FINAL PROJECT: Changing America

Changing America

While wandering through Forest Park on a sunny Saturday, you stumble across a battered antique oil lamp.  To your surprise, upon picking it up a genie springs forth, all thunder and lightning and smoke and what have you.  After the hullabaloo has subsided, the genie informs you that you get exactly one wish, and it’s a strictly structured one at that: the country of the United States, from here on out, will follow whatever changes you want to make.  Changes to our system of government, changes to our culture, changes to our way of life.  You design it, and it will stick.  You have a number of options:

1)       Keep the pre-existing system – We’ve looked at how the US government functions.  Executive, legislative, and judicial.  Two-party system where third parties don’t matter.  Lobbying, gerrymandering, and the filibuster.  We’ve also looked at the country as a whole: guns, health care, private prisons, the drug war, climate change, and military bases overseas.  Keep the whole system intact if you want – but you have to be able to justify it.

2)       Stitch a quilt – You can pick and choose aspects from any country in the world.  A piece of European democratic socialism here, a chunk of Chinese authoritarianism there, a dash of Japanese gun control and cuisine, a pinch of German solar energy – it’s up to you.

3)       Complete fabrication – You can concoct a system of government and a culture entirely of your own.

Now, there’s one catch to all of this – you have to write me a 4-5 page paper (typed, double spaced, 12 point font) justifying your decision.

For example: “One of the huge (no pun intended) benefits of the United States adopting a vegetarian diet nationwide would be the drastic reduction in obesity levels.  Americans eat an unhealthy amount of corn-fed beef, and as a result are the fattest people in the world.  Vegetarians, however, are generally healthier because of their lower levels of saturated fat consumption.  This would reduce the amount of money the country has to spend on our health care industry, as the population would be much healthier overall.  Additionally, the end of factory farming in America would be good for the environment, with a reduction in the amount of methane gas being released into the atmosphere in the form of cow farts.”

Another example: “Lobbying has got to go.  This form of legal bribery has corrupted our political system to the point that the processed food industry convinced Congress to declare pizza a vegetable.  They’ve even got pizza being used as the primary example in economics textbooks.  Part of my genie wish will ban corporations from donating money to political campaigns, as well as prohibiting corporations from creating political advertisements of any kind.  Private citizens will be limited to donations of $100 per candidate per year.  The time has come for publicly financed campaigns in America – I’m tired of the candidate who raises the most money winning 90% of elections.”

I expect creativity.  I expect thoughtfulness.  I do not necessarily expect humor, though it’s always welcome.

Due Friday, May 31 – Enjoy the rest of your lives, seniors