Terrific, but rather overwhelming list of questions!
"What must students learn to become not just workers—but self-governing citizens?" - Students must learn critical thinking. Having a common knowledgebase (studying a bit of history) is good. Having basic skills "reading, writing and arithmetic" is essential. But overall we must inspire curiosity.
As an extremely independent person, I wouldn't expect me to say it, but our society has taught individualism too much. We need to re-establish the value of teamwork.
I am curious and interested in how to get the public excited about all this? As mentioned below I think understanding the relationship between cultuire and money will be key. If we could change the money, from issued for personal gain to being issued for public care, it would change the culture. There is legislation already written and introduced that would change the system but of course it was not allowed out of committee and few have ever heard of it. The NEED Act HR2990. A movement that could push it though would be a systemic change.
Howard, thanks for asking. I have a started a nonprofit group with a leadership forum working on the building blocks of a movement to advocate for independent political reforms. We meet on about 2 Monday nights per month. Shall I add you to the invite list?
A fascinating set of questions. I’d love to hear any potential 2028 presidential candidate answer just one from each of the 10 sections. I doubt there’s any chance that will happen.
The assumption seems to be that government should be in charge of the social, cultural, and economic realms, in order to make life better for all. Government's tool to carry out its designs is mainly force: taxation and fines or punishment if you don't go along. Giving representatives the power to try to change social, cultural, and economic realms invites corruption. No one can be trusted with power over others. It's not much better giving the majority of voters the power to vote on policies for these realms either. People will inevitably vote for somebody else to pay for the stuff they want.
The first role of government is to provide public infrastructure, which people pay to use. And citizen groups could run the infrastructure like a cooperative. All communication and transportation infrastructure should be nationalized and run by local citizens. The second role of government is to maintain borders and ports (collecting tariffs). The third role is to create sovereign currency: the Greenback (End the Fed) to use to build new public infrastructure. The fourth role is run the criminal justice system in which the jury trial is the standard deciding body. Convicted criminals should be required to provide community service to their own communities, grow food for the poor, build housing for the poor, build public parks.
Culture and education will flourish on their own if the middle class is financially secure. Taxes unfairly burden the middle class. The only taxes we need are taxes on excess land ownership and mineral rights to prevent the hoarding of these natural resources.
The more we try to fix problems with policies and programs, the more problems we create. Make it simple.
Simple is smart. The assumption isn’t that government should be “in charge” of social, cultural, and economic realms, but laws still impact these realms. Laws have intended and unintended consequences. A system with bad rules leads to private corruption, not just public corruption.
Your second paragraph is very interesting. Each of those areas is important and could benefit from citizen input. Thanks for joining the conversation!
Financial stability depends so much on perception. We have very "poor" people here in the USA that have cell phones, cars, shelter and no concern of starving yet they are "miserable" because they aren't "celebrity rich". That's an attitude problem, not a financial problem.
Should we have laws determining cultural and social issues? Even as someone who has benefitted from federal grants, I do not think the government should be deciding what's good for culture or not. Other than basic laws prohibiting harm to others, what kind of social laws do we need?
Where did I say we need social laws? We already have a public education system. Education clearly involves culture. It’s being shaped. We have media laws. We have decency laws. I invite you to explore specific questions.
I don't know that we want education to be financed by the state because that usually means the one who's paying the bill gets to say what needs to be taught. I would rather see the state funding the buildings and grounds of public schools and the locals running them like a cooperative. In this way the state would not have control over social welfare in terms of ideology. That is, public infrastructure yes. Policy no.
Public schooling has many flaws and I've grown to be opposed to it.
The concept of public funded (government funded) schools but locally run is intriguing. But even for the buildings, wouldn't it make sense for the local government to provide them? The federal government doesn't seem like it should have any role in education at all.
Can someone give an example of a social law that we should have? I'm an advocate of freedom. Although I'm not a nudist, I see no benefit to society to have laws that make judgements such as nudity being prohibited.
Again this is where a nation made up of unique states makes sense. Let each state develop their own social / culture laws (if any) and see which ones flourish.
I don't want to judge government by what we have which has a negative impact on the psychology of society. Getting a government dedicated to the public interest that isn't dominated by the private control of the purse by organized accumulated wealth seems like must be the primary goal. Then the first step is to fix the structural flaw by implementing a sovereign money system, bringing the Greenback back, to put the 'public' back into public policy. Then the issues with the physical and social infrastructure, as well as science and technology can be addressed. I think the understanding the relationship between cultuire and money will be key. https://howardswitzer.substack.com/p/culture-and-money
I intend to see if I can write concise answers to these and share them with other like-minded people. Would you, John W. and V.N.A. be interested in participating in a live discussion with others on all this?
Terrific, but rather overwhelming list of questions!
"What must students learn to become not just workers—but self-governing citizens?" - Students must learn critical thinking. Having a common knowledgebase (studying a bit of history) is good. Having basic skills "reading, writing and arithmetic" is essential. But overall we must inspire curiosity.
As an extremely independent person, I wouldn't expect me to say it, but our society has taught individualism too much. We need to re-establish the value of teamwork.
Great answer! Curiosity is so crucial to human progress. Building effective human relationships is also essential.
This list of questions can be overwhelming. The range of topics and responses create a wide field for exploring democratic renewal.
As always, I appreciate your engagement with the subject!
I am curious and interested in how to get the public excited about all this? As mentioned below I think understanding the relationship between cultuire and money will be key. If we could change the money, from issued for personal gain to being issued for public care, it would change the culture. There is legislation already written and introduced that would change the system but of course it was not allowed out of committee and few have ever heard of it. The NEED Act HR2990. A movement that could push it though would be a systemic change.
Howard, thanks for asking. I have a started a nonprofit group with a leadership forum working on the building blocks of a movement to advocate for independent political reforms. We meet on about 2 Monday nights per month. Shall I add you to the invite list?
A fascinating set of questions. I’d love to hear any potential 2028 presidential candidate answer just one from each of the 10 sections. I doubt there’s any chance that will happen.
I came across this today also "Effective public policy and good governance isn’t a partisan issue. It’s a community value. " http://jcshepard.com/
The assumption seems to be that government should be in charge of the social, cultural, and economic realms, in order to make life better for all. Government's tool to carry out its designs is mainly force: taxation and fines or punishment if you don't go along. Giving representatives the power to try to change social, cultural, and economic realms invites corruption. No one can be trusted with power over others. It's not much better giving the majority of voters the power to vote on policies for these realms either. People will inevitably vote for somebody else to pay for the stuff they want.
The first role of government is to provide public infrastructure, which people pay to use. And citizen groups could run the infrastructure like a cooperative. All communication and transportation infrastructure should be nationalized and run by local citizens. The second role of government is to maintain borders and ports (collecting tariffs). The third role is to create sovereign currency: the Greenback (End the Fed) to use to build new public infrastructure. The fourth role is run the criminal justice system in which the jury trial is the standard deciding body. Convicted criminals should be required to provide community service to their own communities, grow food for the poor, build housing for the poor, build public parks.
Culture and education will flourish on their own if the middle class is financially secure. Taxes unfairly burden the middle class. The only taxes we need are taxes on excess land ownership and mineral rights to prevent the hoarding of these natural resources.
The more we try to fix problems with policies and programs, the more problems we create. Make it simple.
Simple is smart. The assumption isn’t that government should be “in charge” of social, cultural, and economic realms, but laws still impact these realms. Laws have intended and unintended consequences. A system with bad rules leads to private corruption, not just public corruption.
Your second paragraph is very interesting. Each of those areas is important and could benefit from citizen input. Thanks for joining the conversation!
Simple is beyond smart, it's essential. Complexity suffers from:
1) Misunderstanding
2) Corruption
3) Inefficiency
"Financially secure" is also a key to a culture flourishing.
A lot of the questions lead toward financial implications that might offer broad stability.
Financial stability depends so much on perception. We have very "poor" people here in the USA that have cell phones, cars, shelter and no concern of starving yet they are "miserable" because they aren't "celebrity rich". That's an attitude problem, not a financial problem.
Should we have laws determining cultural and social issues? Even as someone who has benefitted from federal grants, I do not think the government should be deciding what's good for culture or not. Other than basic laws prohibiting harm to others, what kind of social laws do we need?
Where did I say we need social laws? We already have a public education system. Education clearly involves culture. It’s being shaped. We have media laws. We have decency laws. I invite you to explore specific questions.
I don't know that we want education to be financed by the state because that usually means the one who's paying the bill gets to say what needs to be taught. I would rather see the state funding the buildings and grounds of public schools and the locals running them like a cooperative. In this way the state would not have control over social welfare in terms of ideology. That is, public infrastructure yes. Policy no.
I respect the opinion.
Public schooling has many flaws and I've grown to be opposed to it.
The concept of public funded (government funded) schools but locally run is intriguing. But even for the buildings, wouldn't it make sense for the local government to provide them? The federal government doesn't seem like it should have any role in education at all.
Can someone give an example of a social law that we should have? I'm an advocate of freedom. Although I'm not a nudist, I see no benefit to society to have laws that make judgements such as nudity being prohibited.
Again this is where a nation made up of unique states makes sense. Let each state develop their own social / culture laws (if any) and see which ones flourish.
I don't want to judge government by what we have which has a negative impact on the psychology of society. Getting a government dedicated to the public interest that isn't dominated by the private control of the purse by organized accumulated wealth seems like must be the primary goal. Then the first step is to fix the structural flaw by implementing a sovereign money system, bringing the Greenback back, to put the 'public' back into public policy. Then the issues with the physical and social infrastructure, as well as science and technology can be addressed. I think the understanding the relationship between cultuire and money will be key. https://howardswitzer.substack.com/p/culture-and-money
I second your Greenback idea.
I intend to see if I can write concise answers to these and share them with other like-minded people. Would you, John W. and V.N.A. be interested in participating in a live discussion with others on all this?
A discussion might be a possibility.
Generally I prefer to think and take my time in responding (aka I like written discussions).
I hear that, I am able to craft more thoughtful responses in writing. Trying to get better at the other.