Darth Jello
Cheese Spelunker
What we can do to make change (and quickly): General strike tied in a with a large, organized military desertion. As in the biggest one we can possibly organize. You do like banksters, corporations, and corrupt billionaires running the world? Slam on the breaks and watch what happens when they fly through the ****ing windshield. If you put a stop to as many financial transactions as possible for as long as possible while maintaining essential services for people who need them, you hold the most powerful class of people in the history of the world helpless and hostage. Then you start dictating terms.
Now how about long term change? Easiest thing to save the planet and make people more comfortable is to weatherize every home and install high-tech restrictors (low-flow, high pressure) on all sinks and showerheads and change out every toilet to a self-cleaning, high pressure stealth model. Then you xeriscape every lawn and put additional fuse on every circuit. Right there you cut global energy and water usage by over half and extend the life of every single electronic appliance, not to mention prevent every single carbon monoxide and asbestosis/mesotheleoma death.
The energy problem is simple. As long as we keep the big oil on a leash we can have nanophotovoltaics painted onto every wall and building and woven into every shirt, sweater, and jacket, not to mention painted on and in every car within 15 years. You power every electronic device with sunlight, ambient infrared heat, and ultraviolet rays. You could listen to your ipod and power it simultaneously with your own body heat.
Jobs? How about going back to the formula that worked. America's military is completely ****ed because all of our "strategic industries" have been shipped overseas and we are completely unprepared for an attack. That's the argument. The method? Invest in your business domestically or have your income taxed at 90%. Outsourcing? Ok, that's fine too. That'll be an additional 70% tax on every dollar. Make all your money via investment? 40% luxury tax. Cheat on your taxes? How does life and seizure of all assets sound? Corporate crime or election fraud or corruption? You get one trial, two appeals, then we line you up against a wall and shoot you until you're dead.
Here's an old gem from Teddy Roosevelt. We enforce the Sherman Anti-Trust Act. If your business controls over 55% of a market it's seized, broken up, and auctioned off. Or how about going back to dividing investment and savings banks and nationalizing all the savings banks?
Illegal immigration a problem? How about unionizing the workers and fining offending businesses massive fines with a three strikes, you're out policy? On the third strike, the union is incorporated and takes full ownership of the business and all its assets.
Nuclear threats? How about developing a satellite-mounted EM pulse based defense that would render any launched ICBM inoperable? After all, even a slight deviation in the detonation timing screws up the implosion necessary to create a controlled reaction.
There ya go, a few problems solved.