7.4. Positive Economy
Ideas
- The economy of Software Democracy seeks abundance while respecting people and the environment.
- To achieve this, it reverses incentives: for example, a health system that encourages the food and pharmaceutical industries to maintain a healthy population, rather than a vicious circle where the profits of some fuel those of others!
- It also develops energy abundance. With abundant, clean, and inexpensive energy, our ability to evolve humanity has no limits.
- And as always, Software Democracy integrates the rules of economic functioning into the Code, to automate and protect it from corruption.
Energy
Energy abundance is the key to the development of humanity and a main priority of software democracy.
No energy source is perfect. We know today's energy sources, mostly fossil fuels, and we know tomorrow's energy sources: solar, wind, nuclear. Massive investment in these energies will eventually decarbonize energy production, without questioning the acceleration of production growth.
During this transition period, fossil fuels will continue to ensure the development of humanity, while financing the energy transition. Thus, we can imagine a progressive taxation on carbon-based energies, over a period of 30 years, with the aim of smoothly reaching the tipping point where new energies will naturally become more profitable than fossil fuels, while allowing the industry to reposition itself.
In addition to contributing to environmental protection, this massive energy transformation policy will generate strong labor demand and create wealth.
In the long term, beyond the decarbonization of energy production, energy abundance will finance the response to global warming and major pollution remediation projects: plastic, chemical pollutants, heavy metals... It's not just about carbon!
Food production
There are two main aspects: the production of raw materials and their processing.
Agriculture
Food production is one of the main causes of pollution and soil destruction. It is therefore necessary to enable a transformation of production methods to meet the ecological objectives of software democracy, while maintaining an abundant and diverse food supply.
Economic rules must therefore be adapted: producers practicing environmentally damaging agriculture must be progressively penalized by increasingly significant taxes. This will impose the conversion of farms to more environmentally friendly agriculture and create jobs.
This certainly does not mean the end of intensive and mechanized agriculture; it's not about going back to the scythe! On the contrary, it is through technology and intelligence that we can move towards productive and environmentally friendly agriculture: adaptation to local constraints, knowledge and protection of soils, seed liberation...
We can also imagine a 30-year plan here, allowing a smooth transition, the time to transform agricultural practices and find the most effective models.
The food processing industry
Here too, incentives must be reversed: producing highly processed, low-nutritional-quality foods should cost more than producing healthy, minimally processed food.
Progressive taxes are therefore applied to the basic ingredients of processed foods (glucose syrup, vegetable oils, preservatives, additives...), to allow for a reasonable transition.
Not only will this reduce the costs of a healthy diet, but it will also improve the overall health of the population.
Health
Health should not be an economic issue. How can the system function effectively when the only goal of pharmaceutical companies is profitability, and the only way to achieve this goal is to sell more treatments and medications? We ask the dealer to detoxify their clients!
In this area, more than any other, incentives must be reversed and control given back to citizens.
A true public health policy
The real goal of the health system must be a healthy population. The healthcare system is never more effective than when it has nothing to do!
For this:
- Education dedicates significant efforts to teaching young people about a healthy lifestyle: diet, physical exercise, knowledge of the human body...
- The food industry is encouraged to produce healthy food (see above).
- Doctors and healthcare personnel are trained to support patients in transforming their lifestyles in response to illness, rather than prescribing symptomatic treatments.
- Research on alternative medicine will be developed to intelligently and scientifically use these solutions, either as a replacement for chemical treatments or as a complement to heavy treatments when necessary.
- There must be a strict separation between researchers, manufacturers, prescribers, and public institutions responsible for validating the market release of new treatments, as well as their supervision over time.
Access to care
Access to care is a basic component of Démocratie Numérique. It is open to everyone, without any need for identification or medical records.
However, it is necessary to limit the systematic and unnecessary use of the healthcare system. To do this, patients will always pay a minimum amount for a medical consultation. This amount must be low enough to be easily covered by Universal Basic Income but significant enough to limit unnecessary consultations.
This minimum payment may be waived for serious illnesses requiring regular follow-up.
The medical profession
The entire medical profession practices freely, either independently or within a larger medical structure. Doctors are partially paid by the state based on their competence and declared services (consultations, on-call hours, etc...), and supplement their income through patient payments.
Doctors practice freely and cannot be forced to follow a medical protocol imposed by the state or private companies. The relationship between the patient and doctor is private, and the doctor's decisions are adapted to this relationship. Of course, this does not prevent a fraudulent doctor from being sued by their patients in case of abuse.
The hospital
The hospital is funded by the state. Care is free, except for the minimum co-payment amount (similar logic to the minimum payment for consultations).
The hospital is responsible for paying members of the medical profession based on their services.
Private practice of medicine
Doctors can choose to practice privately for all or part of their time, outside the framework and compensation set by the state. They can also establish multidisciplinary medical offices and general or specialized clinics.
These structures charge a free rate, entirely at the patient's expense. These amounts are taxed and contribute to the financing of public health.
This allows the establishment of a two-tier healthcare system, which is inevitable in any case, while partially financing public care through the wealthiest.
Research
Research is free; it can be public or private. However, the entire test protocol for the market release of a new treatment is under citizen control.
Tests are thus carried out by independent laboratories, supervised by the Ministry of Health and a Citizen Oversight Council. To be approved for the market, the treatment must demonstrate a clear superiority over a known medication and be validated by the independent laboratory that conducted the tests, the Ministry of Health, and the Citizen Oversight Council.
A 10-year protection of rights will then be granted to the inventor, after which the formulation will enter the public domain.
Pharmaceutical companies
Their main role is the production of medicines.
They will therefore compete to manufacture mostly publicly-formulated medications, which will ensure a very low cost for most treatments.
They can conduct research within the limits set above and carry out internal trials, but these trials cannot lead to market release until the official protocol has been followed.
The distribution of medications
Medications prescribed by a doctor, whether in a private or public facility, are covered by the state. Over-the-counter medications are the patient's responsibility.
Here too, an effort in education could limit the use of the healthcare system by allowing everyone to self-medicate for minor everyday ailments; doctors have no added value in prescribing paracetamol!
The industry
A strong industry is key to an economy of abundance, but this should not be at the expense of the values of Software Democracy.
Following the same principles, it is necessary to integrate the costs corresponding to the compensation of environmental damages into production.
To do this, companies report their environmental impact (and not just their carbon impact!). They can either compensate directly or integrate the pollution costs into their products. A joint commission of the Ministries of Economy and Environment is responsible for assessing costs and conducting regular inspections of declarations.
The factors included in the environmental impact and their compensation cost are decided by the legislative power and/or through referendums, and encourage the transition to less polluting production methods.
Here again, energy abundance will make it easier to offset industrial pollution.
The media
The media play an important role in Software Democracy by fueling public debate, and they must therefore be independent of political power. As such, the media are free and not subsidized.
However, this will have been in vain if it ends up in the hands of the wealthiest industrialists or bankers, who will turn it into their propaganda machine.
To limit this risk, Software Democracy implements two countermeasures:
- Media outlets (television channels, newspapers, radio stations) must systematically declare conflicts of interest, whether it concerns authors or media owners. Failure to declare is punishable by law.
- Guarantee of freedom of expression on decentralized platforms where everyone can express their opinion (Twitter, Facebook, as well as the comment sections of media outlets, when they exist).
The State or citizens can file a complaint against censorship with the justice system, which then has the necessary investigative means to confirm or deny a violation of freedom of expression.
Within this system, there will be a strong incentive to create independent media outlets free from economic power, which will be financed by their subscribers and contribute to public debate.
Freedom
Ultimately, these are just common sense measures, applied at the margins to allow the expression of creativity and freedom of economic agents.
It is just necessary to prevent this freedom from deviating into behaviors harmful to society, as is the case in our current system; the necessary limits will be set by the citizen vote, then inscribed in the Code to make them incorruptible.
In search of the best of both worlds!