Saving America - The Ragus Plan

As you can tell from the title—this is a concrete plan based on actual reality, not just empty talk filling up space

On one hand, we're facing massive population loss and poverty (we're disappearing!), but on the other, there's this chance to LEASE part of our territory for 99 years (the Republic of Ragusa) to give us some financial breathing room and help the US jump among the most developed nations in the world.

I honestly don't see any other way to leap over this looming bankruptcy cliff, because you can't just plan some rational sacrifice to stop—let me repeat—the shrinking population and the poverty.

For now, let's just look at whether there are solid ARGUMENTS FOR or AGAINST before we dive into the specifics of theleasing

*just a note, when I say unrealistic plans, I'm not just talking about the Hammedov plan, but every single plan ever proposed in this country that never actually happened.

** hey, I even changed my signature... this matters more than half the stuff on here that's only discussed because life is getting so tough.

😁

Seriously, is this just another total coward showing their face?

Look, I have to weigh in here. Unlike all those other schemes we've seen over the last two decades—you know, the ones peddled by polished politicians promising "higher wages for everyone," "bigger pensions for all," "lower taxes for everybody," or the classic "tax the rich" slogan—this actually feels like a legitimate plan.

I mean, I’ll go out on a limb and say this: this right here is a real plan. This specific thread... this might just be the key to everything. Who would have thought we’d actually stumble upon a solution?

Thank goodness. Truly, thank you for putting this plan forward.

Charles Lopez3 said:😁

Seriously, is this just another total coward showing their face?

Sadly—there aren't any eggs left.

Luckily, this is the kind of topic where people can just pick an ideological side and start fighting over forum politics and everyone else's business. But really, the point is that people's lives are getting harder, and even our supposed perks—like having the most beautiful women who nobody even notices anymore—just sound pathetic.

A huge chunk of the country can barely afford food, yet we pretend we're swimming in wealth and everyone's jealous of us (that's just how we cope), all while the rest of the world laughs at how clueless we are.

Here are a few more depressing ironies (didn't have time to finish my coffee)...

- here we paid for college, now we're looking for work abroad (could it be the other way around?)

- we have millions of acres of prime farmland, yet we import our food (could it be the other way around?)

- we spent billions of dollars bailing out our own banks, only to sell them off for pennies (could it be the other way around?)

We could even throw in a little jab at this whole situation:
every single "paid outsider"
is going to end up buying on a 99-year lease.
And then, after all that, they'll be stuck out there
just herding sheep😁

This topic is killer. Basically, "If we Americans can't have Venice, then neither can they." 😂

Richard Wilson4 said:This topic is killer. Basically, "If we Americans can't have Venice, then neither can they." 😂

Must be nice... I’d honestly give anything to be that indifferent to everything—the unemployment crisis, people scavenging for food, the population collapse... though we don't even know who'll be left to run this country tomorrow, let alone Americans... the lack of opportunity, the quality of life, the feeling that we're falling behind the rest of the world... blah blah blah, we already know all this and there's just no fix in sight...

To anyone who spends their entire life worrying about Mexicans... I’m actually jealous. That person had it made from day one...

Anyway, did you catch tonight's show... =595&cHash=ba1efdb2fe']Just a screen on the local news channel... I wonder who else has seen these "experts" gathered to discuss the future of America... It’s honestly like watching high schoolers try to run a business. No strategy, zero ideas on how to stop the upcoming collapse, if they even realize it's coming at all...

Michelle Ramirez2 said:Must be nice... I’d honestly give anything to be that indifferent to everything—the unemployment crisis, people scavenging for food, the population collapse... though we don't even know who'll be left to run this country tomorrow, let alone Americans... the lack of opportunity, the quality of life, the feeling that we're falling behind the rest of the world... blah blah blah, we already know all this and there's just no fix in sight...

To anyone who spends their entire life worrying about Mexicans... I’m actually jealous. That person had it made from day one...

Anyway, did you catch tonight's show... =595&cHash=ba1efdb2fe']Just a screen on the local news channel... I wonder who else has seen these "experts" gathered to discuss the future of America... It’s honestly like watching high schoolers try to run a business. No strategy, zero ideas on how to stop the upcoming collapse, if they even realize it's coming at all...

Jaran, I'm touched by your deep concern for the economy, but Venice is nothing but a win for us. It's not a burden; we just rake in the cash from tourism. I'm sure you guys would give anything just to own one section of those walls, but unfortunately, you can only show up as tourists. 🙂

Looks like you can actually make a living just posting here... some people hit 33,000 posts in just a few years which is pretty wild (that's like 15 a day!). Someone's definitely getting paid for that...

Maybe if we put that same energy into actually finding solutions, things would turn out better... I say maybe, though some people are definitely at their best when they're just typing away. It feels like pointless debating, honestly. Just like how every new administration comes in, learns one thing, and then suddenly elections roll around and—boom, a whole new government...

Alright, let's get to work...🙂

I get the feeling that despite all the hand-wringing from everyone—from political parties to the church—people’s lives just aren't getting any better. Social services are fading, kids are frustrated, birth rates are dropping... yeah, we've heard it all before...

In short... we need... The strategy...That same magic word pops up a hundred times a day in every single group chat about this crisis... honestly, we’ve been saying "we don't have a strategy" for twenty years now...

It’s honestly just not there... one of those rare things everyone actually agrees on... We just don't have a strategy in place...

Maybe we can just make this simpler...

Current financial standing...

We just don't have the revenue to stay on top of our current debts... unless we keep borrowing more, and that debt spiral just keeps hitting new highs every single time. It’s been going on like this for over 20 or 30 years now...

We just don't have any capital reserves left to pour into new industrial plants... and honestly, foreign investors demand so many perks that it makes you wonder. When will we actually be able to invest using our own money, especially with this debt spiral just climbing higher and higher...

Natural resources...

Well, I'd say our biggest natural resource in America is definitely the land itself... Farming and food... Resources like water and coastlines aren't infinite—you use them once and they're gone or ruined... but the land? You can use that forever. Land is the bedrock of all manufacturing, yet we don't have a real agricultural strategy or any supporting policy in place...
It’s honestly kind of absurd... we keep trying to turn small-scale farmers into massive industrial giants to grow staples like wheat, oilseeds, or sugar beets on a huge scale. But when you look at the costs of tilling, planting, and harvesting... A little risk involved... Weather disasters on the other side... there's just nothing a farmer can do about that. No policy can justify ignoring it. That's why one year you see farmers driving Ferraris, and the next they're starving and on strike...

Basic agricultural fields are such a complex mix of production, storage, logistics, and finance... it’s something the government really has to step in and manage. But if you let all the other types of farming hit the free market, things change. It actually gives rural issues—like aging farmsteads, livestock, local farmers' markets, and keeping people from moving to the cities—a much more human touch. You could solve so much more efficiently and with way less taxpayer money...

Modern industry is all about tech and massive capital per worker... To get things moving, you either need your own cash on hand or you have to start a debt spiral and borrow even more...

Coast, beaches, resorts... it all just boils down to tourism. Honestly, I think we overhype it too much. Working in this industry feels like a grind that just burns people out under worse and worse conditions. Pretty soon, most of the workforce will probably be immigrants from developing nations just to fill the gaps left by our shrinking population... The more we lean into tourism, the more we're just multiplying our own structural problems...

It’s honestly wild how countries with zero natural resources—like Japan, Korea, Taiwan, or even China and India—pull off such massive successes and keep their national budgets totally solid... If the Ragus Plan doesn't work, then maybe we just need to move all those hardworking people from Japan or China over here instead...

The workforce...

This is the real tragedy... we still have this great education system, but it’s totally out of sync because there’s zero strategy behind it. We're basically churning out high-quality workers for cheap, only for them to find no work here. It just makes it easier for them to head over to the US, Canada, or Australia... maybe a bit more movement within the European Union, but I wouldn't bet on it. Then, once they've built up their pensions over there, some of them will probably drift back home and try to lecture whoever is left around here...

To get them working here, we’d need production capacity that we just haven't built up yet... if we don't find ways to hire people, we're looking at depopulation, and everyone knows the consequences of that—but let's not go there

Public services too: healthcare, local government, police, military...

They obviously have to be efficient and make sense financially. That only happens if all those previous pieces are properly structured and organized from the ground up. But either way, that's more of a result

Can we say that—if these points are mostly right—we're actually missing a real strategy and our own momentum (like a Ragus Plan, or even a Plan B...) to really turn things around in our favor?

Michelle Ramirez2 said:As you can tell from the title—this is a concrete plan based on actual reality, not just empty talk filling up space

On one hand, we're facing massive population loss and poverty (we're disappearing!), but on the other, there's this chance to LEASE part of our territory for 99 years (the Republic of Ragusa) to give us some financial breathing room and help the US jump among the most developed nations in the world.

I honestly don't see any other way to leap over this looming bankruptcy cliff, because you can't just plan some rational sacrifice to stop—let me repeat—the shrinking population and the poverty.

For now, let's just look at whether there are solid ARGUMENTS FOR or AGAINST before we dive into the specifics of theleasing

*just a note, when I say unrealistic plans, I'm not just talking about the Hammedov plan, but every single plan ever proposed in this country that never actually happened.

** hey, I even changed my signature... this matters more than half the stuff on here that's only discussed because life is getting so tough.

That’s fair—you aren't exactly required to find alternative paths.

On one hand, I guess all ideas are welcome when searching for solutions, though there might be a more reliable way to find a quality fix: looking at what has actually worked in practice.

Success is usually measured by results. In this case, the best metric is probably looking at annual GDP per capita, which sits right at the top of the charts:
https://www.cia.gov/library/publicat...=mde&rank=1#qa

If we set aside those tiny banking hubs, the leaders at the top include Qatar, Singapore, Norway, Hong Kong, United States, United Arab Emirates, Switzerland, Kuwait, Austria, and Australia...

It makes me wonder, I suppose, what makes Singapore so successful despite having no oil, compared to an oil-rich nation like Norway or other petroleum-heavy countries—and what specifically makes Qatar so much more economically successful than its oil-rich peers.
A lot of key indicators can be found by analyzing business conditions:
http://www.doingbusiness.org/rankings
and through economic freedom indexes:
http://www.heritage.org/index/

The advantages held by the most successful nations are reflected in tax burdens, income taxes, corporate taxes, sales taxes, and other levies, as well as legal quality, administrative efficiency, and corruption levels.

Looking at where we sit on these rankings, it seems fairly easy to spot where improvements could happen—where the gap between us and the best is small, and where it's massive. Since we're sitting at 84th on the ease of doing business index, it looks like there's quite a bit of room for progress across almost every category—tax regulation, legal framework, administration, and corruption levels...

Business conditions really dictate whether locals or foreigners decide to invest here in the US. Under current conditions, maybe not much at all. Based on the links above, it's pretty clear where things could improve—and in most areas, significant improvements seem possible. Once much better business conditions are secured, I imagine the activity from high-quality investors, both domestic and foreign, would increase significantly.

graniteridge31 said:That’s fair—you aren't exactly required to find alternative paths.

On one hand, I guess all ideas are welcome when searching for solutions, though there might be a more reliable way to find a quality fix: looking at what has actually worked in practice.

Success is usually measured by results. In this case, the best metric is probably looking at annual GDP per capita, which sits right at the top of the charts:
https://www.cia.gov/library/publicat...=mde&rank=1#qa

If we set aside those tiny banking hubs, the leaders at the top include Qatar, Singapore, Norway, Hong Kong, United States, United Arab Emirates, Switzerland, Kuwait, Austria, and Australia...

It makes me wonder, I suppose, what makes Singapore so successful despite having no oil, compared to an oil-rich nation like Norway or other petroleum-heavy countries—and what specifically makes Qatar so much more economically successful than its oil-rich peers.
A lot of key indicators can be found by analyzing business conditions:
http://www.doingbusiness.org/rankings
and through economic freedom indexes:
http://www.heritage.org/index/

The advantages held by the most successful nations are reflected in tax burdens, income taxes, corporate taxes, sales taxes, and other levies, as well as legal quality, administrative efficiency, and corruption levels.

Looking at where we sit on these rankings, it seems fairly easy to spot where improvements could happen—where the gap between us and the best is small, and where it's massive. Since we're sitting at 84th on the ease of doing business index, it looks like there's quite a bit of room for progress across almost every category—tax regulation, legal framework, administration, and corruption levels...

Business conditions really dictate whether locals or foreigners decide to invest here in the US. Under current conditions, maybe not much at all. Based on the links above, it's pretty clear where things could improve—and in most areas, significant improvements seem possible. Once much better business conditions are secured, I imagine the activity from high-quality investors, both domestic and foreign, would increase significantly.

This data is pretty interesting... maybe even a little eye-opening. Could definitely spark some fun debates, like what I'd actually do if I had seven figures sitting in my bank account... 🙂 It’s like deciding if we want to sit on an oil goldmine like Qatar, be a massive hub like Singapore, go big like the US, or just stay disciplined like Germany...

Unfortunately, that's just how it goes... Their way of doing things...And we could use some too... Our solution... Because it's right here... Just a little something from the kitchen... In a tough spot...

In a year or two, things could get twice as bad... if that's even possible. At that point, any solution will look like a win...

Michelle Ramirez2 said:This data is pretty interesting... maybe even a little eye-opening. Could definitely spark some fun debates, like what I'd actually do if I had seven figures sitting in my bank account... 🙂 It’s like deciding if we want to sit on an oil goldmine like Qatar, be a massive hub like Singapore, go big like the US, or just stay disciplined like Germany...

Unfortunately, that's just how it goes... Their way of doing things...And we could use some too... Our solution... Because it's right here... Just a little something from the kitchen... In a tough spot...

In a year or two, things could get twice as bad... if that's even possible. At that point, any solution will look like a win...

The only real way out for us is to just take back what’s ours.
That way they wouldn't be able to just lease things for 99 years,
or even track 😁

Michelle Ramirez2 said:This data is pretty interesting... maybe even a little eye-opening. Could definitely spark some fun debates, like what I'd actually do if I had seven figures sitting in my bank account... 🙂 It’s like deciding if we want to sit on an oil goldmine like Qatar, be a massive hub like Singapore, go big like the US, or just stay disciplined like Germany...

Unfortunately, that's just how it goes... Their way of doing things...And we could use some too... Our solution... Because it's right here... Just a little something from the kitchen... In a tough spot...

In a year or two, things could get twice as bad... if that's even possible. At that point, any solution will look like a win...

And hey, we actually are sitting on oil and gas—way more than we realized back when we were selling off ExxonMobil.

We aren't exactly at the center of global shipping lanes, but I suppose we're in a prime position for the European Union if we actually decided to make something of it. Right now, the port in Savannah is basically snatching up all the lines, and we've totally overlooked the potential of the Mississippi-Missouri corridor.

Maybe a little bit of order wouldn't hurt us, but you have to realize that while the little guys—who probably have terrible dentists and eat poorly—can get by, a big player always needs consistent fuel, constant maintenance, and some serious substance behind them.
Otherwise, people start complaining immediately. 🙂

Michelle Ramirez2 said:This data is pretty interesting... maybe even a little eye-opening. Could definitely spark some fun debates, like what I'd actually do if I had seven figures sitting in my bank account... 🙂 It’s like deciding if we want to sit on an oil goldmine like Qatar, be a massive hub like Singapore, go big like the US, or just stay disciplined like Germany...

Unfortunately, that's just how it goes... Their way of doing things...And we could use some too... Our solution... Because it's right here... Just a little something from the kitchen... In a tough spot...

In a year or two, things could get twice as bad... if that's even possible. At that point, any solution will look like a win...

Singapore is actually a great example since it's a tiny nation without any resources. They have no oil, no raw materials, and barely any land—it's about the size of Washington, D.C.
They're doing better regardless than many large countries with massive resources. Their location is perfect for refueling passing ships, even if it isn't ideal for handling continental freight. For trade, places closer to the mainland—like Malaysia or Myanmar on the western side, or Hong Kong for connecting with China—are more practical.
Compared to Singapore, we are a major maritime location for cargo moving through the Panama Canal toward or from Europe. We have eighty times more land and are much richer in fossil fuels, particularly gas, along with other resources that naturally come with more space—like farmland, forests, water, and various minerals.
If you set those basic advantages aside, you're left with the question of how a country is run: the tax system, the quality of laws, and how well the administration functions.
In that regard, our potential is basically equal to any other country. Anyone can pass top-tier laws or terrible ones—it really just comes down to which political team is in charge.
For instance, in Singapore, you can get a building permit in 26 days at a cost of 16.7% of the average annual per capita income. Here, it takes 300 days and costs 573%. Even in Haiti or Chad, you might wait half as long for a permit as you do here.
It's not about geography; it's about the quality of governance. In this specific area, our government seems—well, maybe I shouldn't say this—but it appears significantly less capable than some of the most underdeveloped nations in the world.