The Two Biggest Societal Mistakes
Out of all public policy ideas, the two listed below are the most important for people to know about.
tl;dr
- make police civil organizations that can be founded more freely to introduce competition
- collect tax on ownership of land and similar resources based on public demand
Centralization of Violence
Violence is necessary to maintain peace, or at least to prevent your stuff from being stolen. However, letting someone else use violence for you is not such a good idea, especially when everybody delegates use of violence to the same person/party (social contract).
Throughout history, police around the world have been recorded harming unarmed persons with no good reason. (If you can’t think of an example, read the news in your region.)
By definition, police represent violence, because only they can use violence for other’s sake without punishment. Like all service type, to ensure the service quality, policing need competition. They, like other organizations, are not going to self-regulate without external pressure.
Neighborhood watch, security companies using intimidation tactics (but not violence), militarized gangs already have varying degrees of success at preventing crimes depending on the region. Consult your local shop owners for advice on what works best.
In some parts of the world, violence is used for dubious purposes. For example, in the US, the government uses violence to prevent manufacturing medicine. This is otherwise known as “patent”. This is unacceptable to me, and an alarming development of our civilization. You should be worried about where this is heading towards.
Exclusivity of Nonfungible Resource without Cost
”Whoever comes first, owns the land forever.” Such is the rule about land ownership. In my opinion, exclusive ownership of irreplaceable resource that lasts forever is a bad idea.
”Nonfungible” means that a type of resource is limited and cannot be moved around to be exchanged. For example, a parcel of land in city center is different from the same area of land in suburb. Some nonfungible resources are…
- land
- the right to sunlight (a thing in Japan)
- radio frequency space
By this doctrine, tax based on the value of the house should be instead based on value of the land underneath. What is built on the land should not matter. The owner of that land should pay people who live around it based on how they would pay for the exact parcel of land.
In my opinion, it is better to distribute the “tax” directly to people who live around that place, than giving it to one entity (the government). How this can be done, and how to calculate the value of land is up to the people of that region to decide. I think it should be no more complex than the tax system we already have under a central government. With today’s mathematical advancements, it is possible.
To end this section, I will emphasize that this way of “renting” nonfungible nature resources applies to not just land, but all stuff not interchangeable with stuff of the same kind. This policy will prevent accumulation of wealth from spiraling out of control.
Rationale
The first policy suggestion comes from the observation that everyone was capable of violence; laws deprive people of the right to use violence, but create a monopoly on violence to the police. In the end, there is nobody to stop the police from abusing power or refuse to help when violence is needed.
The Media can soften the police, making them more unwilling to use violence. However, violence is necessary to protect private property, and to keep peace. 40 years ago it was acceptable for people to beat thieves themselves. Now it’s considered “vigilante”.
My idea might end up being impractical, but I think we must try to improve on the current situation. We should test other policies in conjunction and pick whatever works. Randomized control trail is best at this.
The second policy suggestion spawns from the belief that we don’t own Nature, Georgism, and rising housing price. I don’t have much to add to what was already said on the topic. Read about Georgism if you want to learn more.