Better things are possible, or; let's think about what we really want

Look, look, I hate thinking so much about American politics; everything I've learned about it I've learned against my will (even when I've sought out knowledge it is following a compulsion I cannot temper) and everything I've learned about it has made me a little more insane. Why are they always having elections? Why do their elections take forever? Why do I always have to know about their elections? I realise that what we have learned over the past decade and change is that everyone forgetting that politics is important is what leads to politics getting very bad, but the mental load of being broadly aware of the Minnesota gubernatorial primary or whatever the fuck is too much!

But.

Sometimes there is a reward.

Sometimes there is a turn that is not just back towards the establishment left, but that is driven by arcane and complex things like actually believing in something better.

Sometimes you get something more than just keeping the worst guys out, sometimes you get actual progressives in.

Sometimes you get to see the hottest man alive condescendingly call Jorkin dePenis Vance habibi and it's like new flower buds are unfurling in your soul.

With the caveat that what has been won here is not change itself, merely the power to bring about change at it remains to be seen how and if that power is used, and with the truly heartbreaking second caveat of several transphobic down-ballot initiatives passing, the American midterms were a joy, they are reigniting hope, which we all know is important, and I thought I'd take the opportunity to talk, hopefully, about what I want for the world I live in. Some of them are for everyone, some are for just some people, but I think they'll all improve the general state of things.

These are unconnected, unfocused thoughts, you know, not in any particular order, not any set level of importance, just a list of things I think would be nice to have! In the world! If we're thinking about society improving somewhat, then let's have a fun time imagining some improvements!

Here are my very good ideas:

1. I think the salaries of politicians should be tied to the salaries of teachers, nurses, social workers, etc. These are all public service positions and they should not attract people who are driven by the acquisition of wealth. I think this would bring down the salaries of politicians and bring up the salaries of teachers, nurses, social workers, etc, and I think both those things would be good.
2. I don't think that former politicians should be pensioned off unless they are actually of a pensionable age. Liz Truss gets to claim £115,000 a year for the rest of her life which means she never has to do anything at all for money if she doesn't want to. I think once you leave public office, if you are still of working age, you should have to get a job. That way, while you are in office, you will want to support policies that are good for workers.
3. No money in politics, obviously. No donations. All campaigns have a set budget of public money that is determined by the size of the constituency.
4. Ban lobbying groups! Ban them! Consult with experts, for the love of god, look to the universities, which brings me to:
5. Fund education! Generously! Fund esoteric fields of study, you never know when you're going to need one you haven't thought of. Like, for example, mRNA.
6. Fund the humanities. Force everyone to study at least some of the humanities. Maybe pair this with certain, less human fields of study. As an example, you shouldn't be allowed to study economics without also studying history. That way you won't get situations (and I'm stealing this from Gary Stevenson) where economists insist that the industrial revolution straightforwardly led to better living standards for everyone, when in reality it led to nigh on a century of extreme poverty and deadly working conditions before worker's rights movements finally led to laws that led better living standards for everyone. In the UK, at least, the rest of the world was not so lucky.
7. Top earners at a given company shouldn't make more than ten times what the lowest earners at that company make. Bonuses included.
8. Private rental properties should not exist. Commercial and residential both, all rental properties should be owned by the state. Failing that, rents should be set by the state.
9. Obviously bring crucial services into public ownership. Trains. Water. Power. There are some things that simply should not be tied to a profit motive!
10. UBI, naturally. One of the things about a UBI that I think would be interesting is that it would show us what people want to do with their time. How they want to contribute to society. It would also show us what we really want people to be doing and should maybe be willing to pay more for them to do it.
11. Ban private equity! And venture capitalism!
12. In fact, maybe rethink the concept of investment completely! More business should be cooperatives! Down with prioritising share-holders!
13. Tax wealth and corporations aggressively.
14. It would be nice if we could agree to spend a little bit more on publicly owned infrastructure. Hospitals can be so much less depressing if we want them to be!
15. Everyone gets the option of taking a year long sabbatical once every ten years or so on full pay. Use it to travel the world if you want, have a stab at writing a novel or an opera or something, study something arcane for the hell of it! Whatever!
16. Speaking of travel, make travel nice! Try not to make economy class flights a truly dehumanising experience. In fact, get rid of economy and first, and just make everything kind of business classy, but at a reasonable price. You don't need to be cramming everyone in there like that!
17. Obviously I believe in a UBI in general, but failing that I think there should be an artists' UBI that is funded by the sale of all the work that is in the public domain. Where publishers no longer have to pay royalties to a book's author, they should instead be paying into a fund, for example, that then supports the careers of today's authors. When an art collector sells a piece by a living artist, that artist should obviously get a significant cut; when an art collector sells a piece by a dead artist, that significant cut should instead go to a similar fund for visual artists. Prints in museum gift shops the same.
18. Local councils should throw more parties and festivals.
19. Every adult gets a vote. You live here, you vote here. No disenfranchisement for any reason. Proportional representation also.
20. But let's be clear, democracy requires more than just giving people a vote. You have to equip them properly to use it. This means robust education. This means base level financial security because financial insecurity makes people easy to manipulate. This means consequences for misleading voters.

All of these are pipe dreams. We know this. But it's easy to underestimate how much things have changed over time simply because we have only ever lived in the changed world. It is hard to believe in better most of the time so in these moments when something good has happened, we have to take it seriously. Let the joy push us forward. And have a plan for where forward is.

Anyway, I'm putting this out at 8p on a Friday night because tomorrow morning the New Zealand general election will also have happened, and what if that brings my mood all the way back down again, huh, what then?