For human beings, there are only two means of getting others to do what we want: persuasion and compulsion. Persuasion is peaceful. Compulsion is not.
So, a principle surfaces:
Given that compulsion deprives others of happiness, we shall endeavor to use persuasion in all of our human relationships.
This is part of a philosophy developed by an entrepreneur named Chris Rufer. He calls it the Philosophy of Human Respect. And the really interesting thing is, he built a successful enterprise on that very philosophy.
In other words, Rufer understands that a thriving business, like a flourishing civilization, is ultimately built on cooperative relationships. Given that reality, he wanted to know: How can we reorganize society to better facilitate cooperative relationships?
A World Without Bosses
Compulsion, whether in threatening violence or holding someone’s job over his head, diminishes his agency, his sense of personal efficacy, and ultimately his happiness.
So, Rufer decided to build his business on three fundamental principles:
First, don’t threaten;
Then, honor your commitments.
And finally, the mission—not the man—is the boss…
Sounds impossible, right? Well, consider that the Morning Star Packing Company produces the majority of tomato paste products in the United States. The facilities are massive, and Morning Star employs thousands of people.
Yet many businesses are NOT built that way. In fact, many businesses are built on command-and-control hierarchies that run counter to these principles. That is, most businesses run on different assumptions, namely: Threatening employees frightens them into compliance with the boss’s orders; The boss’s commands are far more important than the employee’s commitments to serve the mission, and the boss is the boss—the mission is just feel-good fluff they talk about at the company picnic.
Yet Rufer has proven his happiness hypothesis over and over again at Morning Star Packing Company. So, he wants to take it further. Rufer wants to know: Can we banish the threat to compel or coerce the innocent from all social life? Can we take free cooperation to a societal scale?
Okay, so I want to answer that question, not just by answering in the affirmative. I also want to talk about how such a crazy idea might work for society.
Subscription Government
For a lot of people, this crazy idea will sound crazier than the modern republic must have sounded to King George III. But bear with me. This podcast is dedicated to overcoming failures of imagination. In this case, the idea is called “panarchy,” which sounds weird. You won’t find that term in a Super Bowl ad. Instead, let’s call it “subscription government.”
In other words, what if, instead of registering with a political party, each adult subscribed to a governance association? Imagine also that there weren’t just two governance associations, but two hundred. All would be competing for your membership. This array of options would give Americans far more choices about how they live their lives, with whom they conduct their business, and what kind of contribution they want to make to their communities and to society.
It would also create tighter accountability loops for everything. Instead of fighting against those who would shove their way down yours and everyone else’s throats, you would join up with people who share your life philosophy. Then, any conflicts between governance associations would be settled in court.
Examples
Okay, this is still pretty abstract at this point. So let’s look at some examples. To keep things simple, let’s imagine the menu for bundled subscription services had only three items: Welfare, Justice, and Education.
Association A offers comprehensive social Welfare benefits, such as health coverage, unemployment insurance, and retirement. A’s Justice package covers legal protection in the event you are arrested or sued. And A’s Education component covers all member-children’s education benefits through college. Association A charges each member 10 percent of income, up to $150,000, then 15 percent for those earning more.
Association B emphasizes self-responsibility, personal ownership, and freedom of choice. B’s Welfare package provides catastrophic health coverage, health savings accounts, individual retirement funds, and unemployment savings plans supplemented by a voluntary mutual-aid network. B’s Justice package focuses on legal defense, property-rights protection, contract enforcement, and private arbitration services. And B’s Education component funds students rather than institutions. B charges based on an à la carte arrangement, but ends up being between 8-10 percent of income, with exceptions for low-income subscribers.
Monopolies Suck
Getting the idea?
In school, we learned that monopolies are bad for consumers. Higher costs, lower quality, and no alternatives. Governments are just monopolies with guns and jails. But competition, which includes the option to leave the association, creates tighter accountability loops.
Read more about accountability loops at Underthrow.org.
You also wouldn’t have to move out of state to avail of such services. Most of the federal government would become obsolete. States and local governments might continue to cover infrastructure, policing, and emergency services. Or, various region-specific governance associations would pop up to compete for your membership at the local level. Different associations offer different service bundles.
Skeptical?
If you’re still skeptical that entrepreneurship in governance services is possible, or think that government must be some monolithic ‘all things to all people,’ then why not just legalize Subscription Governance and see what happens? All it would take is making it easy for individuals to opt out of one system and into another.
Look, maybe I am crazy. Maybe the wildly successful Chris Rufer is, too. But at least Rufer has demonstrated that uncompelled cooperation based on colleagues’ commitments and accountabilities can scale beyond what anyone ever thought possible. If we agree that you threatening innocent people with violence to get your way is wrong, we have to consider that politicians threatening people to get their way are probably wrong, too. But if humanity had an opportunity to try subscription governance services, it might just work.
And it might just be the right thing to do.
Disclosure: I work for the Foundation for Harmony and Prosperity, a charitable entity established by Chris Rufer.
