Meritocracy, Bitcoin, and other ways the rich could transfer Wealth

#1

I think the logistics of the “100% Inheritance Tax” is impossible, but I may be wrong, what do you think guys? Let’s have a discussion.

Even at the time of Adam Weishaupt it was impossible to stop people passing on wealth to the next generation. Someone could always dig a hole in the middle of the desert and hide a case of gold, diamonds, titanium, platinum, White Truffles, saffron, Rhino Horn, heroin, Methamphetamine, Cocaine, LSD, Plutonium, or any expensive commodity at all. Today we now have 100% anonymous cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin, so it’s even easier to transfer wealth anonymously.

But an 100% inheritance tax would transfer land and big things like mines and oil wells back to the people. It would be very difficult to buy those assets up again with suitcases full of cocaine lol But maybe not so ridiculous with millions of virtual Bitcoin.

I propose that The Zeitgeist Movement / The Venus Project has dialectically surpassed this idea. Remember that meritocracy was designed before computers, before robotics, and before cryptocurrencies. What if we get rid of money altogether and give people all their needs eyy?

I have 3 ideas for the transitional phase towards TZM/TVP.

  1. Universal Basic Income.
  2. forcing the Google/Youtube search algorithm to become Open-Source.
  3. An X-factor style once-a-week Political Voting System.

Either of those 3 moves and perhaps the “100% inheritance tax” as the 4th move, could each on their own checkmate the OWO. I think only one of these 4 things needs to happen and then it’s game over for them.

An alternative spin on Zeitgeist could be Communism for NEEDS and Capitalism for WANTS. Creating a hybrid system, seriously if i had my basic needs assured I couldn’t care less if someone is driving around in a Ferrari, as I would rather spend my time meditating and shooting chi balls at my cat.

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#2

I think the ideas here are interesting and important. Its easy in the current political/economic framework to see the very wealthy evading a 100% inheritance tax, and finding a different way of them perpetuating their structures of wealth and power. Then again if you are taking land and industry from them then you have dealt with the more significant aspects of this problem. I think if we a recognizing the wealthy as a distinct social layer or class, then maybe it would make sense to call for doing away with them as a distinct layer of people?

the other ideas are good, the question is how do we arrange them in a coherent political platform that is capable of achieving social traction, deals with the immediate issues that ordinary people face and allows for the conquest of political power that is necessary to implement the vision of meritocratic democracy?

#3

I already said how to do it.

  1. Universal Basic Income.
  2. forcing the Google/Youtube search algorithm to become Open-Source.
  3. An X-factor style once-a-week Political Voting System.
  4. 100% inheritance tax.

Any one of those things on its own would topple the OWO. I will explain further:

  1. Universal Basic Income - you can google that, lots of info on the web and Youtube. The primary need for a UBI is due to the ongoing wave of Technological Unemployment. We are now at a stage where the speed of new technologies is outpacing our ability to retrain for different jobs. I am a computer coder myself, and I know that AI will soon make most office jobs redundant and robotics has almost already replaced all the real jobs anyways lol

  2. The google/youtube search formula is heavily biased, it doesn’t allow non-mainstream political information to ever pass by the average person. Only if you start using certain keywords do you start getting what you want, but the average person doesn’t know what keywords to use, and the youtube video suggestions on the side tend to be very mainstream. Some governments are already discussing the unfair amount of power google now has over the minds of everyone in the world. So by making their search formula 100% open-source people could see the biases clear as day and make natural meritocratic search formulas to replace the biased formulas.

  3. Why don’t we vote X-factor once every 4-years and vote politics once-a-week? We don’t need politicians anymore, with phone, sms, and internet voting, citizens could vote directly on laws each week.

  4. 100% inheritance tax - even as a principle would topple the OWO, and like you said, it would be difficult to reclaim a large piece of land, a mine, or an oil well with a suitcase full of gold or a digital purchase via Bitcoin, somebody would be bound to ask questions. Anything under $50-million people could hide for their kids and it would still be an unmeritorious society. I don’t believe that within the monetary system we can make a better world, unless perhaps we make ALL NEEDS free, and then leave capitalism for the WANTS.

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#4

I think it is important to differentiate between broad political demands and a more comprehensive program. Each of these demands is great and would as you said topple the ruling elite. I also understand these demands, but i thank you for explaining them anyhow :slight_smile: (seriously, not being sarcastic here( thanks for taking a universal basic income seriously)). Number 2 is something i wouldn’t have thought of.

This assumes that this ruling elite will not fight back to defend the power and privileges that it maintains.

Additionally I that to most ordinary people, these would just look like a collection of good, nice ideas. This wont necessarily translate into acquiring a following or building a political movement. For instance how will we stop people being exploited at work? How about the pay gap between men and women for the same work done? Or women having a much harder time building a career in science if they want to also start a family? Rent costs, housing, ect?

I am being a devils advocate to challenge people to think of a good way of engaging politically so that we can win. :slight_smile: I support the broad ideas being put here, now we need to implement them and think about how to do this in a serious, rational and critical/self-critical way.

#5

How would they be able to circumvent inheritance tax through Bitcoin etc., if the state is the sole issuer of currency and rejects all other currencies? What good will smuggled, inherited billions do them if they cannot redeem their bitcoins in the meritocratic state? Sure, they can move overseas and get their money, but once they do that they are no longer our problem.

#6

i agree that there would be significant limits as to the possibility of the ruling elite being able to completely avoid an inheritance tax via the use of bit coins. Them moving their assets offshore is a problem, as you want to avoid capital flight as much as possible. I think the key thing is to deprive them of their control and ownership of productive forces in society. I think they will seek to prevent meritocracy becoming a thing rather than them avoiding a 100% inheritance tax. They will probably hold onto power by attempting to deprive advocates of meritocracy a platform as much as possible, and to use state repression when their interests start to be more threatened.

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#7

Can’t unscrupulous parents just give wealth to their kids before death, avoiding the inheritance tax? How will meritocracy handle legal loopholes?

Loopholes can be closed. It should be a crime for one family to accumulate dangerous sums of power and wealth, because those hoards are used as weapons, and they threaten the freedom and prosperity of everyone else. Meritocracy will have laws, task forces, and regulatory bodies to deal with loopholes. These technical policy issues are solvable challenges. Today’s super-rich find it easy to evade taxes precisely because democracy is working for them—not us. It is democracy that has allowed these loopholes to gape open. Meritocracy will close any loopholes that allow for the creation of dynasties. Laws will be passed to set limits on the amount of property that is transferable to children. Meritorious people will be elected who will sniff out shell companies and expose corrupt families that want to establish dynastic wealth. Loopholes are well-worn problems, with a variety of established solutions. Meritocracy’s competent leaders will be capable and motivated to close tax evasion loopholes.

From: http://meritocracyparty.org/faq/inheritance-tax-faq/

A resource-based economy is certainly aligned with our goals as it’d offer equal opportunity for everyone if led by meritocratic leaders. Social capitalism is a stepping stone in that direction: having critical infrastructure such as utilities and banks nationalised while still having a market economy.

On a broader note, we don’t need a comprehensive policy list if we focus on building systems that find the best people to make policy decisions based on our five meritocratic principles. In other words, we don’t need to have an answer for everything as that’s unrealistic (even though that’s what most political parties try to do). What we do need is a way to create a “problem-solving” system based on core principles such as People before Profit.

That’s not to say there’s no room for discussing specific policy proposals such as the ones in this thread, because we’re certainly going to need to present answers to the core challenges many of our countries face today, even if it’s just to showcase where our whole ethos is focused in a pragmatical way.

Another big thing that we need to achieve is having tens of thousands of people pulling in the same direction based on a shared, grand vision.

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#8

You could be right. But unless we can get every country in the whole world on-board there will always be some rogue nation accepting Bitcoins in exchange for any valuable commodity, then using those commodities to transfer back into official currency back in the first country. There is always a problem that creative accounting doesn’t have to represent what real goods were traded. Unless you have a big eye in the sky that knows all and sees all then we won’t be able to stop creative ways of transferring wealth.

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#9

I totally agree. How about this:

Theisis: Meritocracy
Antithesis: Technocracy
Synthesis: Open-Source

"In production and development, open source as a development model promotes universal access via a free license to a product’s design or blueprint, and universal redistribution of that design or blueprint, including subsequent improvements to it by anyone."
From https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open_source

I think the open-source problem solving method is the most superior system humanity has come up with to date. What do you think? Keeping in mind that even Wikipedia is open-source, as anybody in the whole world can submit edits and additions if they can back it up with a reference.

I find the three Zeitgeist documentaries very inspiring for most people, along with a doco called “Will work for free”. All these pay gaps are part of the monetary system, instead of labor competing within its own country we are now competing with labor in India and China who are happy to work for a plate of rice, not an SUV and an investment property lol. Zeitgeist suggests the only way out of this is a Universal Basic Income in transition to a Technocratic Meritocracy.

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#10

My knowledge iof the zietgeist movement is that it effectively reinvented socialism from basic principles, which was quite interesting. I think it is apparent that the solutions are clear, rational and can be agreed upon. Now the question is ‘how do we get ourselves in a position where we can implement them’, or ‘how shall meritocracy develop a mass movement that allows for the end of capitalism and a restructuring of fundamental political and economic structures for the purpose of building a society that values the building of fully self-actualized, creative people’?

I think our principles also need clear points of application. For instance ‘Equal opportunity for every child’ Implies at the very least: free education at all levels, guaranteed housing, guaranteed healthcare, guaranteed food and water and an absence of private education systems. There is still scope here for quite significant elaboration as well.

#11

Every government on Earth is one form of socialism or another, there never was a fully “communist” government. Communism was the ideal, the U.S.S.R. stood for blah blah Socialist Republic. If you look at the current research, USA is closer to socialism than China. China is closer to real capitalism than most countries, and Cuba is the only pure socialist nation as far as the research goes.

I have studied Zeitgeist far beyond the doco series and it is beyond any “isms”. Any “ism” requires a small group of people making decisions on other peoples lives, an open-source system doesn’t do that.

#12

I would strongly contest the notion that state control/management = socialism or that socialism has ever existed in history. The 20th century Marxist inspired regimes were regimes that aspired to achieve socialism but none the less failed completely in their attempt to do so. To say that state structures = socialism obscures really important facts about the capitalist system, and also is a confusion by the libertarians of form and content.

If i speak about socialism, i am defining it as ‘the collective ownership of the means of production that is managed democratically within the context of conditions of general economic scarcity’. Cuba is not a socialist nation, and it would not refer to itself as having achieved socialism under current conditions, even though it aspires to eventually achieve socialism.

#13

PART
ONE – ON THE ISSUE OF BITCOIN FROM A MERITOCRATIC PERSPECTIVE

I
believe that, through our powerful telepathic collective quantum mind
entanglement I’ve came to an answer that is up to the task.

When
you say that “Even at the time of Adam Weishaupt it was impossible
to stop people passing on wealth to the next generation” it makes
think that i know how to solve it. We can use the Bitcoin platform
and being more precise, the blockchain technology and their massive
hashing and cryptographic capabilities to do that. But surely we have
a massive problem on that because the current lack of transparency in
the Bitcoin network that happens at the level of the wallet software.
To solve that we must do some serious hard work on open hardware to
develop something that many Abrahamists will label “The Mark of the
Beast”. We must develop a: 1) Free/generic, 2)
biometric/genetic/quantum, 3) perennial/omnipresent wallet device, 4)
controlled by an open and known algorithm that, 5) allow the fully
transparency of all known wealth and who owns it, as is the only
accepted monetary form globally and, 6) over that system we can apply
a simple statistic standard deviation (sigma), average, median, mode
calculus on where do the inheritance taxation that will serve to our
purposes to create the perfect conditions where every human being can
find equivalent conditions to fully express his or hers divine
potential.

The
device has also to have a massive processing power that can be
obtained through laboratory proven and readily available graphene
transistors to mine Bitcoins for the users of the network, empowering
them and making them less dependent on the Capitalist Banking cartel.

In the
place of the decaying Capitalism we shall overcome our Meritocratic
Republic will direct FIB Index credit (details at part two).

All
other taxes can be forgotten, the poor will hunt the rich for that
our Meritocratic Republic get the values needed to our enlightened
purposes and that may cause episodes on the like of the most violent
phase of the French Revolution, but now, every dead rich person will
give the “state” enough wealth to fully actualize the whole of
human potential.

To
those that use other monetary form or that try to pass in life these
unfair advantages, we criminalize their acts and punish them with
ostracism for those who break this laws, not death penalty. The
individual has his belongings and the ones that has passed in an
unfair manner confiscated and he is forbidden to frequent the
Hyperboreas and, as a final punishment, the poor individual can be
taken and leaved in some random place in the world with nothing
beside his or her own talents to restart his or her life. - ostracism
for those who break this laws, not death penalty – so they may
learn…

All
that can be tracked through algorithms that run over the Bitcoin code
through the wallet device. Those algorithms can search, through
Biometric/Genetic databases and detect such cases.

This
part of the brainstorm/insight ahead mixes some other sources outside
our scope so I’ll avoid posting a link collection in here, feel free
to contact me to more materials on those sources that I’ll point
ahead in the text.

END of
PART ONE

The Meritocratic Monetary System
Inheritance Tax Experiment
#14

PART TWO – ON THE ISSUE OF THE MERITOCRATIC REPUBLIC AND TECHNOLOGY

An interest group outside our environment is a group that grown around an USA Perennial President Candidate, the very controversial ex trotskyite and former US Labor Party, currently in the fringes of the Democratic Party, Mr. Lyndon LaRouche and his LaRouche PAC / Basement Team his scientific “skunk works.” An alleged “unique amalgamates of moonbattery and wingnuttery,” these people have, as far as I can tell and, please correct me if I’m wrong, a lot of crypo Illuminism on their approach. From them we can use several insights that, as far as I understand, seem to me useful to our purposes.

The LaRouche PAC / Basement Team has provided us with an interesting concept that is the plasma torch, an form of controlled high density artificial plasma that decay in a designed fashion with the intend to stabilize neutrons and protons in a given configuration. Several desktop laboratories have confirmed it and researchers that I personally now have also confirmed it too, that is is possible to create new raw materials using as resource any kind of other material. The only thing that happens is that the whole process is very inefficient and is heavily depends on massive amounts of energy, what makes it economically inviable. Another effort on open hardware, of a similar amount of a LHC or Manhattan, or any new ISO standards has to be implemented. It has to have the following characteristics: 1) It has to put us in the edge of a new background of sciences and technologies, what has serious political impact, 2) it has as aim a new technological paradigm similar to the transition from pre-eletrics to post electrics or pre nuclear to post nuclear, 3) it has to be the advent of the quantum technological paradigm and our organization has to lead this process, 4) this can be used to developed the afore mentioned wallet device, and 5) for the transition period is has to produce two things namely: a) an high efficiency solid state generator and b) another commodity such as gold to serve as the bait of the endless source of liquidity in the scenario of plunging capitalism.

That liquidity has to run until the point where the use value vanished of material monetary form wealth to the point where is only exchange value and the monetary form serves only as an transparent token backed by a never before seen amount of artificial and extremely pure gold. Money is a concept not a thing, there is a say that “He who has the Gold rule, that is the Golden Rule” and capitalists get attracted by that. As ABRAXAS we can control our dark side and use the power to create wealth in a directed way that put us in charge of direction the objectives and quality standards we judge necessary to increase the FIB Index and energetic flux density available for our population, providing with that the means necessary for a Meritocratic Republic to work.

Similarly to the Hamiltonian directed credit to increase the energetic flux density as LaRouche proposes, we can do better than that and resolve the mentioned technological unemployment through FIB Index driven projects, in a manner that creates a Meritocratic Republic.

Some UFO related discussions that brought recently some severe insights on alien technology were in the background of this analysis and many of the materials of the Disclosure Project group on this theme may be a good starting point.

Over that, a contribution of mine. An Institutional approach to a Meritocratic Republic can star on this forms: 1) fusion of the senates/deputies and ministers in an meritocratic unity dedicated to manage the state monopolies and, 2) to be able to direct transparent credit to specific FIB index driven projects having as the clause petrea 3) to create the conditions where most of mankind can express their fully potential.

This must happen at the BRICS coalition, there is where I believe the future will happen…

END of PART TWO

#15

Technology will always find a way. The point here is that another cryptocurrency (Bitcoin 2.0, Litecoin 2.0, DogeCoin 2.0, etc…) can be made to bypass all the measures we can come up with. The evidence for this is that there has never been a piece of software that couldn’t be hacked or pirated. A new version of Windows gets released and hackers crack it and make a pirated version available within two-weeks.

This is why Zeitgeist and the Venus Project conclude that we need a system beyond laws and rules. A system that by design of its environment improves the way humans interact with eachother, and technology designed in a way to prevent accidents instead of having laws and rules in the hope that people will follow the rules. For example: instead having a road sign “slippery when wet”, you instead put abrasive on the road so the car sticks to the road while taking the turn.