Declaration
of
Interdependence

Draft July 3, 1995

When in the course of human events, the transformation of civilization demands rapid change, and threatens the way of life we have become accustomed to, it is necessary that we reengineer our society to insure that the values we hold dear are not destroyed by our inability to face change. Alvin and Heidi Toffler's, 1994, Creating a new Civilization, has received bipartisan support at the highest levels, (Al, Newt), as a visionary statement of the challenges facing humanity. The Tofflers call for a reinvention of government from the ground up to meet the challenges of the information age. We have gone from dependence to independence and now face the challenge of attaining interdependence on the information super highway. We have transcended the call to arms and now face the call to empowering the individual to fruitfully participate in the collaboration we call government.

We the Life Organism, divided from an original cell hold these principles to be self evident:

Therefore, every organism has a right to its share of our planets resources, and the right to live the good life in its own way and we have the responsibility, when we act individually or collectively, to respect these rights and allow diversity to thrive.

To secure these rights, governments are instituted securing their powers from the consent of the governed so long as they uphold these principles. Unbridled freedom degenerates to anarchy, and there is no freedom in anarchy[?], yet Law restrains freedom, thus limiting diversity. Law cannot be entered into lightly, it is all to easy for government to become the problem rather than the solution unless law is based on sound principles with proven impacts on the quality of life in the current economic and social environment. Law must be free of cultural or moral prejudice and restrict individual freedom only to the extent which is absolutely necessary to protect the rights of others.

Prudence dictates that governments long established are not changed for light and transient causes; indeed, experience has shown that humankind is more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to correct the situation by abolishing the forms they are accustomed to. But when the warning signs are clear, and the political machinery of the industrial age is doomed to failure in the information age, we have no option but to redesign government to meet the challenges of the future. To prove this, let facts be presented to a candid world.

When our fore fathers created democratic society the common man represented a majority. Today we are all minorities. We are minorities in cultural heritage, in industry or service, in religion, in political philosophy, in our capabilities and handicaps. The challenge of todays government goes far beyond a simple majority rule and balance of power to protect our personal views of the good life.

Today's citizen lacks firm geographical ties. Geographical decentralization alone no longer protect the right of the individual as it once did. And there is no longer a frontier for the oppressed to escape to.

Collaboration has been difficult. Group decisions, in general, are notoriously poor. They tend to generate the lowest common denominator rather than the collective intelligence. Pure democracy degenerates to mob rule. Without a clear majority viewpoint democracy does not lead to coordinated collective direction or vision. Advanced group decision support based on our shared principles with objective criteria must replace our outmoded political power struggles. Non-partisan win-win collaboration must replace destructive win-lose politics.

The digital anarchists would have us believe that government is doomed in the information age. Indeed, the information elite are prospering in an international market where no government can decipher, control, or tax their activities. The internet is free, and out of control. Any controlled network, by definition, is not the internet-- the interconnection of all networks. The Tieniman Square incident in 1990 proved to the world that not even the repressive Chinese government had a chance control the flow of information (email, phone, fax, radio) in this age. The information elite would have us believe that this is all positive, that the new freedom will somehow solve all our problems. Their optimism is not, however, well founded. They refer to the tumbling down of the iron curtain and the explosion of free information on the internet as evidence of the positive changes in progress. Since the dawning of the information age, in the 1950's, there have indeed been positive changes, unfortunately, these are overshadowed by massive erosion of economic, social, political, and family values. In the 50's, a family lived well on the income of one worker. Today, two family members must work to achieve the equivalent standard of living. Although the information elite may be thriving, the typical family has seen, in effect, a 50% loss of value. Internal and external terrorism is becoming more and more ominous. There are more people in our jails than ever before-- the US now has a higher percentage of its population behind bars than any other nation, yet the war on crime is not being won. If government breaks down, as the digital anarchists predict, we can expect much greater hardship and strife before the new civilization they predict is likely to emerge. It would be irresponsible for us not to take proactive collective action to perturb the chaotic social and economic ecologies toward the creation of value and sustainable growth. Many conservatives would have us return to indistrial and agricultural age living. But we cannot turn back the clock or stop the information revolution. We must move forward and combine the value potential every age. Despite the collapse of communism, many social democrats do not yet see that it is the digital anarchist, not them, beating our path into the information age. It is time we must collaborate neither to the left or right independently, but both right to our individuals and left to our collaboration concurrently.

Streamlining government, and disassembling the huge bureaucracy in favor of competitive specialized private management and service organizations just as the large corporations are being compelled to do by market factors, will certainly help. But much more is needed. Many conglomerates are finding it easy and profitable to break up into smaller, more profitable, business units, in particular global markets. Government must also face both demassification and internationalism of the information age. We must completely rethink how we conduct the business of government.

Our philosophy of funding government, taxation, dates back to the agricultural age with minor modifications to accommodate the industrial age. By their very nature taxes stifle the economy. What we tax is directly discouraged in the economy. Given the chaotic nature of economic systems it is folly to tax the positive indicators of our economy, income and sales. Perturbing the positive indicators in that way can only lead to downturns and wild fluctuation. It is wrong and must be stopped. If we must tax, we are responsible to tax those things we collectively must discourage. When possible, tax rather than criminal law should be applied where we find it necessary to limit the freedom of individuals. Taxing the depletion of our shared resources can not only fund government, it can also fund resource reclamation and cleanup. We cannot depend on volunteerism to sustain our planet. Taxing scarce or dirty resources will encourage the development of plentiful clean alternative resources. The current incentives are to produce as much garbage as possible. We can make producing lasting value a priority, and improve the quality of life.

Government spending is out of control. Most nations face a massive deficits. Government after all, is simply the collaboration of individuals based on common principles to manage and protect their common resources. Surely we should manage our shared resources profitably. Government certainly should not be constrained to maximize short term profits as business often is. Government can afford a payoff in 10, 20, 50, or 100 years. And yet, government must be responsible for returning every penny of value as an investment in our future. Government earns billions in the international money market while stabilizing our currency on the world market. We must eliminate the taboo against government operating profitably. At the same time government has no place in any business where the free market is working with at least three competitors. This does not mean government cannot remain a minority shareholder in businesses it helped spawn or salvage. We should receive the full return on our investments whether they are collective or individual. Government should strive to be self funded. Every program should be audited regularly on its ability to return the value invested and provide for its own funding where possible. If government continues to increasingly suck the gravy from the economy we will soon find the plate empty.

Spending and taxing must be tied to the best economic models available. Legislative cycles are too long to react to rapidly changing economic conditions. Whims of public opinion cannot excuse fiscal irressponsibility-- there is too much at stake. As long as government is a major economic player its spending and taxing policies will have major economic impact. Wealth is not finite. Distributing wealth equally will only make everyone poor. Sustainable growth will make us all wealthy. Our economic policies must be based on objective criteria to foster enterprise and create value.

The overcrowding of our roadways exemplifies how every problem is an opportunity to create value. The waste of vehicles idling in traffic and the economic cost of the time wasted by otherwise productive individuals, should be recovered. Fortunately, the information age is bringing work at home and highly distributed organizations to reduce the need to travel and get more value from individuals. But the problems on the highway are real, and burning our valuable oil resources is a waste when they could be used to create things of lasting value. Public transportation is too expensive, the capital investment needed cannot be paid by so few riders. The economies of scale are needed here. Government is part of the problem. It taxes at 30 percent the personal income that pays for public transportation. We should not tax that which needs to be encouraged. The entire tax system cannot change overnight, but there are clear steps we can take, so that, at least, we are not part of the problem. We must reinvest at least the tax we are collecting in public transportation, and most people would not mind paying a few cents a gallon gas tax to support public transportation as long as it really means fewer cars on the road. We can have convenient, fast, comfortable, affordable public transportation alternatives. In the free enterprise environment all that is required is that the cost of using public transportation is less than the cost of gasoline to drive. So long as this is a realistic target price given economies of scale in an open transportation market, not only will massive transportation infastructure be developed, but we can also reap tremendous productivity and environmental benefits from a relatively small investment. And when this is done, before we have a wasteful excess of transportation infastructure and a collapse of the transportation market, we must move on to capitalizing on solving the new problems the 21th century will bring. It is this final step, eliminating collective policies before they become a problem, that government so often fails to take, that results in all government policies ultimately becoming the problem.

Citizens are subject to many thousands of laws. Ignorance of the law is no excuse, yet, only lawers know the law. Every day there are more laws. Let's stop this insanity. We are subject to laws decades or centuries old many of with are extraneous today. Worse yet, many old laws, due to changing conditions, have effects today contrary to their original purpose. Tomorrows civilization cannot profit from laws applying to yesterday's needs. Laws should be framed to expire automatically when the conditions they address change. The God of Moses only gave us ten commandments. Jesus cut it down to two. No law outside the constitution should survive longer than, say 10 years without reenact. Extreme measures are needed to uncomplicate and minimize the restrictions laws place on enterprise and living simply. Tax incentives or disincentives should replace regulation whenever possible. All taxes or regulations should be designed to minimize impact on individuals and free enterprise. How free are we if the rules of living are larger than Encyclopedia Britianica.

No reasonable being would choose death over life, darkness over light, destruction over creation, or evil over good. The intent of our justice system has been to illicit revenge against criminals. Although this may appease the certain individuals, it does not address the problems of antisocial behavior. Law is to protect our rights, and the first priority of justice must be to protect us from criminals. Additionally, repayment of damages should be a major priority. Compatible to this end, justice should strive to allow society to reap the maximum value the individual can produce while providing protection to the public to help defray the cost of justice. Education and treatment may be effective in preventing or curing antisocial behavior. We can also attack the economic and social conditions associated with crime. Crime is an indicator of our social heath as a civilization. If we can only deal with the problem with anger, and not with love and understanding or objective solutions to the problems of crime, perhaps we are part of the problem. We need to admit that our judgments are all too often wrong, and punishing the innocent is a crime. Let's stop punishing and start protecting and correcting. And it's time for criminals to start footing the bill, instead of the victims.

Everybody makes mistakes. We need to start judging people on the bases of their successes rather than their failures. We must judge only what a person does, not what they haven't done. We cannot control what other people do and expect to be free. We can colaboratively provide incentives for right action, we can make participation simple and fruitful. But we cannot demand participation by any human or beast. At the same time we are responsible for the choices we make and the chances we take. Our life situation is largely the result of the choices we have made. We alone are ultimately responsible for ourselves. It is prudent that we maintain high standards with respect to ourselves and high toleration with respect to others.

We must transcend this suit happy society to maximize our options as individuals. Too often a single law suit puts a business and the families dependent on it in bankruptcy. Outrageous liability insurance costs greatly limit our possibilities for enterprise. Law suit amounts must be restricted to direct costs except where malice is apparent. We must unleash the enterprise potential of our individuals. Most of us are only aware of the outragous auto insurance cost. We don't realize how many products are not on the shelves and how many services are simply not available because of liability risks. We cannot afford to limit our choices in this way.

The emergence of the information age demands that individuals are granted absolute ownership, control and privacy of their personal information. The information elite use technology to protect their privacy. The rest of the people need protection or their privacy will certainly be invaded. A prerequisite for collaboration is a safe and open environment where individuals can share intellectual property without risk. Compromizing privacy and ownership will not protect us from those who have something to hide. It will only impede the collaboration of the rest of us.

Solving the problems facing humanity is a tremendous challenge and opportunity. The emergence of the information age is a catalyst for rapid change in a new international economy where the capabilities of individuals and teams replaces the capital investment of the industrial age as the fuel to produce value. Transportation made the industrial age world small. Communication in the information age has made it miniscule. Information age tools will allow us to capitalize on individual human resources rather than cookie cutter industrial age workers. Free enterprise is changing, it's ties to traditional capital and mass production are on the decline. Quality, customer service and empowering employees are the hallmarks of the successful information age company. Smaller specialized companies are thriving while the old big corporations are struggling-- dumping second wave divisions and buying up the rising stars, to adjust to the new economy. Government, too, must adjust, or at least get out of the way, to allow the economy to sustain growth, and thrive on change rather than be defeated by it. We can apply the principles of continuous improvement and concurrent engineering to creating a less oppressive, kinder, gentler, and more effective government in the new information age civilization.

Any unemployed person in a free enterprise society is a wasted resource. The value they might create is lost, along with the potential profit, as is the market they would represent if they were gainfully employed. Generally, we are not spending too much money on the welfare of our people, we are just misspending it. We do not have too many people, we are simply misusing our resources. We deplete our scarce resources until economic crises results and allow our abundant resources to go fallow. The information age can help us make profitable appropriate use of all our resources if we accept change and allow our individuals to thrive. Society is not responsible to support dead beats, but at the same time it world be folly to fail to capitalize on the synergetic potential of our individuals.

If we cherish the individuals we are composed of, we can capitalize on the unique value they might provide. Though it might be beyond the comprehension of our small brains to imagine how providence might reveal value in what seems worthless, history suggests we are largely incapable of predicting future value. In nature everything is used, everything has value, all waste becomes food, all poison becomes medicine. Though the human and resource potential will never be fully realized, as there are limits to our imagination, the opportunity for the emergence of value can be preserved so long as we allow diversity to thrive.

The framers of the U.S. Constitution had a seemingly uncanny knowledge of the needs of the information age. Their dream of government of the people, by the people, for the people, based on the principles of Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, is a dream that was never quite realized. It is only now that we are faced with the responsibility to implement their dream, and extend it's principles, or see our way of life jeopardized. We do not need a new constitution. The constitution and its bill of rights represent precisely the prescription we need now more than ever. We are becoming citizens of the world, collaborating with respect to our shared values. As soldiers of the information revolution we have the power to act collectively to realize the dream, and become government.

We all have a direct stake in the social and economic consequences of the transformation to the information age. If we sustain industrial age thinking and government, we will indeed face a painful transformation of economic hardship, loss of liberty, destruction of our environment, and international strife.

We, therefore, representatives of the life organism, declare our interdependence, and solemnly vow to support one anothers view of the good life with our lives, our fortune, and our sacred honor.

jim@njit.edu