Digital Direct Democracy, episode #11 __ CPD Opportunities and Threats __
The immediate Strengths and Weaknesses have been considered, but what are the likely spinoff prospects and obstacles to a successful Citizens’ Preferences Database system - both good and bad?
Unlocking OPPORTUNITIES for Canadians
The success of the CPD proposal, as the first of many Digital Direct Democracy initiatives arriving in the Digital Age, will unleash a bonanza in non-governmental business and employment opportunities.
Citizens by the millions will enjoy the freedom to choose from a range of public services providers all competing for their business. The range of Opt-Out choices within their CPD Personal Preference Profile will inevitably expand over time and the burden of coerced government monopolies will gradually fall.
This seismic economic shift will empower able-bodied, knowledgeable, creative, and entrepreneurial individuals to identify and address market gaps left behind by the old state monopolies.
The expensive, inflexible, and impersonal processes of the old ways will give way to vastly superior methods and models of digital and competive services delivery.
»> Hope will re-emerge
Many young Canadians are pessimistic about their future. The soaring costs of housing, education, food, energy, and other basic necessities are making it impossible for many of them to aspire to the standard of living enjoyed by prior generations, Baby Boomers in particular.
The average Canadian remits 53% of annual earnings to all levels of government collectively. This leaves only 47% to cope with those soaring costs. It’s a trap caused by root cause of this inflation: TOO MUCH GOVERNMENT.
Digital Direct Democracy, and mechanisms like the CPD, go directly to this root cause. The goal it to put every Canadian back in the driver’s seat where he and she belongs in a genuine democracy.
To be clear, these changes will be evolutionary. It’s difficult to predict how young Canadians will respond as the CPD enables them to escape many of the high costs associated with government. With extra after-tax disposable income, will they invest in entirely new business ventures that the Digital Age and the Digital Direct Democracy paradigm will unleash? Or will our youth and future generations choose simpler, family-centric lifestyles that are less structured by the corporate and government jobs of the past?
The possibilities are exciting, but many will only be possible if the public votes for them. Voters need to empower only those politicians who are savvy enough and committed to shrinking the Honeypot of political power.
That Honeypot must be emptied of the specific laws and regulatory restrictions which have stifled innovation and impeded the full expression of Canadians’ individual rights and freedoms. This is the only way to establish a sustainable and less autocratic civil society in Canada.
»> Custom Economics
Every person has a unique body, mind and will. Recognizing these differences, each person should have the liberty, guided by just laws, to utilize these inalienable personal resources in a manner that addresses their own needs and the well-being of those under their care.
Canadians will use the CPD to configure their Personal Preferences Profile (PPP) to best suit them at the various stages of their lives.
Singles have different needs and priorities than couples, particularly those who are raising a family. Older Canadians often earn more than early-career citizens; their acquired assets are also likely on very different levels.
The freedom of informed choice offered through the CPD will enable every citizen to adjust their government liabilities for present needs and plan for future needs without unnecessary and unwanted tax burdens in the present.
»> Money and Wealth Distribution.
Economists sometimes reference the business sector as the source of wealth creation and the government sector as a mandatory consumer of this wealth.
Money has been described as “stored human energy” and explained as follows.
People spend their personal ENERGY (body, mind will/efforts) to produce GOODS & SERVICES. These products are the REAL WEALTH which they, or others, can use to fulfill current or future needs, desires and priorities.
WEALTH and MONEY are not the same thing. MONEY only serves the purpose of trading WEALTH between people.
MONEY, simply put, represents the store of past personal energy expended to create WEALTH for personal consumption or for the consumption of others through trade. It can be used at any time for purchases of their choosing and at any time they desire to make a trade.
In a high tax economy, citizens are prevented from producing WEALTH for themselves until they have produced enough to pay the annual TAX LIABILITIES imposed on them.
In other words, every citizen must first apply their personal assets - body, mind and will/efforts - for the priorities of central planners before doing so for themselves.
The Fraser Institute developed the Tax Freedom Day Calculator to help Canadians estimate the date each year when the government can no longer lay claim to their labour (ENERGY). Some refer to themselves as “tax slaves” until that date has passed.
Government leaders claim they make “investments” on behalf of those “tax slaves” for “the greater good”, using the stored energy (MONEY) produced by all taxed citizens.
Many of those Canadians would prefer to keep more of their stored energy for themselves and their families. The Citizens’ Preference Database will exist exactly for this purpose.
Each Canadian has a much better understanding of his or her own circumstances, needs, desires and priorities than the central planners who know nothing about them as individuals.
»> Big Picture perspective .
There are many core functions for which governments have historically been responsible. These will remain. They will not be part of the CPD Regimen of Opt-In, Opt-out Choices. Even still, many citizens will Opt-In for some choices within that Regimen for their own legitimate reasons.
However, modern technology enables citizens to participate in how the ENERGY PRODUCED NATIONWIDE is best allocated. The Gross Domestic Product may be better understood as the Gross Domestic Energy Expenditure, along with the identity of who produces the Gross Domestic Wealth. This may be useful to justify why it’s better for citizens to have a greater say than central planners in deciding how WEALTH should be allocated.
Across the Canadian economy, CPD decisions made by individual citizens will, in aggregation, redirect wealth to areas where they are needed most. Waste from government spending will fall.
Overall, when money and resources serve their most useful purposes, everyone benefits - individuals and their families, communities, and the economy as a whole.
The trickle down effect of this dynamic will produces the seeds for even more prosperity to come.
THREATS to Digital Direct Democracy.
All threats will come from the custodians of the Honeypot and the special interest groups that lobby them. Those lobbyists will oppose any and all threats to the privileges that the Honeypot affords them.
The implementation of Citizens’ Preferences Database (CPD), or any future initiative within the Digital Direct Democracy paradigm, will begin to disrupt the status quo for Honeypot stakeholders.
Opposition will like come from:
»> Public Sector employees
Fewer government workers are required when demand for their services drops. In competitive enterprises, the demand-supply balance must be respected to maintain a viable financial balance sheet. As an increasing number of citizens make Opt-Out decisions, and choose to engage and pay non-government services providers, tax revenues will drop to unsustainable levels. As John F Kennedy said in a speech given during the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962 “Something’s gotta give”.
»> Union representatives.
In exchange for coerced annual membership fees, union members can reasonable expect their representatives to try to protect their jobs and legislated privileges. The unions will wage legal and political campaigns in opposition to the CPD because it also represents an existential threat to the entire power base inside government institutions. Union leaders know that the prospects for organizing the workforce within a decentralized, privately-owner network of non-government services providers are very poor.
The loss of easily-captured government business will mean the beginning of a steep decline of organized labour in Canada.
»> Department managers.
Some will receive reduced budgets. Others may be ordered to shut down their departments altogether. These government managers will experience the same precarious employment challenges as those of business managers who must create and execute profitable business strategies.
To make matters worse, some managers may face tough ‘downsizing’ decisions such as who to keep from existing staff and who to terminate. In their new competitive reality, a viable balance sheet must prevail, including sustainable Payroll costs.
»> Government Suppliers will lose business opportunities.
Many businesses provide goods and services to government entities under supply contracts. These legal agreements are won through competitions initiated by a RFP (Request for Proposal). As the size and scope of government responsibilities shrinks, so will the opportunities for government contracts. These service providers will be required to recalibrate their offerings to align with the downsizing trends.
»> Politicians can’t make empty promises without looking foolish.
Political parties and their candidates will be forced to pay more attention to their constituents.
The CPD introduces a new political paradigm in which the wishes of voters will play a much bigger part in politicians getting elected.
Any politician who makes election promises that hinge on more government services will look foolish. Those promises will be weighed by citizens against the prospect of choosing to Opt-Out if a promise eventually gets legislative approval. The likelihood of that approval will be slim if the uncertainty of its viability is in question.
In a Digital Direct Democracy economy and system of governance, Canadians voters will always know that they can receive equivalent services in the competitive market rather than relying of a government monopoly.
Many politicians, especially those on the political ‘left’ who have relied on unrealist promises to get elected in the past, will be quickly dismissed if they try this tactic again in a Digital Direct Democracy.
»> Welfare recipients, both individual and corporate, will resist.
They may only resist initially, however.
It’s natural to expect people to resist when you eliminate the Honeypot privileges to which they had become accustomed and believed themselves to be “entitled”.
However, when they see the opportunities that will arise as the size, costs, and scope of government authorities decline, many will likely become enthusiastic supporters.
Of course, their initial resistance will be buoyed by propaganda issued by some of the largest and well-funded Honeypot beneficiaries, such as the powerful public sector labour unions and the government-subsidized media corporations.
Time will reveal, however, that the evolving Digital Direct Democracy is inevitable in the Digital Age, and it will bring a NET POSITIVE TRANSFORMATION to Canadian democracy and Canada’s economy.
