In Radical Markets – Uprooting Capitalism and Democracy for a Just Society (Amazon,) the authors propose a number of “radical” ideas to fix democracy and capitalism. It is a riveting read, especially if you find the current system lacking in a number of areas.
Two ideas that stood out:
- To fix corruption in property assessments for taxation, allow owner self-assessments, publish those prices and allow anybody to pay that price to the owner and occupy the property. Radical but effective!
- Get rid of one-person-one-vote by allowing people to trade their “voice credits.” The buyer of these voice credits owns a square-root of those may votes. For example, if someone is very passionate about building a steel fly-over, they can start buying these VCs from citizens who are indifferent to it. A 100 such VCs translate to 10 votes in favor. This can then be defeated by 11 individual voters who cast one vote each. A near perfect solution to make sure that minority voices are not swamped by majoritarian rule while still making sure that the majority carries!
Some of the ideas around trading VCs and voting mechanisms can be implemented within smaller groups – apartment building associations, for example – right away. However, the ideas around immigration might never see the light of day. The book is worth a read even if you are not looking for radical ideas – the authors set the current problems that our systems face in their historical context.
The logical end point of institutional investment and diversification is the coordination of all capital to extract maximum wealth from consumers and workers.
A simple but Radical reform can prevent this dystopia: ban institutional investors from diversifying their holdings within industries while allowing them to diversify across industries.
Recommendation: Must Read!