Toward Reimaging Governance

@WarisaRacket you raise a great point about time this is a key element in direct democracy. we need to reduce working hours so people have time to actually consider thier decisions, to understand the ramifications.

the only reason i can ever see for modifying current systems and not implement something more drastic is as a transition to move towards a more drastic system, like a training phase.

we all know we work too much now anyway, so a reduction in hours (severely) would be welcome, especially if we want to have more access to democracy.
by providing some of the vitals, local renewable (solar wind etc) forms of energy to homes, as a right, not a cost. reduce the overall costs of running a household. you could have people freed up from working so many hours, businesses could adjust wages down. your suggesting of a basic income also allows this time and protections. doing all the above would be best! basic income and low cost utilities.

im not saying planning a complete change is easy. and especially in pro austerity countries.
but if we are going to the effort of designing something free and fair, lets not play a half game because some people wont like it.
we don't have to win anyone over now, we just have to design something complete.

if what we design is fair, and balanced and works, then i do believe logic will prevail.

i have considered relegation of voting, its something we have to be very clear about. it has the potential to ruin direct democracy completely.

but some people just wont care about some subjects, and that also needs to be considered.

you are not an idiot, you are thinking about all the right things. we need every brain to work on this, so dont ever put anything you type down!!

@directadmin It's a pleasure to meet you and thanks for the response. I deleted my previous post & don't know if I can recover it :( Anyways, it appears that we share many of the same values and are both fans of Jeremy Rifkin =D It's unfortunate that this group isn't more active but regardless, I love the idea and think it has serious potential. I have some experience with Photoshop & video-editing so if we can get a small group of dedicated and creative individuals behind this, I'd have no problem volunteering some of my time for it in the future. I still need to educate myself on the subject but thus far I'm fully on board with you brilliant people. All the best!

here is the post you deleted for reference (:

WarisaRacket mentioned you while discussing "Toward Reimaging Governance"

Hello @directadmin @rathy @elimisteve, thanks for the excellent discussion. Re: your 3 suggestions @directadmin, I love all of them but I simply do not see it happening in pro-Austerity countries. Most adults in the US watch less than 7 minutes of news per day because they are too busy working or otherwise too exhausted from shitty jobs. Platforms like Loomio & DemocracyOS, as amazing and engaging as they are, simply do not fall on the radar of stressed people living in perpetual poverty. Most of these people can’t even afford to take a Monday off to vote, nor do they care enough to want to. In my opinion, two solutions to this issue are:
1) Along with the platform of crowd-sourced governance, introduce a basic income which would give every person the capability to be active participants in the system we wish to create, if they choose to be. In my opinion, we do not want to recreate a system where only those who can afford to can participate. Also, I believe we would make the best case out of all current parties advocating BI in re: to funding it since we’re also advocating freeing up politician’s budgets in addition to their funding methods. What are your thoughts on this economic equality v. political equality issue?
2) Provide a feature on the platform for the time-stricken general public to relegate their votes to other members they trust on various issues (which kind of goes against the “direct-democracy” ethos, but I don’t see another solution without 1).
It is also important to note the populist rhetoric that all parties on the political spectrum are adopting for upcoming elections. We also must adopt all the good/popular ideas from successful populist parties (solidarity funds/Podemos circles, etc) while simultaneously showing how/why our ideas would be superior, if they are to ever gain a foothold in the collective conscience. I may be too idealistic, but I really do believe we live in amazing times. Anyways, that’s just my two cents and I’m an idiot, though I’m sure some much smarter people with lots of free time can figure it out :)

@warisaracket so glad you are keen. I will not stop until direct democracy facilitated by the internet is a reality. I just wish I had programming skills. I have been looking at adapting loomio to suit an idea I have but not getting any where yet. I started a thread here looking for help. I might have to start from scratch and learn to build what I want.

@directadmin. So glad you are still active. Thanks for reposting for Warisa.

I am happy to say I have a wonderful work live(life) balance. I work for myself and probably have more time off than time working, and still have enough money to play with. I am by no means wealthy and have little reserve but can reduce my expenses very low so that I can survive on $150 per week if necessary. I have had this lifestyle for about 15 years.

Just joined, catching up to do but looks significant. Just a couple of thoughts, I wonder if it is worth looking at the idealised global system and working backwards. Present models are piece meal adaptations of a bygone age. I think what we envisage is a world wide app. suited to voting on a single issue with a suitable mixed media information facet. Maybe unique ID, GPS related (10km, 100km and global)? If that is the vision then we need to build that into the early models to unify later.... On with the reading!!! Pete.

Ideally I don't think much will need doing globally. There are very few issues that would require that.

But.. It definitely needs consideration.

@petenicholls I agree with a global approach but I also think the platform needs to zoom to the local level. I think this can be achieved with a tree like structure that carries every significant issue from the roots to the branches and when there are global issues, like the planets climate, these issues will appear on every level.

We need to be careful not to allow too much access locally for issues they don't have a stake in.

Some of the citizens initiated referendum in other parts of the world have shown results where locals have had external popular decision affect them, against the local results.

I'll try to find some more information.

I don't have time to engage much, but, I generally perceive a gross deficit of attention in public discourse to the subject of stakeholders: "Who is really affected by this issue?" Which brings us to the subject of what government ought or ought not to be, at various scales of society: town, state or province, nation, and (yep) world.