In one of my previous videos where I compared Capitalism vs Socialism, I had remarked that a society is better off by having a mixture of the two. Those who enjoyed the video often made the remark ‘What does this mixture look like?’. Although the question is simple, the answer is not so easy. It will take many videos for me to paint a picture of such society, but the challenge is accepted.
To create a blueprint of this new pattern of governance, I will use a theoretical city named City X- inspired by the name of my company CityXcape.
In this first episode about City X, we will establish a base. Fundamental truths that we can model City X after. Since I don’t have all the answers, I also recommend my viewers to make suggestions on how we can make City X more robust. Now let’s begin with the fundamentals.
Democracy is mob rule. A republic is a country governed by laws.
City X would not be a democracy, but a republic. Democracy is a system based on votes but a republic is a system based on laws. Allow me to elaborate! Let’s just say a criminal is in trial for an offense. In a democracy, if 60% of the population votes to have a criminal hanged, that person would be hanged. In a republic, it is the law that governs the land. Even if 99% of the population vote to have a criminal hanged, if the death penalty is forbidden under the laws, that person would not be hanged.
The second problem with democracies is that they are very partisan systems. If a new legislation is passed by a 60% vote, this means that 40% of the population did not get what they want. This unsatisfied minority becomes a time bomb waiting to explode.
City X therefore will be a strict republic. It is not a democracy, or even a democratic republic like the United States. It is a city strictly governed by laws. Now let’s see how these laws come into existence.
Laws are not from lawyers. They are the naturally emerging social patterns at the time.
Laws are a very natural thing. As soon as two or more people get together, laws quickly start to form. This is because two or more people always need protocols to interact with each other.
You move into someone’s house and they say no music after 10. You meet a born again christian and he asks not to use profanity when spoken to. You have a new romantic partner and he demands a monogamous relationship. All these are laws- albeit on a more local level.
Laws are sanctified customs. They are social patterns that have proven beneficial for a society for so long and followed by so many, that they have become officially written declarations.
While laws are natural, legislations are not. Legislations are complex documents written by lawyers. They are extremely artificial in the sense that they did not emerge organically from people interacting with one another over time. While thou shalt not kill is a law, a healthcare bill is a legislation.
The complexity and unnaturalness of legislation also causes them to be frequently violated by citizens, even if it is not their intentions to be criminals. This is again, because legislation is not a naturally evolving pattern. They are someone else’s idea of how others should live. So in City X , there are no legislations, only laws that are natural.
Market dominance is not to be confused but with monopoly. The former is created by the consumer, the ladder by government.
There is no legal monopoly in City X. It is important not to confuse Google, which has market dominance with the Federal Reserve, which has a legal monopoly on money creation. While anyone can legally create a search engine to compete with Google, a person who begins to issue their own currency would be deemed a criminal and shoved in their jail. It is the consumer that creates market dominance, but the government that creates legal monopolies. City X does not permit the latter.
Again, City X allows for no legal monopoly. This means no central banking with a monopoly on currency. People are free to create their own currency and bid for acceptance. There is no monopoly on force. This means no government police department. People are free to open security companies and compete for customers to protect. There is not even a monopoly on things like mass transit or sanitation. All these services are opened to the creative energies of entrepreneurs.
Well that’s it for now folks! If you would like me to create another episode about City X, be sure to voice it in the comment section. In the next video, I would like to cover the concept of collective agreements. A phenomenon which can be greatly aided by things like blockchain.
Until then, see you next time. Don’t forget to support me by downloading the CityXcape app and posting a few secret spots in your city for others to explore.
