No to Capitalism. No to Socialism. Then, what? Four Mantras!


By: Shreepal Singh

Free society and free economy

A. Our society should provide to its citizens all conceivable forms of freedom and rights.

B. All rights of citizens should be coupled to their concomitant duties.

C. There should be encouragement of private initiative with guaranteed incentive in the form of profit.

D. All resources, natural and man-made, should be held as the property of people.

E. Resources should be handed over in private hands only in trust to them and only for their development in the interest of public and for the sole public good.

F. Work of resources-development done by private hands must be compensated by the right of these private hands to earn profit in the venture.

Empowerment of people through technology

A. There should be democratic form of governance of the people through their elected representatives.

B. People/electorate should elect their representatives for governance only/primarily through the internet connected mobile phones.

C. Election Commission should conduct daily online elections of people’s representatives in order to judge these representatives’ continuous enjoyment of trust of their constituents.

D. There should be legal duty imposed on every citizen to vote ‘yes’ or ‘no’ daily by his mobile phone/device and no such phone/device should be allowed to function unless that citizen first ‘casts a vote’ of yes or no.

E. Electoral law should allow a specified grace period or tolerance period for a few months or years to the trust-deficit elected representatives with a warning either to improve his performance and win trust or else quit.

F. After the expiry of the allowed grace period, people should be entitled by law to recall their representatives and elect new ones in their place.

Transparency in public life

A. All acts/affairs connected with public or effecting public in whatever way and of whatsoever nature should be put online to make them transparent.

B. All work of public functionaries to be put on-line to make the same transparent.

C. Such acts of public nature would include: all government decisions of handing over of public resources in private hands; conferring any benefits; all such discretion exercised; all acts of public functionaries that work as a bridge between citizens and government.

D. Every act of economic nature of every individual person should be put online to make it transparent.

E. Such acts of individuals of economic nature would include: precise amount of price of input resources; cost/price paid for every head of expenditure; each of the items used in the process of production and distribution; price at which products are being sold to consumers; the precise amount of investment made and the amount of profit earned.

Government an institution of auditors and coercion

A. All government ministries should work primarily/mainly as accountants and auditors to ensure that the above public work of the governance is duly carried out by all concerned, public and private persons.

B. Government should secure strict compliance of the above rules by maintaining a coercive machinery, including military, police, courts, jails, coercive equipment like arms and weapons.

C. No private person should be allowed to create or maintain coercive machinery like private security force; coercive equipment like weapons; armed public organizations; coercive technology.

21 Comments (+add yours?)

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  2. occupysonoradan1
    Jul 28, 2015 @ 22:07:24

    Free society and free economy

    Item E. “Resources should be handed over in private hands only in trust to them and only for their development in the interest of public and for the sole public good.”

    Be careful.

    Beware which “private hands” you entrust your resources to. Be ever watchful for betrayals of your Trust. Don’t trust a few with what you should be controlling, as part of The Many.

    It would be Better for a Good Society to collectively mind and maintain control of your nation’s resources. The tools to expedite this are here now. All that is needed is Your Collective Sense Of Responsibility and Applied Will.

    Only release resources, for development into good products for the economy, into “private hands”, on an “as needed basis”.

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    • Authors of posts
      Jul 29, 2015 @ 10:25:58

      Given the human nature of greed to earn more and more profits, we cannot trust the private hands and I agree with you here. The private hands cannot be trusted and these private hands need to be watched over by the people constantly. That is why all the transactions of private hands need to be put on line for being watched over by the common people (see transparency). We’re talking here of devising a Constitutional / legal mechanism that is always watched over through available technology and controlled by the people by constantly electing, recalling and directing/dismissing their government (again, through the available technology). In fact nobody can be trusted except the people for common economic welfare of all.

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      • occupysonoradan1
        Jul 29, 2015 @ 22:48:28

        Well said, Shreepal Singh. I would only add to your observation: “In fact nobody can be trusted except the people for common economic welfare of all.”

        Of course, I understand that you do not literally mean to Trust all the people. Many of Us are simply not Trustworthy. Seek and select as Many of the Ones of Us who are.

        These “True Citizens” will have earned the nation’s Trust, through “Good Service”* and the achievement of the kind of education that has made them very skilled at sensing and correcting Human wrongdoing. This special education would teach these valuable Citizens in the many faceted arts of sophistry and chicanery…the ways of the untrustworthy…the dishonest tricks of the diverse business world and its agents.

        *”Good Service” = Good military record, no criminal record, active in all levels of Direct Democracy Governance. Has demonstrated, strong Moral and Ethical essence in their Individual efforts in Life.

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        • Authors of posts
          Jul 30, 2015 @ 09:30:07

          When we say that nobody else but only people can be trusted to look after their welfare, it means “majority of people” (and this majority may reach even up to 99% of a nation’s population) who always remain exploited because of many reasons and also who are the “object, means and stuff” of this exploration by the “minority of people”. We cannot talk of individuals when we talk of the system or mechanism governing the society.

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  3. occupysonoradan1
    Jul 28, 2015 @ 00:07:36

    Free society and free economy (Mantra 1)

    Item D. “All resources, natural and man-made, should be held as the property of people.”

    I think “Natural Resources” are everything that Humanity extracts from Our Planet.

    The Sovereign Nation should maintain control of its Natural Resources. A People (even diverse and complex ethnic structure Peoples) should BE Their Sovereign Nation…the Governance of the Nation They Are. in this way the People can best hold and maintain Natural Resources for the Nation They Are. (A well “qualified” Majority of the People is needed…the “right” education is needed)

    As for “Man-Made Resources”, I think this can be the realm of the Individual Entrepreneur (Private Hands)…even in powerful and complex organizations like corporations and “Worker Owned and Operated Businesses”. If an Individual turns a “State Released Natural Resource” into a useful product, then they have earned the Right to make a “reasonable” profit from it. Beware of “Free Market Capitalist Principles”. These are the maxims of greed.

    Let Us become “Fair Market Capitalists”.

    But for the sake of All That Is Good, please find and develop ways to keep your Eye on these collective structures. Keep you fingers on their pulse. Know them well. Be them.

    Beware of “Conflict Of Interest Manipulations”. (Wolves guarding the Hen House) For every “Private Hands Power Functionary” there should be, at least, three devoted and watchful True Citizens assigned to them.

    Educate yourselves on the “bad things” to watch for. There is a plethora of examples of these “bad things” in Our World today. Learn them. Deny them!

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    • Authors of posts
      Jul 28, 2015 @ 20:44:42

      We are dealing here with the problem of equitable management of the society that is full of people with the conflicting interests. We have to be aware that individuals need to be given right and opportunity to take initiative and incentive to innovate. It is the engine of progress. Also we have to ensure that the people enjoying such right and reaping the fruits of their initiative do not “extract” fruits. The planned economy is a failed model and likewise the capitalist economy is also a failed model, though for a different reason. These four Mantras given here ensure 1. That people are supreme 2. People are able to change their elected government 3. By making their government a body of accountants and auditors people will keep a check on profits “reaped or extracted” by the persons who took initiative. Online transparency will ensure that all profits earned are within the knowledge of people and the government will have to curb extraction or else will be recalled and replaced by the people.
      This is the only way a revolution will be there without dropping a drop of blood. One does not need to do anything but to empower the people through technology: one- electing and recalling online and two- every economic transaction of everyone putting on online.

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  4. occupysonoradan1
    Jul 27, 2015 @ 23:29:59

    Under: “Free society and free economy” (Mantra 1)

    Item C. “There should be encouragement of private initiative with guaranteed incentive in the form of profit.”

    Here I get nervous.

    The “Quest For Prosperity” is a valid Human Life Endeavor, that is just as important as any other aspect of Our Finite Lives. But, alas, as We have witnessed in Our Lives, this Human Need also is taken too far, or is corrupted by dishonesty.

    As near as I can tell, this Quest For Prosperity corruption permeates all Our “Advanced” Societies, from the “bottom” to the “top”. Indeed, those at the “top” came from the lower multitudes of society. They were psychologically unbalanced by poverty and unnecessary hardships…and this became the greed that We experience today. We can do Better than this. We must.

    “Private Initiative”, of a benign and non-predatory Moral Kind, is essential to the Evolution and Health of Individuals. We should all have and practice enterprises that contribute to the Strengths and Well Being of Our Societies. But, I believe it is Wise to set a limit on the the accumulated amount of personal and corporate wealth. This limit could be expressed as a “ceiling”, beyond which it is forbidden to go (or suffer the lawful consequences), or as a 100% taxation for all amounts over the prescribed limit. I used to see the Personal Limit as 7 million dollars, but have since increased this to a huge 1 billion dollars. One billion would be the high mark beyond which an Individual should not go. (Indeed, should not even want to go beyond) Once that goal is reached, the Individual should address their Life Energies to other ways to serve their nation.

    The corporate wealth limit should be about 10 billion, in my opinion.

    The rate of profit should be regulated too. Held within a certain fair and workable range. Certain resources should not be bought and sold for profit at all. I am thinking of Earth (land), Fire (geothermic resources), Air (needs to be kept clean) and Water (always to be kept as pure as possible and freely available to a “well regulated population”) These should be held by the nation in Common Wealth for The People.

    These governance wealth considerations and measures, that I have suggested here, are only part of a wider reaching and comprehensive program for a Truly Democratic, Benign and Just Society.

    Just my opinion. Just some hints and nudges. I’ll stop here.

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    • Authors of posts
      Jul 28, 2015 @ 21:07:02

      We need not get nervous on the mention of “right to take private initiative and incentive in the form to get profit”. Encouragement to take initiative is the key to make progress. It is the sine qua non of a free society. The need is to put a surveillance on people who go to the extreme to earn undue profits. This can be done only by people who should be able to keep a tab on such profit earning (see Mantra of need to put economic transactions online) by private hands and by empowering them to dictate their government to put a curb on private hands at certain limits or be ready to be replaced. There is no wisdom in quantifying the amount which must change with the passage of time.

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      • occupysonoradan1
        Jul 28, 2015 @ 21:41:42

        Shreepal Singh shared with Us: “There is no wisdom in quantifying the amount which must change with the passage of time.”

        There is great Wisdom in setting a limit to wealth accumulation. Wealth does change “with the passage of time.”, but a Citizen Developed “Standard Of Decency” should be applied to it.

        Lack of “Limits” leaves open the door to rampant Prosperity Quest abuse by some Individuals and organizations who set themselves apart from the rest of Society, for personal gain that exceeds decency.

        The People’s Wisdom of this can be seen in this proposed new regulation, because it establishes a parameter in which it is inflationary and therefore destabilizing and harmful to society to exceed.

        Limits, based on Decency, derived from The People’s Moral Compass and Collective Intellect, for the benefit of Many, is a stabilizing influence in a Good Society.

        Limits can be “reset”, with the same Wisdom, should The People feel this is appropriate.

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        • Authors of posts
          Jul 28, 2015 @ 22:23:14

          Amount of “undue enrichment” and its “upper limit” can be determined only relative to the amount one invests in the first place. It is a percentage. If one invests one billion and earns profit of one billion is not equal to the person who invests one thousand and earns a profit of one billion. This is one thing to be kept in mind. Second- people must decide the upper limit allowed in a case after seeing an industrialist’s online accounts (transparency factor). 10 or 20% profit may be reasonable, and that must be decided by empowered people, may be every year or such period as may be considered fit by people. It is all for the empowered people to decide. We are here to fight to make people empowered by adoption of technology so that they may change the government or take decision and get their decision implemented.

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          • occupysonoradan1
            Jul 29, 2015 @ 22:24:13

            Good Thursday Morning, Shreepal Singh. It is good to read your thoughtful replies and a comfort to understand that We share a lot of beliefs about social and governance structures.

            You wrote yesterday: “It is a percentage. If one invests one billion and earns profit of one billion…

            I must confide in you and this fine forum, that I had never considered someone (one person) investing a billion dollars and doubling that in returned (all at once – one lump sum?) profit. If the laws against excess wealth were established, then this circumstance would be illegal, because it would run the Individual’s personal wealth level over the one billion rupee line. The “earned” wealth would have to be taken into the nation’s treasury funds for redistribution through the economy. (Note: Earning one billion on one billion is a hundred percent profit, which I think could be the max allowed by The People.)

            “… is not equal to the person who invests one thousand and earns a profit of one billion.”

            By the same governance measure, this example, where the Individual gets a return of one billion on a thousand rupee investment, We see a violation of the 100% percent profit percentage ceiling. By that rule, the Individual should only be getting two thousand rupees, for their investment.

            Maybe something can be constructed for more profit rate for the investor that invests less money? A graduating scale perhaps?

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  5. occupysonoradan1
    Jul 27, 2015 @ 22:51:25

    Under: “Free society and free economy” (Mantra 1)

    B. All rights of citizens should be coupled to their concomitant duties.

    Yes “duties” or “responsibilities”. This item “B” is an excellent provision to help prevent abuse of these very important Rights. The inclusion of duties, responsibilities and clear consequences (positive and negative), helps establish the vital Social Contract Balance for your nation.

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  6. occupysonoradan1
    Jul 26, 2015 @ 02:09:51

    Under the sub-category entitled: “Free society and free economy”, I discover the First “Mantra” of this good article and its first principle:

    “A. Our society should provide to its citizens all conceivable forms of freedom and rights.”

    Well yes. I suppose. But be careful with “all conceivable forms”. What I suggest is to establish “Standards Of Limits Of Decency” to all benign Freedom and Rights. Be ever watchful for taking such too far or its subtle drifting into negative, or harmful expressions.

    For example:

    “The Freedom to Travel Freely across Your Nation.”
    This Freedom could be abused to further the self serving goals of the criminal element. Just be careful about how this Freedom is used. And make these cautions visible in the highest la structures of You Land.

    “The Right to Pursue Happiness.”
    We might have to limit this Right in relation to intentional or unintentional harm it may do to Others.

    I think, just about anything can be abused, or taken too far. Safeguard, as an entire culture, against these abuses.

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    • Authors of posts
      Jul 26, 2015 @ 15:15:15

      Yes, the rights and freedom cannot be taken to the extreme. As you can see, all rights and freedom are subject to concomitant duties. It will be a check on them. One important thing here: these four Mantras are only Fundamental Principles. These are to be executed in practice carefully with all due caution. Another important thing: where is your nation’s People’s Congress?

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  7. occupysonoradan1
    Jul 26, 2015 @ 01:52:33

    Ooops. Forgot to check the notify me box under the comment.

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  8. occupysonoradan1
    Jul 26, 2015 @ 01:51:12

    There is a lot of food for Better to chew here. Many items worthy of consideration and deliberation. I agree with some of it and disagree with some of it. My intial feeling is that it is not enough. But upon reconsideration, I have to say it is steps in the “right direction”.
    If I had the time, I would love to comment on each item in this post.
    But, in this comment, I will only respond to the leading question at the top of this article, in parenthesis under the title:

    ” Where is your nation’s People’s Congress? ”

    We don’t have one yet, but the idea is here and We are working on this to make it a reality. So many bad habits have to be overcome by Us, here in the United States of America.

    For my part, I have proposed in a few articles, the establishment of a New House of congress, “The People’s House”…official title being: “The Volunteer House Of The American People”. It is intended that this House would be the only one that would make the final governance decisions. The two other Houses and the Judicial and Executive Branches being honored volunteer and advisory bodies and institutions only.

    But, alas, this is only a whisper in the roar of Our Land. I only hope that it is True…that little breezes of good ideas can become Mighty Winds of Change For the Better.

    I’ll try to come back and comment more on this good article.

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