So I was riding my bike along last night, flying past all the cars "parked" on their way home to be across town in just a few minutes and found myself thinking about the ideals of society and the "nanny" type state that we are moving into in Australia. Also the Democratic movement that is happening in the Middle East is close to my minds eye at the moment.
Then I got to thinking about the Democratic process and how really the big powerful people really do still have the power in society - I mean look at the Mining companies in Australia last year. With a mere 0.1% of PROFIT they strong armed the government into not taxing them any more than we currently do.
Now let me just tangent off for a moment and put that into perspective for you: a small group of mining companies and associations got together and spent about $20M AUD last year to throw a massive advertising campaign against the government. One (yes only one) of these companies just announced a PROFIT, after expenses like this of $10.5B AUD for the 6 months - That is the cost of this campaign was 0.2% of ONE companies half yearly PROFIT. It is just disgusting to think they could do this really.Anyway this is life isn't it. Being ruled by some Dictator with lots of power and money. In the western Democratic world we have this perception of Freedom and choice which most people think is "good enough" but I take the unrest and freedom fights of the middle east and consider that maybe it is time we fought for a better Democracy - for a system of Sociapitalism - that is a system where the top gets the chop and the bottom gets some more support from Society. Not a dog eat Dog world - but a Dog help Dog world. I was musing over a term for Socialism and Capitalism put together and apparently it is Social-Capitalism - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_capitalism but I prefer Sociapitalist or maybe Capitocialsim depending on which way you swing.
I was explaining to a much learned friend on the weekend about an idea I have for a future that doesn't solely rely on money to distribute "wealth". Wealth of course not being money, but more importantly it is and should be defined as Knowledge, luxury items and respect.
The idea:
If you have used Ebay you might understand this theory. It is based on the users rating users system.
The best way to describe this is to use an example and this is a great place to first implement this idea:
State and National Park Camping
When you camp in a Park, you are utilising public space for a nominal fee - everyone has equal right to use these places and everyone can and does.
The current concept is that when you camp in a park you should leave the place in at least as good as you found it, if not better.
Through some simple technology we could implement an Ebay style user rating system for the parks. When you camp you could rate the state you found the space in. Ie. Dirty 1 Clean 5 or anywhere in between.
This rating would be recorded against the Previous user of the space to indicate their respect for the park and the next user.
Motivation would be to keep you rating high as then you would be "allowed" in to more beautiful spots - ie. with the knowledge that you have respect for your surroundings, and will maintain them.
Simple really - completely anonymous and easy to implement in this world of GPS and smart phones.
What do you think of this first step towards a society less dependant on Money and more dependant on repsect for others?
No comments:
Post a Comment