Some people are uncomfortable with the prospect of the wealthy gaining more votes. There's no reason to be afraid- because in this system, the rich can't get any richer without making the rest of us richer too. Economic power is decentralized and democratized.
True, our political system is fundamentally unfair- but it's also unfair because our economic system is unfair. We produce more than enough food to feed everyone on earth- and because some people don't have enough "money", the ones who need it most can't buy it. There are four empty houses for each homeless person- but because they can't "afford" them, they will stay outside and most probably die early. About 20000 children already die each day from hunger and other preventable diseases we can easily treat.
These children didn't do anything wrong besides being born in the "wrong" country.
You may have heard these statistics before and felt sad for a few seconds, but ultimately shrug your shoulders and say "ehh, there's nothing I can do". There is. But right now, that's besides the point. Any of these people could have been you. Did you choose where you were born or how rich your parents are? No, for all you know one day you just popped out of thin air.
We don't think this is very fair- in fact, it's completely unacceptable. There are some things that we have a responsibility to provide as a society if we have an ability to provide them. Mainly, basic needs that are absolutely essential to survival like food, water, clothing, housing, and medical care. If you withhold any of these things, you have blood on your hands. Education is also a big one, since even though you won't die if you aren't educated, your social life and future prospects are severely impaired.
So now you know.
The Global Assembly doesn't just exist to fix our broken political system. It also exists to fix our broken economic system, because you can't separate the two. Politics and Economics are bound together like peas in a pod. Sure, things may improve slightly if you only fix one or the other, but they always end up corrupting each other again, as you can see through history. We really don't need to tell you what's wrong with society. All across the world, there's a growing sense of unease and tension among the population, a feeling that something just isn't right and that our democracies are failing us.
- Political Corruption: No matter how much we vote, the politics never seem to get any better. It's just the same old arguments and same trash rhetoric every time.
- Government Spying: Big, centralized governments continue to pass increasingly restrictive legislation targeting online freedom and spying on people who've done nothing wrong.
- Massive Income Inequality: More and more of us are working harder than ever while still taking home less and less each year. Your Government raises taxes and provides you with less services, while already-obscenely rich billionaires gobble up the rest. Even if your salary stays the same, everything else you need to buy is constantly getting more expensive- which is just as bad.
- The climate. It's changing and we may not be able stop it, even though we will try as hard as we can.
- Destruction of human and ecological biodiversity: One major problem that's not immediately obvious is the rapid loss of human diversity: Local cultures, traditions and languages are dying at an unprecedented rate, and once they're gone, they're gone forever. The biggest reason for this is that if your community wants to do business on the world stage, you must know English since English-speaking countries have all the money. The diverse cultures that make our world unique are being destroyed, and in their place follows a monotonous, uniform blend of American movies, clothes, TV shows, restaurants etc. Now everyone can drink Coca-Cola and eat at McDonalds.
- Needless to say, the previous is nothing more than neocolonialism in disguise. We'll still invade your country and "civilize" you by forcing you to learn our language and culture, but now we don't use guns to do it like we did last century.
We're here to tell you that passing a few laws and maybe electing a new face you saw on TV isn't going to change a single thing. Systemic change is required, because the entire system is rotten to the core. Again, we don't need to explain this. Just google or youtube "banking system corruption" "the truth about the federal reserve" or watch this short 6-minute video about our voting system.
We can't fix all the problems, and we won't try to. No system of government is perfect. But it'll be way better than what we have today. Working within the system isn't enough when the system is broken. If our votes actually mattered and citizens were given a voice in government, all of these issues would've been fixed a long time ago. Unfortunately, some very powerful vested interests don't want to see that happen. That's why change has to come from the outside, unencumbered by previous imagined restraints.
Our goal isn't just to democratize democracy. We need to democratize the economy too, so everyone has a say over what's made, employees are no longer exploited and so big business can stop wrecking the planet. That's going to require a lot of resources.
The problem is, the resources required to accomplish all of these noble goals are privately owned by the 1%. They aren't just going to give them away for free, and some of them did legitimately work hard for what they have. Any plan to make society better needs to make it better for both the rich and the poor, otherwise it's dead on arrival. Our proposal is designed to take care of everyone. And even though it's possible, printing money to pay for things leads to all sorts of wacky problems like hyperinflation. One of the main principles of The Global Assembly's transition is conservation of wealth: wealth is never confiscated arbitrarily or destroyed, merely transformed. Here, economic wealth is transformed into political wealth that works similarly to company stock: It's a personal asset you can own and trade based on how much personal wealth you enter the new system with, in the form of money, houses, stocks, factories and land. Not a penny will be wasted or confiscated- everything will be converted, dollar for dollar. This asset lets you vote on public policy and receive dividends- and for the first time in history, profits will be connected to social welfare as measured by a public survey.
Are you still worried that the rich are going to take over the world under The Global Assembly? Don't be. Remember the compromise we spoke about in the beginning? It turns out, the exact same compromise was used for the creation of Congress way back in 1787.
What happened? After the revolution, it became clear that the Articles of Confederation just wouldn't cut it anymore. One of the biggest problems was trying to reconcile two mutually exclusive desires- smaller states wanted equal representation in congress, while the bigger states wanted population-based voting. The solution was a compromise. Instead of having just one chamber of congress, we would have two- a senate and a house. Laws would need to pass both in order to come into effect.
The Global Assembly's legislature has two goals: One is to give each person a single vote in an assembly through their delegate. In effect, one person, one vote. The other may be controversial to a few, but it's objectively fair: Give those who contribute more to society a reward and incentive to keep contributing by giving their opinion more weight.
The upper house, where legislation is introduced, discussed and gets initial approval is democratic: It's members votes' are apportioned based on how many people they represent.
The lower house really isn't a "house" at all- it's a less formal, non-geographical internet-based donation poll where people can donate to the "yes" or "no" sides of a proposal (or both, if you prefer). Which ever side gets the most votes after a week wins. So yes- there is the potential for some gridlock and revision, but that's a feature, not a bug- we don't want poorly thought-out legislation rushed through. Remember, the wealthy have the most to lose if society functions poorly since they invested the most resources into it. Like it or not, their opinion matters, just like the small states need assurances they won't be ignored in a rush to pander to the majority.
In either case, if a law is deeply desired by the public a veto vote in the lower "house" can be overridden in the senate with a double-majority. A minimum of 60% of senators representing 60% of the population must vote "yes" to override a veto. These rules are the same everywhere.
There are also two extra built-in mechanisms that help us. The fact that billionaires are, generally speaking, greedy is a good thing. You don't see them making random purchases or paying a million dollars to buy 20 million lollipops. This means that generally, the very wealthy will only invest in governments that have a proven track record of good results. These score higher on surveys, and pay out more cash.
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