7 ms·
It's becoming more and more obvious how little power is left in "the democratic process". We're slowly moving all actual decision making to authoritarian struct
by openfuture 10y ago
It's becoming more and more obvious how little power is left in "the democratic process". We're slowly moving all actual decision making to authoritarian structures while the responsibility is still supposed to reside with the government, it's not a sustainable situation and the solution is fairly simple imo.
Just declare free software to be infrastructure. It is something everyone needs but no one wants to pay for so we just make everyone pay some amount of their income towards maintaining it (as well as other infrastructure) oh wait I just invented taxes - yes I'm from Europe btw.
When a company owns a platform (like an operating system) it becomes the government of that space, a position that should not be held by a for-profit entity. I know people in the US aren't so fond of taxes and tbh who can blame them when all the money goes to three letter agencies, war mongering and violence. The infrastructure (health care system, electric grid, education...) is in dire need of a reboot meanwhile the mega-corporations just build their own (competitive advantage). The fact is that the classic solution to the tragedy of the commons is to make a "democratic government" (hopefully this class of institution can be redefined in a positive way with computing) which will then regulate exploits and collect taxes for maintenance of infrastructure, all in order to keep society in equilibrium so that we may live.
I don't see how these behemoth creatures we deem too big to fail due to the short term implications of such an event can reasonably justify their existence when they are causing such long term harm to our environment (both metaphorical and physical). They are nothing but fiction and the authors are running out of material, I think it is time to face facts.
Sorry for the rant, it got off topic but I felt a need to put this into writing.
- forgotpwtomain 10y ago> I know people in the US aren't so fond of taxes... > all the money goes to three letter agencies, war mongering and violence... > The infrastructure (health care system, electric grid, education...) is in dire need of a reboot... So you are advocating to add: billions of tax dollars wasted on terrible software projects with incompetent management to the above list?
- Avshalom 10y agoWell we are already having billions of our dollars wasted on terrible software projects with incompetent management, it's just that it's baked into the price of goods instead of taxes.
- openfuture 10y agoThe way I see it there is a bunch of people already doing the governments job, making free software, just give them the money. It's not a waste and it's easy to spot a terrible software project when all the development happens in the open vs. behind closed doors at DARPA or wherever.
- alphapapa 10y agoYou want the government deciding which software projects get funded? Which inevitably means that the government will decide how software projects get run? Really?
- mozey 10y agoAt least with separate companies dominating distinct pieces of software there is some degree of de-centralisation. As opposed to a tax system with a centralised agency for collections
- adrianN 10y agoI would already be happy if all software used for government purposes had to be free. Whenever free software doesn't fulfill all requirements, pay programmers to add the features instead of buying proprietary alternatives.
- abandonliberty 10y agoIt is very tempting to offer solutions to fix "the democratic process." Unfortunately it's very difficult to fix something without clearly understanding the problem - let alone the root cause. While many of the proposed solutions, including this one, are worth exploring, society simply isn't moving in this direction. The powerful are not incentivized to work on obvious solved problems that enhance democracy, like gerrymandering and first past the post voting systems.
- deusofnull 10y agoThat's something the "non-powerful" need to take up with the "powerful" in my opinion. Oh, wait, the "powerful" want to cut back on public education as well? Damn.
- abandonliberty 9y agoChildren of the elite rarely go to public institutions, so what incentive do they have to maintain them? We can easily import some highly educated and skilled people as required, while a less educated populace is easier to manipulate and presents less of a competitive threat to their children.
- deusofnull 10y agoI hear you on that. And as an American, let me say that I too am longing for some kind of sensible socially cognizant and participatory democracy.