These are some thoughts that I have had on philosophy, society, politics, and
government policy. These thoughts are not necessarily fully formed. I
welcome discussion and I am eager to hear your thoughts on any of these
or other issues.
Freedom vs Security
Freedom, by its simplest definition, is a lack of constraints. Laws
create order by creating constraints that reduce freedom. From that
order comes security for those who are in compliance with the law.
True freedom is anarchy. Question anybody who claims to be making a
law to protect freedom.
Freedom and security are traded for one another across the spectrum
between anarcy and totalitarianism.
Total anarchy is dangerous because society becomes chaotic.
Totalitarianism is dangerous because remaining in compliance with
the law is difficult.
Where the balance lies varies from one government to another. Where
the balance should lie is a matter of opinion.
Iraq illustrates a society that went, almost overnight, from
totalitarianism to anarchy.
Are You Liberal or Conservative?
Ask yourself, "Why are some people rich while others are poor?"
If your response is along the lines of, "Rich people made better
decisions and/or worked harder" then you are a conservative. If your
response is along the lines of, "Rich people were afforded better
and/or more opportunities" then you are a liberal.
Corruption
Society functions best when hard work is rewarded above opportunity.
This gives people an incentive to work hard. By one's hard work
things are improved for all. "Perks" that come with a position should
be eliminated.
When leaders accept a gift from a vendor who stands to benefit from
a decision, the leader gains, the vendor might gain, and indirectly
society pays.
Since leaders derive their positions from the will of those that they
represent, the best antidote to corruption is visibility. Sunshine is
the best disinfectant. One's privacy should righly diminish as power
and authority increase.
The Role of the Federal Government
The original reason for creating a federal government among the British
colonies in America was to facilitate and provide for:
- The common defense
- Interstate commerce
- Education
Securing loans for failing corporations, mandating the production of
certain consumer technologies, universal health care and social
security were not part of the original mandate of the federal
government. We would do well to give careful thought to the principles
of what are appropriate roles for a national government.
Preemption
As protection against abuse of power by rulers and to hold authority
accountable the constitutions of The United States' and other free
nations guarantee that no citizen will be arrested and imprisoned
without probable cause that the person commited a crime and without
promptly either being released or publicly charged with commiting a
crime. It is illegal in the United States and other free nations to
arrest and imprison somebody because you suspect that the person
might commit a crime in the future.
Similarly, until June 2, 2002, it was the stated policy of the United
States government to never attack another nation unless the other
nation attacked the United States or an allied nation first.
World Government
As communication and transportation technology advances, the people of
the world will interact more. Executive, legislative, and judicial
functions, of global reach and authority, should be strengthened to
facilitate these interactions. This will require a gradual ceding of
sovereign powers on the part of all nations. The current air within
the world's most powerful nations is one that favors strengthing
national sovereignty at the expense of world government.
Taxation
A sales & use tax as a source of government revenue is nice because it
taxes only the money that residents spend, not the money that they
save. Therefore, a sales & use based tax system rewards residents for
saving their money.
On the other hand, high income earners have more opportunity to save
and are therefore rewarded disporportionately by a sales & use based
tax system. An income tax is more fair across the range of income
earners.
A third alternative source of government revenue is property and
excise tax. This tax discourages property ownership, unless government
allows the tax to be deducted from other more costly taxes.
What is best, a tax on assets flowing in, a tax on assets held, or a
tax on assets flowing out?
Retirement Savings
Each year each citizen should be allowed to invest 15% or her/his annual
earnings or 30% of the average citizen's annual earnings, whichever is
lower, in a tax-free retirement account. The cap value based on the
average salary should be adjusted annually.
I have created this Microsoft Excel 50 year
plan spreadsheet for personal financial planning. Each row
represents a year. To download the spreadsheet to your own computer
right click the link and select "Save Target As...". Then you can
enter your own personal information.
Population & The Environment
There are certain natural resources in the world that contribute to
our quality of life and are being consumed faster than they are
replensihed. As the world population increases, the problem of the
diminishing supply of such resources worsens.
Environmentalists would have us each reduce our personal
consumption, at the expense of our quality of life, in order to
reduce the rate of total consumption. The problem with that
approach is that, with an ever growing population, we will need an
ever shrinking amount of personal consumption in order to achieve
sustainability.
For any particular resource, there is a world population limit at
which that resource can be sustainably consumed in such a way that
everybody's desire for personal consumption is satisfied without
compromise. Today we exceed that population level for many
resources.
Our leaders and governments, if truly concerned with our long-term
best interests, will take actions to reduce the world population
(needless to say, gradually and humanely). Unfortunately, since
this opposes the teachings of major world religions, governments
are taking no such action. As a result, people of the future will
suffer a reduced quality of life.
Marriage
In societies with greater wealth people depended less on their
families for support. In other societies the purpose of marriages
is to create children who, by being members of two families, create
connections thereby strengthening the community. That marriage
traditionally exists between only two people is to maximize the
connections between families. That marriage is traditionally
between a man and a woman is to enable reproduction.
Modern marriage in wealthy societies has little to do with linking
families, but has two major personal implications: a religious link
with another person that usually encompases monogamy and a legal
link with another person. That a religious link be restricted to
certain combinations of genders or even a certain number of parties
should be a decision for each religion to make. One religion need
not recognize marriages performed in another religion.
The most important implications of the legal link created by a
marriage is an implied shared ownership of all assets (and
liabilities) and the authority to act on behalf of a spouse. With
the recognition under the law of joint ownership and the existence
of legal tools such as power of attorney, wills, and living wills
our legal system has the tools to provide all of the traditional
rights and privledges of marriage under the law without any special
recognition by the law of one or another religion's definition of
marriage.
A government that appropriately recognizes the separation of
church and state will neither legalize nor ban gay marriage.
Similarly, such a government will neither legalize nor ban
polygamy.
Love & Cheating
Love, in the sense of unconditional caring and support, is how one
feels for family. It is not only appropriate but expected that one
loves multiple family members. Can not one have the same feeling
for a friend as for a relative? Can not one have the same feelings
for multiple friends of the opposite gender? Why is it expected
through dating, engagement, and marriage that love is to be limited
to a single non-relative? If one is able, why is it considered
wrong to have a deep, personal, and even private relationship with
somebody outside of one's sexual partnership?
Debt & Slavery
Throughout history people have made arrangements to receive a
benefit in the short-term based on their credit with somebody else
and work off their debt over time. That is endentured servitude.
Historically, in many societies, children are expected to
repay the debts of their parents if the parents are unable to do
so. Also, in many societies, debts can be traded as assets between
creditors. If a debt is so great that it can not be payed with an
entire lifetime of work, then it is possible in such societies for
a child to be born into endentured servitude, remain there for the
rest of his or her life, and have his or her work obligation bought
and sold any number of times.
In America today children are not required to pay their parents'
debts. If somebody dies with debt it is tough luck for the
creditor. This freedom has allowed many Americans to take on a
lifetime of debt early in their lives, ensuring that they will
spend the rest of their lives working in the endentured servitude
of their creditors.
Productivity & Power
Even basic subsistance requires the consumption of resources of
general value. Some consume more resources of general value than
they produce and others produce more than they consume. Those that
produce more than they consume have an advantage. This is true at
an individual and a societal level.
Dependence on somebody else to satisfy one's needs is a position of
weakness. The ability to satisfy the needs of another is a position
of power. The strongest relationship are those in which partners
simultaneously complement each other's strengths and weaknesses
with a net balance between the disparities. The number of partners
need not necessarily be 2.
If maximum power is the goal such as would be the case in building
a superpower nation then a simple maximization of productivity and
minimization of consumption is the goal. In such a case it is
necessary to adjust cultural ideals to value hard work and devalue
having extraneous material posessions.
Food Value
Several decades from now the upcoming superpower nations, China
and India, will face trade deficits in food and a reliance on food
imports. India because of its unchecked population growth and China
because of its large population combined with its historically poor
stewardship of its arable land. This will give food production an
increased value.
Nations with large areas of land and relatively thin populations
such as Brazil, Russia, and The United States will see a trade
benefit and a corresponding increase in national power. Worldwide,
farmers will be financially rewarded and held in increasingly high
esteem.
Music
A talented musician today, with less than $1000 of digital recording
equipment, can create recordings at the same level of quality as
professional recordings of famous artists. Through peer-to-peer file
sharing networks it is possible to distribute a recording to millions
of listeners for free. With today's technology, listeners should be
able to enjoy good music at a cost of about 1 cent per recording and
talented musicians should be able to earn a comfortable living making
such music.
Today's famous musical "artists" are no more talented than thousands
of other unfamous artists. Today's famous musical "artists" rarely
write the songs that they perform. So many multi-track digital-effect
recording techniques are used that today's famous musical "artists"
often can not actually perform their songs in live concerts but must
lip sync instead.
Today's famous musical "artists" are famous because they have been
promoted. These "artists" were chosen for promotion by corporations
in the recording industry usually because they look attractive in
videos. Attractive "artists" sell more albums, the revenue from which
predominantly goes into more promotion. The Grammy awards were
originally invented by Alexander Graham Bell to honor the
artist who helped his corporation sell the most Gramophones.
Sharing Music
Downloading music is legal. Downloading a recording is always
legal regardless of the copyrights on that recording. Copyright laws
limit the copying of art. The person who shares music is making the
copy, not the person downloading the music.
By my interpretation of copyright law, if you find a work of art in
the public domain that has no clear copyright notice and you are
reasonably unaware that the art was released into the public domain
illegally then it is legal to make and give away copies of that art.
That means that it is legal to share music files as long as those
files have no clear copyright notice and you have not been informed
that the file was previously copied illegally.
It is illegal to remove a copyright notice and give away a copyright
work of art without that notice. That means that it is illegal to
remove a copyright notice from the file name of a copyright music
file and proceed to give that file away. It is also illegal to remove
a copy notice from the id3 tag of an mp3 file and give the file away.
It would also be illegal to edit a recording to remove a clearly
spoken message indicating that it is copyright and then give the
recording away.
It is illegal to make copies of copyright art without permission.
That means that if a music file has a clear indication that it is
copyright, such as a copyright notice in its file name or a clearly
spoken message as part of the recording, then it is illegal to
share that file. Furthermore, to make a music file by ripping a CD
sold with a clearly written copyright notice and then to give away
copies of that file is illegal.
A copyright owner may file a lawsuit and seek an injunction and
damages against whoever infringed their rights by copying and
distributing the recording without proper copyright notice, but that
is neither a problem nor should it be a concern for listeners who
download music or share music that has no copyright notice.
There is an international concert of the world's smallest violins
being played just for the Recording Industry Association of Ameria
(RIAA) and its member corporations.