Introduction
In the book RADICAL COMPANIES: Without Bosses or Employees ∇ we considered how the Radical model would work in a company environment, but we said next to nothing about money ∇ , land ∇ , or government.
Later, in rCoin: Decentralized Minting, I laid out my ideas about money and what it would look like in a decentralized, transparent world. In rLand, I wrote down my thoughts on how land would be handled in a Radical world.
In this document I finally get to lay down my thoughts about national governments.
Very Different
National governments are the ultimate centralized power. Dictatorships are the most centralized, and democratic governments the least, but they are all centralized. In particular, they have a monopoly on Force. The US national government runs the military and state governments and cities run police forces.
In the Radical model, governments would not be collect taxes since the moral equivalent of land taxes go directly into local community funds and only a trickle of it goes to more centralized centers of power.
In any case, in the Radical model society’s governance would be decentralized and not like it is today. Governance will be not based competition as it is in the Fiat system, but collaboration as in the Radical model.
City Government
A local government must be granted power by the State. This is probably a leftover from the days of Royalty, where the top ruler had to issue a charter (and charged dearly for doing so).
City governments are responsible for,
- The police force, fire abatement, paramedic help.
- Traffic infrastructure (e.g., signs, speed zones).
- Local city road construction and maintenance, including public parking for cars and motorcycles.
- Building regulations and zoning.
- Keeping water clean and maintaining sewer lines.
- Waste removal.
- Parks and recreation.
- Municipal courts.
Another thing that our present day’s cities get involved in is economic development. Let’s start with that because that is where the wheels of “government of the people, by the people, for the people” start to come off.
Economic Development
“Economic development“ is where elected government goes over the line and gets involved in the creation of private goods for businesses and their owners in the name of “job creation.”
In a Radical world, city governments are no longer in this business. Everybody is capable and has the means to build their own wealth.
Car Traffic
Let’s take traffic next. I predict that all things traffic are going to change dramatically, very quickly. For example, CRUISE ∇ launched a driverless car service in San Francisco. It won’t take long before its price comes down to the point that it will not make sense for individuals to own and house cars.
Eventually, a car will own itself. Autonomous cars will house themselves out of sight throughout an urban area and there won’t be cars parked on the side of roads. Our streets will be available for other uses.
Something that could have happened many years ago, is to have intra-vehicle communication. With the right sensor in every vehicle, we won’t need traffic lights or signage.
Road Construction
Local city road construction and maintenance remains a task that somebody has to do. Imagine a company whose “product” is the public good, with expertise of where the roads are needed, and whose “performance” would then be measured via RADs.
The actual construction of the roads would be 1) funded by the community that needs it and 2) built by companies that have expertise in doing so and are highly valued by the communities that finance them, again, as measured by RADs.
Infrastructure
Companies will be responsible for coordinating planning and construction.
| Zoning and Building Regulations |
Zoning strikes me as a weak way to try and control the worst tendencies of Fiat landowners. But keeping the “bad” buildings away from the residential buildings is not harmless. And it is not a solution, either. I’d rather trust each hyper-local community, people who know each other, to make those decisions using the Radical system rather than a city government. There might be a coordinating function needed as well as expertise but that can be handled by Radical companies. |
|---|---|
| Waste Removal |
City governments already contract with private businesses to do waste removal. Individual Radical communities can do this easily, with transparency providing the coordinating function. |
| Municipal Courts |
“Crime” in a Radical community would be the exception and probably driven by mental imbalances that would be better taken care of by communities with the help of people who specialize in this kind of situation. Disputes could mostly be handled by the communities itself, with the help of facilitators. |
| Police |
The first thing to note about the police is that it is a force, carrying lethal weapons. They fight people who don’t abide by the rules and would harm the rest of us, well behaved citizens. We want them to do a lot besides that: caretakers and givers, arbiters, the calmest person in the room and the most aggressive person in the room. In the face of all these conflicting roles, they often default to the threat of violence and violence itself. If there is, it would be very different than it is today. |
| Fire, Paramedic |
Fire abatement has been around for a long time. At the beginning putting out fires was a paid Fiat business, “you have to pay before we put out the fire.” Eventually it became a public service. I imagine that fire abatement, paramedics, and disaster help would all come as a service paid for Banners. |
State Government
The main function of the State government seems to be standing in the way of what progressive cities want to do or pushing conservative cities to do something they don’t really want to. Other than that, they handle water harvesting and distribution at the State level, as well as the State police, and its National Guard.
Water is a good case to think through. Residential water versus irrigation water is a fight that has been going on in California for a long time. Central Valley versus coastal areas. Producers versus consumers. Talking points that go straight for the emotional buzzer. And really the whole thing is about who is going to rule water? The State government is left to compromise. That’s the Fiat way.
Under the Radical model I would like to think that people would want to collaborate rather than win. And if wishes were horses…
National Government
Maybe bigger things like the Space Station and planetary research may remain in the hands of a team with multiple Banners feeding it.
Worth Repeating
This may be a difficult read and it may be worth repeating here about the Radical framework and how it’s different from our current Fiat world. Probably the most confusing thing about it is that a Radical world would be very similar to our current world. People will be the same with all our jealousies, overreactions, and habits. They will be embarrassed by overpromising and for a long time their impulse would want to sweep under the proverbial rug.
The only difference—the big difference—is that the Radical system would nudge us towards collaboration rather than competition.
The Fiat system is based on separating us: my countries against the shithole countries; my towns against every other town; good and bad neighborhoods; political parties and their vastly different realities; need to know, secrecy, lies. This leaves us disconnected and drives us to isolation. This works for a world where money comes first, ahead of everything else including people.
A Radical world prioritizes what’s important to people first, ahead of everything else, including money. We’ll still be individuals, with our own needs, rights, and idiosyncrasies. We are not going to become a number nor angels: our communities will help us to lean away from those extremes.
The Three Branches
Throughout the stuff above, there is a general disregard for the separation of powers so central to democracy today. That system was designed as a confrontation which does not allow any party to achieve victory. Every branch of government monitors and regulates the other branches. That was the Fiat solution to not having a King or Queen. It probably was a terrific solution for the 18th century, but we are in the 21st century now. We have the technology to change.
The Radical Model
We are used to companies being controlled by Fiat hierarchies, with an owner at the top. He sends down commands that tell people what to do, how to do it, and when to do it.
In the Radical model, a company is a group of people coming together to create something bigger they can do individually.
Business Are not Companies
Other labels abound, but we chose the word “company” because it has an interesting etymology: it comes from the Latin con- and pan. The prefix con- means “together, with” and pan means “bread, food.” At its root, then, company means “people who break bread together.” In the Radical model a company is a community of people who come together to contribute broad value to society and make an impact on the world.
Rather than having an owner and a hierarchy of bosses, a Radical company has co-owners and co-managers to govern and operate it. These people align themselves according to the impact they want to make, why they are doing so, and then they embark on many experiments to get there.
They do this starting from a simple Foundation,
| people | Meaning & Belonging |
|---|---|
| commitments | Decentralization & Transparency |
| practices | Experimentation |
Evolution, Interrupted
As I see it, the next step in collaboration is co-ownership and co-management. Everything humanity has accomplished has been based on collaboration, but we have acted as if dominance by a few is the only way to do anything. ∇
Dominance is now getting in the way of the next surge of human accomplishments. Now it’s time to move on and build on the Radical Foundation towards a higher level of collaboration.
ENDNOTES
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Matt Perez, Adrian Perez, Jose Leal. RADICAL COMPANIES: Without Bosses or Employees. Pradera Media. 2021. <https://radicalcompanies.com>
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Matt Perez. rCoins: Decentralized Minting. Pradera Media. 2021. <https://radicalcompanies.com/2022/05/07/rcoins-decentralized-minting>
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Matt Perez. RADICAL COMPANIES: Without Bosses or Employees. Pradera Media. 2021. <https://radicalcompanies.com/2022/05/06/rland">
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Reforming Reckless Government Spending. <https://diigo.com/0nct6w> The Heritage Foundation.
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CRUISE. <https://getcruise.com> The Heritage Foundation.
