A society is not better than its best idea.
Speculation alone is not enough— things also have to work in reality. However, to change the world, we must consider how to improve it. Without ideas, we can’t know where to begin.
So, here are 5 ideas that could make the world a better place.
1. Liquid Democracy. Get rid of politicians by combining the best of direct- and representative democracy.
We elect our politicians every 4 years.
Their job is to vote in a way that represents you — which they often don’t. Instead, we could vote ourselves, but the problem is we don’t have the time to get involved.
This is where Liquid Democracy comes in.
Say there’s a proposal to raise the tax on alcohol. If you want, you could vote yourself — but you could also let someone else do it for you. Uncle Burt could represent you as he’s experienced in alcohol-related matters — and you could let your favorite YouTuber represent you on some other issue. To incentivize them, they could get a small income for every voter they attract. And, if they misrepresent anyone, the allocation could be revoked immediately — with the click of a button.
In a Liquid Democracy, you could vote directly on every subject, and bad representatives would instantaneously see their supporters and income dwindle. It would give the people all the power and save them the trouble of getting involved.
It would give us the power and put the political elite out of work.
2. Artificial Laws of Physics. Use software to make rules that can’t be broken — even by those in power.
Today, laws are guidelines.
As soon as it becomes expedient, the powerful stop abiding by them — they turn on the money-printers, go to war, and stay out of jail. By contrast, decentralized and distributed software can create immutable rules.
With their help, we can stop trusting people to follow the laws and instead make them impossible to break. And, unlike today, the laws could apply to everyone without exception, making equality of the law absolute. Of course, physical things can still be stolen — but elections could be made impossible to rig, money impossible to print, and hidden rules and loopholes unavailable to the privileged. And vital areas like finance would be entirely in the software’s control.
With decentralized software, we can create artificial laws of physics — man-made laws that cannot be broken. The remaining problem is designing and governing the rules well — which is why democracy is still relevant. Even this can be improved by software — guaranteeing everyone an equal influence in the decision-making.
Decentralized software can’t fix everything — but it’s probably a step in the right direction.
3. Democratic corporations — make companies serve the masses by letting workers elect their leaders.
Employer vs. employee — the age-old battle.
Many problems stem from the conflict between workers and corporations. If the owners could have it their way, the workers would be slaves — and if the workers got theirs, they’d be on permanent paid vacation.
If we divide these incentives between different groups, those groups will fight. To avoid this, we can put two hats on the same people — let the workers be their own employers, each with an equal share of the business. Like any owners, they must balance their salaries with the company’s success. Those who succeed won’t be exploited, will work less when technology allows it, are less likely to move operations overseas, and are less likely to pollute their local communities. It’s a way to reap the benefits of a free market while removing a root cause for exploitation.
Companies will work for the workers if their leaders are accountable to them. It’s the same principle we (try) to apply in politics — a leader will serve those who can remove them from power. We spend a lot of time at work, so perhaps it’s long overdue that democracy is brought to the workplace.
Democracy at work can fix most problems of the current economic system while keeping many of its benefits.
4. Sound Money. Make money work for the people and not the other way around.
Most wars are paid for by printing money.
Today, the elites can easily finance their shenanigans by printing money.¹ Whether it be wars or bailing out their friends when they gamble and lose.
Not only do the people have to endure bad policies, but they also get poorer through inflation. When more money is printed, there is more of it around for the same amount of goods and services, which means everything costs more. It’s an invisible form of taxation — those who print the money enjoy the benefits, and the costs trickle down to the average citizen. If we could prevent this from happening — or make it happen in a well-designed way — we could avoid the bad policies and stop the illegitimate taxation. Historically, this has been done by pegging currencies to gold, and a more modern approach is cryptocurrencies.
Whichever solution we use, we would benefit from preventing a small group from controlling the money supply. Doing so would prevent both bad policies and theft through inflation. In other words, it would make money work better for everyone.
And not only the elites.
5. Free humanity from survival with a Universal Basic Income.
We are enslaved by our survival.
Since the dawn of man, we have struggled to survive. Today, technology has basically freed us from this ancient problem — but instead of enjoying an abundance of leisure, we must do the unnecessary to get what we need.
A universal basic income could finally free us from our ancient predicament. It could allow us to do what we want with our lives and focus on more meaningful projects like going to Mars — instead of increasing arbitrary sales numbers. Like all these ideas — it has to be tested to see if it works in practice. But in theory, and in the limited trials conducted, it looks promising.
In the modern USA, we must work 10 hours weekly to produce what we need.¹ However, with a large enough universal basic income, no one would have to work. We can all be free if we rely on the necessary work being done voluntarily.
At the very least, it’s worth a try.
Footnotes
¹For the claim that we only need to work 10 hours per week, see A 10-hour Workweek is Enough (To Satisfy Everyone’s Needs).
