So, you have become the supreme dictator of the United States of America. What do you do and why?
You have absolute authority, you cannot be impeached, and you have the backing of the military so you do not have to worry about an uprising.
Everything else about the US government stays the same. All other government officials are democratically elected, the social/political climate is the same as it is now, et cetera.
Please try to be a benevolent dictator, we have already seen plenty of terrible tyrants in real life so it would be much more interesting to see what an all powerful ruler would do if they were legitimately concerned for the public good.
I would first nationalize all industries directly tied to welfare and national security. Farming, domestic logistics, PG&E, healthcare, and ISPs. Agricultural Exports would continue to be sold for profit and domestic sales would be sold at cost calculated quarterly by region. The goal of this program would be to free up labor productivity for use in experimentation, R&D, and entrepreneurship.
Public education would be expanded to include either 4 years of University education or 2 years of University and 2 years of trade education. After every 10 years of employment the option for another round of the same would be made available. The primary goal for this program would be to raise average labor productivity among the entire population.
A national pension at 70 would be implemented at 80% of the average annual income between the top ten years of work up to a cap at 2x the mean of all workers' annual income. This retirement would be compulsory.
Petitions with more than 1% of all citizens' signatures would enter a mandatory legal arbitration and given two years to reach a resolution between whichever parties involved. In the event a resolution could not be made a selection of circuit court judges would be called to review the proceedings and form a compromise which would enter Congress as a bill to be voted on immediately.
I'll have to come back and edit this to add a couple of pages on civil rights and prison reform.
I love this. Thank you for clearing up some of my confusion.