Ideas within topic government: (click suns to rate or comment on ideas)

1		Simple classroom app for smart phones and computers. Teachers are given an application that allows them to quickly access, edit, and scramble the roll of their class. Also allows for automated emails to be sent on command to principals & parents.	E-mail
2		When a 17 year old child gets a driving license, allow him to only operate cars fitted with GPS monitors to record where they are going, and how fast they are going. Monitor is merely a cell phone equipped with GPS system. Perhaps $250 for 6 months.	E-mail
3		Put designs on the outside of concrete highway dividers for nicer landscapes.	E-mail
4		Use an outer layer of tear-proof paper and an inner layer of inflatable bubble-wrap to make warm, durable camping tents or emergency shelters for refugees.	E-mail
5		Banks that are "too big to fail" threaten the world economy if they do fail. To prevent banks from getting so big, government should force breakups or block mergers of banks/companies with assets or liabilities > 1 day of world GDP (0.3% of annual GDP).	E-mail
6		In case of fire or smoke in your hotel room, the safety instructions posted on your door should blink or light up to instruct you what to do and where to go for safety.	E-mail
7		Create a website with interviews of people who tried to enter various careers and failed or succeeded, with statistics on % who quit that track or got a job. Are they happy? Provide the site for all high school career guidance counselors worldwide.	E-mail
8		Send tsunami and other disaster warnings by SMS (short message service) so that people who don't happen to be watching TV or listening to radio at the moment can be alerted and can evacuate. (tornado, typhoon, cyclone, hurricane)	E-mail
9		To prevent financial tsunamis, countries or UN should define companies that are "too big to fail" and assign a regulator to declare others that fall outside the definition, then put a public official on their boards and limit their leverage and risk.	E-mail
10		Make an online activity for each citizen to assign spending and taxation categories of his national government. Experiencing the compromises needed to balance the budget will make people more realistic and will transmit that realism to their government.	E-mail
11		In countries like India, income tax & sales tax are difficult to collect. To track all transactions, government could give debit cards to all people and card readers to all shops. No more need to print money, also saving government expense.	E-mail
12		Hand Me Downs: a service pairing rich families with poor families so that instead of discarding used stuff, the rich can give it to the poor, like many extended families and close friends do with their old cell phones, toys, clothes, etc.	E-mail
13		Highly populated countries like China and India, instead of forcing the people to have only one child, can have income tax (or other taxes) brackets depending on the number of children. This will have a good impact with out a hard rule.	E-mail
14		Government in many countries alternates between two options: dogma (theocracy) or dictatorship (or military rule). The third D, democracy, tends to lose as it lacks the intense personal reward of heaven (dogma) or wealth (corruption in dictatorship).	E-mail
15		Divide problems into parts: behavior, knowledge, or money (there's often overlap). Then it would be easier to focus on the most efficient solutions. AIDS as example: b. to use condoms, k. to make a vaccine, m. to pay for drugs.	E-mail
16		Tiny CCTV cameras in cockpit of plane connected to a multi-channel digital video recorder. Store the hard drive in the blackbox. If the plane crashes, full audio/video recordings of the crew and instruments, passengers, & out-of-windscreen view.	E-mail
17		To reduce plastic waste, charge, worldwide, a tax on plastic production at source (ethylene cracking?). Reducing, reusing, recycling, and replacing would then become cheaper than making new plastic.	E-mail
18		Governments should run shelters for all street children and supply basic food, clothing, health care, and education.	E-mail
19		Some governments give poor people cheap public housing, but they need to wait a long time to get it, they must live in a certain place, and people fake poverty to qualify. Instead, raise taxes to pay everyone cash, and let people rent wherever they want.	E-mail
20		Give every person in the world equal allowances to emit greenhouse gasses, and require large emitters to buy allowances from people on an open market. This will bypass countries and corruption and will benefit poor people.	E-mail
21		For children to wash their hands, one sink in every public restroom should be placed low, with the faucet closer to the front edge. Now I always need to pick up my child awkwardly, as if giving him an "airplane ride", to let him wash his hands.	E-mail
22		Car companies should build new, hybrid vehicles for the postal service, thus keeping the auto industry alive, replacing the aging postal service fleet, and putting the bailout money to constructive use.
23		Governments should pay for removal of discarded fishing nets snagged underwater. These nets last centuries, killing huge numbers of fish and mammals.	E-mail
24		To improve railway safety, install GPS devices and radio transmitters on all train locomotives. A computer at a control center would monitor all train locations and alert any trains headed for a crash, based on position and velocity estimates.	E-mail
25		Since corruption and poverty can cause each other, it's hard for poor countries to climb out of poverty. To fight corruption, a country could volunteer to accept an outside (UN) commission and court to investigate and prosecute corruption.	E-mail
26		To promote tourism, the tourism development agencies of developing countries can provide cheap interpreter-cum-guides. Teach the poor but intelligent youths some lesser learnt (in that region) foreign language. Help them & the region earn more.	E-mail
27		States or provinces tend to spend all their income when the economy grows, then need to cut spending in a recession, just when more spending is needed. Countries should tax states in expansions and pay them in recessions in order to create balance.	E-mail
28		2 satellites collided, spewing debris that threaten other satellites. To prevent crashes, a UN agency should track all orbiting objects and program a computer to predict their orbits and potential collisions. Satellites could then maneuver out of danger.	E-mail
29		To fight brain drain (poor countries losing precious funds teaching doctors, who then leave for more pay in rich countries), use education loans, to be forgiven by working in home country or repaid in cash earned from rich country.	E-mail
30		Companies charge huge fees to workers who migrate abroad for long-term contract jobs (as maids, construction workers, etc.). Instead, governments should arrange migration and contracts at low cost to let workers keep more of their meager incomes.	E-mail
31		Permanent UN fund for disaster relief so that emergency aid can be spent quickly when needed, instead of begging and waiting for donations while people die. Fund it with regular dues or taxes. Now it's been created: CERF.	E-mail
32		To better predict the magnitude of technological improvement, such as increases in oil reserves, use a top-down approach (extrapolating overall statistics), rather than bottom-up (trying to predict technology). Moore's Law is an example.	E-mail
33		A website where people can type in their zip code and find out the location of the nearest recycling facility for metal, glass, paper, plastic, etc.	E-mail
34		Many tolled highways are avoided because of the cost. Instead, promote carpooling by exempting cars filled with three or more occupants. Prevents traffic jams and pollution.	E-mail
35		Save lives of heart attack victims: put defibrillators in public places and train people in their use like CPR. See this New England Journal of Medicine editorial.	E-mail
36		In order to encourage drivers to keep a safe stopping distance between vehicles, a detector could be fitted to the front of vehicles and warn when a safe stopping distance is not maintained for that speed.	E-mail
37		To reduce accidents, install devices on traffic lights to change them automatically to green whenever an emergency vehicle is approaching. The light for the cross-street would simultaneously be changed to red. Such devices have long been available.	E-mail
38		Build cities for people and bikes - not for cars! Bicycles should have their own lane with a divider between it and the road, and also have a separate stoplight system. This is in place in parts of Europe (example: The Netherlands) and works remarkably.	E-mail
39		Hospitals in the developed world could donate and export their old redundant equipment and furnishings to developing world countries. In many instances last year's model is much better than none.	E-mail
40		To improve health, teach preventative measures at school: good fitness, sensible eating, weight control, non-smoking, moderate drinking, etc. Less visits to doctor = lower overall costs.
41		Require that landmines be made with self-destruct mechanisms to make them effective for a time regarded as necessary for a military goal, but after that time ineffective via planned obsolescence or by broadcasting their presence.	E-mail
42		Put a missing persons picture on the welcome page to the internet. A different one every few days. Please let me know if you try this on your own website.	E-mail
43		Why are school buildings reminiscent of Gothic, Medieval, and Prison architecture? If you want kids to be bright and creative, let them learn and develop in unique and colorful buildings that combine technology with nature. Hire some new architects.	E-mail
44		To prevent further damage to our Earth, I think that we need to have education in our schools that teaches the consequences that our actions have on the Earth.	E-mail
45		Libraries could digitise all their books and put them on an online database. In doing so, they can offer paid online membership throughout the world. Well-known libraries would benefit from this kind of project to the maximum extent.	E-mail
46		Make public transit more convenient: replace coins with cash card accepted on buses and subways by swiping near a machine. Refill card at machines in subway stations. Hong Kong uses one.	E-mail
47		In most cities, there are many trash bins, but almost no recycling bins. To decrease the amount of waste, have recycling bins right beside garbage bins.	E-mail
48		Toaster ovens should have a replaceable wire in them that melts at extremely high temperature to cut the power, like a fuse. This could prevent oven fires from getting out of hand. (appliances)	E-mail
49		Bicycle with turning signals and green lights and a red brake light.	E-mail
50		To save paper, trees, energy, and money, try to make your workplace paperless. Instead of printing documents, read and store them on your computer. Use e-mail instead of paper memos, faxes, or letters.	E-mail