Five Ideas to Change the World
1. Every last human being deserves access to essential resources.
Every single human being is of equal value, regardless of any criteria. Every person should have food, clothing, shelter, health care, etc., quite simply because they are a human being. Yes, this means even if they sit on their ass their entire life and never do anything “productive” or “responsible”. Human is human; there are no gradations. No one should have to “earn” their right to exist in reasonable comfort.
2. All levels of education should be free and voluntary.
No person of any age should ever be forced into “education”. The very concept is an oxymoron, because you cannot force anyone to learn anything. On the flip side, anyone who chooses to learn should have full access to every level of education free of charge. The savings from lack of compulsory education alone would easily cover the costs of fully educating those who wish to be educated.
3. All military and police will be disbanded and replaced with a “Service Corps”.
With all people having equal access to quality of life through items 1 & 2, crime will be virtually non-existent and as such military and police will no longer be needed. Instead there will be a Service Corps to call upon in the event of emergencies, to fill in gaps in critical civil service projects, to provide conflict resolution services, and other such functions.
4. Government should be divided into topical areas and participation rights granted only to those who demonstrate competency in those areas.
For example, to vote on laws or leadership concerning the environment, you must have completed a certain level of education on environmental issues (which is freely available to all under item 2) and practice in environmental issues through the Service Corps (which is freely available to all under item 3). All people are equally valuable, but they are not all equally knowledgable. If you don’t know anything about the environment, then you have no business voting on environmental issues. The same goes for trade, taxation, or any other aspect of government. If you want to vote on higher-order issues, such as where environmental and trade concerns are at odds, then you must be qualified in every relevant topic to vote. The same would go for anyone running for any government office: you must be qualified in every relevant topic, but to an even higher level. This means to run for president or other high-level office you would have to be a scholar and practitioner of rare quality. This is as it should be.
5. These ideas are entirely plausible.
There are no logistical or technical reasons that these ideas could not be implemented. There are more than enough resources on the planet to provide for all these things. The only barriers are human limitations. We are the only thing standing between ourselves and a world of plenty.