John P. Willis

Opinions presented here are held in all of my roles and capacities, both personal and professional.

Summary

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Geek Code

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Site Info

This site is hosted on a Sun SPARCserver 20 running Apache 2.2, Perl 5, and a home-built CMS.

RSS feed generation is done with a BASH script I have implemented, called Syndicator.

This site contains no JavaScript, no CSS, and should render in any HTML 2.0-compliant browser.

How I'd Run The Country

Civil Liberties

• Due Process laws strengthened
• Domestic surveillance without warrant prohibited
• All private contracts wherein a citizen waives his/her civil liberties--whether for employment or otherwise--retroactively nullified, and future such contracts banned
• All immigration restrictions rescinded
• Discrimination on the grounds of race, religion, sexual orientation, sex, gender identify, age, or political affiliation banned in both the public sector and private businesses offering a service or product to the public, with no religious exemptions (note: a business would be able to skirt this restriction by forfeiting a federally-guaranteed liability shield and accepting a 45% tax on all goods and services sold; the proceeds of which would be used to fund free public education on the evils of discrimination)

Voting

• Automatic registration
• Fully electronic
• Citizens to be able to electronically propose legislation for legislature to consider
• Primary elections to be held on one date, nationwide
• Federally-funded elections, equal time on public-access television for all candidates
• Debate qualifications to be determined by direct citizen participation
• Voting age lowered to 12 years and older

Banking & Finance

• Banks would be nationalized, and governed in a directly democratic manner via electronic voting

Taxation

Estate Taxes

• $0 - $5M: 0%
• $5M - $10M: 50%
• $10M - $50M: 60%
• $50M - $1BN: 70%
• $1BN+: 80%

Capital Gains Taxes

• $0 - $5M: 0%
• $5M - $20M: 35%
• $20M - $50M: 50%
• $50M - $1BN: 85%
• $1BN+: 95%

Income Taxes

• $0 - $100K: 0%
• $100K - $250K: 20%
• $250K - $5M: 30%
• $5M - $50M: 40%
• $50M+: 70%

Property Taxes

• Owned & Currently Residing/Farming, up to 40ac.: 0%
• Owned & Currently Residing/Farming, 40ac+: 5% assessed value
• Owned & Rented to Tenant Residents/Tenant Farmers: 15% assessed value
• Owned & Vacant/Fallow: 45% assessed value
• Owned & Leased (4-year minimum term) without fee for Public Farming or Low-Income Housing: 25% assessed value tax credit (applicable to income or capital gains taxes) per year

Foreign Policy

• Full draw-down of military presence in all foreign countries in 1 year
• All countries affected by current and former US intervention to be given the following reparations:
  • All properties in said countries owned by U.S. corporations and government agencies to be expropriated and given back to the countries' populations
• Military offensives must be proposed by public majority, and ratified by 2/3^rds majority in both legislative chambers
• Defensive operations must be domestic-only, and remain in the purview of the executive
• Selective service abolished

Corporations

• Businesses with 10 or fewer employees granted liability shield with free, electronic, one-page registration form
• Corporate charters providing liability shielding for businesses having more than 10 employees only to be granted if employees constitute 50% of board votes
• Publicly-traded corporate boards must maintain at least the following balance of power:
  • 25% voting power to founding owners
  • 25% voting power to shareholders
  • 25% voting power to employees
  • 25% voting power to the general public
• Shareholders and founding owners to receive a 1% tax break (applicable to any form of taxation) per additional percentage-point voting power assigned to employees and/or the general public
• Businesses closing to be offered to their employees, backed by Federal capital loan
• Tax rates for income and property to be reduced by 10% for participants in fully worker-owned cooperatives

Social Policy

• The State is to leave the marriage business entirely
• Universal, single-payer healthcare, to include physical, mental, dental, vision, and prescription drug coverage
• Universal, 12-month paid sick leave
• Universal childcare
• Federal jobs guarantee
• Free tuition at all higher learning institutions receiving taxpayer funding

Criminal Justice

• Narcotics legalized
• Mandatory minimum sentences removed
• Victimless crimes stricken
• Juveniles may never be tried as adults