274
13 Democratic Capitalism
undermined the constitution. It cannot be denied that disruptive innovators have tried
to replace our previous societal operating system by another, digital one, and that
they usually did not care much about democratic legitimacy.
In the meantime, we have seen where this can end. Some countries have implemented totalitarian police states, based on mass surveillance, behavioral control,
censorship and propaganda. Moreover, the underlying algorithms can be easily transferred to other countries. As time passes, it becomes increasingly clear that similar
principles are taking over in Western democracies as well. Sometimes, these principles are operated in grey zones, so most of the time, we do not know who is pulling
the (digital) strings. Clearly, there is a lack of transparency.
In the meantime, people are increasingly worried about the dystopian potentials
of digital technologies. They are losing trust. A new approach is needed. In the
following, I suggest to upgrade capitalism democratically. Capitalism’ success is
largely based on the idea of fair competition, while democracy’s success is based
on cooperation and collective intelligence. Marrying both systems would promote
“co-epetition”, a synergetic socio-economic system that would work like a symbiotic
ecosystem. In this connection, I would like to prose a number of measures:
– a better tax system,
– participatory steering boards,
– an information ecosystem,
– participatory budgeting,
– universal basic income,
– investment premiums,
– asset-backed money, and
– a socio-ecological finance system.
13.3 A Better Tax System
We are entering an age of Artificial Intelligence, where intelligent computer programs
and robots increasingly do our work.
23 However, while we have to pay massive
income taxes, robots are getting away for free. This is not fair, and it cannot work
for societies in the long run. It is a serious discrimination of humans, many of whom
may get unemployed and then be considered a burden of the social insurance system.
Moreover, they would probably have to be alimented by fewer and fewer people. It
is likely that the social insurance system would break down at some point in time.
However, what would replace income taxes? Besides value added tax (VAT), there
would be transaction fees (for financial transactions at stock markets). If more money
were needed, one could also tax the storage and transaction of information. This
would certainly lead to more environment-friendly IT business models. The current
approach is not sustainable at all. The electricity share spent on digital technology
23 Brynjolfsson and McAfee [5].
13 Democratic Capitalism
undermined the constitution. It cannot be denied that disruptive innovators have tried
to replace our previous societal operating system by another, digital one, and that
they usually did not care much about democratic legitimacy.
In the meantime, we have seen where this can end. Some countries have implemented totalitarian police states, based on mass surveillance, behavioral control,
censorship and propaganda. Moreover, the underlying algorithms can be easily transferred to other countries. As time passes, it becomes increasingly clear that similar
principles are taking over in Western democracies as well. Sometimes, these principles are operated in grey zones, so most of the time, we do not know who is pulling
the (digital) strings. Clearly, there is a lack of transparency.
In the meantime, people are increasingly worried about the dystopian potentials
of digital technologies. They are losing trust. A new approach is needed. In the
following, I suggest to upgrade capitalism democratically. Capitalism’ success is
largely based on the idea of fair competition, while democracy’s success is based
on cooperation and collective intelligence. Marrying both systems would promote
“co-epetition”, a synergetic socio-economic system that would work like a symbiotic
ecosystem. In this connection, I would like to prose a number of measures:
– a better tax system,
– participatory steering boards,
– an information ecosystem,
– participatory budgeting,
– universal basic income,
– investment premiums,
– asset-backed money, and
– a socio-ecological finance system.
13.3 A Better Tax System
We are entering an age of Artificial Intelligence, where intelligent computer programs
and robots increasingly do our work.
23 However, while we have to pay massive
income taxes, robots are getting away for free. This is not fair, and it cannot work
for societies in the long run. It is a serious discrimination of humans, many of whom
may get unemployed and then be considered a burden of the social insurance system.
Moreover, they would probably have to be alimented by fewer and fewer people. It
is likely that the social insurance system would break down at some point in time.
However, what would replace income taxes? Besides value added tax (VAT), there
would be transaction fees (for financial transactions at stock markets). If more money
were needed, one could also tax the storage and transaction of information. This
would certainly lead to more environment-friendly IT business models. The current
approach is not sustainable at all. The electricity share spent on digital technology
23 Brynjolfsson and McAfee [5].