Issues Facing the U.S.

Soulfire

Alright, so I need to write up a proposal for CONA (Council on National Affairs) which is, in essence, a national Youth in Government program.

The proposal is rated on debateability, and I'm short of ideas. One of my ideas was to ban diesel made from petroleum by the year 2012, but I was informed that someone from the Michigan delegation has already done something similar.

So, if you can suggest an issue for me to write a proposal on, I would greatly appreciate it. All of my proposals are agreeable (banning incandescent lightbulbs, etc.) and the agreeable proposals are "bad" in CONA beacuse the basis is for debate.

The following things are banned from CONA

sabe

I don't know about national proposals but here in California we need to get the K-12 schools to teach to the 2/3 -3/4 of the students that do not go to college.

Currently we are trying to "boost" scores that are based on the no child left behind which are based on college entrance.

We need to teach more life skills like basic economics- You know balance your check book. How to write a business letter. How to communicate...

I know literature is important but if you can't read the VCR manual you can't function. Why don't we teach technical English in 6-8th grade??

Davidgr1200

I'm always wary of proposals to "ban" things. I would prefer to "encourage" something better. You took up the question of banning incandescent lightbulbs. The idea is presumably not just to ban lightbulbs, the idea is to use more energy efficient lighting as most of the energy produce by an incandescent lightbulb goes in heat (which often then has to be cooled by air conditioning - you can therefore under some circumstances save twice as much energy) usually heating the ceiling where people spend very little of their time even in winter!!
Low energy lamps have been available for many years now but have the disadvantage that they contain mercury vapour and thus have to be disposed of very carefully.
Led lights are now becoming available (see http://www.theledlight.com/ amongst many other places). These lights use very little energy and last about 100 times as long as an incandescent lightbulb. They are excellent for spotlights and are becoming better for general lighting. How about lower taxes on led lights and much higher taxes on incandescent lightbulbs? That would encourage people to change and they could save on their electricity bills as well. Start off by making it mandatory for government/State buildings to use this form of lighting for all spotlights and then for all general lighting. This would encourage more players to produce the lighting giving economies of scale and more competition.

Good luck!

Andrew426

coolclay

Using incandescent light bulbs which require massive amounts of wattage compared to similar alternatives, would in the big picture reduce CO2 production, which could possibly lesson the amounts of wars for energy and which could lead to less global warming, which would increase food production which would lesson starvation.

And no smart@ss there isn't a light bulb tax. But there are tax write offs which is basically if you buy this thing then that money you spent on it won't get taxed.

standready

I like number three on their "no" list - "Deportation of Illegal Aliens (405)". ET, I am very sorry but you can't go home. LOL

Your incandescent bulbs is good for debate. Payback periods vs intial cost of various choices. Compact Fluorescent Lights (CFL) are good but remember they contain small amounts of mercury.