If one is prudently generous, as he ought to be, the fact will not be noticed in him, nor will he escape censure for being miserly. To be reputed generous among men, one must indulge in every form of ostentation, with the result that any prince who does so will have to spend all of his resources and, to keep up his reputation, will have to burden his people unduly by resorting to extortionate taxation and every other means of raising funds. This will make him odious to his subjects and, as he declines into poverty, will lose him the respect of everyone.[...]

Therefore, being unable to assume the virtue of liberality so it will be recognized and yet create no danger, a wise prince will not object to being reputed a miser.

Niccolo Machiavelli

GT's preliminary definition of conservatism: maximum return from minimum expense.

Corollary 1: 90% is a reasonable target maximum. More than 90% is geometrically more difficult. Aiming lower hits lower.

Corollary 2: This does not mean subsistence. Man can live on bread, apples, milk and beef jerky, but that's bad for morale, and poor morale is bad for everyone. It means practicing triage (critical problems, non-critical problems, amount of resources that can be used for either, tri-balanced).

Exploratory points:

1. Reduce all laws, regulations, and programs, with corresponding bodies, to their simplest minima. Complexity breeds confusion, bureaucracy, and the desire to warp the law. A simple law is much harder to break than a complicated one, as a complicated law lends itself to irrational interpretations.
2. With the laws simplified, penalties for willfully breaking them must be extreme. Likewise, there must be benefits from doing more than observing the letter of the law. Suppose factories are required to conform to certain environmental minima. Sensibly they should be heavily penalized for not conforming, to make pollution unprofitable. Likewise, tax credits given proportionate to how above and beyond the minima they go.
3. Social issues must be addressed promptly and thoroughly. This includes the environment, Xism discrimination, intellectual property rights, and so on. Nothing is gained by ignoring the issues; they only get worse. If the issues are handled promptly and thoroughly they will fade. If you can't handle them promptly and thoroughly then at least develop a cooperative timetable. People will be patient if they trust you, and without that trust you're hamstrung. It's efficient conservatism to keep your word whenever possible, since when you break it, you make a long enemy.
4. A special note for the environment: it's not efficient to defecate in the stream you imbibe. However, we've got to defecate somewhere, and we can't always do it in a compost heap. Invoke corollary 1.
5. Open the books; people will notice things you don't and suggest solutions you may not have considered -- and which all the experts in the world might not notice. Maximize public input and then do what's best without regard for the poll of the day. If you're right, all's well, and if you're wrong, you'll find out. Vacillating costs you trust, as per the above.
6. Give responsibility wherever possible. It's inefficient and non-conservative to manage what you don't need to manage. People are happier and do more when they have some autonomy. This is really a restating of point 1. Likewise, encourage volunteerism in specific, and in general, the right of a person to do work suitable to himself. Water is not plastic wrap; which do you drink and which covers Thanksgiving turkey? Would you switch them and expect them to function? Of course not. People are no different. Encourage volunteerism because those who like to serve will do so more effectively than those who don't, and more cheaply. Then everybody's happy.
7. Nationalize your resources and then license them. Never sell. Foreign ownership is bad for morale, and the foreign owners don't -- can't -- have your country's best interests at heart as a rule. You can have most of the benefits of foreign capital by licensing without surrendering your autonomy.
8. Develop a system for handling those who fall outside the system. This is a restating of a couple of points -- there will always be people who can't be handled through normal channels. It's inefficient to try to force these people, particularly the iconoclasts like myself, to conform -- since it doesn't work. Those who don't fit the system are often those who'll reshape the system; to try to force those people to conform is to destroy your innovation talent, which is clearly foolish.

Very preliminary. Needs to be pared down to half the words and half the complexity. Still, a good start and relatively comprehensive -- as per corollary 1.

GT