A Long-Term Solution

A question that has been on my mind for a few years now is: How is change most easily brought about?

At first, I thought the answer was individuals making changes in their own lives. Certainly, this has some value, but I soon realized that it is extremely difficult to make change in society in this way.

More recently, I have thought about and participated in the idea of mass protest. This certainly is more effective than individual change. But let us think in very simple terms here. Say the thing you are protesting against is the use of public funds to finance a new highway. While you and your fellow protesters are marching down Maple Street with your signs, yelling your catch phrases, the construction crews are busy pouring concrete five miles away. There is no direct connection between the protest and the thing you are protesting against.The construction goes on and those in power happily ignore you.

So what is at the heart of the matter, then? In many cases, it is money. Without money, those in power cannot fund the projects that you don’t like. The money obviously comes from taxes. You get taxed on your income. No income equals no money for the project.

But are you going to just stop working? Hell no. First of all, you won’t do almost any good by yourself. The government won’t miss your $10,000 in yearly taxes. More importantly, how are you going to pay your rent and feed yourself?

So what I have been thinking about lately is unions. Multi-industry unions, so that you’re not just fighting for your own working conditions, but the policies that affect many people in the country. These unions would have to have a large bank account. You pay your union dues, which essentially become a savings account for when the union goes on strike. If a large portion of the union agrees strongly enough for or against a policy, they can instantly go on strike. Imagine 25% of the income taxes suddenly disappearing. Do you think the government would notice you then? Do you think the government might notice you more than if you were marching in the street holding a sign up? Hell, the government would be so scared that even the mention of a strike would greatly influence policy.

If you look at our current system, the best way we have of creating change is elections. Unfortunately, in our current system we really only get two choices many times. Candidate A who you agree with 10% of the time and Candidate B who you agree with 20% of the time. And you only get to choose at most every two years. That simply isn’t good enough. We’re being forced to vote on one issue, if that.

I think that my method that I described above would significantly speed up the transition from public opinion to public policy. I’ll be thinking about this much more in the coming weeks and hopefully discussing it with my book club and other friends and family.