely that Saddam had NBC weaponry. If it was a fraud, US Special Forces would have infiltrated the weapons labs before regular Coalition forces got there, inserted a few vials of anthrax or something, and there would have been a huge media blitz.

As a 'dark age' or depression once again the lifestyle of Americans has been put to the test, this time by a crisis caused by fiscal irresponsibility of outdated neoliberal policies adopted by the government that led to the breakup of the 'housing bubble' that affected the domestic economy spreading quickly to the rest of the world.

...the neoliberal rules of an economy where the state's interference are minimal were changed,

These much maligned neoliberal economics are responsible for high prosperity in the West, and had nothing to do with the collapse of the housing bubble, caused by government owned industry's interference in the housing market. Furthermore, since "reactionary/libertarian" movements grew in prominence after the GWOT, it seems extremely unlikely that there would be any further regulation of the US economy, in fact there would be the opposite. Its more likely that wasteful federal red tape and taxation would be done away with, allowing for greater economic growth and competition between various firms and industries.

meeting the new social demands with a real public healthcare service that actually invests in the wellbeing of its citizens,

public safety also improved with a new policy on the acquisition of weapons by the population and civilian needs to undergo a psychological evaluation to be allowed to acquiring the gun.

See "reactionary/libertarian" in the last paragraph. More likely is that the government backed monopolies protecting the high costs of healthcare would be abolished, creating a free market in health care services in the US and lowering costs drastically.

For a state moving away from higher government control and police statism any infringement on the Second Amendment would be opposed. "Psychological evaluations" could easily be manipulated to deny many citizens their Second Amendment rights, just as "literacy tests" in the post-Civil War southeast were used to prevent blacks from voting.

The Americans finally learned after the hard period of economic recession to diminish its dependence on non-durable goods and services have become more responsible, concerned about the sustainability at the same time not compromised the quality of life, and began to envision novelties how the electric cars, solar energy, wind energy and cold fusion. Generally the dependence of oil and derivatives decreased considerably after the changes of power sector that replaced most of the fuel for ethanol, as derived from crops such as corn and soybeans.

Ethanol is a boondoggle that leads to widespread food shortages in the Third World. Cold fusion is a plausible alternative given the setting, as is synthetic/vat-grown hydrocarbons or fuel extracted from US territory.

an evolution was also the criminalization of racism on American territory banning groups that encourage racial segregation. To ensure that past mistakes are not perpetuated again a new constitutional amendment was created, in this law is forbidden to government support, finance or train any group, organization or entity outside the United States of America to avoid the emergence of new extremist movements like Al-Quaeda or the GLA. Another significant constitutional change that has come to strengthen the democracy making it indeed a 'full democracy' was the changes on how the elections are conducted in the United States; instead of a complex procedure that enables a possible fraud a more simplified and transparent process where the future governor/president was chosen through a local referendum.

See "police stateism" on the last paragraph. Racism is already taboo in the US, enough that saying a racial slur 30 years ago can get even a popular TV personality fired. Criminalization is a wonderfully Orwellian concept that could be used to justify all sorts of abuse. The second point would never happen, see the first argument I made. If that was the case the US wouldn't be helping the ECA or anyone else fight Russia. The Electoral College is never going away either as long as people with functioning brains are in charge, direct democracy is a terrible idea and the Founding Fathers knew it.

[__CrUsHeR]

Looks alright, but there are some aspects that don't make sense or are incorrect.

The claim that the CIA founded Al-Qaeda is an insane conspiracy theory along the lines of "the moon landing was fake" or "the Holocaust was a hoax." The CIA did aid the mujahideen against the USSR during the 1980s Afghan War but the Afghan mujahideen was an extremely ideologically diverse group that only had a very loose connection to Al-Qaeda.

Okay, fixed.

Not much of a "fraud" when every intelligence organization in the world - and the Iraqi military right before the invasion - believed that it was very likely that Saddam had NBC weaponry. If it was a fraud, US Special Forces would have infiltrated the weapons labs before regular Coalition forces got there, inserted a few vials of anthrax or something, and there would have been a huge media blitz.

Particularly believe it is in fact a fraud - amateur - because a serious security agency would not work on an secondhand academic job; was a pretext to justify a disastrous action. I will removing this statement because in the fact it is is not a consensus, just a logical deduction.

These much maligned neoliberal economics are responsible for high prosperity in the West, and had nothing to do with the collapse of the housing bubble, caused by government owned industry's interference in the housing market. Furthermore, since "reactionary/libertarian" movements grew in prominence after the GWOT, it seems extremely unlikely that there would be any further regulation of the US economy, in fact there would be the opposite. Its more likely that wasteful federal red tape and taxation would be done away with, allowing for greater economic growth and competition between various firms and industries.

Actually what the neoliberalism defend is no direct government interference in the internal affairs of the economy, only in the external through protective measures; was for this reason that the 'housing bubble' breakup; the government only bothered to provide credit claiming that banks should take advantage of the 'neoliberal economic freedom' to capitalize; how the United States is the largest economy of the neoliberal capitalist world this negative example demonstrates for the government of the other countries that follow this model what is happens when there is not any interference by the government to regulate the economy and only incentives for capitalization: economic mayhem. So this idea seems to be correct as it was exposed.

See "reactionary/libertarian" in the last paragraph. More likely is that the government backed monopolies protecting the high costs of healthcare would be abolished, creating a free market in health care services in the US and lowering costs drastically.

The same explanation above; healthcare in the United does not work because it is based on the neoliberal system that prioritizes the private rather than the public - which in turn receives minimal incentives by the government; although I have not gone into details about it - the idea of ​​a new model of health where the state invests in public more and regulates the private stipulating standards and costs in favor of the citizen is defended here.

For a state moving away from higher government control and police statism any infringement on the Second Amendment would be opposed. "Psychological evaluations" could easily be manipulated to deny many citizens their Second Amendment rights, just as "literacy tests" in the post-Civil War southeast were used to prevent blacks from voting.

It is a possible interpretation, however within the set of measures proved to be something reasonable and friendly by the government reduced its authoritarianism on the people passing a new air of confidence into a relationship of power.

Ethanol is a boondoggle that leads to widespread food shortages in the Third World. Cold fusion is a plausible alternative given the setting, as is synthetic/vat-grown hydrocarbons or fuel extracted from US territory.

I already read these theses before however seems to be a myth as a disincentive for the ethanol production in favor of the oil and its derivatives - a more lucrative market - because you can utilize the bagasse eg corn to produce ethanol and not necessarily the grains; only part of the production was destined for biofuel production.

I am not an advocate of encouraging the exploitation of hydrocarbons or fuel to be harmful to the soil causing contamination that may cause serious damage to agriculture, although it is a cheap method; this is the danger: supporting inexpensive measures without taking into account the risks to human life.

See "police stateism" on the last paragraph. Racism is already taboo in the US, enough that saying a racial slur 30 years ago can get even a popular TV personality fired. Criminalization is a wonderfully Orwellian concept that could be used to justify all sorts of abuse. The second point would never happen, see the first argument I made. If that was the case the US wouldn't be helping the ECA or anyone else fight Russia. The Electoral College is never going away either as long as people with functioning brains are in charge, direct democracy is a terrible idea and the Founding Fathers knew it.

The idea of changing the voting system in the USA is something that has been proposed by MARS; I bet on this particular idea as something positive because it increases transparency; an interesting point about the question is that a model with more than 200 years can easily be mistaken for today and more than 70% of countries in the world adopt the traditionally democratic models, all these nations were conspiring against the people?

If you observe how the idea was built eventually the USA turns to support ECA - this is not depicted on this story - against Russia by actually having reached a new level of libertarian aspirations as formerly; but this is only possible because there is a good domestic example in combating of racism and inequality.
----

Thank you for your valuable contribution to further improve the contents of this fan-fiction.

This post has been edited by __CrUsHeR: 3 Jul 2014, 19:37

[Cobretti]

Actually what the neoliberalism defend is no direct government interference in the internal affairs of the economy, only in the external through protective measures; was for this reason that the 'housing bubble' breakup; the government only bothered to provide credit claiming that banks should take advantage of the 'neoliberal economic freedom' to capitalize; how the United States is the largest economy of the neoliberal capitalist world this negative example demonstrates for the government of the other countries that follow this model what is happens when there is not any interference by the government to regulate the economy and only incentives for capitalization: economic mayhem. So this idea seems to be correct as it was exposed.

The same explanation above; healthcare in the United does not work because it is based on the neoliberal system that prioritizes the private rather than the public - which in turn receives minimal incentives by the government; although I have not gone into details about it - the idea of ​​a new model of health where the state invests in public more and regulates the private stipulating standards and costs in favor of the citizen is defended here.

What neoliberal/libertarian economics advocate is separation of state and economy; the Wall Street bailouts and federal manipulation of the housing market was anything but neoliberal. The US is not the libertarian economic paradise some people think it is, sadly. For a system as complex as the US healthcare system, the large and unwieldy federal government is utterly unsuited to deal with.

It is a possible interpretation, however within the set of measures proved to be something reasonable and friendly by the government reduced its authoritarianism on the people passing a new air of confidence into a relationship of power.

Police statism with a smiley face is still police statism. Given how firearms ownership has strongly increased among Americans and the liberalization of firearms regulation has also increased, any restriction of constitutional rights would likely go over like a lead balloon.

The idea of changing the voting system in the USA is something that has been proposed by MARS; I bet on this particular idea as something positive because it increases transparency; an interesting point about the question is that a model with more than 200 years can easily be mistaken for today and more than 70% of countries in the world adopt the traditionally democratic models, all these nations were conspiring against the people?

If you observe how the idea was built eventually the USA turns to support ECA - this is not depicted on this story - against Russia by actually having reached a new level of libertarian aspirations as formerly; but this is only possible because there is a good domestic example in combating of racism and inequality.

I seriously doubt it would improve transparency. The Electoral College has existed as long as the US has and it would have several negative side effects. Large states such as California, Texas, New York, and Florida, with populations in the tens of millions, would dominate federal politics and smaller, less populated states like Vermont, Wyoming, and so on (populations in the hundreds of thousands) would be shut out almost completely out of government.

[MARS]

My main input to this was to add a bit more material on the post GWOT period. Regarding 'direct democracy', I was mostly thinking of city-, county- or state-level referendums on certain subjects that wouldn't have to be covered by federal legislation and could differ from place to place, which from what I understand would tie in with a 'small government' approach on certain things. Naturally, this wouldn't be applied to huge, national-level policy decisions. Also, note that I merely wanted to let Crusher tell his story, not every fic is automatically treated as canon by default. I'll probably go over all of that once 1.85 is out and assess which stories/concepts up to that point fit in.

[__CrUsHeR]

What neoliberal/libertarian economics advocate is separation of state and economy; the Wall Street bailouts and federal manipulation of the housing market was anything but neoliberal. The US is not the libertarian economic paradise some people think it is, sadly. For a system as complex as the US healthcare system, the large and unwieldy federal government is utterly unsuited to deal with.

Correct, is not an economic paradise but tries to be - which is not a problem - the problem is to prioritize the investment of human capital; a basic example: investing in the private sector instead of the public alleging that the public 'does not work' for being 'too expensive' or 'too complex', the question is: rules to capital or to people? If a health system is a failure need to be rescued, even if it costs expensive, because the government is for the people and not for the private sector, this is the point here, so neoliberal policies go against human precepts in favor of aristocratic principles ; why some European countries have totally excellent public services and quality and this reality can not be exported to the USA? Answer: because this states abandoned the neo-liberal model towards a social model; what the USA must seek to do - and gradually is already doing.

Police statism with a smiley face is still police statism. Given how firearms ownership has strongly increased among Americans and the liberalization of firearms regulation has also increased, any restriction of constitutional rights would likely go over like a lead balloon.

A valid point, I'll removing this part of the fan-fiction.

I seriously doubt it would improve transparency. The Electoral College has existed as long as the US has and it would have several negative side effects. Large states such as California, Texas, New York, and Florida, with populations in the tens of millions, would dominate federal politics and smaller, less populated states like Vermont, Wyoming, and so on (populations in the hundreds of thousands) would be shut out almost completely out of government.

Seems to be reasonable.

[__CrUsHeR]

My main input to this was to add a bit more material on the post GWOT period. Regarding 'direct democracy', I was mostly thinking of city-, county- or state-level referendums on certain subjects that wouldn't have to be covered by federal legislation and could differ from place to place, which from what I understand would tie in with a 'small government' approach on certain things. Naturally, this wouldn't be applied to huge, national-level policy decisions. Also, note that I merely wanted to let Crusher tell his story, not every fic is automatically treated as canon by default. I'll probably go over all of that once 1.85 is out and assess which stories/concepts up to that point fit in.

Okay, I'm considering the prospect of DerKrieger now and your idea sounds interesting - more detailed than the way I have outlined the process - you could make it better and send me a passage or new paragraph for me to make the change in fan-fiction?

This post has been edited by __CrUsHeR: 3 Jul 2014, 21:07

[Cobretti]

Correct, is not an economic paradise but tries to be - which is not a problem - the problem is to prioritize the investment of human capital; a basic example: investing in the private sector instead of the public alleging that the public 'does not work' for being 'too expensive' or 'too complex', the question is: rules to capital or to people? If a health system is a failure need to be rescued, even if it costs expensive, because the government is for the people and not for the private sector, this is the point here, so neoliberal policies go against human precepts in favor of aristocratic principles ; why some European countries have totally excellent public services and quality and this reality can not be exported to the USA? Answer: because this states abandoned the neo-liberal model towards a social model; what the USA must seek to do - and gradually is already doing.

Except that the current Nordic model is more free market than the current American one. Sweden doesn't have a government controlled monopoly on health care and education, unlike what US leftists want, they allow private health-care providers and schools to compete with the government for business. The trouble is provincial American leftists want to emulate the Swedish model of the 1970s, which the Swedes and other Nordic countries have been abandoning due to high costs and inefficiency. Perhaps the US in the RotR timeline has adopted something similar to the current Swedish model in education and healthcare, or has just abandoned the current pro-business/pro-big government stance towards healthcare and innovation by dismantling the Department of Education (giving education back to the states and private organizations) and repealing the laws preventing health services from being sold across state lines (which encourages monopolies as the top two-three health insurance providers in a given state would collude to take control of health insurance sales and keep others out of business).

[__CrUsHeR]

Except that the current Nordic model is more free market than the current American one. Sweden doesn't have a government controlled monopoly on health care and education, unlike what US leftists want, they allow private health-care providers and schools to compete with the government for business. The trouble is provincial American leftists want to emulate the Swedish model of the 1970s, which the Swedes and other Nordic countries have been abandoning due to high costs and inefficiency. Perhaps the US in the RotR timeline has adopted something similar to the current Swedish model in education and healthcare, or has just abandoned the current pro-business/pro-big government stance towards healthcare and innovation by dismantling the Department of Education (giving education back to the states and private organizations) and repealing the laws preventing health services from being sold across state lines (which encourages monopolies as the top two-three health insurance providers in a given state would collude to take control of health insurance sales and keep others out of business).

It seems fair, if you are interested in contributing to this fan-fiction sending me this snippet and I will change the content of the original text.

EDIT: added content about education and healthcare. Thanks DerKrieger for your valuable contribution.

This post has been edited by __CrUsHeR: 4 Jul 2014, 15:59