| In this society, people would have a right to certain absolute basics: Housing, Food, Healthcare. Citizens would also have a right to stop working. Those who do not work for any reason, aside from disability, would receive subisidies to provide for the absolute basics listed above, in addition to a reasonable stipend for entertainment/etc. I will call them Welfare citizens. The only price for not providing for yourself would be a loss of a right to vote. The loss of the right to vote would not be permanent and would be restored if at any time a Welfare Citizen decides/is able to start working again. Disabled Welfare Citizens would not lose the right to vote as it is not their voluntary choice to not work.
It is my view that those who depend on society's providing for them, should not be able to have a say in governing that society, mitigated by the fact that there is an absolute right to being provided for.
These absolute basics would be subsidized by the progressive Welfare (Stability) Tax. As it is in society's interest to provide for the unemployed to keep a stable society, this tax would be levied progressively on the working/non-welfare citizens.
People would also have a right to equal justice under the Law. This will be accomplished to removing private Lawyers from the sphere of criminal/civil law as applied to individuals. All individuals, Rich or Poor, will have exactly the same right to a public attorney (or a team if warranted) for defense or prosecution. Private attorneys would still exist for Corporate/International law, keeping the law profession lucrative for many, while opening up the profession for those interested in a just society. The Public attorneys would be subsidized by the progressive Justice Tax.
Elections would be financed through the flat Fair Elections Tax. All private contributions to both candidates and parties would be prohibited. Ads by outside groups would be prohibited. Candidates would be fielded through accepted parties internal processes, and have equal public television/radio access. New parties would have a chance to be accepted on every election day by listing their abridged platforms and receiving above a certain vote percentage. Voting would be on a weekend and mandatory.
There would be a much stricter separation between the Government and the Private Sector in all aspects. Government would be able to provide grants/loans to the small/developing businesses, but that would be completely prohibited from interfering with, bailing out, or otherwise subsidizing corporate entities. Government would be able to regulate everything related to environment/public health/employee safety/discriminatory practices, but almost nothing related to competition (with exception of the media/communication).
There would be some regulations in the media market, preventing high levels of media consolidation and providing for media diversity as it allows money to influence public opinion and interferes with free and fair elections. There would be no controls on the views expressed in the media market.
Considering the enormous citizenship benefits, immigration in this society would have to be tightly regulated.
In addition to the Taxes outlined above to provide for the Welfare, Justice, and Fair Elections, there would also be the Healthcare, Defense, Education and Infrastructure Taxes. All these Taxes would be income/capital gains taxes. Separating these taxes instead of lumping them all together, provides Citizens with a much better understanding of what money goes where, and makes it much more difficult for the Government to make changes or increase spending as they would have to increase each relevant tax rate to accomplish it. Additionally it would be impossible for any individual to avoid paying these taxes, as all of them would be mandatory on all income including capital gains and bonuses. A flat Sales Tax would exist to provide for all other Government operations.
Corporate/Business taxes would be progressive but lower than current rates to promote growth.
These are just some of the broad brushstrokes that I've been thinking about for a future society. A society that is business/competition friendly, but at the same time fair and decent and compassionate to all of its citizens. I would even argue that the general level of taxation in this society would not be higher than what we currently have, but by breaking up all the taxes into individual components, keeping most of them progressive, and removing exemptions and complexities of the current tax code, we would collect a higher level of revenue than we currently do.
I've written a much more detailed outline than this one, that includes Education, Science, Space taxes and incentives to promote development of those resources and driving bright young people to excel. It also expands on all of the above areas with more justification and financial specifics. It's just an exercise of what in my view would be a moral government/society.
I've considered creating a website where people would discuss creating a virtual country with all of the features, via a legislative democratic community process, again as just an exercise but it could be interesting to see what intelligent people might come up with as fair and just. |
