We can restore Democracy by disrupting politics. Here’s how. – Emergent Culture – Medium. Liquefying Democracy The centerpiece of this approach is a new model of governance called “liquid democracy”. When you think about it, our current political architecture is way out of date. Every few years, people play this odd game of selecting from among a handful of individuals some (one) person to “represent” them on a wide variety of issues, at some distant location, for years at a time. Two hundred fifty years ago, when hand written notes delivered by horses was cutting edge, this approach made a lot of sense.
Today it makes about as much sense as printing out your email. Yet this approach to governance is the very heart of our current political architecture and nearly everything we don’t like about the current system is anchored on this model. Replace that piece and you sidestep most of the current systems of control. This is precisely what liquid democracy does. Of course, no-one could possibly keep up with such a chore. Accordingly, what I’m going to propose below is wrong. Oh. This simple negotiation tactic brought 195 countries to consensus. Economist Robert Gordon has spent his career studying what makes the US labor force one of the world’s most productive. And he has some bad news. American workers still produce some of most economic activity per hour of any economy in the world.
But the near-miraculous productivity growth that essentially transformed the US into one of the world’s most affluent societies is permanently in the country’s rearview mirror. In his magisterial new book, The Rise and Fall of American Growth, the Northwestern University professor lays out the case that the productivity miracle underlying the American way of life was largely a one-time deal. By comparison, Gordon argues, today’s technological advancements—Uber, Facebook, Amazon.com—will touch the productivity of the American economy lightly—if at all. Gordon visited Quartz’s New York offices recently to talk about his book. Quartz: I can’t think of a better day for you to have come in. Robert Gordon: That’s even worse than my book forecast. No. This Is What Happened When Sweden Adopted A 6-Hour WorkDay.
A group of nurses in Sweden decided to cut their workday by two hours and reported increased levels of happiness, productivity, and improved patient outcomes. Credit: The Guardian Time is a precious commodity – what would you do with more hours in your day? This question has been posed for eons, but only in recent years has become truly relevant. Many people – especially Americans – work far more than the advocated 40 hours per week, and, in effect, are experiencing intolerable levels of stress (which inevitably causes health and happiness to decline). Always in quest to obtain ‘more’ and pay off debt, few take time to ‘smell the roses’ and enjoy life, quite simply because they feel they can’t. But what if a solution was offered that allowed everyone to work only 6 hours a day? As The Guardian reports, a group of nurses working at a nursing home in Sweden decided to institute a six-hour workday, hoping to increase productivity and improve their quality of life. What are your thoughts?
Exarchia, The Town In Athens Greece That Is Keeping The Government Out And Starting Anew. As the economic and political systems continue to crumble and collapse in Greece, a district in Athens is growing in strength and independence after large numbers of individuals began to keep the government out and empower their own community. Although Exarchia is in the shadow of the country’s capital city, it has become a hotbed of freedom and mutual aid programs during a dark time for the whole country.
Due to the rising freedom in the area, people from all over have begun to move in and help to build the community. The mainstream media has demonized the community and has painted it as a stronghold for anarchists, drug dealers, criminals and homeless people, and the community has become understandably resistant to the mainstream media as a result. The media, the police, and government officials are not welcome in the territory and are rarely brave enough to pass through, knowing that the community is united and defiant in their resistant to the establishment.
Brazil Is Giving Ayahuasca To Prison Inmates On Their Path To Redemption. In a quest to ease pressures on the Brazilian prison system, mental health workers have opted to give prison inmates the psychedelic brew ayahuasca, in the hopes of helping them to work through their deeply-rooted emotional traumas. It is no secret that the current prison system is in shambles. Over crowded holding spaces, abusive staff, unsanitary living conditions – these types of environments are rarely conducive to redemption and rehabilitation, but instead almost always seed further violence, aggression, and feelings of alienation from society. While some prisons are now offering holistic services such as yoga, meditation, and Reiki, prisoners’ rights advocacy group Acuda is taking it one step further, offering Brazilian prisoners a real shot at a new life through the use of the traditional Amazonian brew, ayahuasca. “This is how it should be,” said Virgílio Siqueira, 55, a retired police officer who works as a guard at the prison complex that includes Acuda.
Source: The NY Times. This Billionaire Governor Taxed the Rich and Increased the Minimum Wage -- Now, His State's Economy Is One of the Best in the Country | Carl Gibson. The next time your right-wing family member or former high school classmate posts a status update or tweet about how taxing the rich or increasing workers' wages kills jobs and makes businesses leave the state, I want you to send them this article. When he took office in January of 2011, Minnesota governor Mark Dayton inherited a $6.2 billion budget deficit and a 7 percent unemployment rate from his predecessor, Tim Pawlenty, the soon-forgotten Republican candidate for the presidency who called himself Minnesota's first true fiscally-conservative governor in modern history.
Pawlenty prided himself on never raising state taxes -- the most he ever did to generate new revenue was increase the tax on cigarettes by 75 cents a pack. Between 2003 and late 2010, when Pawlenty was at the head of Minnesota's state government, he managed to add only 6,200 more jobs. During his first four years in office, Gov. Between 2011 and 2015, Gov. Gov. The reason Gov. Welcome | Transition Network.