Privatized Socialism

I was discussing our treatment of prisoners in the U.S. with some friends when I got what I think is an ingenious idea.

Part of the Left wants the government to socialize a bunch of things, most notably medicine.  Socialized medicine has some very great benefits.  It is based on the idea that healthcare is a universal need that is often too expensive for a significant portion of the population to afford.  In the U.S., medical debt is not uncommon, but more importantly, many of the lower class don't seek medical care when they need it, because it is too expensive.  A majority of medical care is not related to dangerous or self destructive behavior.  It is the result of disease, genetic disorders, living conditions, working conditions, or accidents that are not easily avoidable.  In short, most harm requiring medical care is not the fault of the person needing it.  Withholding that care for financial reasons is completely unreasonable, especially in such a wealthy society.  At the same time though, who is going to pay for it?  How do we keep things fair by providing necessary medical care without the apparent unfairness of taking wealth from others to pay for it?

This is not the only case where fairness demands both that something expensive be provided to those who cannot afford it and that rights of ownership are respected.  I have said before that death by starvation is not an acceptable punishment for laziness.  We also have mentally ill prisoners who are not entirely responsible for their actions but cannot be allowed their freedom without treatment, so they will no longer be a threat to society.  We have a political movement for abolishing the death penalty, but we also have prisoners who are too dangerous to let out but who's upkeep burden should not be thrust on the public against its will.  These are all very expensive problems.  Some we already charge to the people, even though a significant number see it as completely unfair.  Some we ignore, allowing some people to suffer for the fairness of others.

So, the other day I told a friend that the problem with abolishing the death penalty, aside from the rare prisoner that can still cause significant harm even in prison (for example mob bosses, who can orchestrate murders from their cells), is the cost.  Charging the public for the upkeep of prisoners who are too dangerous to ever release causes economic harm, violating the purpose of the justice system (which is to protect the people).  I suggested, instead of spending millions of dollars lobbying the government to abolish the death penalty, these groups should pay for the upkeep of these prisoners, thereby justifying keeping them alive.  This would retain the death penalty as a means of dealing with people who are literally too dangerous to keep alive, and it would alleviate the economic burden of keeping less dangerous people alive, who cannot be released, by allowing those who can and are willing to afford it to foot the bill.

This idea can, and in my option should, be extended to many other things, it if can be done successfully.  It would require one essential thing: The government would need to be willing to work with non-profits.

If enough people were willing to donate, a non-profit could be created that would provide a basic income to everyone in the U.S.  The best, and probably the only reasonable, distribution system for the money would be the IRS.  So, the IRS would have to work with the NPO, where the NPO provides the money and the IRS distributes it.  This could be done fairly efficiently through the IRS.  Even better though, no one would have to worry above government overreach.  The non-profit and the donors could decide controversial things, such as whether or not the funding should be distributed only to U.S. citizens or to all U.S. residents.  The actual amount distributed would be decided based on available funding.  The only government overhead would be the marginal extra work for the IRS, working the additional funds into its existing distribution.

Perhaps the best part about all of this is that it completely transcends politics.  Congress does not get to vote on whether or not to have a basic income, if it is being provided by a non-profit.  A Republican controlled Congress cannot cut the basic income to balance the budget, and a Democrat controlled Congress cannot increase government spending to raise the basic income.  The government would not have to foot the bill at all, and the only control it would have over it would be the cooperation of the IRS.  If a similar non-profit was created for a single payer medical system, it would get even better though: Medicaid would become entirely obsolete.  The government could easily cut the program (or cut it down to merely a distribution system for the funds raised by the NPO), balance the budget better, and maybe even start reducing its debt, and we would still get a decent medical system!  Add to this the prisoner related things, and our criminal justice system would cost far less.  In the long run, we could expect to see significant tax reductions, at the same time as expanding social programs and improving the fairness and living conditions of our country.

Crowdfunding is supposedly some big new thing invented in the 21st century, but in reality, it has existed for all of recorded human history.  Taxation is the involuntary crowd funding of government.  Charities facilitate the voluntary crowd funding of welfare.  I believe we can bring these things together.  Obviously the core of government and of our justice system needs to be funded, whether people are willing to donate voluntarily or not, but many, perhaps even a majority, of government programs can be crowd funded, and if they can, they should be.

The costs of crowd funding peripheral  government programs include potentially reduced efficiency and less government control over those programs.  The potential benefits include greater overall funding, especially for more popular programs, better distribution channels for charities (the IRS can distribute funds far better than any charity), more direct ability to influence programs for the general public (which means improved democratic process), the ability for people to choose whether or not to support a given program, and a much leaner government, all at the same time as providing the same or better services.

Yes, one potential problem is that some programs just won't get funded.  Not only is that already a problem (do you see a basic income), it is also not a problem with crowdfunding.  The U.S. is supposed to be a democratic nation.  What is more democratic than voting with your wallet?  There are exceptions, but in general it is accurate to say that if the people will not voluntarily fund a program, then the people don't want that program, and in a truly democratic nation, that justifies allowing the program to collapse and disappear.  There are a few programs that need funding regardless, like the military, the FDA, and the FCC.  Critical defensive and regulatory agencies should at least get minimal funding to continue sufficient operation.  Programs for social welfare, highly controversial agencies, scientific research (NASA, perhaps), and broadly socialized services (e.g. a single payer medical system), however, can and should be crowdfunded.

By crowdfunding these things, they become depoliticized.  Crowdfunding basic income and a single payer medical system eliminates the ability of Democratic candidates to essentially buy the votes of the poor by promising these things.  It also eliminates the ability of Republican candidates to buy the votes of the rich by promising to cut taxes by eliminating these programs.  The government can (and again, should) still be involved, as it is uniquely positioned to aid in distribution.  Adding a basic income to tax returns is something trivial for the IRS, because it already has a distribution system in place.  The Medicaid program already has a massive support network throughout the U.S., allowing it to provide coverage nearly everywhere.  Replacing Medicaid's underlying funding and qualification system with a universal single payer system funded by one or more NPOs would be a little more difficult than the basic income, but it would still be significantly easier than one or multiple NPOs trying to cut new deals with a wide enough network of health care providers to actually function as a single payer system.  For death row prisoners, having their support be crowdfunded to indefinitely delay execution, the criminal justice system is an essential element, but again, allowing one or more NPOs to provide that funding would be trivial.  The same applies for prisoners who need treatment for mental illness.  In all cases, the government is an essential element, but it can run leaner and avoid the distraction of controversial issues if the funding and management of these programs are outsourced to NPOs that are funded through voluntary donations.

We do not need the government to initiate this either.  We can do it ourselves.  The movement for abolishing the death penalty has enough money and influence that it could immediately start lobbying state governments to allow them to pay prisoner upkeep to delay execution, and most state governments would be far more amenable to this offer than the demand that the death penalty be abolished entirely.  There are also lobbying groups for medical reform and welfare that could easily shift their focus from trying to convince the government to provide more services to trying to provide those services themselves through a donation model.  Environmentalist groups could work with the EPA to offer better return on carbon credits.  They could work with state governments to offer credits for logging companies to avoid important habitats and replant wherever they go.  In fact, U.S. environmentalist groups could even work with other governments to provide incentives for companies to act more responsibly.  (For example, instead of spending tons of money on boats, helicopters, and other equipment to terrorize Japanese whaling boats, they could work with the Japanese government to offer incentives to whalers to reduce their quotas.)  Of course, I think we need to get things in our own country under control first, but this could eventually expand to the entire world, with international NPOs that help shape policy and behavior by offering to help instead of arguing and fighting.  The government does not have to buy into this before we can start trying to drive change.  All we need is reasonable government cooperation, and we can do the rest ourselves, and we can start now!

I believe crowdfunded peripheral programs is the next evolution of government.  It can reduce government overreach, reduce necessary size of government, reduce government corruption, increase overall freedom and liberty, and produce a better society that better fits the desires and expectations of the people.  I don't know if we are ready enough for it to ensure that it will always be sufficiently funded, but I think now is the time to start moving in that direction.