If it's such a great idea ...

Ben and I were also talking about two ideas that come up over and over:

1. if a politician wants to declare war, requiring that THEIR kids be the first ones to be sent to the front lines.

This seems like an airtight solid idea, IF you could require that EVERY country adopt it, which of course, would be impossible. So you would end up with the US declaring war right left and centre, and Europe having great difficulty responding. Also, way fewer people would want to be politicians, and/or people without kids would be much more willing to be politicians. (Those seem like small prices to pay). Also, I guess in the age of drone warfare, is a much less potent threat. Perhaps the disruption alone ...

It still might be a decent idea, though. Maybe if people in USA knew that everyone else did this, they'd be less keen to send their own kids into the meat grinder.

Maybe somehow you could craft it to only apply to offensive wars, and/or against countries that don't have the same law, or something like that.

2. make the $ value of things like traffic fines and bylaw infractions penalties proportional to the income of the person.

We must already have systems in place to identify the person to whom the fine applies and to track down their income. I can't think of a single reason not to like this idea. From a politician point of view, it seems like an almost harmless way to get a ton of attention and populist love.

There would have to be a minimum, though, so that people with $0 wouldn't just speed constantly.

I also like the idea of revoking the DL (for, say, YEARS), of knuckleheads caught going 100k over the speed limit. How about 1 year for every 10k over? Again, where is the downside to this idea? It would have to be backed up by JAIL TIME for people who drive without a licence.

In general, I'm onboard with doing everything we can to minimize jail time. But there has to be a limit. (People who drive without a licence, and/or own a motorcycle, and/or feed and/ or like crows).