The corporate greed and irresponsibility we are currently witnessing by WorldCom, Enron, Global Crossing, Haliburton and others is only the symptom of a much larger problem that affects all of us - a disintegration of the line separating economic power from political power. It is this absolute power that corrupts; and government only seems willing to provide band-aid solutions and cover-ups.
Please take a look at the enclosed op-ed piece announcing a new philosophy promoted by the Fair Choice Party. I believe it addresses the core issue concerning corporate domination and provides a desperately needed answer to how we can fairly and justly separate this destructive bond between greed and control. The FCP promotes the idea of giving larger votes to poorer people; and as you might guess it's rapidly gaining attention in the media and with the general public here in North America and around the world. Many sensible readers will recognize that with this innovation it's now possible to be both powerful and revolutionary, without calling for the downfall of either capitalism or democracy. In fact, we believe that with such a system in place the result would be far more robust capitalism and democracy!
If you find these ideas as intriguing as many others have, feel contact me at 604-646-0560 or at SteveG@FairChoice.org. Thank you for your consideration.
Best regards,
Steve Glickman
President
Fair Choice Party
Enclosures: Op-Ed Piece.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Op-Ed Piece
The Fair Choice Party Provides a Radical Solution.
Life is not fair, the old adage goes; but the Fair Choice Party says it can be - easily, openly, and immediately.
Mankind's history has been a long a march from brutality and oppression to enlightenment and freedom. The past three millennia have seen a transition from the brutish "survival of the fittest" to a more enlightened "all people are created equal." Feudalism replaced barbarism. Kingdoms replaced feudalism. Nation-states replaced kingdoms. By turns; dictatorships, communism, socialism, and democracy have replaced royalty.
But the common denominator of this transition - so far - has been the fact that political power and economic power continue to be inextricably woven together. Arabian monarchs still have political and economic control. In China, communists maintain total control. Mafia-like tyrants rule much of the rest of the Third World.
Even in democracies like Canada and the United States, those with economic power also yield the political power - the ruling elite who run the corporations from their high towers. Meanwhile, the common person - be they laborer, student, farmer, blue collar, or white collar; effectively have neither.
Until now.
The Fair Choice Party is a new emerging political party, which proposes a way for the march of human history to take its next big step towards freedom. The FCP proposes a "gentle revolution" which continues to embrace capitalism and democracy while splitting the historic marriage of economic and political power. How? Simply put, you can seek wealth and insulation, or participation and responsibility, but you cannot continue to have absolute control over both. The Fair Choice Party proposes to scale vote size inversely to wealth; so that the less you have the more vote you get, and the more you have the less of a vote you get.
While sounding radical, this idea is not that far fetched. It is similar to the redistribution of power that occurred in ancient Greece, or with the abolition of slavery, or the inclusion of women in the voting process, or the drafting of the Magna Carta, or the Bill of Rights. Nowadays, we see the information that controls everything in the hands of big business, while for the rest of us it's just a giant competition fed by petroleum. We need to find a way to use our technology to once again establish equality - that's the innovation of the FCP.
The implications of the Fair Choice Party are staggering. Some people react without thought, simply dismissing the idea; but lets take a minute to examine what the consequences would be. For example, sweatshop workers would obtain the political power they need to develop opportunities and improve their working conditions. Crime and drug infested communities now have an opportunity to clean-up their cities and neighborhoods themselves. The environment would be better protected and stewardship would prevail. Products would become more efficient, last longer, be safer, and cheaper. The result, to the analytical mind, would be increased production, increased participation, increased quality of life, and increased security.
Perhaps the most intriguing aspect of the FCP is that with the poorer people better able to manage themselves through an efficient government, they can rid themselves of dependency and stagnation - which ought to lower taxes for all of us. The tradeoff for redistributing political power this way is not only avoiding the lost profits, lost businesses, and shattered lives of oppression and bloodshed; but also keeping and assisting our economic position. In a feasible and practical way, the FCP offers an epoch in social evolution where by once again learning to share we see a better quality of life for all. All the while keeping the nurturing engines of capitalism and free elections intact, even accented, in their place in society.
The FCP has found a way to share our power and our wealth that is effective and practical, and not just theoretical. Everyone agrees that we need some kind of good governance to prosper. Anarchy is quietly destroying many forgotten nations, while dictatorships feed on themselves until their economy ends in ruins. Communism promised power to the masses but brought only terror and unfettered control in the hands of a party elite. Socialism promised economic power to the poor and middle class but only delivered bureaucracy and loss of innovation. The FCP vote-scaling idea seems perfectly designed to resist all these different kinds of corruption.
Human advancement does not come without controversy or difficulty. Socrates was executed for questioning his society's tenets. Galileo was scoffed at about his theories of the solar system. Einstein was just a clerk when he devised his theory of relativity. A bunch of traitors to the British Crown signed the Declaration of Independence. A skinny man in a white robe finally broke through to the conscience of the British Empire and founded modern India.
So, to some, the Fair Choice Party may look like a radical, even dangerous idea - but really, what are our alternatives? In the short term, the injection of confidence and optimism into the masses would be a welcome relief to the dire mindset prevailing. In the long term, the FCP can be a means of stability, allowing all people of all classes and all nations to co-exist and cooperate. It could only be a matter of time before the poorer people unite and place the FCP in our political model - are we ready?
Please take a look at the enclosed op-ed piece announcing a new philosophy promoted by the Fair Choice Party. I believe it addresses the core issue concerning corporate domination and provides a desperately needed answer to how we can fairly and justly separate this destructive bond between greed and control. The FCP promotes the idea of giving larger votes to poorer people; and as you might guess it's rapidly gaining attention in the media and with the general public here in North America and around the world. Many sensible readers will recognize that with this innovation it's now possible to be both powerful and revolutionary, without calling for the downfall of either capitalism or democracy. In fact, we believe that with such a system in place the result would be far more robust capitalism and democracy!
If you find these ideas as intriguing as many others have, feel contact me at 604-646-0560 or at SteveG@FairChoice.org. Thank you for your consideration.
Best regards,
Steve Glickman
President
Fair Choice Party
Enclosures: Op-Ed Piece.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Op-Ed Piece
The Fair Choice Party Provides a Radical Solution.
Life is not fair, the old adage goes; but the Fair Choice Party says it can be - easily, openly, and immediately.
Mankind's history has been a long a march from brutality and oppression to enlightenment and freedom. The past three millennia have seen a transition from the brutish "survival of the fittest" to a more enlightened "all people are created equal." Feudalism replaced barbarism. Kingdoms replaced feudalism. Nation-states replaced kingdoms. By turns; dictatorships, communism, socialism, and democracy have replaced royalty.
But the common denominator of this transition - so far - has been the fact that political power and economic power continue to be inextricably woven together. Arabian monarchs still have political and economic control. In China, communists maintain total control. Mafia-like tyrants rule much of the rest of the Third World.
Even in democracies like Canada and the United States, those with economic power also yield the political power - the ruling elite who run the corporations from their high towers. Meanwhile, the common person - be they laborer, student, farmer, blue collar, or white collar; effectively have neither.
Until now.
The Fair Choice Party is a new emerging political party, which proposes a way for the march of human history to take its next big step towards freedom. The FCP proposes a "gentle revolution" which continues to embrace capitalism and democracy while splitting the historic marriage of economic and political power. How? Simply put, you can seek wealth and insulation, or participation and responsibility, but you cannot continue to have absolute control over both. The Fair Choice Party proposes to scale vote size inversely to wealth; so that the less you have the more vote you get, and the more you have the less of a vote you get.
While sounding radical, this idea is not that far fetched. It is similar to the redistribution of power that occurred in ancient Greece, or with the abolition of slavery, or the inclusion of women in the voting process, or the drafting of the Magna Carta, or the Bill of Rights. Nowadays, we see the information that controls everything in the hands of big business, while for the rest of us it's just a giant competition fed by petroleum. We need to find a way to use our technology to once again establish equality - that's the innovation of the FCP.
The implications of the Fair Choice Party are staggering. Some people react without thought, simply dismissing the idea; but lets take a minute to examine what the consequences would be. For example, sweatshop workers would obtain the political power they need to develop opportunities and improve their working conditions. Crime and drug infested communities now have an opportunity to clean-up their cities and neighborhoods themselves. The environment would be better protected and stewardship would prevail. Products would become more efficient, last longer, be safer, and cheaper. The result, to the analytical mind, would be increased production, increased participation, increased quality of life, and increased security.
Perhaps the most intriguing aspect of the FCP is that with the poorer people better able to manage themselves through an efficient government, they can rid themselves of dependency and stagnation - which ought to lower taxes for all of us. The tradeoff for redistributing political power this way is not only avoiding the lost profits, lost businesses, and shattered lives of oppression and bloodshed; but also keeping and assisting our economic position. In a feasible and practical way, the FCP offers an epoch in social evolution where by once again learning to share we see a better quality of life for all. All the while keeping the nurturing engines of capitalism and free elections intact, even accented, in their place in society.
The FCP has found a way to share our power and our wealth that is effective and practical, and not just theoretical. Everyone agrees that we need some kind of good governance to prosper. Anarchy is quietly destroying many forgotten nations, while dictatorships feed on themselves until their economy ends in ruins. Communism promised power to the masses but brought only terror and unfettered control in the hands of a party elite. Socialism promised economic power to the poor and middle class but only delivered bureaucracy and loss of innovation. The FCP vote-scaling idea seems perfectly designed to resist all these different kinds of corruption.
Human advancement does not come without controversy or difficulty. Socrates was executed for questioning his society's tenets. Galileo was scoffed at about his theories of the solar system. Einstein was just a clerk when he devised his theory of relativity. A bunch of traitors to the British Crown signed the Declaration of Independence. A skinny man in a white robe finally broke through to the conscience of the British Empire and founded modern India.
So, to some, the Fair Choice Party may look like a radical, even dangerous idea - but really, what are our alternatives? In the short term, the injection of confidence and optimism into the masses would be a welcome relief to the dire mindset prevailing. In the long term, the FCP can be a means of stability, allowing all people of all classes and all nations to co-exist and cooperate. It could only be a matter of time before the poorer people unite and place the FCP in our political model - are we ready?
