Four Ideas to Make America Great Again
My non-political contribution to the country I love
For the past 10+ years, there has been so much commotion about Making America Great Again. I came to this country as a teenager not knowing a word of English. I thought America was GREAT.
Now 30 years later, I am living my American dream as an author and speaker, but almost no one thinks America is great anymore. (In 2025, 24% of American are satisfied with the way things are in this country. In 1998, it was 60%!)
In the meantime, I’ve watched, observed and pondered. But other than voting, paying taxes and building businesses, I have never made a material contribution to policy changes that this country can use.
That changes now.
Today, I am presenting four ideas to address some foundational issues America is facing. Are these good ideas? I’ll let you be the judge. But in the end, I don’t think it matters. Deep down, I fundamentally believe any idea, if executed with purpose, conviction, and taste, can become great ideas.
Case in point, if you ask people in ancient Egypt, we are going to pull the crocodiles out of the Nile River, and use their skins to make handbags, and sell them for $30K a piece. They would think that’s the stupidest idea ever. Today, we have Louis Vuitton. So, their loss.
Without further ado, here are my ideas:
1. Shirtless lawyers
America has a lawyer problem – we have too many of them.
In 2025, we were introduced to two books Abundance and Breakneck.
Abundance talks about how America has a supply shortage for housing and utilities, and we are no longer able to build things like in the past because too many lawyers use environmental laws to block new projects starting in the 60s.
Breakneck contrasts China and the US, with former being “The Engineering State” who come up with high-speed rails, huge dams and solar farms, and the latter being “The Lawyer State” that stops everything from being built.
They both diagnosed America’s problem – we have too many obstructive lawyers.
Personally I have no problem with lawyers. In fact, my uncle is a lawyer who is a personal hero of mine. He’s funny, articulate and kind, and he’s done well for himself. But I’ve always wondered what business he would have built, what bestselling book he would have written and what kind of speaker he could have become had he not gone down the lawyer route.
America has so many lawyers and attracts some of the best and brightest talent to law schools. Why?
Simple. 1. Lawyers are well compensated 2. Lawyers are respected and often glamorized (think about all the movies making lawyers the protagonist)
We can’t change #1. In America, the capitalism market economy is allergic to limiting someone’s incomes.
But we can change #2.
In the movie Boogie Nights, Buck Swope (played by Don Cheadle) can’t get a loan for his business because he was a former porn actor. The stigma of pornography has effectively put a cap on societal respect and acceptability for porn actors. It has limited the inflow of talent, especially smart kids with high potential from flooding the industry.
We can do the same with lawyers.
If we pass a law that says, lawyers can only appear in court shirtless (and swimsuit for female lawyers), it will severely dent the prestige of the lawyer profession. It will make the millions of parents (especially immigrant ones) pushing their kids to become lawyers to think twice.
Also, it will stop Hollywood from glamorizing lawyers to young minds.
You think Richard Gere could look good showing his chest hair while convincing the jury Edward Norton was insane in Primal Fear?
You think Tom Cruise shouting “I want the truth” bare-chested would be cool? (Actually, as I am writing this, this is a bad example. A shirtless Tom Cruise is indeed cool. Never mind).
Anyway, a simple change of dress code for the lawyer profession can dramatically make this country more proficient. Think about it. If we can all get 3,000 ft houses that cost sub $400K, get on a comfortable and reliable train to go from San Francisco to Los Angeles in less than 2 hours, making the lawyers show a little skin in court is the lowest form of sacrifice.
And for those who look like Tom Cruise, they will clamor for it.
2. High School AP Personal Finance Classes
America has a debt problem, with $38T national debt and $19T consumer debt.
I had a friend who asked me how to start a business while $250K in debt. I slapped my iPhone and yelled “what’s wrong with you?” I hope his face felt the slap from his phone on the other end.
We are so bad at money because there is very limited K12 (or college for that matter) education on personal finance. Most people have little to no knowledge about budgeting and investing. The people who are providing the education are often cult-builders like Dave Ramsey and Mr. Money Mustache.
We need to make money education standard and required.
Now, this idea of financial literacy education isn’t new. But it’s never widely done because there is no incentive. But I came up with a solution below – the elite university presidents.
I have this one message for Dr. Alan Garber, the President of Harvard University. I know Ivy League schools have been much maligned in the past few years. But if you do this, you will become a hero.
Set up a Personal Finance class at Harvard, and make it AP eligible for high schools.
Once you do that, all the elite colleges will follow suit, and all high schools aiming to prep students for elite colleges will start having AP Personal Finance classes. The parents with nightmares of their kids not being in Ivy League will do all the work for you. They will drag their high school kids to the AP Personal Finance classes. Yes the kids will roll their eyes, but will learn some of the most important lessons in their lives with money. They will thank you later in life.
Think about this scenario, however unlikely: in 2050, in the closing speech of the Presidential debate, the 41-year-old Donald Trump III said “before I begin, I want to thank the former President of Harvard University, Dr. Garber. He made me take AP Personal Finance class in high school. Because of you, I spent my life building businesses without any bankruptcy. Because of you, I have made it my personal mission to cut our $150T national debt in half. Because of you, I want to reach across the aisle to come up with laws to help all Americans debt-free and rich. And that, is how you make America great again!”
President Garber, do you want to live in that world?
I know I do.
3. Replacing Turkey with Duck on Thanksgiving
Americans love eating turkey on Thanksgiving. But here is the truth: it sucks.
Before you fight me, let’s look at the data: on Thanksgiving, Americans eat about 46 million turkeys, about 25% of our total consumption in a year. One single day accounts for that much? That only means one thing – we actually don’t like eating turkey that much. We eat it on Thanksgiving more for ceremony and obligation than the taste.
It’s the secular version of the Lord’s Supper. The bread and grape juice aren’t for the taste, but for the ritual.
But the difference is turkey isn’t in the Bible. It’s a tradition we came up with based on colonial folklore. We can change it to whatever we want.
And you know what bird is awesome to eat? Ducks!
Don’t believe me? In Asia and France, people eat duck for breakfast, lunch and dinner. They do it not for ceremony, but for enjoyment.
Do this and thank me later: go to a Chinese restaurant, not Panda Express, or Jade/Golden/Dragon/Imperial Palace, but the authentic ones in your city where they offer Peking Duck. And you tell me if it’s not better than the turkey sandwich at Subway.
Another reason we eat turkey on Thanksgiving is because it looks good – an enormous, glorious golden bird in the middle of the dining table, like an edible replica of the Goldfinger girl. A duck wouldn’t look as good.
My solution is simple – serve two ducks. Napoleon said “quantity has quality of its own”. And this is the ultimate truth in life: two ducks are better than one.
4. Mandatory Mansion
America is built on entrepreneurship and the desire to thrive in life. That spirit is threatened. According to Gallup, 71% of Americans believed the next generation would do better than their parents in 1999. Today, only 42% believe that.
Remember my hero uncle? He lives in a mansion. When I was in college I spent a couple of weeks there every summer. Those visits were transformative. No need for long-winded pep talks. All I needed was to see the mansion, I was motivated to do whatever it took to get my own, no matter how dire the situation was for me.
In psychology, it’s called Loss Aversion, meaning once you’ve experienced something, losing it feels worse than never having it. So you are extremely motivated to get back to the mansion.
When I was getting evicted from a cockroach-infested apartment for late rent, I was dreaming about the mansion. When my Toyota Corolla was getting repossessed by the bank, I was dreaming about the mansion. When I accidentally dropped my last bowl of instant ramen on my lap, suffering from both hunger and burn at the same time, I was dreaming about the mansion.
Now, I have my own mansion.
There needs to be a federal program that’s mandatory for all 17-year-olds to have a weekend in a local mansion. Forget about field trips to Washington and NYC. Young butts in mansions!
Make the experience a combination of luxury and patriotism, with programs like “Manifest Destiny Infinity Pool”, “Boston Organic Tea Party”, “Give Me Liberty or Give Me Caviar Brunch.”
When the youth return to their normal lives the following Monday, they will not only love America more, but also have burning desires gushing out of their eyes. New AI models will be built. High school dropout rate will be cut in half. Shark Tank will be flooded by young people’s new businesses.
Now that’s a worthy investment into the future of America.
(I originally wanted to post eight ideas, but this is getting long and I’ll stop here. If you like it, tell me and I’ll do a Part 2.)
I know these might sound like crazy ideas. But America is such an amazing country, with amazing people and amazing history. It’s a place I once fell head over heels in love with.
I don’t know you are delighted or horrified by the world we are in right now. But no matter what, America is still worthy of our contributions and ideas to make it great, crazy or not.
Leave it in the comment on what you think about my ideas? More importantly, do YOU have any idea to make America great again?
And if you are feeling bad, eat some ducks. It helps. I promise.