In August of 1964, I dropped out of the Aero Engineering program at Brooklyn Poly and entered public service. My first appointment came 3 weeks later, when the Parents' Guild for a Better World asked me to patrol the neighborhood for gum wrappers people were tossing on the ground instead of in the trash baskets the Public Works department had placed on every street corner. My job was to pick up the gum wrappers and put them in the trash cans. I innovated the process by using a small broom and dust pan so I wouldn't have to bend down a lot. (The city still pays me royalties whenever the employees use brooms and dustpans to sweep public areas.)
I held that job for 15 years and took early retirement (I was 34) at 67% of my pay (with a 5% automatic annual cost of living increase) plus free health insurance for the rest of my life.
Then I ran for Borough President (and won) on a conservative "cut government spending" platform. My pay rose to $200,000 (plus perks like limo service, exemption from real estate taxes, free massages at that place in Chinatown, etc etc) and it did not reduce my previous early retirement pension. The people rallied around my call for cutbacks in government spending, which is how I won the Mayoral election in 1987. My pay for that job was $423,000 (plus better perks).
My first act as Mayor was to eliminate the street cleaners department and raise the fine for littering to $1000. The cash flow from that to the City was incredible, which is how I got elected Governor in 1998.
Two months later, the Vice President died and the President asked me to step into the job, because the Speaker of the House was a sh#thead that everyone in Congress said did not deserve to replace the dead VP. A special temporary Constitutional Ammendment had to be passed until I was sworn in and Congress passed that Amendment because Congress can do any f#@^ing thing it desires to do with the Constitution whenever it damn well pleases.
Three and a half years later, I was elected to the Presidency because I tagged Hillary as my running mate and the time was right for Hillary, and I knew it, and I rode that wave all the way into the sandy beach.
Hillary was quite a VP. Her scholarship of American history and the Constitution was second to none. Very often the Supreme Court would ask for her opinion on the Constitutionality of this or that and she would clear it up for them.
Which explains how she found that cryptic, long lost footnote buried on page 213 of the orignal hand written Constituition that said "Whenever he damn well pleases, the President can make it a felony for any member of Congress to belong to a politcal party."
I wasted no time in doing so, basically dismantling the political blockades to progress caused by the two parties - Democrats and Republicans.
The stock market went through the roof due to a new born optimism about America.
The new Congress was apolitical and had no strings attached and owed no political debts and had no promises to keep.
The new Congress imposed a tax penalty for any American based company operating facilities overseas and importing their products to America. Also taxing the major importers (Walmart, Kmart, Target) for selling stuff made in offshore factories. The scramble to "buy American / sell American" became a frenzy. Jobs came back onshore to the extent that 1,000,000 people from Japan, China and Korea applied for jobs here.
The new (apolitical) Congress issued a special 1% tax on the rich (including all their cash hidden in offshore bank accounts) and that right there would pay off the national debt in 10 years, and they would never even miss the money.
Americans everywhere experienced lower stress levels, which made them more healthy and reduced our national expenses for health care by 23% and extended healthy lifetimes to an estimated 96 years on the average. Researches found that the new stress-free life meant that people would stay healthy (their health would not deteriorate) until some point within 30 days of their 96 birthday and that they would simply not wake up one day.
Looking back, sitting here on the porch, I'd say it was a good ride, and that I was lucky to be there at the right time. I never claimed any special political talents, except maybe that I noticed how damaging political parties had become to our country.
But, quietly, every now and then I wonder how my life would have been if I had stayed in engineering.