what radical changes would you like to see.
In the American system? Dismantle SS moving forward. Current liabilities have to be paid, so you'll have to deal with that somehow, including people who have paid in to the system all their lives. However, my first move would probably be a personal retirement savings account for any new incoming funds, that's not available to be raided by politicians. Health care I really don't know what to do with. Probably some sort of voucher, with a plan to phase it down to a means tested voucher in the future. Completely severing the government payment link in health care would be desirable in the long run, but in the short run prices need time to adjust, and there would be an unacceptably long period of time where prices would still be at distorted levels without people having support from government. i.e. prices would still be super high (though declining) but people wouldn't have help in paying them so they'd just die I guess. That's unacceptable, so there'd need to be a gradual transition.
Military needs absolutely massive cutbacks. Generally speaking, if it's for force projection, it's probably safe to scrap, though obviously there are exceptions. It should definitely be feasible to cut the defense budget by 2/3rds without sacrificing defensive capability, though the ability to wage land wars in the Middle East or Asia would be severely curtailed. America has zero enemies capable of posing any sort of credible threat to the genuine national security of the nation, and certainly no threats that are solved 50,000 tanks or whatever the fuck the number is, 10 carrier groups, or 1.5million active duty armed forces.
On education, federal government needs to GTFO immediately. Education is a parental thing, so anything that increases parental choice is okay by me. I'm a fan of vouchers, preferably means tested, usable at any educational institution, including religious schools. If a parent wants their child risen in a religious school that's a family decision, though I'm an Atheist so personally it wouldn't be my preference.
Government absolutely needs to get out of the business of directing, managing, tuning, controlling or tweaking the economy. Just stop. Now. Get rid of the subsidies, get rid of the tax expenditures, get rid of the loopholes, tax credits, all of it. Government shouldn't be picking winners and losers, even if it picks winners sometimes. The reality is, when it's not your money on the line, you don't have the same kind of incentive make sure it comes back with an adequate return. The money tends to be doled out the same way all government money is, for political purposes, and to paraphrase Friedman, I don't believe political self-interest is any more noble than economic self-interest. I'm okay with funding basic research, but not any commercialization. Getting the product to consumers is what the market is best at, and government is worst at. Also, no more bailouts. Period.
The most important thing is to stop fixing the price of money. The interest rate is the most important price in the entire economy, affecting every other price, the decisions of every person and every firm. The actions of the Federal Reserve are the biggest contributor to the rampant irresponsibility of wall street, the risky speculation and the bull market culture. The Fed has spent the last 25 years printing money and funneling it in to wall street, inflating asset prices and causing bubble after bubble after bubble. It's the main reason the wealth disparity is increasing. Massive, windfall gains on the stock market from asset price inflation and a fed-created floor under the stock market any time the mania ends and things crash back down to a more realistic level. It's gotta stop.
That's way longer than I meant for it to be, and I could go on, but I think you get the picture. I'm a dirty capitalist (obviously).
