CIVIC CREDITS

Proposal:

            To introduce a 'civic credit' account system for every citizen, -- in parallel to the official monetary currency to facilitate trading, financing etc. -- to encourage societal valuation of contributions, services, information, ideas, that are or cannot be captured within the monetary system.

            Such a 'currency' would serve several purposes:

-    as a reward mechanism for cooperative, community service activity (including information, creative ideas, participation in community life);

-    as an 'empowerment' mechanism for holding community decision-making positions (a certain amount of credit points needed to be put up as 'performance bond'  for such positions, to be used up with each decision, 'lost' by poor decisions and violation of laws, agreements, and additional credits earned by successful decisions;

-    as a mechanism for reducing the need for prosecution and punitive 'law enforcement' for many kinds of minor violations.

            A slightly 'futuristic' scenario of the implementation of such a system might be the following:

            All citizens carry a device (implant?) that stores 'civic credit points' as well as all the information currently carried on separate 'cards' documenting 'licenses' to carry out specific activities ('driver license', voter registration'; bank account and credit card, proof of insurance of various lines etc.  There would be several 'categories' of credit and 'license' points. All the information is contained only on this device, not in the government (or any other) central data bank where only the personal identification name and e.g. social security number is stored -- which will serve as the ID for all other licenses and accounts. All 'points of transaction' will be able to scan and check the ID and account levels for the person involved in the transaction, adding or subtracting the respective currency points. A simple example: traffic violations such as speeding or running red lights (currently checked with video cameras that report back to a center which then issues and mails the ticket, an enormously cumbersome and expensive process) would be recorded by the personal device when passing the check point and automatically subtracts credit points (or monetary fines) from its accounts, which when 'overdrawn' will result in canceling the driving license; just as the device can check for the driver's being under the influence of alcohol or drugs and automatically deactivate the ignition (which itself is activated only by the owner's  and authorized person's ID devices, reducing the danger of auto theft..)

            Civic credit points can be earned in various ways: through education and training, the successful completion of which may be demonstrated by passing tests or demonstrating skills and performance; by community service, apprentice or internship activity; through participation in the public discourse; where 'basic participation points' will be modified by the community's overall assessment of plausibility, quality and significance of the information, proposals and arguments contributed (see argument evaluation process and argument evaluation game >> Appendix …) and – for public governance positions, -- through the demonstration of successful work and decisions.

            People aspiring to positions of power can do so only upon having accumulated sufficient 'credit' in the form of competency, education, public service, skills points that can be deposited as 'performance bond' as well as activation means for making decisions:  Implementation of a decision either in government or private enterprise will require activation by 'paying' for the right to make the decision with credit points. Successful decisions will earn additional points; less successful decisions will deplete the points account of the person, effectively reducing his or her 'power'.

            Success and quality of performance can be measured by means of a combination of variables, one of which should be a measure of the increase or decrease in citizen's quality of life respectively value of affordable occasion opportunities. [>>> Appendix … Measures of performance / 21 Occasion opportunity value.

            Political support for candidates to power positions might be effected by transferring credit points (instead of / in addition to money) from citizens to the candidate -- up to the limit of each citizen's civic credit account. This could help reduce the influence of money in political campaigns, and introduce some influence of civic responsibility to the 'weight' of individual citizen's 'voice'.  

            The introduction of such a system will require more research and discussion, and will have to be done incrementally.

Diagram: