Society owes you for the first 18 years of your life, you owe the society for the next 50 years, accounts get reconciled for the rest of your life.

 

When a child is born, society has a responsibility (say, X dollar credits, plus Y dollars from the biological parents) to the child. Through the government, this responsibility translates to depleting this account, till child completes High School / College, against expenditure on health, food, education and if required boarding. Parents can add to credit of the child by meeting some expenditure on this. The delinquent child looses credit faster, which will need to be made up through military / social service, etc. As adult, the person now contributes to society based on the personal threshold condition and on the sum total requirement of the number of children, senior citizens and handicapped adults at that point in time in the society. Failure to meet this would make the person’s account be in debit and consequent loss of opportunities for personal enhancement. Society can dictate the bare minimum food and lodging for these adults and put such people to work in areas short of manpower. As a Senior Citizen, the society now guarantees all those in good standing a minimum level of life requirements. To this can be added the credits (money) earned by individuals out of their own successes.

 

Currently, despite having Social Security numbers, the individual is not recognized. Government schemes and society’s largesse need to be better targeted to its constituents.

 

A child can go to better schools, eat better food, stay in better lodgings based on no pending debits and credits earned as they pass through stage-gates at Lower, Middle and High School related ages. As adults, they get access to the better resources in all aspects of their lifestyle. Ultimately, all members of that society benefit.

 

In a few years, we would have the technology to do currency transactions without a plastic card. All government related transactions would move to this system. It will take place at every Point of Contact through a combination of biometrics and an All-in-one Smart card. Every person would have a default account within the government regulated system which maintains the overall tax collected and apportioned off for each individual. The individuals would, however, have their separate personal accounts for all the non-government related expenditure and income as it exists now.

 

This would be a gradually evolving system. Existing government supported schemes like Medicare, Social Security,etc. would go online in terms of payment at stores, hospitals, etc. instead of checks in mail to the beneficiaries. It would avoid misuse, misappropriation, theft and protection from fraud. As new births takes place, the adoption of the cashless government monies and the introduction of the monetary credits traded system should take root. Measure of Success depends on how fast the government can roll out pilot programs in various towns and in ironing out the kinks. It will take a couple of generations to decide its success. But we need to start somewhere.

By: Joseph Paul

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