The answer is not to let charity solve them, nor to solicit contributions from the few who can afford to give to yet another problem. We must all be enabled to spend our discretionary taxes, in an immediate manner, to whatever project, charity, program or event we wish.

If the legislatures were to enable each citizen to spend a portion of his taxes on the problem he feels needs the funds the most, in a real time basis, by way of an InterNet like public access system.

In this way, the legislature would not have to involve itself in allocating funds to thousands of little known projects, leaving the decision to the individual citizen by way of cybernetic empowerment. Discretionary funds are those not needed for national defense or foreign affairs, according to the US Constitution. What funds are deemed discretionary is of course a complex political decision in itself.

Only then will the feeling of powerlessness upon seeing the nightly litanies of seemingly unsolvable problems disappear. The family would transform itself into the new branch of government, direct power for the people and of the people.

In a few year's time, all such access will be done via the integration of computers and televisions, into the Interactive Television. It should be a right of all families to have an affordable access to an ITV set. Technical details are not important here, suffice it to say that by a simple click of an ITV remote a citizen would be able to assign funds to a need while seeing it on ITV.

Each family would have assigned to it its allotment of discretionary funds, according to its tax liability. The idea is to be able to spend a portion of your taxes any way you see fit, to solve urgent national or international social and ecological problems, on a real time basis. Taxes would cease to be a burden and would become a tool to be used for the benefit of Life.

If a family or individual does not desire to participate in this form of empowerment, he could cede a portion of his allocation to whatever qualifying organization or institution he wishes to, including churches, political parties, ecological groups and advocacy groups. Such assignment could be altered at real time as well. In this manner, political activity will become much more intense, as the action does not have to wait for fund raising campaigns of any sort.

The founding fathers would have beamed their approval to such an arrangement, if it is well planned and carefully crafted. We must leave behind the methods of the past when decisions were funneled only through representatives or intermediaries. In the cybernetic age, there is no absolute need for such traditional representation. The legislature must become a debating body wielding the power of the direct will of the people in Real time. It's about Time!

Atlanta,
April 9, 1996