| Chapter
Six
Imagination is more
important than knowledge. For knowledge is limited to
all we now know and understand, while imagination embraces
the entire world, and all there ever will be to know
and understand.
Albert Einstein
Today there is a confluence
of the various needs for economic growth, productivity
and security issues to protect people from crime and
terrorism. And there is information technology available
that can handle these needs at the same time.
From the earliest human beginnings, we
have identified friend, foe and status through various
means such as facial structure, language, accents, ornaments,
tattoos, money, clothing and uniforms. Now we mostly
use paper, plastic and computers.
Computers and modern technologies are
starting to allow society to collect and coordinate
vast amounts of information. This leads to the possibility
of great productivity but also raises the fear that
your information is available to abuse or a potential
secret police state.
This can be prevented with instituting
Common Sense 2, which allows citizens to watch over
the elected “watchers.” Therefore, the benefits of computerized
information can be combined with the protection of individual
freedom. This can be done by using a universal account
that we call UCount. It would employ an integration
of information systems, using biometrics and Identification
(ID) cards to record, use and protect your financial,
health, educational and other records.
This system can rescue us from an ocean
of paperwork and bureaucracy. It also can eliminate
as much as 25 percent or more of the cost of administering
our healthcare, education, taxation and other government
services and address many security issues.
In 2005, we still use computers to create
separate and redundant databases for virtually every
small business, hospital, doctor's office, insurance
office and most government offices. UCount would eventually
consolidate most of these databases, so that it is stored
in one public system while individuals own and control
their information. One would have the right to rent
out his information to private businesses. Say you want
an advertiser to have your address, email address or
phone number so you can receive their offers. You could
choose to allow that. If anyone or a business wants
to rent or use your information in the archive, he first
would have to get your permission.
In most of the developed nations, 20-50
percent of the jobs and associated activities are moving
information around and duplicating databases that already
exist. Too much of everyone's time is spent filling
out forms or giving the same information over and over.
This no longer would be necessary.
In addition to the economic benefit of
UCount, there is a security benefit for our world filled
with weapons of mass destruction and subject to storms,
earthquakes, pandemics and other natural disasters.
Today the security priority for the world is the war
against terrorism. And we all want our families to be
protected from criminals.
We can take all forms of identification,
such as driver's licenses, credit cards, health cards,
etc., and initially put this into the current credit
card structure for a national/international ID system.
Eventually, using biometrics, we can eliminate the cards
by using iris scans, finger prints, facial recognition
and other techniques.
This also would eliminate the need for
passports, visas and many of the paperwork IDs that
we use. Already there are efforts in this area: computerized
ID cards in Hong Kong for people going to and from the
mainland; a national ID card being worked on in England;
debit cards used extensively instead of cash throughout
Europe, and in the United States an effort toward fingerprinting
and photographing visitors so that they can easily pass
back and forth across the borders. International standards
are already being discussed.
ID cards with integrated biometrics communicating
with the unified database could replace driver's licenses,
social security cards, credit cards, green cards, watch
lists, etc. It also could replace most information stored
in small, usually unsecured computer systems. The UCount
system would be available and applicable at all levels:
an individual company or local, state and national governments.
Already at most large businesses and organizations,
ID cards or badges are required, but they are not standardized.
None of this can happen immediately. The
process of testing and instituting this system could
take 5-10 years. Should someone lose a card, there must
be a way to give them a temporary one for 24 to 72 hours
to find out and make sure that we validate that person's
identity and right to their accounts, information, etc.
This would be similar to the approach used for door
lock cards at hotels. They can be easily changed and
replaced if lost. Eventually, a cell phone combined
with a voice controlled computer, TV, camera, entertainment
and information capabilities will bring every person
online and allow access into the global knowledge system.
This will be tied into the UCount and Common Sense 2
systems.
We essentially could end up having a master
account for each individual in the United States , and
eventually the world, and for each business or social
organization. This would allow economies of scale for
public databases concerning health and personnel issues,
educational records, and many other aspects of handling
information.
This system would have tremendous implications
for eliminating the paperwork of taxation. It would
only require a master bank account for every individual
and business and that all transactions must flow through
it. Most transactions would be conducted with the UCount
ID Card. Any cash a business took in daily sales would
have to be deposited within 24 hours in its master account.
If someone were paid for work in cash, when they spent
it at a store, restaurant or other business, it would
then be deposited back into the system immediately.
The system also would allow us to stop
almost all drug or other criminal money laundering.
Transactions would become transparent. We could see
where money came from and where it is being spent. Everyone
and every business would leave a trail of records as
you earned money, paid bills, traveled, ate out, had
doctor appointments or earned grades at school.
All the taxes currently collected in the
United States at the national, state and local levels
could be replaced by a simple paperless system that
collected as much as needed. For example, 10% of all
business transactions could go toward taxes daily. There
would be no taxes on the first $50,000 of income; the
tax rate between $50,000 and $100,000 would be 10%;
the tax rate between $100,000 and $150,000 could be
25% and above $150,000 the tax rate would be 33.3%.
The only additional tax would be a transaction tax (transtax),
which could be one-tenth to one-hundredth of 1% every
time money moved from one account to another. The transtax
could be adjusted to encourage certain activities or
discourage excessive speculation. This would produce
approximately $4 trillion in the 2005 U.S. economy with
no paperwork.
This would save millions of hours of paperwork,
recordkeeping and tax preparation now costing more than
half a trillion dollars each year. There would be no
need for tax shelters, off-shore banking or special
tax breaks. This would collect enough in revenue to
cover federal, state, county and city taxes. It would
eliminate withholding taxes – social security and Medicare
taxes, property taxes, utility bill taxes, etc. Parking
meters wouldn't even be necessary except to keep spaces
open in front of businesses.
Every person and business could invest
in whatever projects they thought most economically
viable. The public would own the system and collect
from every activity, similar to a casino which doesn't
care what people bet on or who wins, as long as the
house gets a piece of the action. The free-market system
would determine the economic winners, losers and output
and the public would take a share out of the electronic
money flows.
The Common Sense 2 system would allow
the managers of the free-market system to freely work
under the public's scrutiny. This oversight would prevent
fraud and corruption and the records would be available
continuously enforcing accountability.
You would have a records check at least
once a year. You would go over your records, whether
it's at a government office, online or over the telephone.
There may be discrepancies or mistakes that you want
to correct. You could lodge protests or initiate corrections
to adjudicate these types of issues, just as there are
processes now with your credit report if you think there
is erroneous information on it. Obviously, just because
you dispute something, that doesn't mean it's automatically
going to be decided that you're right and the business
or other source of information is wrong. If your health,
financial or educational records have an error, you
would have a chance to correct this through a fair process.
UCount can give the U.S. and the world
an accurate system that can account for the present,
analyze the past and predict the best future financial
plans. It also will give us the tools to schedule work,
universal service, social needs and even vacations to
minimize crowding and long lines. It could increase
productivity two to four times or more as we institute
this on national and then global levels.
The UCount system will allow the economy
to function with minimal paperwork. No one would have
to give the same information repeatedly and keep records
for tax purposes. The system would have a record of
almost all transactions. It would function like a personal
assistant for a rich person, and we could just go about
our business and enjoy our lives.
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