Since I recently published my first podcast episodes, I realized I made a mistake, or I forgot something. Something important.
To define what kind of system I envision for The Good System. At least in a broader sense.
I change this with this article.
Why is it important to have this definition?
The definition is the frame for the image we are painting. If we do not put the canvas in a frame, the color goes everywhere. And like my children, we are not allowed to paint on the wall.
The definition shall help us focus and put some structure into our vision.
What kind of system is The Good System?
The Good System is a system of systems. It combines economic, political, and social systems. In The Good System, these parts work together and not against each other.
In most theories, there is the economy which is or isn’t controlled by the state, which rules over the people, who are the servants of the economy.
I believe we the people are the state, we are the economy. The one doesn’t work with the other, we are all intertwined.
I also go one step further. We are all part of the planetary system, the universal system even. If the planetary system crashes, everything crashes. That’s why ecology and climate is always part of economy, politics, and society.
Since the planet doesn’t know borders, there are no national states in The Good System. It is global in multiple ways.
It is for the whole planet, for all mankind and for every single part of the system.
Politics
Many political systems have been tried in human history. The one system that has been proved to be the best yet is democracy.
I have written many articles already about democracy, in which I cited Winston Churchill. That’s why I don’t have to quote him again.
As The Good System sees the people as part of everything, democracy, as the political system where everyone can participate, is the way to go.
How shall the democratic system look like
There were and are many different forms of democracy. And often people draw the wrong conclusion that elections = democracy.
Elections can be part of democracy, but they can also be part of autocratic systems. And democracy can work without elections.
Voting will be part of our democratic system, but it will be just one possibility of participation. I will publish an article, where I go into details of what the political system shall look like. Because, despite the many articles about democracy, I have not written about it yet in detail.
Economy
While we have a clear winner in the politics division. The best economic system has not been found. At least in my opinion.
You may say, but Ian capitalism has won. It is dominating nearly the whole world. Yes, I say, and that’s why we will get extinct, if we don’t change the system.
The top three economic systems are free market economy, social market economy, and centrally planned economy. I take a look at all these three, and why none of them works for our system.
Free market economy
A real free market doesn’t and can’t exist. I will go deeper into this topic in a future article. As I will for all economic systems mentioned here.
But in short, if everything is ruled by the market and the only motivation is profit, it will always end in monopolies, oligarchy, worse products and a dead planet. It’s inevitable.
So even supporters of the free market want at least a night-watchman state, that does nothing but the protection of private property and maintenance of public safety and order.
Social market economy
Since smart people figured that a night-watchman state won’t work, they took the free market and combined it with some elements of the then also popular centrally planned economy. (More down below)
This is the most popular economic system today, and it does some things right. But also today we can watch the greatest flaw of this system explode, that it is still based on the free market.
The government controls some elements of the market or at least influences it, and it provides social security for the people, like a pension system, health care, unemployment security, etc.
The social market economy is often combined with democracy, so that people can control the economy via the government.
But since it is still a market economy, there is a big divide between the richest and the poorest people in a society.
And people with money control the media and the politics, which should control the economy.
In the end, all the social market economy does, is to slow down the downfall, but it doesn’t solve the problem of the singular motive of the economy to maximize profit.
Centrally planned economy
Centrally planned economy is the loser in the war of economic systems. No wonder why. It was antidemocratic, untransparent, and inflexible. But some of its perks survived in the social market economy. (Read above)
One of the problems of the centrally planned economy in the Soviet Union, for example, was that a small group of people had a lot of power, which led to corruption, oligarchy, and mismanagement.
Nevertheless, parts of the planned economy will be part of The Good System. But it must be democratic, transparent, and flexible.
Society
There are many different social systems in the world, without a winner. It seems like on a state level no singular system exists, it’s all a mix of individualism and collectivism.
Furthermore, the different societies are somewhere on the spectrum between liberalism and illiberalism or conservatism and progressivism.
That’s understandable since societies are built upon different beliefs, histories, and environments.
That’s why it is important, that a global good system is flexible enough to allow different kinds of society.
While there will be universal rights and laws, they can be interpreted differently, to a certain extent, in different societies.
Conclusion
To summarize: The Good System is a universal system for the whole planet that includes the economy, politics, and society.
There are no countries in this system. 1 planet, 1 mankind, 1 system.
Universal laws and rights guarantee the freedom and safety of every individual, but are flexible to an extent, to match different societies.
The economy, politics, and society work together to serve the people.
The individual strengths and needs of every person are met as good as possible, so they can serve the community best.
Everybody shall live as free as possible, as long as they don’t harm anyone else or the community.
All the basic needs are met by the system. It is possible for people to gain wealth, but private property is limited. For example, you can’t own land or media outlets.
On the other hand, government has limited power. It mostly administrates the system and the representatives change regularly.
How decisions are made is completely transparent. Only elections are secret.
It is mandatory for everyone to participate in the economic, political and social system in one way or another.
I hope you now can see the big picture of The Good System. It lacks in details. These we will develop in our journey.
My name is Ian DeBay.
I am the founder of iandebay.com. I am a content creator, blogger, podcast, YouTuber. This is my blog where I talk about system change, sustainability and other fun stuff.
Leave a Reply