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Posted by Tom Anderson on June 30, 19101 at 12:05:35:
http://secretcode.org/decentralizing.html
Decentralizing society: the road to liberty
Most people in the modern world of today want some kind of change,
including change toward political and economical freedom. Or, at least,
they long for it.
Today, most people in the western wold already long for some kind of
change, some of them toward political and economical freedom. In times
where support of authority and big government are decreasing, what is the
biggest hurdle in the goal of bringing about real, fast change?
People are not in control of their own lives, but their government is. We
are being ured by the political and media establishment that we live in
a modern democracy. What does that really mean? If high-ranked statesmen
can uphold and p arbitrary laws, if they can "propose" them, and let a
small team of like-minded politicans decide? You don't need to agree to
this practice, someone will agree in your place. If this can and does
happen everyday -- even if the majority is against it, and if concerning
laws often objectively harm rights and well-being of individuals -- can it
be a real democracy?
Individual self-control over originally personal matters is substituted by
an all-knowing all-deciding
media/politics/political-"business"/institutions elite.
When opening a an account for receiving income, depositing and transferring
cash, you can't chose privacy - in a way, all banks are public banks, they
are obliged to cooperate with your government. Most banks even agree to
this practice, since they get special benefits and privileges from the
government in return.
As employee, most of the time, you do not have a choice when it comes to
government cooperation. In sensitive matters, such as business laws and
income taxation, your employer complies in your place, to make government
support easier for you.
People like car owners and real estate owners pay additional adminstrative
taxes, which are spent in special areas, but not in a way that we directly
control. Even worse with all-purpose income tax. The public has no control
over how and for what "public" money is used. Government officials can and
do spend money more or less at will. It is usually wasted in projects which
at best, could be financed much more effectively and be made less
expensive, and at worst, are senseless or harmful to society. All this is
not within control of you or me or the "public".
Leaving this system can only be realized through decentralization and
privatization of the key elements of society which currently are outside of
individual control.
Banks could be privatized -- by eliminating unfair privileges of "public"
banks, allowing any small entepreneur to found an enterprise for offering
services including depositing, transferring, and exchanging of money and
values with other companies in place of the customer, including options for
anonymity -- and without having to abide by any government policy, only by
own terms of service.
This isn't too far-fetched -- it's beginning to happen already, in the form
of online brokerage services, and semi-anonymous cybercash systems, such as
e-gold or PayPal.
s and companies could be decentralized and made more independent, by
letting each individual control own business, legal, and taxation matters
him/herself, and replacing big, slow business with fast, small and flexible
e-business, each managed and run by only a few individuals.
That isn't too far-fetched, either -- some trends going into this direction
are the home business wave in the US, small but effective business made
possible through the internet, and legislative/economical freedom through
the possibility of going global.
Last but not least, the area of education is a major source of problems and
inefficiencies of today. As industry so much under the control and
administration of the government, education is for one corrupted --
teaching children acceptance for bureaucracy, voting, politics, and other
things the government likes them to learn -- and it is also inefficient
because of the uncompetitive, inefficient system of teacher qualification,
education programmes and schedules.
Education is changing slowly, through the homeschooling trend, and perhaps,
through the limited effort of financing from the business world, but
sometimes to the worse, as in strongly religious private schools, and
private schooling is only used by a small percentage of the population.
You might ask, how can a few individuals change this system? First,
spreading the right ideas and the knowledge about these problems, can and
does help. Also, decentralization of the key areas mentioned in this text
are a matter of individual engagement. New, small companies might start
building the necessary infrastructure for privatizing and decentralizing
these points -- not by waiting for governments, but by outcompeting the
inefficient, costly government systems. Any entrepreneur with the right
knowledge about what could be the trend of the future can profit enormously
in the long term.
Also, the focus of this text is the US, because change should start in the
US. As the geographically and economically biggest western country, the US
is a trendsetter when it comes to competition in the economy, and it will
be a trendsetter when it comes to competition in political and social
freedom. Other western countries which do not follow major advancements
that happen in the US will have to expect that economy and people migrate
away to the US from their more restrictive and unfree political systems,
therefore being ultimately forced to change.
Paradigm changes of post-modern society
Postmodern Age (1980-2000) Breakdown Period Future
(2001-) Civilization
exponential
Market cyclic, overexponentially overexponential decline growth, and
Tendency growing and declining and then stagnation later linear
growth
Biotech
Emerging Information technology / Biotech (medical) / B2B (lifespan),
Markets Hightech / low-cost Energy,
Supercomputing Molecular
technologies
Negative external market
Factors financial deceptions controls none
Positive evading external natural
Factors protecting own values controls limitless
growth
Paradigm
of ignorant authority seeking crisis management, self-reliance,
Society survival freedom
optimize
seeking government profits by
Paradigm maximize immediate support (corrupt striving to
of profits, minimize costs, business) vs. seeking offer maximum
Business few profit/value relations independence (surviving product/
business) service values
possible
Major Efficiently
Science &Inefficient/Government-led Breakdown/restructuring solves
Progress problems
Values stability independence limitless
freedom