== MANIFESTO FOR PROGRESS ==

Prologue
As a species, we face extinction from a myriad of reasons, all tied to our inability to agree and cooperate, as well as antiquated power structures that perpetuate the greed and vanity of the few over the interests of the species. These include: climate change, technology replacing all of our jobs, technology giving us the power of God - but not the wisdom to use it without destroying ourselves, etc. (For example, someone could use a CRISPR to create a virus in their garage that would kill us all.)

Currently, we waste our energies squabbling over border disputes, cultural purity, fear of the "other" (differences in skin color, religion, sexual/gender preferences, ideologies, etc.).

The biggest enemies of humanity are: capitalism, political parties and lobbyists. Political parties must be eliminated and the other two greatly regulated.

Principles of Agreement

• Reduce suffering and increase opportunity.
  
  
• Access to Guaranteed Basic Needs: food, shelter, health care (that includes dental, vision and mental, clean air and water), free education including advanced degrees and affordable child care which are the rights of every living person on the planet, and the responsability of every person on the planet. No basic rights will be provided by private enterprise.
  
  
• Equal treatment for all persons. Equal treatment by the judicial system, equal pay for equal work, equal access to education and credit.
  
  
• Use competition to increase efficiency, but strive to provide each party an equal opportunity to succeed.
  
  
• Maximize the Velocity of Money. Make spending and policy choices that put money in the hands of those most likely to spend it.
  
  
• Modern Monetary Theory (MMT). Stop focusing on government debt and maximize beneficial government spending up to the point of inflation triggers.
  
  
• Work smarter.
  
  
• When the affects of important policies are difficult to predict, use scientifically designed social experiments to study them. Apply the policies to large portions of the residents for a limited time and monitor the results, minimizing the affects of side factors.
  
  
• Because of innate laziness (as well as oppressive and challenging pressures from socio-economic and mental health challenges), society must provide programs to train and employ, to the extent possible, all persons that are not otherwise self sufficient. Everyone that receives assistance from society, must contribute a reasonable amount of time, skills and thought back into society, to the extent they can, considering their physical and mental limitations. Increasing a sense of dignity and importance should be stressed.
  
  
• To the extent possible, monitor the state of happiness and progress towards goals.
  
  
• We must rapidly abandon the use of fossil fuels and adopt the use of renewable energy technologies.
  
  
• With difficult issues like abortion and gun control, find common areas to mitigate. For example, increasing access to birth control and sensible arms regulation.
  
  
• Because of innate greed and competitiveness, society must constantly level the playing field. Successful behavior should be rewarded, but within reasonable limits. "Social Democracy", where "Capitalism" is the engine, and "Socialism" (taxes, regulations, and social programs) are the brakes and the seat belts. Maximize freedom, democracy and security of all types.
  
  

New Rules

Recent additions. (Time has changed some things. Here are some new rules that haven't been incorporated belew yet)

• Create a system for all businesses to report pricing changes on a monthly basis.
• Cap business *PROFITS* at 5%
• Progressively tax personal income, capping at 99% of anything greater than 1000 times the UBI.
• Institute UBI for all persons that is set at 110% of the cost of all essentials living expenses.
• Formalize federal government spending to fund every important need. Taxation will automatically keep inflation in check.

• Political parties illegal. No political cooperation allowed, outside of debate. Political parties can only lead to partisan power grabbing and manuevering at the expense of voting on merits.
  Politicians can self identify as progressive, conservative, libertarian, green, etc or some mix of labels. Outside groups will attach their own labels to each politician.
  
  
• All politicians must start at the local level, and can only advance to higher levels by serving terms at each lower level. The levels are:
  • city/county
  • state
  • federal
  This track record of service will replace some advertising in campaigning.
  
  
• Campaign expenditures illegal. No advertising, no paid canvassing, no paid staff or consultants. Candidates will receive living and travel expenses for six months from public funds. A sufficient number of public debates will be held and financed by public funds. Video recordings of all debates will be posted to a shared website. This site will be made available for them to document their positions and to pitch themselves. Incumbants currently spend significant hours per day fund raising for the next election. This time would be better spent studying problems and proposed legislation.
  
  
• All Federal level politicians, justices and high level appointees will be given an attractive salary which will continue until their death, even after they leave office (in good standing). However, they must submit their tax returns and audited financial statements for the previous ten years before taking office and every year thereafter. They will not be permitted to receive any other income for the rest of their lives.
  
  
• All elections administered by the Census Bureau, districts drawn by computers using a standard algorithm. Everyone must be registered and voting is mandatory. Election day will be a federal holiday. Entertainers will be encouraged to hold concerts outside polling places and local businesses will be encouraged to provide free drinks and snacks. ?Round robin primaries?, with ranked choice voting. While internet voting would be a convenient option, it would be difficult to have the accountabilty and transparency of the two paper ballot system described next.
  
  
• Electronic voting with *2* paper ballots, separately counted by opposing teams. (Chosen by incumbents who self-identify as conservative or progressive.) Ranked choice voting for all contests.
  
  
• Supreme Court. Until political parties have been made illegal, the court will be comprised of an equal number of Justices selected by conservatives and liberals, plus five Justices selected by consensus of the other Justices and approved by the House.**
  
  
• Eliminate the Electoral College.** The Electoral College defeats the "one person - one vote" rule, allowing candidates to win, who lost the popular vote.
  
  
• Eliminate the Senate.For much the same reason as the Electoral College. The Senate was created to allow slave states to have an equal voice, with less population. A bi-cameral system is less efficient, and with the improvements to the House, a second chamber is unnecessary.
  
  
• Reform the House. The Speaker of the House would be a former Congressperson, not a current Representative. Standing House committees would be staffed by Deputies of Congresspersons, who are experts in the area. Representatives and their families would live in government provided housing in a common apartment building. The House Parlimentarian, working with the bill's sponsors, will break bills into discrete sections, each of which will be voted on and which will stand alone. Smaller bills, with a unified intent, will make it easier to determine each representative's position by their vote. At predetermined stages, all Representatives will register their voting positions on each portion of the bill as it makes its way through the process. If enough representatives indicate that they favor the bill's intent, but can't support it because of certain portions, the bill will be returned to the sponsors and the Parlimentarian to be reworked to harmonize the intent. Amendments must not deviate from the intent, and must be approved by the sponsors and the Parlimentarian for consistency of intent.
  
  
• Grant statehood to DC, American Samoa, Guam, the Northern Mariana Islands, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands, providing the citizens vote for it..
  
  
• No private lobbying. All lobbying to be done via public websites and public hearings. Lobbyists can inform Congressional staff of new or revised content by a system established for that purpose, but may not have any contact with members or staff.
  
  
• Science-based policy making that follows the Principals of Agreement. Social experiments to be conducted where evidence is lacking.
  
  
• Educate everyone on the principles of Modern Monetary Theory (MMT) and implement federal spending and taxation with that understanding. Stop tracking federal debt, stop selling Treasury Bonds and redeem existing bonds as they mature. Spend as much as society needs (targeting it to where it is most needed, primarily the poor, if possible) and use taxation to: 1)remove excess currency from the economy keeping inflation down, 2) to keep the rich frim having too much financial power, and 3) to incentivize behaviors. If the person or business doesn't owe enough taxes to offset incentive deductions, they receive the money anyway. Develop taxation that is responsive to removing excess currency quickly and correctly. This might mean a variable sales tax that automatically adjusts to changes in levels of discretionary funds, targeted to those that have the excess discretionary funds, in a progressive manner.
  Profiteering also contributes to inflation, so all firms should be required to compute their percent profits every month and be taxed enough to prevent profiteering. A robust supply chain is essential, so incentives should be applied to have alternatives in place for production and delivery of all products and services.
  
  The idea is to convert to an economy where we spend as much money into the bottom of the economy as possible, without allowing inflation caused by excess currency to grow too much, maximizing the velocity of that spent money circulating through many accounts as it trickles up to the rich, using taxation to cap excess funds and profits.
  
  
• Move most rule-making and funding to the federal level. Laws, policies and spending that affect everyone should be decided on a national level. Moving the paying of governmental services to the currency-issuing federal government will reduce local tax burdens and increase critical local infrastructure and services.
  
  
• Expand the Government Accounting Office to become an Efficiency, Waste and Regulation monitor. Reward whistleblowers who help with their efforts to increase efficiency, decrease waste and to tweak regulations that are unecessarily onerous. Create an easy to use app that allows residents to report problems to be addressed.
  
  
• (Made obsolete by new rules above) Maximum Wage. Anyone that makes more than ?50x? the median income will have to forfeit the excess in taxes. Ostentatious wealth will become a public shame. Hard work should be rewarded, but there are limits, since hoarded wealth is stolen resources and causes great suffering.
  
  
• (Made obsolete by new rules above) Minimum Wage. The federal government will guarantee employment to everyone. Starting with work from home jobs (like digitizing old records) and critical industry jobs like chip manufacturing. All jobs will earn at least a basic minimum wage****, which will then set the minimum wage for the rest of the nation.
  
  
• Require at least one paid sick day per month for all workers, six paid maternity days for mothers and four for their partners, with government paying the wages and businesses dealing with the labor disruption. Free universal child care. Children are the nation's future and being a parent shouldn't impoverish a family.
  
  
• Encourage Employee Owned Business models. Management works for the employees and the employees are the share holders. EOBs compete against each other in a free enterprise marketplace.
  
  
• (Made obsolete by new rules above) Mandatory profit sharing. Recognize that business is a partnership of the workers and the owners/shareholders. As such, all profits of non-worker owned business must be shared 50/50.
  
  
• Public banks. Establish public banks like those North Dakota has had for over a century. Profit goes back to the government. Top management earns a simple salary, around $300-400,000/yr. Public banks prioritize serving the public interest, offering lower interest rates on loans and higher interest rates on deposits, along with reduced fees for services. They reinvest profits into local communities, funding infrastructure, small businesses, and educational programs, thereby supporting local economic growth. Additionally, public banks maintain financial stability by continuing to lend during economic downturns, providing a reliable financial resource for customers.
  
  
• Require at least one paid sick day per month for all workers, six paid maternity weeks for mothers and four for their partners, with government paying the wages and businesses dealing with the labor disruption. Free universal child care. Children are the nation's future and being a parent shouldn't impoverish a family. 30 paid vacation days per year, which includes the normal holidays. If too many employees want to take time off at the same time, seniority will decide.
  
  
• Single payer health care, divided into health monitoring vs treatment providers. Pay monitors based on how healthy they keep you (aggregate outcome) and how many diseases they detect early. Pay treatment providers (specialists) by having them compete for patients on price and service, as well as by aggregate outcome. Diagnostic and lab services (CAT scans, blood tests, etc) would be attached to but separate from hospitals. Require patients to pay a portion of the treatment costs out of pocket, on a sliding income scale, to create incentives to use the treatments wisely. Health care includes mental, vision and dental.***
  
  
• Establish a monitoring and reporting mechanism to track how well we are achieving our goals as a society. Factors like the distribution of income and wealth, hours worked, homelessness, happiness quotients, community involvement, etc should be trackable in real time, possibly even tracked in an app and displayed on a web page. Policies can be evaluated on how they effect these stats, allowing for a reasonable lag.
  
  
• Create a central planning mechanism (in areas where none exist) to increase efficiency and deal with issues like climate change. For example, a nation network of pipelines could equalize water resources across the nation. Additionally, a universal pneumatic tube transportation and freight system that connects every home and building. New construction would need to be resilient and resistent to wildfires, floods, higher temperatures, earthquakes, etc, as well as being energy efficient. Extra construction costs could be paid by the federal government.
  
  
• Move most university level education to a standardized online learning model, using AI to customize instruction to each person, free to all, but offer campus based living and extracurricular opportunities.
  
  
• Fund public education at a level where all teachers have masters degrees and are paid accordingly, and music, art and alternative sports are available to all students. Special ed departments are adequately staffed and the teachers paid a premium. De-incentivize private education, by accommodating parental concerns as much as possible inside the public classrooms, except for religious issues, which should be handled within the church setting. Multiple cameras in all classrooms, visible online to parents and children home sick. Recordings available for six months. Parents can see their children's and what the teachers have to deal with. Syllabus (daily lesson plans, with edits for actual teachings) publicly displayed, and all assignments and instructions available to parents online.
  
  
• Guarantee family farmers a set price for their crops, with affordable corp insurance premiums. Remove subsidies for corporate farms.
  
  
• Treat firearms exactly like motor vehicls (register, tag, insure, operator licensing/testing). Insurance companies will lower premiums for safe storage practice and safety/handling certifications. Insurance will pay victims of all gun crimes and accidental shootings, as well as defend those who use a gun in self defence. Failure to report a lost or stolen weapon would be a hefty fine. Weapons capable of rapidly firing more than a few bullets must be stored at a gun range or other facility, unless owned by the military or police.
  
  
• Abortion is a choice between a mother and her conscious, with input from her medical team. Birth control should be free, easily available to anyone (eg all convenience stores). Sex education should start at puberty and be mandatory.
  
  
• Drug use should not be illegal and safe places to use available to all. Detox/rehab facilities should be free and available to all. Mental health assistance should be automatic for users.
  
  
• Agreement to move towards one planetary society, once all the above are proved to be successful. Use the former military budgets for constructive things.
  
  

Dispel Myths

• Trickle down economics doesn't work in a greed-driven society
  
  
• National fiat economies aren't household budgets. (MMT)
  
  
• Capitalism *HATES* Free Enterprise. That's why we have to constantly keep them from forming monopolies.
  
  
• Immigrants are consumers and taxpayers and they reduce the need for foreign aid.
  
  

How To Make This Happen