Neonjade

I’ve had a hard time watching the news for awhile now. Besides the definition of “news” having changed to “fine farce and drama, mixed with the occasional opinion,” instead of the facts based “who, what, when, where, why and how,” crime and politics are just too depressing.

I occasionally hold out hope for politics. After all, if we could get smart people who cared about the country in office, great improvement would ensue. That potential creates a great “feel good” kind of hope.

It never seems to happen though. Many politicians sound good when they present their platforms. Several seem to possess more than a couple of working brain cells. A few present balanced views of Government power and responsibility, don’t have any DUIs, and even pay their taxes. None those seem to last long, though.

The best among them manage to put their voter base first. Most appear to just push their interests and those of their major contributors. If you can understand that the effect of “the best” is usually not the best for the nation, just a small segment of the nation, and you add to that just how few “the best” are, well, you can understand why I find politics depressing.

While reading about the soon to be released video game Civilization V, I wondered if Sid Meier couldn’t make a version to run America. A few modifications would be needed to allow regular input of updated Government data, of course. It would also need to output the most popular reactions as public policy implementation.

Sure, most people would always vote for perceived short term benefits for themselves. Then again, politicians do that now. At least this way, more citizens would gain more control and understanding of and benefit from their Government. I also am aware of the argument that the general populace is not educated enough to self-govern, but do we really think we’re getting more informed legislature through our current process?

Running the Government via “Civilization USA,” true transparency would be implemented. Everyone would see their city, county, state and federal budgets, bank accounts and debts as they voted on where to put their money. They could run simulations to test potential outcomes and pick the one they like best.

Let’s see, money is tight this term, do I want to lose a few teachers, cut back on trash removal, or maybe put off that art museum expansion, with side bid for a new pool at the Mayor’s house? The construction companies would never be able to pay enough bribes to get popular vote for their preference.

Road construction is a never ending requirement, but projects could be identified, prioritized, tracked and monitored “in game”. Tie into an AR game like Waze and everyone’s smart phone and vehicle GPS systems could feed traffic issues into the main game. People could feed in their pot hole and accident reports in real time.

Speaking of prioritizing and only putting tax payer dollars where they are needed, how many tax dollars would be saved by canning the entire House and Senate? We’d still need state and federal governments, but we wouldn’t need anyone to consider and vote on laws anymore.

We’d be an actual democracy! Tax payers’ money would go to systems and services that the majority of those tax payers need and use! I’d vote for it.