The CIRF9 … Nine key policy changes promoting welfare and quality of life in terms of freedom, justice and prosperity… The greatest good for the greatest number of all life forms.
While many in the world live in safe and comfortable surroundings and have access to good food, labor saving conveniences and comfortable shelter, billions still struggle just to stay alive amidst suffering and deprivation. And many forms of life face extinction as human impacts now threaten the health of the nature that sustains us and makes our lives worth living.
The main cause of the suffering for all life is human irresponsibility. We have the means to live more sensibly and most share the desire to do so. But we lack the will to use our full intelligence and overcome the inertia or resistance from our biological drives and deeply vested interests serving a few at the expense of others.
The following are nine key areas where CIRF advocates change for the greatest good for the greatest number. An inherent challenge for any society has always been finding the optimal balance between freedom of creative expression and the responsibility that must accompany it.
The greatest gift the US could offer the world would be to remake itself as a model society serving the welfare of the greatest number in terms of holistic quality of life.
1) Individual Responsibility
Responsible behavior at its esense includes living within the limits of ones means. This is as true for government as it is for individuals. Thus acquiring excessive responsibilities, material goods above ones means to serve the costs is foolish. Financial responsibility should be promoted as a common goal for everyone.
We have peddled the mantras bigger is always better and more is never enough to rev the economy while feeding our inherent desires to consume. We have caved to human greed and our visceral cravings and have allowed (and even in many cases encouraged) individuals and institutions to leverage their equity to the point where risk levels almost assure failure. And differences in inherent human abilities, automation of the production of goods and services and misguided tax policies have enabled a few to acquire extreme wealth while many struggle to make it through the day. Economic disparities have mushroomed to levels not seen before in history.
While governmental waste has become legend and should be a primary focus for reducing deficits, the federal tax code consists of over 70,000 pages of loop holes and privileges for the few (with the resources to buy them) buried in almost incomprehensible bureaucratic legalese. The pig is too big and ugly for lipstick. The tax code should be fundamentally re-engineered to create simplicity and fairness.
Fairness would seem to mean that those who have been fortunate enough to profit greatly from our economic and social system should be taxed at levels proportional to their financial standing. But it also should mean that since all have a stake in overall human welfare, all should be expected to sacrifice in some form to balance budgets, further the common welfare and share some of the burden.
2) Responsible Procreation
No other issue is so fundamental to the future welfare of any society. Unlimited human population growth is obviously unsustainable not only from the perspective of limited resources and threats of extinction for many other species… but also in terms of our own comfort and quality of life. We cannot continue to irresponsibly increase our numbers and escalating consumption without destroying the ecological balance that nourishes and sustains us… while also exacerbating the risks of social and political chaos.
Those who produce children without the means to provide reasonable care are essentially committing child abuse. Family planning (including sterilization and pregnancy termination) should be subsidized so as to be affordable to those who need it most and made readily available to all. And it should be strongly encouraged for those who are not in the position to reasonably care for what they produce.
The decision to become parents should include at a minimum the willingness of both parents to responsibly commit to the welfare of a child until maturity. Procreating without the means to reasonably provide for the welfare of the child is the leading cause of poverty throughout the world. And it unfairly burdens responsible people with the failings of others.
Currently over half of all births are to mothers on public assistance and these women have fertility rates three times the average for all others. The impacts of this failed policy on the future workforce and gene pool should be obvious. And it should give us pause.
Multiplying simply because it is possible to do so is the mentality of cancer.
3) Educational Reform
While we spend about twice per capita relative to other developed countries on K-12 education, test scores consistently show US students close to the bottom. The causes of failure are many but a major contributor is our monolithic educational model designed around the premise that all children are ready to learn the same material at the same time in their lives in similar learning environments. This runs contrary to all that we know about human nature.
US students also spend about 20% less time in school than the students of Europe or Japan, and spend more of these fewer hours doing non-academic work. Most would agree good schools require good teachers and good students. Yet we have unions and regulatory bureaucracies that encumber us from ridding out poor teachers and students lacking the interest or ability in acquiring academic competence. Regulations make it difficult to screen students lacking the ability to learn at grade level or who have attitudes that not only undermine a constructive classroom environment, but interfere with the progress of those who do want to learn. Forcing children to attend school against their will assures a disruptive atmosphere for many and undermines practically all aspects of a good public educational system. It takes only one disruptive student in a class of 30 to destroy the learning process for all.
An obvious way to break the hamstringing bureaucracy of government and unions would be to open the system to the dynamism and creativity of a market economy while facilitating the implementation of creative learning technologies. We should greatly expand programs such as allowing parents and students to choose freely from a varied range of alternatives to select the educational environment most commensurate with needs.
The diversity of schools and classroom environments should reflect the diversity in the types of interests, abilities and needs of students.
4) Immigration
Most importantly immigration should be framed holistically with respect to long term population impacts and the economic well being of all. Importing cheap labor to do work that could be more productively automated hampers technological growth and eventually burdens social institutions. And importing people without planning for the future with respect to long term sustainable growth including ecological and availability of natural resources and preservation of open space is irresponsible and will inevitably further burden our progeny.
Thus, just as quality parenting and education are primary determinants for creating a successful future it is important to assure that immigrants possess qualities that enable them to be a part of that success. If it is considered desirable to increase our population in terms of the above considerations we should expect those who join us to have at least a good working knowledge of our language, culture, and government… and the basic training and professional skills to creatively and synergistically contribute positively to the overall quality of life.
5) Voting Competency
Allowing and encouraging all to vote regardless of awareness of issues makes about as much sense as allowing all to breed with abandon or all to immigrate without restriction. Leaders reflect the awareness and wisdom of those who elect them. If we desire wiser leadership we must make changes to create a wiser electorate.
Nowhere does the word democracy appear in the US Constitution. In fact the right to vote was initially offered only to white male owners of property. Obviously these are not good measures of voter competency. But it dispels the notion that absolute democracy is an inherent part of the founding philosophy of the country. We should of course so our best to increase the awareness of the electorate to improve its quality. But after 200 years of trying to do this we must face the reality the inherent limits of nature.
In the current political atmosphere it would be very difficult to deny the right to vote to someone based on demonstrated incompetency. But a reasonable alternative might be to weigh votes in proportion to scores based on a test of voters awareness of technical, economic and political influences effecting society (i.e. voters scoring at the ninetieth percentile would cast votes weighing three times those scoring at thirtieth percentile, etc.).
In the interest of fairness any test should be designed to gage only an understanding of the technical, economic, and political challenges facing political leadership. This might also encourage many to improve their knowledge of the world around them and make them less vulnerable to manipulation by specious reasoning targeting emotionally driven impulses.
Voting is a right, but like all rights it must be shouldered with the responsibility to exercise it with reasonable competency. Just as we do not encourage drunks to drive we should not encourage the incompetent to vote their ignorance and thus endanger others.
Adding to the risks of voter incompetence is an increasingly pervasive media vulnerable to manipulation and control by huge accumulations of wealth. Economic disparities have significantly increased over the last few decades in many societies leading to greater accumulations of wealth in the hands of fewer people. Coupled with pervasive ignorance voters become even more vulnerable to manipulation by subtle fabrications appealing to knee jerk emotions.
No one benefits from incompetent leadership.
6) Equal Opportunity
When “affirmative action” programs preference some at the expense of others they do not “affirm” anything other than our ability to continue fabricating and rationalizing discrimination. These programs were initially implemented as outreach programs to all disenfranchised and handicapped by poor educational opportunities and economic hardship. This reasonable policy was conceived to further equal opportunity for all by leveling the playing field. But due to political pressures they morphed into discriminatory preference programs.
Preferences based on characteristics not relating to performance violate the equal protection guarantees of the 14th Amendment and wherever they are practiced they chip away at the glue that holds society together and the ability of society to function efficiently and effectively.
If a meritocracy or a performance based society is our goal, we should be blind to irrelevant factors and resist the political pressures that also make our institutions vulnerable to the influences of wealth and social connection. Affirmative action must again be goaled to extending equal opportunity to all and leveling the playing field of success. They should be goaled to enable all to produce and create at levels commensurate with their ability.
We all benefit from fairness.
7) The Judicial System
We spend much more per capita on policing and prosecuting criminals and have more people in our prisons per capita than any other country. And yet we also rank near the bottom when comparing rates of criminality and violence. There are many factors contributing to this mess including demographics and even inherent nature of the people who have been attracted to our country over the years.
But a major ongoing contributor is the so-called “drug war”. Our policies arbitrarily stigmatize some drugs while subsidizing the production of others (tobacco farmers, etc.) which have much worse health and social impacts. This makes a mockery of justice and human intelligence. And it leads to networks or cartels of criminal activity that threaten to undermine society while swelling prison populations.
Acts between consenting adults should be the concern of only the consenting adults. Nanny state interference with behavior that does not directly harm others runs counter to the concept of free enterprise, results in colossal wastes of public resources, violates expectations of personal privacy, fuels the fires of corruption, and impedes the assumption of individual responsibility.
If we choose to regulate individual behavior it should be done reasonably and equitably, and in accordance with the equal protection and due process provisions of the 14th Amendment and the freedom of expression guarantees of the First Amendment. If private and public institutions were allowed to hire, fire, and promote based on demonstrated performance the issue of work place drug abuse would self correct to a level of insignificance.
8) Health Care
We spend twice per capita on health care relative to other developed nations and our health metrics rank the effectiveness of our system low relative to other developed nations. And costs are rapidly rising as new technology enables more technologically complex and costly interventions, our population ages, and personal health abuses (such as obesity) increase.
We keep people alive when pain from physical and mental impairment makes them wish death. People at the end of their lives are too often viewed by the medical industrial complex as “cash cows”. Adding to the burdens and inefficiency, tort law allows lawyers to sue whenever there seems to be the potential of financial gain. Some studies report over half of all medical procedures and prescribed drugs are caused by doctors fearing legal retribution.
Change would seem most reasonably begin with voluntary universal health care, tort reform capping lawyer fees and reimbursements from medical grievance suits, and end of life centers allowing people options to end pain and misery. We would not allow animals to suffer in the ways we force on humanity. Since it is not fair to ask the public to subsidize health care costs for those irresponsibly undermining their health (obesity and tobacco use, etc.) those choosing public supported universal health care should be required to commit to lifestyle changes demonstrated to improving health outcomes.
The reality is we essentially already have a dysfunctional bureaucratic “universal health care” by default. When those without insurance need care they simply use emergency rooms where laws require hospitals to provide care for all… leaving the hospital with the problem of seeking reimbursement for services. Costs are then passed on to others greatly increasing the costs of health care and insurance. This is not only inefficient and cumbersome but unfair and a poor use of resources.
Although we would not keep beloved pets and animals in general alive while they suffer pain and misery, we force it on people. This is not only stupid but cruel.
9) Foreign Policy
Again, we spend far more per capita than other nations on military and national defense with little to show for it. We have bases in over 150 countries and have in many ways assumed the role of “world cop”. Our military expenditures are reported to be almost as great as that of all other nations combined. No one can explain why we have chosen to be saddled with this burden. And no one can explain why we should fear states in the Middle East or Africa more than say the Europeans or Asians should fear same.
Like in so many cases, change is blocked by deeply vested interests… the biggest in this case being our infamous “military industrial complex”. Production of military equipment can be a very lucrative business. Large profits are assured often with little competition from competitive bidding. Oversight is often minimal allowing huge overruns and large profit margins. And if the politicos commit the military to adventurism with speciously justified wars and other interventions, a limited life for much of the military hardware is assured. This is planned obsolescence at its best. Where else can a toilet seat be sold for $600 with few questions asked and the assurance the product will soon be destroyed driving the buyer back for more.
There are many impedances to any change in our military posture. Closing plants or bases will cost jobs and many congressmen will support job creation in their districts regardless of how wasteful and destructive it might be. And those with the vested interests will trumpet and over-hype threats emanating from Iraq, China, Mali, and on. Nothing like nationalism and patriotism appeals to our embedded nature that revs up the support of the public.
But if we continue our ill conceived adventurism incurring costs over and beyond our financial means it will eventually lead to our ruin. Throughout history a leading cause of national demise has been over-reaching military pursuits that invite corruption and inevitably drain resources. Deluded nations doing this eventually meet their fate. We should learn from this.
Welcome to CIRF... Center for Individual Responsibility and Freedom 