In the last post we saw the current solutions for the problem of money in politics – reducing the amount that wealthy people can contribute to campaigns, and increasing the amount the masses contribute, through a tax rebate.

Plus we saw an analogy to the Drug War. These solutions are like trying to limit the supply of drugs, or also supplying legal drugs. Neither of these solve the drug problem.

A solution to drug addiction points to a solution for money in politics

Watch this TED talk to see the real solution to America’s drug problem. People take drugs because they lead disconnected, unhealthy lives. Portugal took three steps to effectively solve most of its drug problems. It decriminalized drug use. It eliminated its drug war and used that money to help addicts reconnect into society and lead healthy lives. They began 15 years ago. It worked.

To rephrase what they did- by helping addicts reconnect into society, they no longer needed drugs. Most addicts aren’t addicted to drugs, per se, they, like most of us, are addicted to connection, and when that’s lost, drugs help them cope.

Taking this back to the influence of money in politics, the problem isn’t the supply of money, the problem is that political campaigns need money. But money isn’t what they want! What they want is connection to voters. Money provides that poorly, just like drugs are a poor substitute for human connections, but it’s something.

Campaigns need money because it’s hard to communicate with people. Campaigns spend most of their money on ads and postcards, plus on staff to manage all the outreach. Plus they spend money on local polling, to know what people want.

The solution, then, is to provide a low-cost way for politicians to connect with people.

The solution: Provide a low-cost way for politicians to connect with people.

This is exactly the solution that PeopleCount is building.

First, people vote on issues and say which issues they want reports on. This involves them in the issues and discovers the areas where they’ll listen. Plus by seeing the results, citizens can set their expectations about what they want and what’s possible. So are solution primes citizens to engage in communication with their politicians.

Second, politicians see the demand for reports, and they report. They communicate with each citizen on the issues that are important to him or her. Plus, the citizen grades the issue. They grade the report on how well the politician is doing his/her job on that issue.

Let’s try both

Campaign finance reform and tax rebates for politics are fine with me. But these require using out dysfunctional, money-controlled system to fix itself. We’ve tried these for years.

So let’s try a new solution. Try PeopleCount.org.

Note that many people want the status quo solutions. On PeopleCount.org, you’ll see that you can vote for those! In fact, I’ll bet that if enough people vote for these on PeopleCount.org, we can enact some of this legislation even before the coming 2016 election.

Let’s give it a try. Add your name to our mailing list, or vote on issues on the prototype site.