Owfism

Government

 * -| Governance=

[[File:Dem.png]] Democracy [[File:Dem.png]]
I prefer Democracy as my preferred form of government, the reason as to why is simple, even if it is not perfect, no better form of government has ever been tried. For example, totalitarian governments have resulted in the deaths of at max hundreds of millions of people and have suppressed people and publicly purged their opponents, in typical totalitarian style. Totalitarian governments always lead to blood shed and the suppression of individual freedoms. Democracy may not be ideal, but the only major alternative we have to it is even worse.

Although, we do have to recognize that our current system of democracy isn't perfect either. With it being taken over by plutocrats, with corporations today having more power than ever over our own democracy. We need to have harsh regulations against corporate lobbying and monopolies in order to revive democracy. However, outside of this, there is a more structural flaw to democracy that needs to be solved, and that is the fact that it is constitutional democracy, which it restricts the people's voice, especially on legislation. As such, I support a Semi-direct democracy based on a voting system of  Liquid democracy, making sure that our society is more democratic than ever and the people are represented and have a voice over which things get passed or not, although, representatives will still have some degree of power to prevent things like mob rule.

[[File:Antiparty.png]] Semi Non-Partisan Democracy [[File:Antiparty.png]]
In general, I do not support the abolishment of political parties, especially when it comes to parliamentary elections and I believe political parties can actually play a better role than without them. Because, even if there are no political parties, they will come back inevitably without regulations on maintaining non-partisanism. As such, I support political parties as they can represent the overall political tone of the populace much better than without them being there.

However, in presidential elections, where the role of the president is mostly ceremonial (just like in parliamentary/some semi-presidential countries), presidential candidates would have to be  non-partisan overall and not affiliate themselves with a political party, in order to make sure that the President is not necessarily politically biased.

[[File:Civlibert.png]] Civil Libertarianism [[File:Civlibert.png]]
I believe that the government must hold a pro-privacy stance, as such, civically his government shall be aligned with principles of  liberalism, with me defining liberalism civically as wanting individual liberty. We need to bring these principles back into government in order to end the surveillance state that has been accumulating and bring us back to a time where individuals anonymity is respected. Its expansion has clearly and intentionally not been for the interest of the people and in fact has been against the people's interest as leakings of the scale of it, in the case of Edward Snowden have resulted in him becoming a citizen of America's authoritarian rival just for him to not get punished for his heroic act.

As such, the surveillance needs to be heavily weakened for the best interests of the people and whistleblowing should be a completely legal thing to do and the government should at least declassify documents at most 5 years after they're made. Unneeded spying programs need to be revoked and I am not saying there can't be things like CCTV cameras they can be useful in catching criminals but cameras should not display personal information like height, weight, age, name etc. this information is used by governments/corporations to know everything about you and your preferences. This cannot be known by them unless you want them to know them. A.k.a. on your own consent.

Expansions of CCTV camera services to personal info is terrible as I said but also wiretapping and other practices added upon them which count as severe breaches of privacy and have resulted in authoritarianism becoming more rampant in the West. The government needs to be there for the people when it is needed, like for welfare programs and  core industries. As such, I civically support policies of  civil libertarianism.

[[File:Laicism.png]] Laicism [[File:Laicism.png]]
I believe that we need to curb the influence of churches on politics. As such, I advocate for a separation of church and state however in the long-term I would advocate for separation of church from not just state but even our day-to-day life. We need to bust mega-churches like other mega-corporations and heavily scale down their lobbying power over our politicians, I am not saying lobbying should not exist at all, but  regulation is needed.

I also believe that there should be no official religion and while I do reject the existence of churches this does not mean I reject people believing in a certain religion, they can do that, but in their own house. Not going to church. Some Christians already do this, churches just take up funding that would otherwise go towards something more useful and compassionate, like a hospital, example being | People's Salvation Cathedral in Romania

I believe that the constitution should be, on religion, laicist in nature, like in  France, in order to discourage religious involvement in the politics of the state, but I do believe we need to guarantee freedom of religion, rejecting  state-atheism but also  theocracy.
 * -| Civil Service=

[[File:Merit.png]] Civil Service Reform [[File:Merit.png]]
In recent decades, we have seen a corporate takeover of our own political system, something that was hard to imagine almost 70 years ago. And this can be seen in our modern political framework as typically center-left parties have moved to the center, especially with the rise of the Third Way.

We need to stop corporate lobbying through massive amounts of regulations and campaign finance limitations, in the  United States for example, limit to presidential elections contributions are to be set at 2M$ (midterms are just gonna be abolished). For example, instead of the Biden-Harris Campaign receiving over 1 billion $ they merely receive just 2 million $ at most. Same with the Trump-Pence Campaign. This contributions limit can make it easier for more individual donors who aren't from mega-corporations to raise more money than companies and legally, thus allowing for a shift in policy towards the people's interests, which turn out to be more left-wing (even in the US) than you might think.

Corporate lobbyists have also begun taking over the United Nations and its institutions, an example being the  Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, with it being the largest donor to the UN. There needs to be a hard wall that prevents corporate lobbyists from lobbying for their causes at the UN and instead donations to the UN shall come from national governments but also individuals (activists, co-ops etc.).

I believe that the best electoral system is of ranked-choice voting with it working best under a  multi-party democracy, in order to give voters a wide range of choices and have the elections truly be fair to all political parties. We need a market place of ideas in our society, as such, voters must vote using critical thinking with their choices and as such a brief summary of the parties and politician running under that party in order to have people make an informed choice.

Another set of reforms I seek to make, at least in the European Union, is to make the EU a participatory democracy, as such, I seek to replace the veto model with a qualified majority model in order to allow for a smoother and quicker response to crises, admissions and other things. I also believe that in European Parliament elections, there should be a popular vote, where people vote on the European parties themselves through the method of ranked-choice voting, as stated previously.

[[File:Anti-Corrupt.png]] Whistleblowers [[File:Anti-Corrupt.png]]
While I believe that the government should very much track and fight against corruption, it is stupid to believe that it can do this all by itself. As such, it requires people like whistleblowers, and they can be vast, however, seeing as how this is currently criminalized (take Snowden and Assange) they are too afraid to speak up. We must legalize whistleblowing activities as the people deserve to hear the truth, and that governments and institutions have the right to be inclusive and transparent with their own people.

In my opinion, a functioning democracy requires that everyone is held accountable to the people and by legalizing whistleblowing we can make sure that politician's corrupt activities do not go unnoticed and unaccounted. We also need a greatly funded anti-corruption agency so that the government can truly represent its people, who want accountability of their politicians who are meant to represent them.
 * -| Power Dispersal =

[[File:ConstLib.png]] Constitutionalism [[File:ConstLib.png]]
I believe that a country needs a constitution, this constitution shall guarantee people not just economic, political and social rights but also uphold  democracy. Not only that, the constitution will also serve a purpose in providing checks and balances with separation of powers, fighting against cronyism and  economic monopolies + a bunch of other things.

This constitution should be a living document, meaning it should be up to the date to the current times that it exists and should not be for example a constitution that can be understood and that would only work through the lens of the 18th century. The constitution must be a document up to the times, with the 21st century (and other centuries to come).

[[File:Fed.png]] Federalism [[File:Fed.png]]
I support a federation as my main way of power dispersal of the government and state/municipalities. As such, I reject things like unitary government but also the concept of confederations (as these are too decentralized and cannot get things done, just look at the articles of confederation). I especially support federations in countries like the USA and EU (yes, which I know, isn't YET a country, but you get what I mean), for example, 7 of the 8 largest countries are federations. (China, you're just weird)

Unitary governments only work in small countries (but I support things like a world federation) and I say world federation because since the world is so large a federation is the only thing that can work, and federations have just simply proven to be better. Balancing local and state power in a good mix.


 * -| Immigration =

[[File:Multicult.png]] Multiculturalism [[File:Multicult.png]]
I personally support the ideas of multiculturalism, I believe that we need to be tolerant and inclusive of all peoples while sharing common values and we can only do that through  proper education. I believe humanity needs to be a mixed race species in order to end  like racism and we can also enhance our genetic diversity overall.

I believe that through Multiculturalism we can create over time a more enhanced human species by taking the best of each cultures and improving humanity overall, genetically.

[[File:Civnat.png]] Immigration [[File:Civnat.png]]
I am typically in support of immigration, for example, I support the wave of  Ukrainians that desperately needed to escape the war and how the EU handled them in an united manner and allowed them to integrate (at least the ones that chose to forever stay) into European society in general.

I agree that heightened immigration like in the Canadian multiculturalism act can lead to more racism and xenophobia, I believe that this can mostly solved by having education be taught based on  critical thinking and also by re-orienting education not from "general skills" (which are a made-up and failed concept) but to facts.

Economics

 * -| Economic Models =

[[File:Statesoc.png]] Core Industries [[File:Statesoc.png]]
I believe that there a series of industries which I like to classify as core industries (due to their overall economic and social importance) that are better to be under the government's control rather than under private hands because if they are, they are more efficient and run faster and better. These are:

1. Energy - This should be obvious, energy under private hands has proven to be a catastrophic failure, first of all, because of the way energy is, we are slow in delivering innovations that would have been helpful in the climate transition and would had made us fix it by now. Just look at Norway and Equinor, they are probably one of the few countries who has an almost sufficient climate policy. If we put energy under the control of the state, then we can create real innovation by heavily investing in efficient green technologies (liquid thorium, nuclear, fusion, green hydrogen etc.) as soon as possible. We barely got enough time to fix the climate problem and this is a needed solution in needed times. The time for natural gas and oil is over but at the same time we have seen how incompetent private companies are on this front, and as such we need to change who is guiding our energy future.

2. Transportation - Look, the state is the best handler of transportation in general. I believe that transportation ranging from air travel, rail travel, trams, metros and other forms of public transportation. I believe that public transportation should be entirely free, to be paid by taxation. Private companies have shown to be utterly horrible at handling the logistics of travel (just look at United States railways, a dumpster fire) the state can also allow for construction projects to be done at a much lower cost and speed than private companies.

3. Pharmaceutics - I believe that the pharmaceutical industry should not be under private hands, like come on, not only do they constantly rack up prices (especially in the USA), just look at insulin, in the US it costs hundreds of dollars even though it costs less than 5$ to manufacture. By putting Big Pharma under the control of the state, people can have access to life-saving medicines at a lower price. The state can also co-ordinate stuff and have medical innovations come much faster thanks to higher government investment. Also things like pink sauce are proof that we just can't behave. Agencies like the FDA and  WHO/CDC  need more power and funding to make sure we have a stable and healthier diet. For example, remove sugar. We must go back to the old 25% vegetables, 25% fruits, 25% carbohydrates and 25% fat (a.k.a. meat) model, and come on it, worked, less than 20% of Americans were obese in the 1950s and by 2030, 50% of them will be thanks to SUGAR. Oh and, replace the food pyramid with MyPlate (basically it promotes the 25-25-25-25 food structure said previously) State-ownership of pharmaceutical industry shall also help in the fixing of the opioid crisis. The crisis was caused by big pharma, and well, they are profiting off of it. Only state-ownership of it can really fix.

4. Legal - The justice department has a lot of problems, and one of such problems is that  mega-corporations can just simply buy expensive (but great) lawyers while the poor man that sued them (for a crime they clearly committed) only has a weak state-offered lawyer (at worse) and a mediocre personal lawyer (at best). Yea. He is gonna lose that court case. As such, corporations and CEOs can go unaccountable in their shady business practices and not just them, corrupt politicians too for example can just use this tool to let their crimes be spared. The solution? Make the legal system state-owned. Lawyers, regardless of your wealth or position will be the same. You cannot hire your own personal lawyer. All people, regardless of background, wealth, religion etc. will get a typical, mediocre/decent lawyer in order to even the legal game and to make accountability (especially to the rich), much easier.

5. Internet Services - I believe that internet services should be nationalized based on a more  municipal model, private internet services tend to charge up a hefty price for the usage of the Internet and nationalization of these services can serve to lower prices and also allow for faster internet and more national coverage.

[[File:Marketsoc.png]] Market Socialism [[File:Marketsoc.png]]
I advocate for the wide-scale implementation of worker co-operatives in order to create a socialist economy without resorting to violence means. To do this, I support scaling up funding for worker co-operatives, implementing tax credits on workers who want to establish their own co-op, make more empirical research onto to the effect of worker co-ops in order to improve them overall and try fixing their potential downsides, recognize the benefits of co-ops and mandate that co-ops pay 5% of their profits to an education & promotion fund, which has the role of training democratic workplaces and promoting co-operatives. This will help in the creation of new worker co-operatives.

In expanding existing ones, co-ops shall pay 3% of their profits in a co-op development fund and to allow worker co-operatives to join  co-operative federations, in order to have access to more technical assistance and to allow workers to coordinate the economy through multiple co-ops. Another thing that I would create is a co-operative investment plan as a massive income tax deduction of 125% of their capital to be invested in their own co-op. It cannot exceed 30% of labor income. This shall help in improving existing co-operatives.

To preserve existing co-operatives, they shall create internal capital accounts to ensure that it maintains its democratic structure along with this, a just cause standard must be applied to workers who do not have an ownership stake in worker co-ops in order to make them more solid overall.

worker co-operatives are also small businesses in nature, as such, an economy predominantly based on worker co-operatives will also be in general a more competitive economy and thus an economy that allows for more innovation overall, small businesses can make innovations x15 faster than big businesses.

With this, I Seek to replace the model of shareholder primacy with the model of  economic democracy, with the goal of creating an economy that in the end works for the needs of all.

[[File:Farm.png]] Agriculture [[File:Farm.png]]
When it comes to the agricultural sector, I believe, along with other sectors, that we need to create  agriculture co-operatives, owned, like any other co-op, by the workers themselves. In the USA, where there are agricultural monopolies.

The problem with agri-businesses (with there being a few large companies) is that they rack up food prices, mostly on their own volition, to so that they can rack up more profits. By having there be many small, agricultural businesses, we can not only have more sustainable agriculture but also lower food prices in stores.

I also believe that there needs to be high levels of agricultural subsidies, as these have proven to work in boosting crop yields and ensuring new innovations come from the agricultural sector, and now, in our modern day and age, these innovations should be more sustainable in nature.

[[File:Statecap.png]] Sovereign Wealth Fund [[File:Statecap.png]]
I believe that there should be a sovereign wealth fund (SWFs) which are investment vehicles initiated by the government. I believe that through the nationalization of natural resources we can create a sovereign wealth fund, with the benefits of it going directly back to the people, similar to the  Norway Government Pension Fund Global and ideally it can also be from budget surpluses and state investments in  large co-operative federations in different economic sectors.

As such, a sovereign wealth fund can be a good revenue source for the government, without requiring things which harm success like high income taxes/wealth taxes (the latter of which basically always failed) and true opposition to the income tax has been raised through the likes of  Henry George, it (the income tax) being society's killer. As such, I support abolishing income tax (and reject adding wealth taxes) in favor of SWFs and other, better sources of taxation.
 * -| Taxation & Spending =

[[File:Regulationism.png]] Taxation [[File:Regulationism.png]]
I favor reforms to taxation that not only allow for more economic success and innovation but reforms which also allow for the funding of an universal welfare state and just infrastructure in general, these taxes are as follows:

- Land Value Tax - A land value tax will be the main tax  that would allow the government to generate revenue, with it decommodifying land, preventing land hoarding and speculation, as such, it shall lower housing and land prices and allow more people to own a home that they don't rent, their own real house. It shall be set at high rates of 70-90%, all landlords will become land value tax collectors (or other jobs, just some that are actually useful), land will be put under public ownership, belonging to all people, through things like  tenant unions.

Because of this tax, the price of land will eventually fall and bought land that isn't being used will just inevitably have to be sold to someone that will use the land for something and with falling land prices comes greater accessibility of land to regular people, not just the ultra-wealthy.

The global (estimated) land value is at around 100 trillion dollars as such this land value tax, if applied globally can generate trillions in revenue, especially if set at high rates as mentioned above.

- Ecological Tax - An ecological tax is a tax levied on things which harm the environment. The goal of such tax is to promote eco-friendly activities through environmental incentives. As such, things like carbon and methane emissions will be set at 60$/metric ton of CO2 and 900$/metric ton of methane respectively, which will progressively rise over the years in line with the 1.5 degree target of the Paris agreement. Another thing which falls under an ecological tax is a plastic tax which will be set at 1$/kg for non-recyclable plastic (which is like most plastic).

I also support the implementation of a 24/7 ultra-low emissions zones (ULEZs) in major city centers, as implemented in  London, vehicles which don't meet ULEZ emissions standards (but still drive through ULEZs) will have to pay a 15$ daily charge (applying to cars, motorcycles and other vehicles which pollute the air). People don't want to just pay 15$ to drive, so they will either use another, eco-friendly method of transportation or buy a non-polluting car. These taxes shall help in reducing CO2 emissions by incentivizing them to transition to green tech sooner so that you know they don't pay that much in tax.

In conclusion such ecological tax can possibly earn trillions of dollars as taxing methane, CO2 and plastic (along with other environmentally-harmful products) can allow for a quicker turn away from them and a reduction in their emissions or usage, this can be seen during the 7 year period when the carbon tax was in Australia or when the carbon tax went into effect in the  EU till now.

- Value-Added Tax - I believe in implementing a value-added tax because it is good at raising funds and is hard to overall dodge. I believe that it shall have a standard rate of 25%, with there being a reduced rate of 15% for food and beverages (excluding tobacco, alcohol and waterwork water), being similar to Norway's VAT. The VAT being assessed on the value added in the production stage of a good/service. So, if someone buys 100$ for a product with a 25% VAT, then the seller gets 100$ and the other 25$ goes to the government in the form of revenue.

This has been proposed by politicians like Andrew Yang in order to fund what he calls an universal basic income as such, this tax can be along with the other taxes mentioned above (and one below). Such taxes also exist in many countries, including the Nordic countries, it being a major source of revenue in those countries.

In conclusion, this tax can raise around 1.6 trillion dollars, a decent sum of money, with it being hard to dodge overall and it can be used to fund what I would like to call a Citizens Dividend, proposed by Henry George (which will not only come from LVT revenues and surplus land rents, but also this VAT)

- Sales Tax - It is important to have a sales tax to disincentivize unhealthy and unsafe products just like how it is important to disincentivize polluting and environmentally harmful products through an  ecological tax. This tax shall be progressive, as proposed by  Bill Gates (this is not to mean that I agree with him on everything, I mostly hate the guy, like all billionaires) with things like yachts, fancy cars and diamonds (things wealthy people buy) will be highly taxed but also things like cigarettes, sugar/sugary drinks, fast foods and other junk food, alcohol and soft/hard drugs will also be highly taxed due to how unhealthy they are, however, healthy products will barely be taxed. As such, it is levied progressively.

In conclusion, this tax could earn around trillions of dollars in revenue (and possibly more, as said, I am too lazy to do the math)

[[File:Univhealth.png]] Healthcare [[File:Univhealth.png]]
I am personally supportive of a universal healthcare system, I believe that anybody has the right to have good quality healthcare at a low price, a price which does not indebt them. We can not only provide universal coverage for all people regardless of income/wealth, but also provide low healthcare costs.

The agency in charge of universal healthcare will be known as the Public Healthcare Service (PHS), following the principles of free and equal access to healthcare for all citizens. It will be based on the model employed in the country of Denmark.

This Public Healthcare Service will make up 10-15% of government spending and it will be regulated by the government but most services will be provided by local governments.

The Public Healthcare Service will in addition to current services also provide full coverage in the cases of hearing, vision, dental and mental care, along with long-term care. There shall also be a non-profit option but not government-owned one in the form of health insurance co-operatives.

As healthcare is available to everyone (i.e. universal), workers can have a higher purchasing power overall as they won't have to dedicate such a huge portion of their earnings to healthcare.

[[File:UBI.png]] Citizens Dividend [[File:UBI.png]]
I support the implementation of a citizens dividend of 1,000$/month proposed by individuals like  Henry George and  Thomas Paine. The natural world is the common property of all people, as such, all citizens shall receive a 1,000$/month dividend through revenues raised by taxing the monopoly of unimproved valuable land and other natural resources, if not enough however, revenues from other taxes can fund it.

Such citizens dividend (given to all 8 billion of us will cost 8 trillion dollars, however it is an affordable price)

[[File:Ecocap.png]] Tax Credits [[File:Ecocap.png]]
I believe that tax credits can be used as a key to boosting technological advancements towards an  eco-friendly future and not only that they can be used to boost the transition from fossil fuels to renewable energy and other kinds of green alternatives, this in order to end the pollution-dependent economy that we ourselves have set up in the last 200-300 years and a  tax incentive is probably the quickest way we can get to creating a greener economy.

As such, I would implement tax credits to people who decide to use public transportation (trams, metros, bikes). I also believe tax credits should go into the development of technologies like renewables, sodium-ion batteries, green hydrogen, thorium reactors, nuclear fusion and others as these are technologies that are worth it and tax credits are the way we can get towards a green future.

This isn't to say that there are some loopholes that need to be stopped. Such loophole for example is the stepped-up basis loophole, this basically allows someone to pass down assets without being taxed, and this must end, as to allow the government to have extra revenue and to prevent the rise of a  neo-aristocracy, this isn't the only pro-rich loophole that I seek to abolish however, but its just one example.

Test results
Closest match : Democratic Socialism

Closest match : INTJ

Closest match : Libertarian Socialism

Closest match : Liberal Socialism

Closest match : Left-Libertarianism

Comment

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