List of Choices

The following is a list of choices that apply to us individually or to us as part of a group or society. In a democratic society, you have the right (and some would say the obligation) to make your choice known whether by voice or in writing, or by a formal voting process. In non-democratic societies, it is often difficult to openly discuss and express choices in life, but none-the-less, you still can make some choices.
Over time, this blog will discuss each of these choices plus others suggested in comments from readers.

Choices which are more Global or National in nature:

  1. Choices about values 
    1. How we define values? 
    2. What are our key values? 
    3. Are honesty and respect key values?
  2. Choices about morals
a.  How we set moral standards for our society? 
b.  Where and how we apply moral and ethical standards? 
c.  How and where we teach moral standards? 
  1. Choices about ethics 
    1. How we set ethical standards for our society? 
    2. Where and how we apply ethical standards? 
    3. How and where we teach ethical standards? 
  2. Choices about food 
    1. Should we eat meat? 
    2. How much to eat? 
    3. Which foods affect our health? 
  3. Choices about religion 
    1. Do all religions have some validity? 
    2. Are all religious activities beneficial to individuals and to society? 
    3. How we choose which religious activities or even which religions are not beneficial to individuals or society? 
    4. How do we deal with those non-beneficial behaviours? 
  4. Choices about sovereignty
    1. Is sovereignty absolute or should some laws / regulations apply globally? 
  5. Choices about what political system we live by
    1. Should we have a political system that applies globally? 
    2. Is there a universal political system that is the best system for everyone?
  6. Choices about separation of church and state
    1. Should church and state be constitutionally separate?
    2. Do we teach morals and ethics which are common to all religions in our schools?
  7. Choices about distribution of wealth 
a.    Locally? 
b.    Nationally? 
c.    Globally? 
  1. Choices about charity 
    1. How we decide how much to give to charity? 
    2. Where our donations are focused - locally, nationally or internationally? 
  2. Choices about taxes 
    1. What we tax? 
    2. Who we tax? 
    3. When we tax? 
    4. How much we tax? 
    5. Where we spend & redistribute tax dollars? 
  3. Choices about regulations in all aspects of society: 
    1. What should we regulate? 
    2. How much we regulate? 
    3. What incentives should we apply? 
    4. What penalties should we apply? 
    5. What guidelines should we use to determine who, what, when, where, and how we regulate? 
  4. Choices about accountability of the media 
    1. Should all or some forms of the media be accountable? 
    2. If yes, which forms and to whom should the media be accountable? 
  5. Choices about privacy 
    1. How much privacy for individuals do we protect vs how much privacy forindividuals do we give up for the security of the many? 
  6. Choices about security 
    1. How much should we spend on security? 
  7. Choices about aggression 
    1. How we decide what is acceptable and what is not acceptable aggressive behaviour? 
    2. If we can modify the aggressive behaviour of individuals, should we? 
    3. If yes, what forms of behaviour modification should we use? Physiological? Pharmaceutical? Castration? Genetic modification? 
    4. If yes, under what conditions and to what extent should we use such behaviour modification? 
  8. Choices about the laws we set for our society 
    1. Should some laws be global? 
  9. Choices about enforcement of the laws of our society 
    1. What forms of enforcement should we use? 
    2. Should enforcement be global? 
  10. Choices about the purpose of police 
    1. What is the purpose of police? 
    2. What is the optimum size of police forces? 
    3. What guidelines / regulations should we have for police forces? 
  11. Choices about the purpose of armed forces 
    1. Do we have armed forces? 
    2. What is the size of armed forces? 
    3. What powers do armed forces have? 
    4. Are conventional armed forces effective against terrorism? 
    5. If not, how should our armed forces change? 
  12. Choices about arms we design and manufacture 
    1. Do we design any arms at all? 
    2. If we do, which arms should we design and manufacture? 
    3. Do we sell any arms at all? 
    4. To whom and under what circumstances we sell arms? 
  13. Choices about the environment 
    1. How much we change the environment? 
    2. How much we pollute the environment? 
    3. Should environmental controls apply globally? 
  14. Choices about education 
    1. What we teach? 
    2. Who we teach? 
    3. How much we spend on education? 
    4. How we education the teachers? 
    5. How we maintain teaching skills of teachers? 
    6. Should we have minimum standards our teachers are required to meet? 
    7. How often we assess teachers against our standards? 
    8. What happens when a teacher falls below standard? 
  15. Choices about health care 
    1. What services do we provide? 
    2. Under what conditions do we provide health care services? 
    3. How much we spend? 
    4. On whom we spend? 
    5. When we spend? 
    6. How and where do we deliver health care? 
  16. Choices about wellness 
    1. How we define wellness? 
    2. How much we spend on wellness? 
    3. How much we spend on wellness relative to health care? 
  17. Choices about smoking 
    1. Should smokers pay more for health care? 
    2. Should smoking be banned in all public places? 
  18. Choices about alcohol 
    1. How much alcohol is too much to drive? 
    2. If technology exists to stop cars from starting if driver alcohol levels are too high, should that technology be mandatory for all cars? 
  19. Choices about illegal drugs 
    1. Which drugs should be illegal? 
  20. Choices about exercise 
    1. How much? 
    2. How often? 
    3. What type of exercises? 
  21. Choices about how much we spend on babies 
    1. How much we spend on saving babies who are very premature, or severe genetic illnesses, or have severe mental disabilities? 
  22. Choices about how much we spend on elderly 
    1. How much we spend on saving elderly people with severe mental disabilities? 
    2. How much we spend on saving elderly people with poor health and very low quality of life? 
  23. Choices about euthanasia 
    1. Are there any circumstances under which euthanasia should be allowed? 
    2. If so, what are those circumstances? 
    3. If so, how we regulate it? 
    4. Should people have a choice? 
  24. Choices about farming 
    1. What we farm? 
    2. What extent we farm? 
    3. Where we farm? 
    4. To what extent we use fertilizers or other chemicals? 
    5. Use of genetically modified crops? 
  25. Choices about harvesting 
    1. What we harvest? 
    2. To what extent we harvest? 
    3. Where we harvest? 
  26. Choices about animal rights 
    1. Do animals have any rights? 
    2. If so, what are those rights? 
  27. Choices about energy 
    1. What levels of pollution are acceptable for energy production? 
    2. What choices we have with energy production and usage? 
  28. Choices about transportation 
    1. What levels of pollution are acceptable for transportation? 
    2. What modes of transportation should we use? 
  29. Choices about technology 
    1. Should we limit technological changes? 
    2. Is it possible to limit technological changes? 
    3. If yes, how we choose which technologies can and cannot be developed? 
  30. Choices about terrorism 
    1. What are the root causes of terrorism? 
    2. Can terrorism be eliminated? 
    3. If not, how do we deal with it? 
  31. Choices about genetic engineering 
    1. Yes or no? 
    2. Guidelines / Regulations - what, where, when, how much? 
  32. Choices about artificial intelligence 
    1. Yes or no? 
    2. Guidelines / Regulations - what, where, when, how much? 
    3. Will artificial life forms develop self awareness? 
    4. If they do, what will our relationship be with them? Slave, servant / master,master / servant, equals? 
  33. Choices about climate change? 
    1. Is climate change at a critical stage requiring urgent global action? 

Choices which are more Local or Personal in nature:

1.    Choices about personal values, morals and ethics 
2.    Choices about treating yourself and others with respect 
3.    Choices about being honest with yourself and others 
4.    Choices about what foods we eat 
5.    Choices about how much food we waste 
6.    Choices about what home we live in 
7.    Choices about decorating our home 
8.    Choices about maintaining our home 
9.    Choices about what vehicles we drive and how much we drive 
10. Choices about how much energy we use 
11. Choices about how much water we use 
12. Choices about what clothes we buy and wear 
13. Choices about how much exercise we have 
14. Choices about using drugs - non-prescription, prescription and illegal 
15. Choices about personal health 
16. Choices about safety 
17. Choices about education of self and family (formal and informal) 
18. Choices about helping others 
19. Choices about voting 
20. Choices about religion 
21. Choices about what work we do 
22. Choices about what we choose for entertainment 
23. Choices about what we read 
24. Choices about balance in work and personal and family life 
25. Choices about balance in anything we do (or do not do) 
26. Choices about what TV we watch 
27. Choices for parents about how to be good parents 
28. Choices about how we spend our money 
29. Choices about how we save and invest our money 
30. Choices about donations 
31. Choices about planning for the future 
32. Choices about vacation 
33. Choices about speaking out relative to things you think are right or wrong 
34. Choices about artistic matters 
35. Choices about critical thinking 


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