Living wages in exchange for work.
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Instead of mandatory military service like some countries have, people should have mandatory public work for two years. Whether it be labor, clerical/administrative, etc, it could help young people learn a new skill, get guaranteed work to get the started, and could potentially save a ton in taxes. It would also create the opportunity to start getting caught up some things that keep getting swept under the rug like bridge maintenance , etc.
We had something like that in Germany, if you opted out of military service, you had to do civil service instead, i.e. you had to work in an institution that provided some benefit to the general public.
Most of those jobs were healthcare related, such as working in a hospital, as ambulance driver, kindergarten teacher, assisted living helper etc., or working in a supervisory rule for a company that employed people with disabilities to make sure they don't get injured in the workplace.
Both my brother and I did it (they later scraped military service, and the civil service as a consequence), and it was really amazing. He went to work in a food factory where people with mental disabilities were employed to sort raw ingredients (think removing debris and washing fruit and vegetables for juice, yoghurt & pickling), I worked as a nurse in a hospital.
Gave both of us a good twist for our careers, he moved on to study education for people with disabilities and now works as a special ed teacher for an integrative school, I went on to work in the development aid sector all across Africa and Central Asia for years.
I read that as: They scrapped the whole thing as a consequence of you and your brother doing it? You must have been really bad.
Yeah. Similar to this I think junior high should have a bigger focus on being outside. Like one semester should be spend camping or something. Itβs such a formative time and so many kids spend it scrolling through reels. There is something so real and unforgiving about Mother Nature that a 13 year old should really know about.
the top 50% richest people should have
The rest of people are already working these mandatory jobs.
Phones should shoot landscape video even when theyβre held vertically.
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The image sensor is square... it should just shoot 1:1 scale and let you crop it to an orientation later
Most image sensors are not square, they are 4:3 or 16:9. Square sensors are typically used for more specialty applications.
I agree it could be useful on a phone to have 1:1 sensors, but I would still support the direct recording to standard video resolutions and aspect ratios as otherwise encoder limitations will affect what video you can shoot.
A robot goose with AI controlled steering
Top comment, should be pinned. We need a gaggle of these. A gagglebyte.
For me, there would be public holidays that celebrate social, cultural and scientific achievements.
A day of printing, the decoding of the human genome,... you know - real achievements, not only stories of some ancient folks being tortured to death and such.
And voting? Always felt November 4th should be a paid holiday.
Awesome idea, btw.
Nonprofit versions of vital social tech. If I had the money sitting around, I'd love to start a nonprofit dating site/app. I met my wife on OKC in 2011 before it got bought up and enshittified. It was great and wasn't geared toward just keeping you engaged (they're soooooo bad now!). You'd probably have to gatekeep it with a small fee to disincentive bots, but with a relatively small investment, you could create something really useful for folks without preying on anyone's desperation.
Signal would be a good model for this sort of thing.
Edit: typos
Actually... a Fediverse OK Cupid clone could totally be a thing... runs away to ponder
I think this might want a clean sheet design. At least as I understand it, there are issues with privacy in the fediverse/activitypub vis-a-vis non-public messages. I think it's also an area where, in order to go the most good, you'd want simple signups and easy engagement (to say nothing of being able to trust that your info has been deleted when you delete it).
Clearly, I'm here and I value the philosophical underpinnings of the fediverse, but I think it might not be the best fit for dating.
That said, if you feel like you can solve those problems, you'd be doing a world of good if you're right.
A button on the TV that would make the remote beep so you can find it
Parking lot lights, that are in/ on each space. That indicates if there is a space availableβ¦. Less driving around the lot looking for a space
I have seen these in airport parking garages - green when the spot is empty, red when occupied and visible from the end of the aisle.
What really blew my mind was seeing the exact same functionality for stalls in the restroom.
When you get to baggage claim, if you then stand directly at the carousel blocking everyone's view for more than 10 seconds, trap door opens and a system of pneumatic tubes forcibly jettisons you to the furthest point away in the airport for you to walk back.
Stand back, wait for your luggage to appear, then approach and get your bag and step back to the perimeter.
To get my VC funding in 2024, id also pitch that it "has AI" which is just facial recognition and if you get jettisoned twice in the same year, the third time goes into a shark pit or scorpion pit.
If you don't put your shopping cart away, a turret on the roof of the grocery should just fucking shoot you.
If you play music on a speaker, on public transit, the bus driver should just fucking shoot you
Prostitution legalized everywhere, with a clean and safe presentation. And nobody should judge people for it in neither side.
You know how the FTC recently banned non-compete clauses (for non-senior roles)?
They should ban the, 'and other unspecified duties as required' clauses too.
And forced arbitration should be invalidated.
Is a functional government based on logic and compassion too much to ask/too clichΓ©?
Renters rights legislation with enough teeth to make present and perspective landlords, both corporate and individual, think twice before not taking care of a property as though they lived there? (Yes, there are stories behind this one)
I guess a company that actually pays me what I'm worth (which I'm not even really looking for that much).
Customer focused companies. A middle ground between non-profit and for profit.
A law that prohibits labels from being too sticky that you can't reuse the packaging. For example, I should absolutely be able to easily peel off the labels from empty wine bottles and glass jars so I can reuse them.
Candidates for public office should be required to undergo a mental health assessment as part of the process of getting on the ballot, and those who score beyond (above or below, as may be relevant) particular thresholds are barred from seeking office.
I sincerely believe that there's no single thing we could do that would provide more benefit to the world than to get sociopaths and narcissists and megalomaniacs out of positions of power. Each and every one of the most notable and contentious politicians in the world today is, if you just take a step back and look at them honestly, blatantly profoundly mentally ill. Enough is enough.
The idea itself is fine, but in practice it wouldn't work. The kind of people you are trying to screen out in the process would just study do give the responses of a passing assessment, probably with the help of heavily paid mental health professionals.
Psicology is hard to test and prove, most of the things you are looking to test would not be visible in bloodwork or brainscans.
Not to mention, who is in control of making the tests? Mental health/aptitude tests have had a history of being at least a little bit racist, kinda like the old 'intelligence' tests that were designed to prevent black people from voting.
That'll just be used as a tool to discriminate against certain groups of people. If you standardize it to avoid any personal bias, then it'll be coachable/trainable and then people will work around it.
Imo any random person should be able to run for office
I've got another one: make Mother's and Father's Days paid work holidays!
Mandatory housing units over every strip mall and big box store in America.
Even just a few units. Hell a few mobile homes up there even would go a long way. Forced mixed use development.
Good bluetooth earbuds that are Apple earbud shaped (or an approximation far enough away to not be sued.) There's litterally "airpods," "cheap shitty airpod knockoffs," and then the largest category "skullcandy types with the bullshit in ear inserts." There's plenty of quality ones in the skullcandy style, and idk if I just have a tight earussy but they do not fit in my holes.
You should try out these so-called ear clip headphones (aka clip on buds). I got this pair at a thrift store for ~US$3 yesterday. They latch on to your ear on the outside and do not go deep into your ears. Great for tight earussies or for earussy periods.
"nap" lol
I think there should be pedestrian, bike routes separate from cars, like storefronts should face both ways, and the intersections with signals, but where practical should have bridges for the walkers, so they don't have to deal with the cars.
I also really want replicator tech, want to be able to use any input to get basically any output, at least in terms of materials. Throw in the trash, it is sorted into its component elements (safely) and then those can be combined to make clean water, salt water, building materials, whatever.
I want also a floor and walls that eat the dirt, and clothing fabric that can cool even in humidity.
Tie more positive things to the federal minimum wage, for example tax brackets and retirement fund contribution limits. They go up every single year, so the government will either have to keep raising the minimum wage or go on the record to justify why the ratio is wrong.
Retirement should be 45