Though we do not oppose the concept of patents as such, we believe that there are several issues with the current system that needs to be addressed. The three main issues with patents in modern society are:
Previously we argued that space settlements should invest in preventive medicine in order to reduce healthcare expenses. We discussed several causes of diseases and measures to deal with them. Here we will turn to another important cause of preventable diseases: alcohol. Continue reading Health policy II
The recent tragedy in West-London in which at least thirty people have died, is probably the result of a lack of investment in fire safety measures by the landlord. According to classical liberalism the principal duty of any government is to protect the life, health and property of its citizens. And in this case both local and national government has utterly failed to protect the residents of Grenfell Tower. Continue reading Housing cooperatives
The battle against “illegal” downloading seems to be unwinnable and hence the traditional model of rewarding authors, musicians and other creative artists need to be revised. In our opinion an alternative compensation system is the best solution to protecting intellectual rights in the digital age. Continue reading Data Download Tax
In modern economies there are three types of money
With penal labour we mean here what is usually known as community service or community payback – a non-custodial punishment in some jurisdictions around the world. We prefer the term penal labour in order to distinguish it from it from non-penal forms of community service and because it makes clear that this is a punishment. Continue reading “Penal labour”
This article is a primer to our manifesto The Mordan Ideology, which will published during 2015. This text is subject for revision.
The social-economic reforms we want to introduce in the Humanist Republic of Mordan, can be summarized as follows:
Part I
Social reformers of whatever kind has at some point to face the as inconvenient as inevitable conclusion, that the overall majority of the population is conservative. This folk conservatism is distinct from other types of conservatism, but its main tenets are fear for the unknown and hence an inclination towards the status quo.
Automation is a bless and a curse. On one hand it liberates humans from dangerous, monotonous and boring work, while on the other hand it takes jobs from people and hence their source of income. The latter is not without consequences. Continue reading Automation: challenges and solutions
Many people use the words “jail” and “prison” interchangeably. The distinction between this two typed of deprivation of liberty by the government is, however quite simple. Jail is the place were people are held before and during their trial. Prison is the place were we put convicted criminals.
When the police arrests someone, they will usually bring the arrested person first to the police station for [further] questioning. This stage usually takes several hours to a few days, and when it considered necessary to keep this person in custody for a longer period of time, the arrested will be transferred to jail.
The main purpose of keeping suspects in jail is to ensure they will show up in court, as it is difficult to convict people in absentia in many countries. Locking people up is, however, a drastic measure, in particular if one is suspected of a relatively minor crime.
There is a tension between jail and the presumption of innocence. This principle states that people should be held innocent unless proven otherwise. For liberal democracies this principle is of great importance as it protects citizens from arbitrary imprisonment. Before the authorities should be allowed to put you in prison, or to give you whatever punishment, they government should prove your guilt.
Because of this tension between protecting the rights of innocents on one hand and the desire to prevent suspects from fleeing the country, the concept of bail has been introduced. Bail is a sum of money one has to pay to leave jail, and this money is returned once one shows up in court (in your own trial). The height of this sum is set by the judge at a preliminary hearing.
In most cases suspects are allowed to leave jail if they pay bail, as most criminal court cases only involve minor crimes. There are, however, people who cannot pay bail, regardless of how low the bail is set. This is frustrating for poor suspects who are actually innocent, they are punished twice just for being poor as they are robbed of their liberty without due cause.
Bail is invented in more primitive ages, when technology was far less developed than today. Nowadays, we can prevent suspects from fleeing the country by electronic monitoring or in more extreme case with electronic house arrest. Hence in our opinion bail is outdated and should be abolished. Instead we are in favour of the following procedure:
At a pre-trial hearing the judge(s) should the decide whether a suspect should remain in jail (there are legitimate reasons to keep suspects in jail) or whether (s)he could await the trial in liberty. In the latter case it should be decided whether an additional measurements such electronic monitoring will be imposed. But in any way, if it is not necessary to remain in jail a suspect will be released regardless of his or her financial position.
