NEW APPROACH

Our new approach for this section is to provide an area for working on various issues/problems related to creating a better world. Each new area will be introduced on this page. A table of links will be provided at the beginning that identifies the number of submissions received during the month for each area.

Every area that is created will have a page of it's own. Summary tables at the beginning of each of the area pages will describe key changes and new information will be identified in bold to facilitate focusing attention on what has been added in each month. The intent is for these pages to provide running commentaries that permit adding new inputs at any point in the discussion.

New submissions should include:

TOPIC 1: DECISION MAKING IN THE COMMUNITY

The whole issue of what decisions should be made by whom, and what processes should be used for making decisions is a major problem area that must be addressed properly if community is ever going to work effectively. Personally, my sense is that voting is highly overated. In reality voting only appears to provide individuals a sense of being involved. My experience is that there are very few things that the government allows us to vote on that I care about at all ... what is on the ballot makes no real difference in my life. The biggest decisions, those that truly have the most impact seem to be decided by those with the greatest economic clout. Something is seriously wrong with being enslaved by those who control the economic system ... especially since those in this group do not get their power from We, The People hence are not responsible to us.

Question 1-1: What decisions require the involvement of everyone, and why do you feel that way?

Question 1-2: What issues should be voted on? When should a simple majority be sufficient vs when should a two-thirds or even greater majority be required?

Question 1-3: What decisions should be delegated to groups of people with appropriate skills, knowledge, and time to analyze and evaluate the relevant details?

For instance, take something like Health Care. Doesn't it make sense to convene an appropriate panel that included the right mix of people to look at the issue in detail and mutually decide what is in the best interest of the collective ... given the resources and budget that are allocated? For instance, it seems like there should be a government decision made by our representatives that says we will spend 12% on Health Care, period. Then, the Health care panel should identify and prioritize the collective health care needs and decide how best to allocate that budget to get the best overall quality of health care for the collective overall. Right now, we spend the most and come out #26 in the world or something like that. To me, this seems stupid. It says we are paying far to much for what we are getting. By allowing this to be so, effectively we are voting with our pocketbooks and providing tacit agreement for keeping the status quo.

Question 1-4: Assuming we create such panels to tackle specific problem areas, what should the representation on such panels be? ... and how do we pay the people on such panels for the work we are asking them to do for us?

For our Health Care example, it seems that we should include not only the medical care providers ... but people that have experience USING these services so that we get a complete picture that includes the quality and the effectiveness of medical services from the view of patients! Further, there should be people that can serve as mediators that can see the problem as a whole that involves patients being served by medical service providers and that factors in the fiscal realities of making compromises that allow "good and acceptable" services to be provided for the greatest number at a reasonable cost that is within the allocated budget.

Question 1-5: How should the BIG decisions be made on what percent of the budget should go to what? Who should decide that Health Care gets 12% and Education 8% and Prisons 10% and Defense 15% and ... (or whatever the numbers are)?

Nobody ever asked me what these things should be. But, the fact that we pay more for Prisons than for Education tells me that something is terribly WRONG with the current system. This simply should not be possible. My sense is that if this were brought to a vote, Education would win over Prisons in the budget priority by a landslide. If not, this country is in far worse condition than I've ever imagined.

Question 1-6: What should the major budget items be that we as a society should be deciding to allocate our budget and resources toward?

Let's start with education, health, welfare, defense, law-enforcement and prisons, transportation, resolving disputes and legal, regulation of economy, environment, research and innovative technology.

Answers to this question should identify which of these should come off the list and what new items should be added. The intent is to use this month to settle on a list and then start trying to determine appropriate percentages for each item starting next month.

After that, it will be interesting to see how our collective budget allocation compares to the actuals currently expended. Where there are significant differences ... we have clear evidence that our representative system is NOT representing us as it should. If this isn't happening at the top level, why should we be surprised that there are major problems at the detailed level?

Well, that is a good start for one month. We'll target introducing at least one new topic each month, in addition to incorporating inputs on any on-going topics.