Oddbean

I know this is a very sensitive topic for libertarians (which I'm one myself) but I believe the Swiss system holds the key for the democracy problem. I absolutely agree that the current model of what they call "democracy" is absolutely broken and will never work. But that's just that model. What we need to do is redefine what democracy means. Democracy can't mean 4 year votes. That's insanity. Democracy needs to mean referendums every 3 months, People's Veto Power (ability to reject ANY law at any level, municipal, regional, federal), Citizen Initiatives, Public Recalls, etc. In Switzerland people have been voting to REDUCE taxes for centuries now. And they do! Nobody wants to raise taxes. Nobody. When given the chance to vote on a referendum people ALWAYS reject tax raises. They've done this dozen of times. That's in essence what I'm trying to do with https://thedemocracyupgrade.org/, basically trying to upgrade the concept of democracy. In my view Switzerland is the only real democracy in the world, the rest are just autocracies (in a different degree/percentage, everything is relative).

Yeah sure. Why not vote/referend every week? Or day? And what about the mandatory forced household TV propaganda tax? The swiss model might sound better and appeal as a first step but in the end it's the same ol' bs.

What's the better alternative? What's not bs? Switzerland is one of the freest countries in the world. https://www.heritage.org/index/pages/country-pages/switzerland Nothing is perfect. I think the idea that because something is not perfect we shouldn't do anything is a form of nihilism. But hey, to each its own. Not trying to convince anybody of anything. Just sharing what I've discovered.

Of course, I agree. The real problem is what and how to define things. I obviously also want that, the question is how, what and where. The real question is how, what and who gets to define what property rights are. That’s the whole point.