1. Abandon the Penny. In 2008, it was reported that it costs 1.7 cents to make a penny. With inflation over the last century, the penny is actually a rounding error for most purchases. We could round all costs to the nearest nickel saving time and effort. This is a no brainer.
2. Adopt the Metric System. As my 2008 New Years Resolution, I went metric. One year later, I am still fully functional and no worse for the wear. We have been using the British system of measures for hundreds of years. Even the British have abandoned this useless system of jumbled, non-sensical measures, and they invented it! When we were in first grade, we learned the metric system and were told that by the time we grew up everything would be metric. Now, some 40 years later, we are still no closer to being fully metric than we were in the 1960s. We are the only country in the world that sticks to the non-metric system. If we bit the bullet and went metric, we would have to spend money on the conversion, but this could be underwritten by the government and at least at the end of the day we would have something to show for it. In one year we could do it and believe it or not, we would survive. I'm confident.
3. Legalize Internet Gambling. Those who want to gamble on the Internet DO IT despite the fact that our government has taken a hard line against it. What do we really gain from having gambling illegal? A recent 20/20 show investigated the online gambling industry and discovered that there are individuals who manipulate the system and cheat gamblers out of millions of dollars per year. Because it is illegal, the world of online gambling resides in off shore computer banks in Costa Rica, Antigua and other non-descript, unregulated countries. If gambling were legalized, reputable, regulated entities could operate the systems with transparency and fairness that is incapable of confirmation with the present underworld operations. More importantly, these entities would pay taxes on the money they make and would have reporting obligations for the gamblers who win, who presently do not pay taxes on those winnings.
4. Legalize Drugs (personal disclosure, I don't use drugs). This is an example of how we seem to never learn from our past. During prohibition, alcohol production, sales and consumption were all illegal. This opened the door for criminals to control a multi-million dollar industry using violence, corruption and intimidation to protect their territories. The same is true with the drug trade. President Bush (41) declared a war on drugs in 1990. We are no closer to winning the war on drugs in 2009 than we were in 1990 even though we have spent $20 billion per year for the last two decades. While we continue to use drugs at a rate equal to or greater than we did at the start of the war on drugs, the countries that supply us with drugs are mired in corruption, violence, and organized crime. The benefits to Colombia and Mexico go way beyond the economic benefits we would realize.
There is a very thin line between someone who ends up on the wrong end of a criminal drug charge for use and our last three Presidents (Clinton, W. Bush and Obama have all admitted to using drugs at some point in their lives). Our prisons are filled with people involved with drug related criminal offenses, costing us additional billions of dollars even though politicians, civic and business leaders, and pillars of our community use marijuana like the generations before them would have nightly martinis.
With the savings in not engaging in a senseless war on drugs and the earnings we would get from taxing the importation and sales of marijuana and cocaine, we could add $100 billion per year to the national coffers. Yes, there are people who have addiction issues and they need help, but dedicating one percent of the earnings from the sales to help them with their addiction issues would likely be sufficient (note: these people are likely already in a 12 step program or on their way).
