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Page history last edited by Mike 1 year, 11 months ago

Interests

 

Please help me brainstorm the most probable interest of those who agree or disagree with Romney on each issue. Just leave what you think motivates each side in the comment section, and I will add it to the list. Also, tell me the percentage of those who agree with Romney you think are motivated by each motivation. I will try to put the most likely motivation towards the top of the list. 

The book Getting to Yes tells us that we need to focus on interest instead of positions. To understand why someone believes something, we must understand their interest. What are their values? Different interests or values lead to different positions.

Of course, it is best when the author of an idea submits their interest. However, others users of the website could submit and then vote on the most likely motivations of each side.

We need to also classify interest as opposing interest or mutual interest. 

Businesses' interests might include low taxes and good infrastructure.

This is a different place for people to examine further the interest of those who argue over two positions. An effort will be made to promote the most probable, most important, or strongest interest.:

The book Getting to Yes tells us that we need to focus on interest instead of positions. To understand why someone believes something, we must understand their interest. What are their values? Different interests or values lead to different positions.

Of course, it is best when the author of an idea submits their interest. However, others users of the website could submit and then vote on the most likely motivations of each side.

Another technique taught in Getting to Yes is to focus on interest, not positions. In addition to having a place on the internet to list problems and possible solutions, I would like to have a place for the listing of interest. Members of a country, business, or trade organization could list their interests. Businesses could list their interest in low taxes and good infrastructure. Psychologists could compile a list of all of the interests of a family. A slight variation on this would allow people to list their goals.

We should brainstorm lists of probable interests of those who promote and appose different beliefs.

We need a list of the most likely interest, needs, goals, or motivations of those who agree or disagree with each policy. 

Debate moderators are taught to focus on interests and not positions. This way, you can find solutions that meet the needs of both sides.

Needs should be graded and sorted by accuracy and validity. 

The accuracy of the need attribution will be measured by how well arguments that particular interest or need is helped by those on each side of the issue.

The validity of the interest or need is determined by Maslow's hierarchy of needs and by the performance of arguments that one need is more critical than another need when in conflict.

 

Selling Increased Immigration: The Case for 1 Billion Americans. America will need one billion citizens to compete with China and India.

STRENGTH: Those wanting to reduce barriers to American immigration should stop appealing to America's kindness. Instead, we should appeal to Americans' desire for strength when competing against much larger countries like China or India.  

 

AMERICAN POWER: If America wants to continue to be the world's global superpower and compete with China, India, and Russia, we will need more citizens.

 

MATH: The only way we can only compete with China long-term is by 1) staying a desirable place to live, 2) being open to outsiders, and 3) letting people move to our free and prosperous country. We won't have a chance until our population is as large as theirs. It won't even be a fair competition between different approaches to human rights or economic philosophies. They will bury us because they are so much bigger.

 

GDP: It is straightforward. To increase our GDP, we either have to 1) increase our productivity or 2) population. We have already tried to be productive, so the apparent policy change that will result in American GDP growth is worker population growth.

 

SIZE MATTERS: America will need as many people as China and India if we want to compete with them long-term.

 

America was able to win against Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan because of American courage and because immigration allowed the US to be bigger than them.

 

Germany's fundamental problem was that even after taking over Austria and the Sudentenland, it had only 80 million people, and the United States had 130 million.

In 1938 the GDP of the USA was larger than Germany, Japan, and Italy combined because the US had more people. (See Mark Harrison, the economics of world war II: an overview (Cambridge UI: Cambridge university press, 1998 23-24, as quoted from 1 Billion Americans by Matt Yglesias.)

 

One Billion Citizens is not impractical: America can support a billion citizens.

America is mainly empty. There is room for One Billion Americans.

America is not over-crowded, and the lower 48 states could have one Billion citizens (3 times our current population) and still have less than half the population density of Germany does today. Germany is an excellent place to live, with forests and farmland.

 

"If the continental United States were as heavily settled as the EU, the US would have nearly a billion people living in it. Granted, the Western US is extremely dry and thus might not support an EU-density population. (Again, I assume we aren't going to populate remote Alaska.) 

 

Nonetheless, if just the states east of the Mississippi had European-style population density, and the other states maintained current population, then the United States would still have more than 400 million people."

The US is less than one-third as densely peopled as the EU, which can still export more food than it imports. The European Union has approximately 300 people per square mile. This density is similar to the ninth-densest US state (similar to Pennsylvania or Florida). The continental United States, on the whole, has about 110 people per square mile (excluding Alaska, an outlier).

 

If the USA grew by 5% each year, it would only take 23 years to have a billion people. We could do many things that would allow us to grow by 5% per year.

If we grew by 5% each year, it would only take 23 years to have a billion people. We currently have 330 million. After 1 year we would have 347, then, 364, 382, 401, 421, 442, 464, 488, 512, 538, 564, 593, 622, 653, 686, 720, 756, 794, 834, 876, 919, 965, then 1,014 (or 1 billion people).

 

If we helped Americans have the number of kids they say they want, with pro-family culture and legislation, and allowed more immigration and refugees, we could have a 5% increase per year.

 

Deregulation of the housing industry would increase freedom, unleash the market, and help Americans house a Billion citizens.

 

Removing height limits for condos and new apartment buildings would allow Americans to support more people with the same amount of land.

 

Allowing higher housing density is a "free-market" and "freedom to the people" issue. City regulators don't know better than the market what people want, and we can't say we are free if the government regulates everything too much.

 

Allowing us to build higher-density housing will lower home costs, help young families, fight sprawl, and improve transportation.

 

Living in a seven-story apartment with an elevator isn't much worse than a two-story apartment building.

Allowing apartments in popular growing cities might slow the price growth of your home, but preventing growth so you can get richer hurts those trying to start a family, kills the American dream, hurts the environment, and makes us weaker as a nation.

 

Not everyone wants to live in seven-story apartments. Still, an acceptable trade-off for many people is a seven-story apartment with an elevator and amenities. This choice is because a denser community allows for shorter commutes to work, school, walking distance to things to do, and more people. You might not want to live in a dense environment, but still, let people vote with their feet.

 

The world won't NEED American food exports. Agricultural yields are far lower in the developing world today than in the United States but will increase with technology adoption.

 

The USA exports 25% of the food they grow now. That means we could feed 82 million more Americans right now without changing a thing. However, technology will likely improve output, diets can be less harmful to land and water use, and we could use much more land to produce food. That means we could feed more than 411 million people in total merely by consuming locally what we now export.

 

We don't grow all the food we can or feed people efficiently. Vertical farming, hydroponics, genetics, and automation promise to make agriculture more efficient. We could also feed more people with less land and water. If the land were getting scarce, the price of meat would go up, and we would have to eat less. However, this isn't even a genuine concern. 

 

Action Now: If America doesn't increase its population now, we will regret it. It will be better for us to integrate many people into our society now, while we have a head start over our rivals. Once China is more powerful than us, it will be riskier for us to do the difficult work of integrating immigrants into our society.

 

Once China is more powerful and wealthier than us, we can't be sure people will still want to immigrate to America. Once China and India become wealthier, fewer people will want to live here.

 

It takes a while for immigrants to become integrated into a new society. Every new immigrant wave to America has struggled. Irish, Polish, and Italians lived through high crime, disfunction, and discrimination when they first immigrated to America. We should get that over now, while we still have a comfortable lead over China and India. 

 

American Purpose: Gaining and integrating more citizens than China could give America a noble shared sense of purpose.

 

The growth of China and India leads to the relative decline of America as a great power and threatens our position as the number one state in the not-to-distant future.

 

Unlike China (and Russia), which brutalizes and dominates its citizens and threatens the territorial borders of its neighbors (Taiwan, Tibet, Georgia, and Ukraine), we could gain power by accepting citizens that voluntarily move to America for freedom and opportunities.

 

American Power: If America wants to continue to be the world's global superpower and compete with China, India, and Russia, we will need more citizens.

 

America will need more citizens to remain relevant on the future world stage.

 

In the future, country's power will be proportional to their populations, and America shouldn't have to accept becoming less relevant to larger countries. But America can't just stay ahead because we are "better." We can be more efficient than China, but if they continue to have three times our population, it is unlikely to believe that we will be three times more efficient than them.

 

Countries learn to copy what is working in other countries. The developing world tends to catch up—richer countries have not recently grown as fast as poorer ones. We shouldn't have a policy that requires these trends to change.

 

America is not run as efficiently as other countries. We are not solving easily solvable problems effectively. However, we are still an attractive place to live because we value freedom. China may be solving problems more efficiently than us, and their kids are doing better on standardized scores than we are. However, we are still a more desirable place. Therefore, if we want to stay relevant, we will probably have to get just as big as they are.

 

America could increase its population to 1 billion citizens.

 

Taking over adjacent countries is all evil. Russia was like Hitler to invade and conquer George and try to take over Ukraine. China was similarly evil when they took over Tibet. They are also not respecting promises made to Hong Kong. They are also evil to threaten violence to take over Taiwan. In addition to being evil, it is stupid. A more effective way to become more powerful is to become a desirable place to live, be open to outsiders, and let people move to your prosperous country.

 

Competition: We will need as many people as China and India to compete with them long-term.

The only chance we have of becoming more powerful than China and India is to stay a desirable place to live, be open to outsiders, and let people move to our free and prosperous country.

 

Using violence to take over unwilling free countries requires unsustainable levels of control, builds hatred, creates short-lived, violently opposed governments.

 

China was evil when they took over Tibet. They are also wrong not to respect promises made to Hong Kong. They are also evil to threaten violence to take over Taiwan.

 

Like Hitler, Russia was evil to invade and conquer Georgia and try to take over Ukraine.

America could increase its population to 1 billion citizens.

 

Suppose China and Russia keep threatening their neighbors (Ukraine, George, Syria, Taiwan, Tibet, Uyghurs, South Korea) and abusing their citizens. In that case, we shouldn't have any shortage of hard-working, freedom-loving immigrants.

 

A declining would power with a chip on its shoulder: Americans will be less easy to manipulate with rage and resentment if China becomes more prosperous, but we remain more powerful. The only way to remain more powerful is if our population increases.

 

Natural resources are a part of a country's wealth, but countries have wealth from more than just natural resources. These companies are started, people. They require workers. The more people you have, the more companies and workers you have. Every person in your country who is working contributes to your country's strength.

 

Apple is the largest company. They do not make money by selling American natural resources to other countries. They design products and use natural resources from all over the world. The money that Apple brings to America has nothing to do with American resources.

 

There is no reason to fear greater immigration. The only way that we can compete with 

We can only compete with China by staying a desirable place to live, being open to outsiders, and letting people move to our free and prosperous country. We won't have a chance until our population is as large as theirs. It won't even be a fair competition between different approaches to human rights or economic philosophies. They will just bury us because they are so much bigger.

 

 

Governor Mitt Romney and the letter "I"

 

A, B, C, D, E, F, G, H, I, J, K, L, M, N, O, P, Q, R, S, T, U, V, W, X, Y, Z

 

Me on Instagram

 

  1. Iran is seeking nuclear weapons.
  2. Iran’s nuclear ambition has nothing to do with clean energy.

 

Immigration Quotes

We could tie increases in immigration levels to increases in English Immersion and associated reduction in bilingual education classes. 

 

 

Immigration Quotes

 

  • “The voters have spoken loud and clear on the issue of bilingual education. We need to respect the wishes of the people of Massachusetts and recognize that immersion creates a level playing field in our classrooms that allows non-English speakers to succeed.”

 

  • “For generations of immigrants, learning English has been the key to unlocking the American Dream,” said Romney. “My proposal will give thousands more the opportunity to achieve success for themselves and their families.”

 

  • "The current system puts up a concrete wall to the best and brightest, yet those without skill or education are able to walk across the border. We must reform the current immigration laws so we can secure our borders...and increase legal immigration into America."
    • Governor Mitt Romney

 

  • "There's only one condition on getting your Ph.D. here in the U.S. and that is: You leave as soon as you get it," he told New Hampshire Republicans gathered for their annual convention. "Let me tell you, you get a Ph.D. here in one of our great institutions, I want you to stay. . . . It makes no sense that we put up a big concrete wall against those who have education and skills but our doors have been wide open to people that have neither."

 

Inner City

 

  • “Dedication to the community is what distinguishes entrepreneurs like Maurice,” said Romney. “His commitment to professional success is matched only by his concern for the well being of his employees, friends and neighbors.”

 

  • Romney noted that, “Over the last decade, the urban crime rate has gone down and urban investment has gone up. This has happened for one simple reason: We now realize that our cities are engines of economic growth. Visualization Technology is a great example of the kind of investment that is bringing the Massachusetts economy back on track.”

 

  • “Dedication to the community is what distinguishes entrepreneurs like Glynn Lloyd,” said Romney. “City Fresh Foods is a great example of the kind of company that will help put our state back on track.”

 

  • “Today, we recognize entrepreneurs from two innovative companies: Paul Conforti and Kim Moore of Finale for their perseverance, creativity and quality of product, and Keith Parent of Court Square Data Group for his business investment in an urban community where employment needs are greatest,” Romney said. “These awards show our appreciation for those who contribute to the Massachusetts economy and generate new wealth, prosperity and jobs.”

 

  • “These awards recognize the tremendous talent, ambition and hard work that drive new and growing businesses in Massachusetts,” said Romney. “The leaders we recognize today demonstrate excellence in entrepreneurship and help create new jobs and economic vitality for the communities they serve.”

 

  • “Abandoned lots and buildings dot the landscape of our urban areas, diminishing real estate values and posing health and safety concerns to the surrounding communities,” said Romney, speaking at the William Stanley Business Park, a 52-acre brownfield site that was formerly part of General Electric. “We must take action to turn these brownfield sites into successful economic opportunities.”

 

  • “These awards recognize the tremendous talent, ambition and hard work that forge a stronger and more dynamic economy,” said Romney. “The business leaders we honor today show us that perseverance and determination turn dreams into success stories.”

 

  • "In addition to the company's growth and success over the last several years, Eastern Fisheries has distinguished itself through a consistent track record of community outreach and charitable giving," said Romney. "Eastern is a true hometown business, with roughly 80 percent of the company's employees living in the city of New Bedford."

 

Iraq

 

  • “I wouldn't presume to present a plan different from that of the President. But I believe he was right to take on the war on terror on an aggressive front rather than a defensive front. We toppled the government ... walking away would mean a humanitarian disaster. We're there and we have a responsibility to finish the job.”

 

Intelligence

 

  • Proposing that we negotiate with terrorist regimes like Syria and Iran — without a rigorous analysis of how our incentives could ever be aligned — is just counter-productive. I have no quarrel with talking, especially if it yields valuable intelligence and insight about an adversary. But that’s a far cry from actually negotiating with Iran, which sponsors Hezbollah, has nuclear ambitions, and has been clear in its intention to wipe our ally Israel off the map. And Syria is systematically undermining the sovereignty of Lebanon and funding and arming terrorists. Any suggestion that we might trade something for their help or forbearance is out of the question. When considering a negotiation, one must ask what kind of leverage we have, and recognize that there are situations where we have more to lose than gain by negotiating.
    • Governor Mitt Romney, 12-14-2006 A Primary Factor, Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney in an exclusive pre-Christmas 2006 interview, An NRO Q&A

 

  • “It is physically impossible to protect all targets that a terrorist might attack. The biggest lesson we learned from the September 11th tragedies is that intelligence sharing between our local, state, and federal law enforcement officials is absolutely necessary to the security of our nation and the citizens of the Commonwealth.”

 

  • "There were far more intelligence teams safeguarding the Olympics than there are in Massachusetts for a year."

 

  • “A key part of our homeland security efforts rests on the state’s ability to collect and analyze information on potential threats,” said Romney. “By putting more money into intelligence gathering, we’ll give the State Police the tools they need to be more effective.”

 

  • "The threat of modern terrorism poses new challenges for law enforcement across Massachusetts and around the nation," said Romney. "These new homeland security funds will allow Bay State communities to work as a coordinated force to collect, analyze and distribute critical terrorism related intelligence and act when necessary."

 

“It is physically impossible to protect all targets that a terrorist might attack,” said Romney. “The biggest lesson we learned from the September 11th tragedies is that intelligence sharing between our local, state, and federal law enforcement officials is absolutely necessary to the security of our nation and the citizens of the Commonwealth.”

 

 

 

Additional Topics

 

 

 

Iraq:

  1. George Stephanopoulos
    1. Do you keep Bush or let him go?
    2. But how do you explain why all that planning wasn't done?
    3. Yet, you support the president's decision to send more troops right now?
  2. Are you confident the surge is going to work?
  3. Bill O Reilly
    1. Would you agree that we can't stop the Iraqi from killing each other?
  4. Tom Bevan
    1. What's your impression of the job Rumsfeld did?
    2. Do you believe it's still fixable at this point?
    3. What happens if Iraq is not successful?
  5. Chris Wallace
    1. Where do you disagree with Bush on Iraq?
  6. Wolf Blitzer
    1. Do you have a time frame in mind?
  7. Hugh Hewitt
    1. Do you support sending more troops into that country?
  8. Robert B Bluey
    1. Do you think right now the US is losing the war in Iraq?
  9. Katherine Jean Lopez
    1. What did you make of the Iraq Study Group?
  10. Mary Katharine Ham
    1. What do you think about Harry Reid saying the war is lost?
  11. Greta Van Susteren
    1. Would you have gone into Iraq?
    2. Do you think enough questions were asked in March of 2003?
  12. 1st Debate
    1. Should we be in Iraq when the American people do not victory is possible?
  13. ‘‘2nd Debate’’
    1. Can you foresee any circumstances under which you would pull out of Iraq without leaving behind a stable political and security situation?
  14. 3rd Debate
    1. Was it a mistake for us to invade Iraq?

 

Iran:

  1. George Stephanopoulos
    1. Does the president have the authority he needs to take military action against Iran?
  2. Bill O Reilly
    1. Would you go to war if the Iranians say, we're going to develop a nuclear weapon, you can't stop us?
  3. Tom Bevan
    1. Would Iran acquire nuclear weapons under a Romney administration?
  4. 3rd Debate
    1. Would you use a tactical nuclear weapons to stop Iran from developing a nuclear bomb?
  5. 5th Debate
    1. What do you do if Iran gets worse?

 

Immigration:

  1. Greta Van Sustern
    1. Are you in favor of a fence?
  2. 1st Debate
    1. Do you support a tamper-proof work status ID card?
  3. ‘‘2nd Debate’’
    1. Governor Romney, you have also called Senator McCain's immigration plan amnesty. Are you prepared to say that sharing the stage with him tonight? And how do you explain your statement to the Lowell Sun last year in which you said, quote, 'Those that are here paying taxes and not taking government benefits should begin a process toward application for citizenship as they would from their home country.' Why isn't that amnesty as well, sir?
  4. Neil Cavuto
    1. How big of a wedge issue will immigration be among the Republican presidential candidates?
    2. Will your stance against the Mccain-Kennedy immigration bill hurt you?
  5. Ed Morrissey
    1. What is you immigration plan?
  6. 3rd Debate
    1. What would you do with the 12 million illegal immigrants who are in this country?
    2. Why are you airing ads in spanish if you think English should be the official language?
    3. Why should we believe that you would be any tougher on illegal immigration than Mayor Giuliani?

 

Internet:

  1. Robert B Bluey
    1. Why do you think it is important to dedicate resources to the internet?

 

Independents:

  1. 3rd Debate
    1. What would you do to include moderate Republicans and independents?

 

Islam:

  1. Hugh Hewitt
    1. Which branch of Islam do you think is more of a threat?

#5th Debate

    1. Would you wiretap mosques without a judge’s approval?

 

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