Below is an outline that I believe should be able to solve all pressing problems. You may not like it very much, because it demands some dramatic adjustments, but I frankly consider it to be the only alternative to much, much worse scenarios. Unfortunately, none of these changes that I suggest here will be implemented, which means that our future holds instability, mounting social tension, more culture wars, financial ruination, and ultimately civil war.
Seeing as that is the future I expect, this may be called my programme to prevent that future and craft something less terrible.
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General
-- USA, Canada, Europe, Russia, Australia and New Zealand to cease all hostility amongst themselves, and to form a united trade zone and defence pact. All trade and travel restrictions within this bloc to be eliminated.
-- Other developed nations to be invited to join, provided that they are willing to meet (and subsequently do, in fact, meet) all the qualifications as outlined below (with no negotiation or compromises being permitted).
-- Outer borders of the bloc to be well-guarded.
-- All imports into the bloc from outside the bloc to be heavily taxed. All imports from outside nations that are deemed hostile to be outright banned. (China certainly to be deemed hostile.)
-- Export of precious metals and of rare and/or strategically valuable materials out of the bloc to be universally banned.
Economy
-- All nations of this bloc to adopt a 100% gold standard. Government use of fiduciary currency to be banned.
-- Government debt and deficit spending to be banned at all levels of organisation within the bloc.
-- Private debt to be strictly limited, and borrowing of money by private parties to be only permitted under strict limitations. Things like credit cards and buy-now-pay-later schemes, in any case, to be completely banned. (Consumers should only be able to buy what they can actually pay for. Debt is a disease, and we must cure it.)
-- All nations within the bloc to only have one single domestic tax, this being a property tax.
-- The property tax to be capped at a fixed percentage that it may never exceed, to ensure government never leeches too much off the population.
-- All domestic taxation other than the property tax to be banned under all circumstances.
-- The tax to be paid at the most local level. The local government to always give 50% of its tax revenue to the level above that, which gives 50% of that to the level above it, and so on and so forth. (This discourages states from adding superfluous levels of adminstration, because the more levels there are, the less of the money arrives at the top level.)
-- All subsidies to be abolished.
-- All government guarantees towards private institutions (such as the USA's federal deposit insurance) to be abolished.
-- All banks to be either savings banks or investment banks. The choice must be made, and doing one of those things forbids that bank from getting involved in the other.
Politics
-- Subsidiarity to become the fundamental principle of government. Over 90% of all tasks to be carried out at the most local level. The highest level to be exclusively concerned with defence and foreign affairs.
-- Government to be dramatically reduced in size. Primary tasks to include police, criminal justice, emergency services, and infrastructure. Most everything else to be left to the private sector, with no public funding and no government meddling of any kind.
-- "Politician", at all levels, to become a honorary position without pay of any kind.
-- Only those who pay the property tax (meaning land-owners) to be eligible to vote or to stand for election. In elections, the principle of "one man, one vote" to be abolished, and replaced by "one household, one vote". (And I don't care if it's the man or the woman or the pet parrot who casts the vote. Figure that out amongst yourselves.)
-- Only citizens to be allowed to own property within the bloc. This means that any company, in order to own property, must be 100% citizen-owned. Any foreign involvement at all voids this status immediately.
-- Almost everyone who has been involved in politics or government bureaucracy at the present time to be permanently banned from voting, holding public office, or being employed by the state henceforth. (Such people have been corrupted by the bloated old system, and thus cannot be relied upon ever again.)
-- Immigration into the bloc to be highly restricted. Only those who add value to be welcomed. (Poor fortune-seekers should seek to build up their own countries. And refugees should seek refuge in neighbouring countries, not half-way across the world.)
-- All immigrants to be subject to a moderate form of xenelasia, under whose precepts they cannot become citizens and thus cannot own property or vote. (And in case of criminal acts, they'll be expelled immediately.) Path to citizenship takes three generations. Children of immigrants become non-citizen residents. Children of non-citizen residents (i.e. grand-children of immigrants) become citizens.
-- Some 90% of all legal codes within the bloc to be shredded. (No sane culture needs nearly as many laws as we have now.)
-- All proposals for any new laws to require a two-thirds majority to pass.
-- All proposals for any new laws to be restricted to one single subject.
-- All laws to always have a sunset clause that voids them after ten years, unless they're renewed by another two-thirds majority vote.
-- All "victimless crimes" to be abolished. If an act doesn't have at least one specific, identifiable victim, then it shouldn't be a crime. It may be foolish, it may be boorish, it may even be a sin. But it's not for the government to regulate or punish.
-- Freedom of expression to be absolutely safe-guarded against all infringements; everything short of clear incitement to commit violence against real persons to be permitted under all circumstances.
-- The concept of "fines" to be abolished. (Any punishment that yields money to the government provides a perverse incentive to make innocent acts punishable, so as to generate revenue via fines. If something isn't worth sentencing someone to at least a day in prison, it's not worth criminalising at all.)
-- The concept of "intellectual property" to be abolished throughout the bloc. (Ideas cannot be owned; ownership is only applicable to physical reality.)
Culture
-- Dueling to become fully legal again.
-- The wanton destruction caused by sports hooligans to be solved by simply formalising their brawls. After the match, the hooligans will be allowed to storm the field to fight each other, with the field becoming a lawless zone where all acts of close combat are permitted without legal repercussions. A sort of modern mêlée. (And yes, we'll sell tickets to that, too.) The victors will be rewarded with gold and beer.
-- All monumental old buildings that were knocked down to make way for grotesque modern buildings to be re-built, brick by brick.
-- All ugly modern building to be dynamited, in any case. Modernist aesthetics to be banned from the public space, as a matter of psychological hygiene. (Modernist aesthetics, I'm convinced, contribute to mental illness.)
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The above is not meant to yield a perfect world. I do not believe in perfect worlds. The merry anarchism that I generally enjoy in my daily life will not be translated into a grand societal transformation. There will be no world where the interations between people are based on the voluntary consent of the participants, with no government of any kind even existing. Men are not angels, and we must not expect them to be angelic.
What I have proposed here, then, is far more realistic. It is meant to stave off disaster; to generate much-needed stability while also securing liberty and prosperity. But even this is ultimately a far-fetched fantasy. While all of the above could be done, I know that it won't be done.
We'll come to regret that, I believe.
