The Greatest Idea...

The concept is simple enough.  Create a contest, a national conversation, encouraging American citizens from all fifty states to submit a single, common sense idea (one that preferably has policy implications) that has the power to improve daily life within the United States.  Those ideas are then judged by a diverse panel and the winner is awarded $100,000.  Here is Since Sliced Bread in its own words:

We're looking for fresh, new ideas for a better America. Do you have a common-sense idea that will improve the day-to-day lives of everyday Americans? Or an opinion on how working families can succeed in the new global economy?

You have until December 5, 2005, to submit your idea and to weigh in. A panel of judges will select the top 21 ideas. All of America will be able to vote on the finalists, and on February 1, one person will win $100,000—runners up receive $50,000 each.

An interesting idea.  Sadly - and quite predictably - most of the ideas submitted thus far have been a loose collection of silly populist and socialist sentiment offered up in single paragraphs.  Here's a sample:

Employee Ownership of Businesses

To address the issues of outsourcing of jobs and excessive executive pay, I propose employee ownership and management of American business enterprises, to be financed by loans from the Social Security fund. Just as loans from the Teamster's pension fund financed the initial development of Las Vegas, so too could loans from any large pool of capital (it need not be limited to Social Security) finance the takeover and/or creation of viable businesses that will operate on the Goretex model and respect the terms of the social contract that today's corporate decision-makers disdain and regard as "quaint.

Here's another:

Punish Anti-Union Employers

Employers are able to deny workers their human rights by fighting attempts to organize unions. In a truly just society, such employers would be imprisoned for life. This is my idea: speak about and work to create a labor movement that is truly progressive, truly democratic, formed and run by the grassroots, and committed to progressive goals and social and economic justice. We don't have that right now, because union leadership has long accepted the dominance of a few over crucial decisions affecting our communities and our nation, and instead focus on petty power struggles. There can be no justice if working people continue to be little more than wage-slaves, with no security and no input into how their economy functions and in whose interests.

Yes, imprisoning employers who fight to keep their companies from ruin, that's a marvelous idea.  What else do we have?  Maybe something protectionist.  Oh, this should fit the bill:

How American Is It?

Problem: It is common sense that when Americans buy American-made products, American workers benefit. However, it is often difficult to discern just how American a product is. For example, a car with an American nameplate may contain Korean, Japanese, and Chinese parts. In turn, a Japanese car might be engineered and assembled here.

Solution and Benefit: Every product sold in America should be required to sport an obvious color-scaled tag indicating how American-made it is. A universal scoring system would be devised based on origin of materials, design, development, manufacturing, packaging, and distribution. Consumers would be able to make informed buying decisions based on the color indicated on the tag. A nation-wide marketing campaign would educate and encourage Americans to consume products that are as American-made as possible. The color tag system would increase consumption of American products, creating competition among companies to use and purchase American-made materials as well as employ more American workers.

The contest is open till December 5th.  Let's hope the proposals get better than this, because right now they just read like a group quite transparently shilling for the labor unions.