Our Vision

We dont think that these are the defining answers to fix our government. More than anything we just want to inspire. We want you to reimagine what your government can do for you, and then demand it.

A good business will adapt to a changing marketplace to survive. Take Netflix for example; it saw the mail DVD business diminishing  and becoming unprofitable, so it cut its losses and moved its efforts to its strong digital streaming service.

Now a GREAT business doesn’t adapt to a changing marketplace. A great business is so forward thinking that it changes the marketplace all on its own and then reaps the benefits of its creation. Every year Steve Jobs walked out onto a stage and showed us some magical contraption that promised to change our lives for the better. We think government should give us that magical feeling. We want the president to walk out on that stage with a sparkle in his eye and barely able to hold back a smile because he’s thinking “Man, are you guys going to be excited about this.”

We want a form of government that is more capable, nimble, transparent, adaptable, and globally competitive. To start things off, we asked ourselves a few key questions.

  • How can we force politicians to work together to get things done?
  • How can we make politicians honest, and how can we make their actions more transparent and easily navigable?
  • How can we get the citizen more involved in his own governance?
  • How can we make decisions based on reality?  How do we make law that proposes to fix a quantifiable problem and have quantifiable answers, so that laws can be properly evaluated and changed if need be?
  • How can we have a federal planning mechanism that best leverages each state’s better qualities on a national scale, but doesnt infringe on the state’s rights?
Our biggest and most dramatic proposals are a new “peoples” branch of government, an online government hub/app, and a scientific approach to proposing and measuring the outcomes of law.
We The People:
We would create an entirely new branch of government. When congress can’t agree on something the vote is differed to the American people. This is facilitated through an online gov. hub that will be described shortly. The legislative and executive branches would be a guiding hand. They can set the debate, make their case, and if they cant agree, we decide. This would play well with politics because politicians could differ on sticky issues. Spineless politician says “Hey far right/left constituency, I agree with you, but I felt this was too important an issue for one man to decide, so I thought it best to defer to you, the American people.” It really isn’t that radical of an idea and the technology is there to make it happen. Iceland recently formed a new constitution by collecting input on Facebook, and Brazil started a program to let the online populace decide which issues were most important to them, legislatures made changes on their proposals based on what was actually possible in their legislative process, and then passed them into law. Participants reported higher satisfaction with their government and a greater understanding of the legislative process when they were actually involved in making law.
Gov. 2.0: Your one-stop-shop for all of your government needs.
A government hub would bring all of your various interactions with our governing body into one location with one face. Besides being cheaper and more effecient, it would make government more accountable and transparent, and make it easy for the average American to get involved. It’s only a click away!
Here are a few possible features:
  • Vote, for candidates and on issues
  • Get informed about the issues, candidates, etc. For instance the jobs bill would be broken down, have projected benefits and a set goal. How much it will cost you, its history, partisan lines, polls, etc.
  • Social networking features. Either partner or contract major tech company (Google or Facebook). Tell your community about what’s going on, what’s important to you, and how they should vote! If it isn’t directly integrated into social networking sites at least make it to where you can “like” stuff and the equivalent
  • You can flag things of interest that you’d like to be informed about down the road. Say congress wants to pass a bill to fund green energy start ups. Congress can’t decide so you vote for/against it, and flag it for review.  In six months youll be informed about its progress and results. If you think it needs revisited, click the repeal/revise button, and when a certain % of the population has done the same, congress will revisit the issue.
  • Opinions and analysis will be super visible.Think a big banner at the top of an issues web page that advertises the bipartisan fact checking committee’s view on the legislation, as well as partisan ideas, You could even add your own feeds that would be less present. Like you would have the ability to immediatly see FOX News’s take on the issue as well as Andrew Sullivan’s, if you chose to do so.
  • Breakdowns of where your money is going. Pie charts and the works of how exactly your tax dollars are being spent.
  • A rating system for bills based on if they are achieving their proposed goals.
Make laws measurable and reversible (A scientific approach)
Every bill must have quantifiable means for success and failure, as well as evaluating unattended consequences of the law. Laws of our country should be based on results, not party line, bureaucracy, or dogma. It should be a truly scientific approach to government.
We just couldnt stop there. Here are a few more of our proposals.
  • Lobbying and campaign finance reform: Part of the problem with our current government is that money means more than votes. We propose that campaign contributions be limited to $100 per person. Either the same rule would apply to  corporations or foreign nations; because corporations are people too, or corporations and foreign nations would not be allowed to make campaign contributions
  • Term limits for Congress
  • Politicians salary: Either federal politicians go unpaid, or they have to take their salary and donate it to the charity of their choosing. This idea is more symbolic than anything, but we really want to drive home the point that being a politician is a service to your country. Another idea is that pay would be tied to approval rating, say a base pay of $200,000 so at 17% job approval rating they make $34,000.
  • Better means for government reform: Technology, society, and the rest of the world are changing at a dizzying pace. Our view into the future grows dimmer every day, and our governance needs to be able to adapt and change along with said future. They should have a mandatory review and revision of the new constitution.  Possibly first after ten years, then 20, 40, 80, etc.