Someone on Quora asked me, “How would you live your life differently if money were not an issue?”

It would be easier to fix democracy

I’m working on http://PeopleCount.org/how.htm , which is going to change humanity, allowing us to design our future and build it. It’s starting with America, but another country and two international groups have already expressed interest.

The basic idea is to look newly at:  What is political accountability? Specifically, accountability to citizens. So I looked and when I saw what it really is, the sad state of American politics made sense! Real political accountability is just not possible in our current political system- there’s just no support for what it needs. So I committed to build it, without funding.

Without money, creating political accountability has taken years

Without money, I spent too much time looking for funding. And few potential cofounders could afford to join me. So I wasted a few years before I committed my own meagre savings. And I must shop around for low-cost off-shore development instead of having a dedicated team in-house (like Brigade.com has). Unfortunately, my first team revealed that it was run by someone who was immature. He unpredictably threw a temper tantrum and stopped working, so we lost a month and some money.

If money were not an issue, democracy would be fixed

If money were not an issue 6 months ago, PeopleCount would be up today (including with mobile apps) and you’d be floored by how bright the future looks. By now, people would be speculating on how a future of world peace and prosperity has become possible. (Note: the current site is an old, partial prototype…)

If money were not an issue and I had $250k today, we’d have a bigger team. And we’d hire a marketing firm to help and could afford more marketing so would have even more certainty of success. And I’d hire 2-4 sales people.

If money were not an issue and I had $500k today, I’d rent some office space so the three others that are helping could work together full time, instead of just evenings and weekends. And I’d take a small salary and have insurance benefits so I could stop my horrible Cobra plan and my wife could sleep at night.

Things are okay – rejuvenating American democracy is near

But the way things are, we’re adding pinching pennies to our daily actions and plans. It’s not too bad. Unlike many people in the world, we have a home, hot water, food and security. And we’ll still probably succeed.

We have to. Too many people are dying, starving, stressing, and too many governments are out of touch with their people. Here in America, we have gridlock and belligerence instead of problem solving, and America is no longer a democracy. While many movers and shakers seemed to be concerned about it, none of them have a viable plan and all of them have strong opposition.

My only opposition is my own human frailty, and the momentum of the status quo.

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