I one faced the argument that political centralisation is desirable since all big companies, like Tesco, have centralised management structure, and are thus successful. I have no idea to what an extent transnational corporations are centrally organised, but it is probably above the degree I want to see in politics.

My counterargument: Centralisation may benefit a business, that is, the managers and shareholders. To optimise their salary, the manager have to satisfy the shareholders, who want higher profits. The net effect for consumers is competitive prices and services. It is all in the service of self-interest. However, for a politician to optimise their profit, the best way is through rent-seeking, which is best achieved in a political system with low accountability and transparency.

And the bigger a government, ie the more centralised, is, the less accountable and transparent is it (Do I have to prove that?). That is, the only people a centralised government benefits are the politicians. And sadly they do not profit the most from serving the people, but by seeking political rent.

IT – Data infrastructure

Today’s data infrastructure may be as primitive as prehistorical shelters are to our modern architecture. The size of data will grow with the increase of transfer speed. Files will have a higher resolution, become more redundant and more secure. Maybe, 50% to 80% of the size of a file will be contributed by encryption and security measures. That is, if we still define data using files and folders.

Natural law

Maybe instead of defining natural law as something existing in the “state of nature” or by divine grace, we could define natural law as a legal system that we expect in a hypothetical Open or Great Society. That is, we abandon the belief in natural justice, and substitute it with the model of a perfect society. Law may be artificial, but it is not arbitrary. It is only left to define a perfect society.

Every government, apart from those founded on religious dogmata, must latently or explicitly claim majority or “democratic” support, lest they lose their legitimacy or are perceived unjust.

Question 1:

If the media report news in such way that the public discourse is heavily biased toward the existing system, is there not danger that the system is entrenched and self-perpetuating with all the popular support being a product of the media?

Question 2:

What about a society in which there exists a significant socio-economic gap between two groups or classes of people, of which the wealthier and better educated one is in power. Although the country is making huge advancements in economy and technology, there exists severe injustice within the society. The ruling class excuses the problems with the rationale that although the system is not perfect, it aims at a better society in which all people can become shareholders of power, once they have reached a certain economic affluence that allow them to participate meaningfully in politics.

Is such a political system justified?

People can give politicians (not civil servants) they support money with, say, 10,000 euro as the maximum cap. The transaction is processed by authorised banks and the money is given out to politicians by a central agency annually. The transactions are released to the public at the same date. Information both about the number of donors and the amount donated can be used to establish the popularity of a politician and the social strata that donated.

The system provides a transparent way to financially reward good politicians and minimises the lure of corruption. Some might argue, it will encourage political rent-seeking as politicians will take away money from rich people to give it to the poor. That already is the case in a democracy, where countries with big wealth gaps tend to vote in socialist leaders. The proposed system would counterbalance rent-seeking to some degree, as rich people can afford to give more, which is another point of criticism. ]]> http://randomstrings.wordpress.com/2009/10/01/idea-money-incentives-for-politicians/feed/ 0 draq http://randomstrings.wordpress.com/2009/08/14/moving-to-posterous/ http://randomstrings.wordpress.com/2009/08/14/moving-to-posterous/#comments Fri, 14 Aug 2009 12:39:38 +0000 draq http://randomstrings.wordpress.com/2009/08/14/moving-to-posterous/ ]]>

Posterous.com is more usable, simpler and has a broader market (not censored in China, yet). WordPress.com will be mirroring the posts. By the way, I have set the time on randomstrings.wordpress.com to UTC. Can't be bothered to tweak the settings everytime I change the time zone. ]]> http://randomstrings.wordpress.com/2009/08/14/moving-to-posterous/feed/ 0 draq http://randomstrings.wordpress.com/2009/07/13/religion-and-conspiracy/ http://randomstrings.wordpress.com/2009/07/13/religion-and-conspiracy/#comments Mon, 13 Jul 2009 12:30:31 +0000 draq http://randomstrings.wordpress.com/2009/07/13/religion-and-conspiracy/ ]]>

… are very similiar. Both believe in omnipotent/plenipotent beings. In case of religion, it’s supernatural entities like God. In case of conspiracy, it’s America and the Jews.

The Entertainers — those who write popular books that people who don’t read this blog can also understand.

The Commentators — those who read and quote dead philosophers and comment on their work.

The  Metaphysician — those who lecture on the Whole and the Part for hours and genuinely believe that it’s a serious topic.

Purely based on personal observations.

Law — Society. Mathematics — Nature. Grammar — Language.

In the European languages, the written language is a projection of the spoken language. In the Sinitic languages, the spoken language is/was a projection of the written language.

Why orange juice?

Birth rates in the developed countries are sinking. Not worrying.

Maybe humanity has entered a new emerging stage of “evolution”. Not genes, but culture and knowledge are the base units of “natural” selection. Maybe cultural imperialism, that is the Americanisation of the world, is the spread of a “fitter” culture.

A movie about Africa that does not depict war, blood or cruel rituals.

Just a normal movie set in Africa. For example, a young entrepreneur, just having finished his Economics degree from LSE, coming home to revive the local coffee production, fighting local narrow-minded reactionaries, and falling in love with some generic girl. Or an ex-soldier with a new job in a National Park, talking to elephants (The Elephant Whisperer) and falling in love with some generic girl.