2042
Yes, I'm running for the US Senate in seventeen years. Why the wait? There are a few reasons but mainly I don't want the hassle and things need to go a little bit more to shit before I will be taken seriously. Until then all I have to offer are my opinions and policy suggestions. For example, I have an idea...
More Mail for Everyone!
Every American home, apartment, and business will receive four daily newspapers as well as twelve magazine subscriptions. This will benefit the nation, I believe, in many ways.
1) Jobs, lots and lots of jobs. There could be several different approaches, possibly tripling the size of the US Post Office. Or possibly allow private contractors to bid, under the condition that employees are given generous benefits and a living wage. Either way you would need a massive amount of labor to deliver so much. It would be mandated that all the magazines and newspapers be recycled, more jobs required. Obviously a massive increase in demand for printing businesses, still more jobs. Likely many more newspapers and magazines being created, still more jobs.
The old encomiums to capitalism just don't ring true anymore. Give a business a tax break and they'll pocket the give back or invest the money in finding a way to reduce labor costs. Much has been written about the perils of automation and artificial intelligence and I do not have any seminal observations on this but it seems likely to me that there will be a continued dying off of the middle class. Vivek Ramaswamy, often brilliant, wants to simply fire half of federal government employees. We should do the opposite, increase the size of the government work force, but have more of these jobs of a service industry nature.....for normal people. Mary Bilgebuckle won't be able to use her degree in gender studies to stroll into a 200k/year job to raise hell at the defense department, but a former soldier will have a nice job waiting for him...riding through the countryside listening to music as he brings mail to every home.
We've made a religion of hard work and efficiency in this country but in my mind there is nothing inherently wrong in providing a service that uses, god forbid, too much labor. Whether drones could do this job more cheaply is in my opinion a poor consideration. Yes, my innovative commercial-minded friends, this job should be performed by humans. I believe the rural parts of the country that are most hostile to the government would benefit the most from this program. More jobs. You might need several printing presses, a recycling plant, and fifty mail carriers to handle the workload in an area of several hundred square miles but few homes. The money would spin locally.
2) It would put our freedom of speech on sturdier ground. Right now there is a loud chorus coming from the leftist establishment media (and politicians of congruent philosophies) demanding censorship of social media, particularly Twitter, in an effort to combat "hate" and "disinformation". These efforts are, of course, intended to manage political discourse and eliminate dissent but I believe this has as much to do with wounded pride as anything. The media has for some time been considered the fourth branch of government. This role has been taken away from the mainstream media and they are angry. Their minds are obviously scrambled....our elite educations and people are somehow not taking us seriously? Why would someone listen to Joe Rogan when Paul Krugman is spitting the truth? Why would someone like the tweets of Elon Musk when Poppy Harlow is pontificating on the exact same issues? Well, basically most of you are terrible people. This is the one issue Trump got 100% right, that the biggest problem right now is the corrupt nature of our political elites (he says elite media, I would just say "elites" to give credit to the folks in Washington and our elite universities in making a mess of things). I'll return to the corrupt, malignant nature of our elites quite often but I'll just say, on top of the usual criticisms, these guys are just dull and predictable. In college I could go two weeks of classes without witnessing a flicker of consciousness. But I digress...back to the mail.
With this proposal the New York Times, for example, would increase their readership. They could proudly demonstrate their status as the nation's best newspaper to a larger audience. Their "voice" will be heard. I will likely read it and recommend it to others, as long as my right to hear other voices is not eviscerated.
3) This would lead to a more well-informed and engaged population. Well, maybe. I'm not sure about this. I equate newspaper reading with civic-mindedness. My grandfather read four newspapers a day, the local paper in Plainville Connecticut had a morning AND an afternoon edition. My other grandfather read the New York Times daily.
People are working longer and making less and more newspaper reading is not at the top of their leisure time activity. I still think cultures where information is disseminated through the written word are superior. But modern entertainment is certainly captivating, competition that the written word is not really prepared for. Few kids are going to sprint from their computers in the middle of a game of Red Dead Redemption because they hear the San Francisco Chronicle being dropped at their door. But...there are also the gamer magazines. Possibly enough print to keep the whole family happy.
Obviously this cause will have a stronger chance of success if someone out there can help me come up with a policy proposal name better than "More Mail for Everyone". Regardless, it's a good idea and should attract support from a wide spectrum of people.