A mildly interesting list of proposed amendments that didn't pass
I saw this circulating around and thought it was an interesting read.
Some of these are horrendous, some are funny, and a few made me think "Hmm, maybe not a bad idea"
That 1876 session sounds lit
We should revisit those. The senate thing could be moderated with each state getting an extra two representatives. I’d add to the “no religious leader can hold office” one that churches are no longer tax-exempt by default, they can file as a 501(c)3 like every other charitable organization and show the community work they’re doing.
Some of these are bangers but others are utterly deplorable.
United States of Earth is hilarious
Arooo.
Thinking way down the road
USE! USE!
As a layperson who hasn't given it too much thought, the 1916 sounds interesting. I assume they'd only use a small percentage of volunteers since having 200 million new soldiers would be a bit unmanageable. The pessimist in me thinks they'd just do "military exercises" and never actually go to war and a vote though 😔
Registering to volunteer would basically be the same as the current requirement to register for selective service (the draft). It doesn't mean they need to immediately start serving, just that they need to volunteer and serve when needed.
"Don't cast the vote unless you're on the boat".
As former infantry, I complete approve.
But as someone involved in a large group that does a lot of peacekeeping, I think our obligation to the UN is important and needs to be stepped-up to give the UN some teeth.
Interesting yes, but also idiotic.
I propose the following law: whether or not the country should have sewage should be put to vote, and all those who vote yes shall be employed as sewage workers.
Or even the opposite: whether or not the country should treat the sick should be put to vote, and all those who vote yes will be signed up for medical school.
Now do you want to have no hospitals, do you want to be a doctor, or are you open to the idea that there may be people professionally in the service of the public and the public may have an opinion and possibly a say on how and when those professionals should be used?
I think this thought experiment is only around voting on things that would cause harm to citizens. If you're willing to vote to send people to their death, you'd better be willing to join the list.
Like people frequently say representatives who vote against health care coverage for all should have their coverage taken away and they solely rely on private as well
This was an interesting comment that's opened my mind a little, so thanks for that.
How about: "conscripts can only be sourced from those who voted yes"?
There's a word for people who want other people to be sent out to fight on their behalf but aren't willing to put their own lives on the line: chickenhawk.
Difference being that the military, and particularly infantry, is legit the only job where it's acceptable for you to return home in a body bag.
In 1916, maybe it would've been a different story, but these days, I don't understand it. I honestly don't see how any millennial, gen X, or boomer veteran can be proud of their service or what they offered to the country. They should be pissed the fuck off. They didn't serve to defend our country. They served as a human shield to corporate profits.
They put their lives on the line for a paltry salary, and more recently an education. Which itself is fucking bullshit. I mean, nothing against those who served for the GI bill. Good for you. But it's fucked up that it came to that, given how much a college education costs the rest of the western world.
1933 :(
Right? How different would things look today?
It would be common knowledge that deflation is good solely because it benefits those at $1mil
Not much, rich people are usually smart enough to go around this sort of stuff. This is the company yacht, this penthouse is my office I just happen to live in, I am akshually a cayman citizen, etc etc.
Plus wealthy people usually don’t have a lot of cash, because keeping cash means losing money to inflation - I bet a lot of billionaires don’t have one million dollars in the bank even now.
I like the 1916 one. A lot, actually.
Shouldn't be an amendment, but we should impose a "securities" tax to achieve something like the $1 million limit on personal wealth.
An annual, 1% tax on stocks, bonds, mutual funds, and other financial instruments, payable in shares of that security. (Which will then be slowly liquidated on the open market, such that the liquidated shares never comprise more than 1% of traded volume in any given time period)
The first $10 million directly held by a natural person are exempt from this tax.
Wealth isn't problematic in and of itself. The issue is when wealth is used primarily to purchase wealth-generating assets, rather than the products and services that generate wealth for workers.
No make it an amendment so the rich who want to be richer have a much harder time abolishing it. And since you can't stop the worst people from getting rich, it's better to do an across the board blanket ceiling. If you can't control the assholes, you have to say least throttle them.
I'm guessing the Council of Three got shot down because the office of the President shouldn't be that powerful anyway. And yet we slowly made it that way.
The office of the president is so powerful because congress keeps passing more and more responsibility to the office.
Congress is supposed to declare war, but they give the president a bunch of limited power and follow their lead when it comes to military actions.
Congress is supposed to create the budget, but they start with a proposed budget from the president.
Congress is supposed to be the ones leading legislative change in general, but they defer most of that to the president.
etc.
Take a look at switzerland to see how this could turn out :) (obligatory swiss patriotism)
Adding to this, I surmise that the inevitable comparisons to the triumvirates of republican Rome would not have gone over very well. I wonder if that was brought up at all when it was brought to the floor for discussion.
1893 and 1933 sound so coool
No army, no too rich people
2nd and 3rd and last all sound top-notch.
Based Based Based Cringe Based Cringe Cringe Cringe Based (lol) Based Based Cringe Cringe Cringe Based
No senate? and deconstructing the US Military before the World War Era? What?
I don't know about the second one - people shouldn't be discriminated based on religion, so is it really right to discriminate against "religious leaders"? That goes a step beyond separating religion from law and into hindering people based on their beliefs.
1948 isn't a bad one, but you have to accept being relocated to a shitty reservation. A Christian Nationalist lunatic reservation would make everything so much better for the rest of us.
this is highly interesting
1894 amendment would've gone hard
edit: guess who was high and misread that 🙃
Nah your god is the enemy of us all, was never on your side.
Did you think it was about seperating church and state?
lol yep. leaving it up as a warning about the dangers of marijuana haha
A limit of $1 million in 1933 inflation adjusted would be $24.4 million today.
How would that work with inflation / deflation I wonder, you hit the limit, can't make anymore, you retire, all is well. Then what, you need to get rid of 5% of your wealth? How do you define the limit, dollars in X year? Why that arbitrary amount?
A progressive wealth tax with the final bracket being 100% at $24.4 million.
We make minimum wage an arbitrary amount untied to inflation. This would be the same.
Tie it to inflation, set the number high enough to maintain an upscale property and life for 100 years (that way babies inheriting money won't suffer), and enforce it via military strikes on offenders and their families.
I love that amendment, and have wanted it to exist for years. Nice to see I'm not the only person to come up with it.
The inflation calculators you use are wrong.
$1 million in 1933 would buy you several mansions, a fleet of cars, a couple of aeroplanes, and you'd have enough left over to provide you're grandchildren with trust funds.
https://data.bls.gov/cgi-bin/cpicalc.pl?cost1=1000000&year1=193301&year2=202409