I believe we can become a state where there is Freedom, Progress, and Privacy for All.
Freedom, sometimes known as free agency, is the most essential human right. It is God given to every person. To have freedom, we must have peace.
Progress is why we are here, it allows us to be transformed from babies whose every need must be provided for by others, to children who are learning to provide for themselves, to adults who not only provide for themselves but also provide for others.
Privacy is an essential human right. We get to choose who we interact with, and how much of ourselves we share with which others.
All of these can and will be achieved, but always remember that Transformation Takes Time. All of us live with the reasonable expectation that our world will remain much the same as it is in the near future, while also understanding that the farther future will be different. Societal change will take time while the underlying principles and goals remain the same.
A Way to Expand Freedom, Strengthen Families, not Government
In an interview, El Salvador's President Bukele stated plainly, "You can't do anything until you have peace". There is no freedom without peace. Peace comes by knowing that those in authority love you and have your best interest in mind as they interact with you. Governments can't do this, because law cannot do this.
The good news is that family members can and do love one another in a special way. While that is not always true, as many families, mine included, are dysfunctional at times. But true love is always possible within families in a way that is not possible with governments.
People who are truly loved don't require much civil government, as they know correct principles and govern themselves. And people who experience true love during their maturation are much more likely to raise children who also experience true love.
For many, government becomes a substitute family, but it can never be that. Laws can and must encourage family to come together and stay together. Unfortunately, Utah has some terrible laws that destroy families. I was accused of felony stalking when my covenant companion had a mental health crisis that caused her to fear me instead of trusting me. Our family was destroyed as she got a corrupt attorney to believe her imaginations, leading to a tragic divorce in a family that had been commended by our local church leaders as an amazing turnaround. I was jailed for six days on completely false accusations that, on further review, the Utah County Attorney never filed charges on. In a very real way, I lost my freedom for a time due to a terrible law.
A Way to Expand Progress, Replacing Institutional Initiatives with Private Initiative
The last few centuries have been characterized by institutional solutions to public problems, and that approach has taken us a long way towards a better world. But it has also centralized power and money so that political systems, both in government and other large institutions, have become very corrupt. The modern large corporation is built upon an evil foundation, because they keep their profits, but pass losses on to others by filing bankruptcies of their artificial selves, leaving their investors and creditors with losses. Likewise governments tout their victories now, but pass on huge debts to future generations.
Now, small family scale enterprises can more easily compete with large institutions when they have the freedom to do so. We are closing in on a society similar to what Thomas Jefferson imagined, which for him was a country of yeoman farmers. But today our "farms" are a huge variety of small businesses, that rely mostly on the personal touch that large institutions lack. I used to work for Domino's Pizza when I was in college, and made my first fortune by building a chain that was substantially a copy of their operation. Today, anyone with a car and cell phones can open their own pizza delivery business, and find a restaurant to produce a good product, and just handle the orders and deliveries themself, providing high touch service to their customers. And so it goes in many industries, where scale is not necessary in order to serve others and make a bit of profit to grow the enterprise.
Industries that do require larger than family scale capital investment can now easily be employee owned coops. Investor owned companies will increasingly find it harder to compete with employee owned coops. Something like Airbnb will likely not last long as it will be replaced with a coop version, owned by those who rent out their properties.
A Way to Expand Privacy, the Trustednet and Wearables connected to Personal Servers
Long before I lived in Utah, around 2007, I developed a privacy system called the trusted identity network, or Trustednet. I filed some patents and trademarks for it and made several presentations of it at conferences in Silicon Valley. The venture capitalists that attended told me I was at least a decade ahead of every one else with this outstanding idea. I did not go through with the patents since the likely date of implemention on a wide scale exceeded the length of potential patents. Some of my work is still available on line in the archives of the Internet Identity Workshop, which I believe is now headed by a BYU professor.
The fundamental idea of the Trustednet is to add an identity layer, like an atmosphere, around the "sphere" that is the existing internet. People can choose to join the Trustednet by selecting an entity to hold their personal information and use it only as needed on the internet. Instead of logging on to 100's of different sites, users only log on to their one selected identity provider. Then their ID provider is their trusted and selected sidekick everywhere they go online.
ID providers will be like pro sports teams, organized into leagues. You can only "play" on one team at a time, but can freely change teams. ID providers will compete on the basis of being the most trustworthy, any personal data breach could be disastrous for their business.
You will never fill out an online form again after selecting an ID provider. Just keep your information up to date with them, and they will provision only the needed data when necessary. For example, you might order something and the ID provider will only tell the vendor the city, then release the address and specific instructions to a delivery service when needed. And even those releases will be individualized so the delivery service would be accountable if your private informaton ends up with someone else.
The ID providers within the league of ID providers will both compete and cooperate. The competition will be for users as they will have numerous ways to leverage their special relationship with their users to provide the revenue needed for them to operate and progress. The cooperation will be to insure the integrity of the Trustednet, so that scammers have no place to hide.
Physcial world privacy is attained, paradoxically, by the use of cameras and microphones everywhere. The key is to store that data locally and only send that data when needed to your personal server and perhaps your chosen ID provider where you continue to control it rather than any third party, including governments.
Ring doorbell cameras are common and all new Teslas come with 8 cameras to facilitate full self driving. I own one and the self driving is now close to reality. I also invented something I call a collar computer with personal server. This lets people voluntarily wear what appears to be a string of beads around their neck, while it is actually a string of cameras and microphones that continuously record everything that is happening around the wearer and streaming it encrypted only to the wearer's personal server. I have chosen not to patent this invention, but to publicize it to prevent others from patenting it. Sending children out wearing such a device will be provide a lot of peace of mind to parents. Wearing such a device yourself will be great protection against false accusations. Wearable devices are already happening, the collar form factor allows for 360 degree recording. With a personal server, you will have control over your own information. Such a device would be a nightmare if you are not the one to control your own personal record, so it must only stream to your personal server, so only you can decide what to share with others.
Solving the Media Problem, with Family Scale Media
The last 20 years have seen the death of most local newspapers. This means that our local leaders are mostly unaccountable as there is no
"press" to press local leaders on their dubious actions and decisions. If I wasn't running for Governor of Utah right now, I would likely be starting a model for a local news source, something I call Family Scale Media. A Family Scale Media operation is the 21st century version of the local newspaper, minus the actual paper part. It can be an inexpensive web site connected to a Youtube channel, with each article appearing both in text on the site and being read as a Youtube video so that subscribers have the option of reading, watching, or listening to each story.
Each Family Scale Media outlet will focus in on a very specific audience, for instance an individual suburban community. And be a part of a network with other Family Scale Media outlets with other specific audiences, so that stories can be shared and each family can learn from others in the network.
Such a media enterprise will be the go to advertising outlet for local businesses, so much so that subscriptions will likely be free. The family that runs a Family Scale Media outlet will become very influential in their community, in a position to guide local leaders to more transparency, which ultimately leads to more truth and justice.
Solving Education, with Cooperative In Person and Online Free Schooling
Much can be learned in isolation, and online schooling can work well for that. Much more can be learned when learners are around others and that works best when they are physically together. My vision of solving our education problems is a new system of home learning combined with local in person learning. Our existing education infrastructure can be transformed so there is continuity for both the learners and educators. A model we can at least partially follow is Acton Academy. Consider watching the videos of their graduates to see the outcomes they are achieving.
Free online schooling is now very possible. Not paid for by government, but paid for by large and small private entities that have their own reasons to provide it. The Church of Jesus Christ, of Latter-day Saints likley has the resources to expand their BYU Gateway program to all levels and all people, free of charge. Those learners will still need to make a major commitment of their time in order to stay in the program, so it's not really free.
I was among the founders of two schools in the Dallas area, Legacy Christian Academy, and Coram Deo Academy. Teaching others to teach others has been a big part of my experience, as it is what Jesus did.
Solving Justice, with Restitution and Restoration Replacing Punishment
There is a huge amount of injustice in our justice system, particularly here in Utah. Personally I have faced numerous false accusations that put me at the wrong end of the justice system. So I speak from personal experience, even as some of our current and former leaders have also experienced.
The fundamental problem with our justice system is that it is based on punishment as a deterrent, and that does not work. Incarceration is a good deterrent, but not incarceration for punishment, but rather it can be transformed into incarceration for restitution and restoration.
Most of the incarcerated individuals today are only partially responsible for their own actions, as so many were raised in horrific family environments, often leading them to find their own alternative "family" which is usually something that is or resembles a gang. As President Bukele of El Salvador has proven, incarcerating gang members and other violent offenders is the way to make a place way less violent.
What we can and will do in Utah is to make incarceration about restituton and restoration by allowing all inmates to spend their time learning how to be better citizens using inexpensive online resources. They can work online jobs to earn the money needed to pay full restitution before they can be released. Only after they have paid the restitution and proven their restoration, they can be provisionally released back into public.
Solving Revenue, with Taxes on Lavish Living Replacing Income Taxes
As a trained economist, I know that the way to get less of something is to tax it. Income is a good thing, both for individuals and collectively. Income taxes discourage income earning, that is well documented. Some taxes are needed as we transition to the super abundant economy of the future. My solution is to replace income taxes with "voluntary" taxes tied to personal spending. Everyone needs food, clothing, shelter, and health care. The basic forms of those would not be taxed at all. The upgraded versions would be taxed at a moderate rate. And the luxury versions of every taxable thing would be taxed at a higher rate. This system does not discourage enterprising people who want to make millions or billions, if they continue to live simply, they can avoid most taxes as they build their enterprises. But, when lavish living becomes a priority, then they will be taxed much more.
Solving Expenses, with Private Solutions Replacing Public Solutions
Government is usually the most expensive way to solve societal problems. Private entities are usually better, but are plagued by the unfair advantages that corporations are given whereby they keep their profits as they ignore their responsibilities. The solution is to incentivize family scale enterprises and proportinal liability partnerships for large scale enterprises. A proportional liabity enterprise makes each limited partner responsible for any loss to the extent of their percentage of investment. So if an investor owns .00001 percent of a company that is found liable for damages to someone, that investor is responsible personally to pay .00001 percent of that judgement. This will cause large companies to be much more cautious about doing destructive things, as investors will be watching very closely.
Solving Mental Health, by Serving Others
Mental health may be the biggest challenge we face today. Mental health is our wording of what used to be called demonic possession. If you are living for yourself, you will likely have mental health problems, as we were born here to learn how to live for others, When you live to serve others, your mental health will improve, and what you give to the world around you will soon return to you in some way. A good place to find ways to serve is justserve.org and an even better place to start serving is to serve those right next to you, your spouse, your children, and all those you encounter.
Ultimately, Replacing Evil with Good
A better world will come when all learn to live as Jesus showed us the Way to be. As we each learn to do good towards all, even our "enemies" then Earth can become the Heaven it was described to be in Genesis 1:7-8. The change will be in the hearts of all, and then will be evidenced in our institutions, including governments.