10 steps to change our country for the better.

Ever since one of my mentors, Joel Salatin of Polyface Farms in Virginia, USA, wrote about the 10 things he would do in the USA if he were running for President, I have been thinking about what are the top 10 things we could do to our the beloved country. Joel’s list is here.

Mine is below.

1. Execute every convicted rapist, murderer and child trafficker. Until our women and children are safe we are going nowhere as a country. I have heard folk say that the death penalty is not a deterrent. That is only because they don’t understand English. A rapist or child trafficker who is dead is permanently deterred from committing that crime again.
2. No taxation of savings. No tax on dividends. Company tax at 20%. No income tax. No capital gains tax and only a flat consumption tax. “Wait!!! What???” I hear you say. Where is the money going to come from to run the government? I will answer that in point 6 and 7 below where I elaborate on just how small our government will become.
3. Give vouchers to parents to decide where to spend the money on education. If the modern education system was a success the world would not be in the mess that it is. Parents will push money into education that actually helps their child develop skills to live in and contribute to the world.
4. Ban Glyphosate, Atrazine and seed oils from our food system. It makes absolutely no sense to poison the population and allow “foods” that are inflammatory. Read here to understand exactly the extent to which we are being poisoned. At the same time support the widespread rollout of the loving act of regenerative agriculture which pulls carbon into the soil (read here how we could be 2.83 times net zero if we wanted to), produces nutrient dense food, designs beautiful landscapes as opposed to monocultures, creates employment and accordingly a healthier population. Develop an industry around turning the alien invasive plants into lumber and especially biochar which is the greatest soil improver. Also protect our oceans. Not only from overfishing, especially from foreign boats, but also from plastic pollution.
5. Privatise every single state institution. The government keeps 25% and a seat on the board. Electricity, ports, rail, roads, airports, driver’s licencing, SANParks, hospitals, schools etc etc. All these dysfunctional drags on our economy will be turned around by the private sector.
6. Sell all government owned property. Income for the government and less bureaucrats to spend our tax money on.
7. Fire half of all civil servants. If this happened overnight there would be absolutely no difference in how the country functioned. Our public wage bill is 13,6% of GDP. It has increased by 77% in the last decade. This is money literally wasted. Read more about this here. Close all provincial parliaments. No deputy anything (minister, director general, mayor etc, etc). No spokesmen (if a politician can’t write their own speeches they have no place in the public world). In a few years after that, fire another half and then we might be left with the workers as opposed to the parasites.
8. Abolish parliamentary lists. Only have members of Parliament (MPs) who represent an actual constituency. It is the only way to have accountability in Parliament. Remove all mayors and their fellow parasites. They are not needed if you have an MP representing you in Parliament. Keep half of the municipal officials (see 7 above).
9. Change the prison system into a stick and carrot system. No parole. All prisoners do manual labour 6 days a week. They build roads, natural filter swimming pools at schools around the country, develop syntropic farming systems. At the age of 55 they become gardeners growing organic food for their colleagues. The last 10% of their prison time is spent getting them ready to be rehabilitated into society, training them in employable skills once they get out. Form companies that employ these folk. As soon as they leave prison their criminal record is cleared. Why should they have that black mark against their name for their whole lives?
10. 50% of all minerals mined in this country to be refined here. No scrap metal is allowed to leave. The value is added in this country. We have the worlds largest reported reserves of gold, platinum group metals, chrome ore and manganese ore, and the second largest reserves of zirconium, vanadium and titanium. We should be a fabulously rich country.

There are no doubt many more items we can add to this list. What is becoming increasingly clear to me over time is that government is an impediment to growth. It is a parasite on us.

Michael Hudson, the world’s best economist, says that the hallmark of a parasite is that it persuades its host that it is necessary. Government has done exactly that.

Angus

4 March 2024