You are called upon by the next President of the United States to head up a....

[KickAssClown]

Buffy, my dear, if I may call you such. I addressed the bit on critism with it intended for BD and InfiniteNow, primarily.

What I mean by:

Originally Posted by KickAssClown

As I am sure you can see the problem is that the minority only controls those that allow themselves to be controlled. I can assure you that No minority entity controls my actions, besides myself. They may have influence on my desisive capabilities, making it hard for me to make one play or another, but they do not have executive control.

My point in this is that I am normal person, despite any capabilities I may have developed over the course of my life. Therefore what applies to me, can apply to just about anyone else. I am only exceptional in a mediocre society. That isn't saying anything to me. I haven't been able to do anything exceptional, in my own view. So far my life seems pretty normal, compared to the lives of others.

It is from that which I base this. I know that some people are different in affect than myself, but for the most part it is simply skin deep. Most people in my experience are just that people, and subject to the same real rules as myself. So I use myself as the metric, when talking about people. I have no better metric to use.

Now as I have said. This system is broken down such that it can be implemented as a hybrid system. I suppose this statement has been missed in discussing the larger parts of it.

Where you start is with something like a company credit card. You have a community of people start it, and at the same time that community of people seeks out to teach it to the world. People would not be forced into it by violence. I wage peace, not war. People would actively have to make the choice to buy into the system. Those who did could benefit from the system, those who didn't nothing against them, but they can only benefit from being non-members.

Your free to associate as you pleased, just like you are free to pursue happiness, and free to suffer the consequences of your actions.

So back the community part. You get open minded individuals together, setup a trust fund/foundation sort of thing. Each member of the community chips in to that fund. First thing to get payed off is the various communial bills. Rent, Food, Power, Garbage, and Water. If needed the Community chest is used to allocate previously private land for public uses. That is buy land, develop it and then commit it to public ownership. Much like a Business actually.

Each member of the community must participate in someway. Personal betterment (education), personal or community production. The powers and responsibilities of each member would be clearly stipulated in a communial document, a constitution of sorts.

Outside money could be taken for services rendered, or goods produced. First things first is to get the community free standing though. For some time, yes, it might take time to establish and might take a bit of good will.

You run this like a business starting out. Particularly with an interest towards making it something like a cross between a realitor, and a housing agent. It would be a for profit, intially, organization.

This of course assuming it doesn't have a wide spread (40%+ of the population) acceptance. Once the community of people participating in the system hits it's first 7 Agency (population minimum: 2,097,152). It should become mostly self-sufficient. I would think.

What goes on is land is purchased privately intially and entrusted to public domain. As this goes on, and members join the system they are affored more and more of the new resource allocation based on the acquistions of the system. In the mean time contemporary money is circulated to pay for internal and external expensises.

All the while, the members who join are automatically shareholders in the whole of the system and stakeholders in the subsidaries of the system that they are a direct part of. You own personal property, 100%. Can take it if and when you leave. You have to have worked to earn it. However Communial property remains communial even if you deallocate from the system. IE Public land property, and production means.

In this system the people who get in are subject to a number of filters for the transitional period. One is that they must choose to join. Two they must be accepted by the whole of the community at that time, or at least the representives. The community that they are entering into (assuming they aren't a like-community merging into the system) has the executive power regarding whether an applicant is acceptable with in their community.

Like I said the exact details of the system have not been formalized, I am still working on them. I wouldn't mind making a brainstorm thread, if people are interested in iterating the system towards practical implementation. Addressing the details that is.

People would not exist in the system, starting or otherwise without compensation for their time. Which is the main point of contention whether on the side of Socialists or Capitalist. Why is this worth my time?

Now as for personal merit? Well that is the point of the representives. Pretige would be an informal aspect of the system. As a representive of a community you are liable to address the issues of the people you are directly representing. However as a leader you can help set the agenda. Moving the system forward. This system is purposefully oriented towards dynamism, not statis.

I would love to critically and practically infuse Technocracism (rule by the most able) into this system, so that the most qualified end up in the higher levels. However, as I have made a point of, the system is set towards a more flat hierarchy, and minimums and maximums are set. However one must consider that any given individual, no matter their capabilities can only do so much.

I would like it if I could see some information about the average work time per week, world wide. Each member would be expected to contribute to the whole, and would be required to participate to have resources above the necessities allocated to them. To avoid excess strain on the community chest.

[LunaWolfe]

Originally Posted by damocles

.........to head up a task force to recommend a national program to rectify the current situation in which the United Staes finds itself.

President’s Task Force Report July 24, 2007
Until further consultation with experts in the various areas offers better solutions, I propose, Madam President, the following strategies.
1. Energy:
Remove government subsidies and tax breaks to oil companies ($11.9 billion in 1995). Give incentives (grants and tax breaks) to sustainable energy companies instead: solar, wind, hydrogen, magnet, tidal, biofuels.
Require that oil companies allow production of fuel-efficient vehicles and alternative energy systems that they currently hold patents on.
Promote energy-efficiency, especially in building construction. Encourage green-roofs, earth-sheltering, passive ventilation and shading; sub-floor and solar heating, photo-voltaic roof panels.

2. Agriculture:
Remove government subsidies and tax breaks to giant corporate owned agri-businesses ($25 billion per year).
Give incentives (grants and tax breaks) to family farms, cooperatives and certified organic growers.
Require GMO labeling.
Promote local food production including in urban areas.
Promote hemp production for fiber, fuel and medicine.

3. Transportation:
Tax gas and diesel until US car owners pay as much as Europeans ($5-$6 per gallon with up to 75% being taxes). Use the money collected to subsidize public transportion, particularly rail and electric.
Tax car companies that produce gas-guzzlers and give incentives to manufacturers making fuel-efficient and alternative-fueled vehicles.

4. Healthcare:
Provide universal healthcare along the lines of other Western nations.
Eliminate for-profit health-insurance companies.
Focus on preventative health-care.

5. Security and Law-enforcement:
Decriminalize marijuana (and eventually other street drugs).
Criminalize environmental destruction and increase penalties for “white-collar” crimes (i.e. corporate and money-related crimes).
Impeach and prosecute certain members of the current government.

6. Foreign Relations:
Withdraw from Iraq as soon as possible. Write a letter of apology to Iraqis.
Order the CIA to cease and desist all under-cover warfare.
Make friends with the rest of the world.
Commit to total nuclear disarmament within 10 years.

7. Economy:
Use the Genuine Progress to replace the gross domestic product (GDP) as a measure of economic growth.
Heavily tax polluters, green-house gas emissions, multi-national corporations, people who make more than $10,000,000 a year.
Put an environmental tax on “disposable” items.
Make it a criminal offense to charge more than prime plus 5% interest.
Eventually dissolve the Federal Reserve and create a Fiat US Currency that does not require going into debt nor profiting private individuals in its creation.
Eventually eliminate welfare, unemployment insurance and old-age pension programs and replace Them with a tax-free Guaranteed Annual Income for everyone.

8. Government:
Eventually implement some form of proportional representation and/or direct democracy. Various concepts are possible: representatives from local and neighborhood groups electing representatives for the municipal groups then they elect for state government and they elect for national government; computer-facilitated direct voting on referendum issues; individual allocation of personal tax-monies to specific areas.