Welcome to Discourses on Isopublic.
My name is Dean Adair—creator of isopublic,
nation of political equals and the “rule
yourself and no else” society.
This is Episode 0.4 titled, “Features of
Isopublic (Part 3)”
With this episode, I complete my 3-part Features
of Isopublic podcasts.
In the last episode, I covered the categories
of Law, Integrity, and Personhood.
I’ll round out the features of isopublic
with the categories of Nature, Society, and
Economy.
As before, note that these features are cursory
and still a work-in-progress.
I’ll be making revisions to the table at
isopublic.org/features on an ongoing basis.
The features I’ve listed in these podcasts
serve as a beginning.
So, let’s start.
The following are features of isopublic in
the category of Nature—
The Commons consists of all natural resources
within the political boundaries or jurisdiction
of the isopublic either not contained wholly
within a privately owned parceloid or crossing
multiple parceloid boundaries (e.g. streams,
air, sunlight, aquifers, lakes, etc.).
The Tricuria acts as the steward of the Commons
and trustee of the citizenry to make the Commons
usable by the People via titles-in-nature.
Public lands such as natural parks, conservancy
districts, and nature preserves are possible
in isopublic to be approved by demy and or
National councils depending upon in which
the lands are contained, respectively.
All public lands are contained within the
Commons and are managed by their respective
Interior department.
Only citizens can own land in isopublic.
And there is a limit on the maximum amount
of ownable land by individuals (i.e. the land
allotment).
The maximum amount of land would be established
as the amount that could be economically farmed
by an individual.
Land allotments can be combined to allow groups
of individuals to own more land in common
but no single individual would be able to
exceed the maximum allotment.
This policy prevents the "Ted Turner effect"
whereby a single very wealthy individual owns
enormous tracts of land making land ownership
more equitable, i.e. more available and affordable.
Genetically modified organisms (or GMOs) are
legal in isopublic, however, GMOs are treated
as property of the producer.
So long as the GMOs remain within the parceloid
of the producer there’s no problem.
But if the GMOs escape and do nontrivial harm
to person or property of others, they become
illegal.
The courts must then remedy harm done by the
GMOs which could include punitive remedy (i.e.
prison for the responsible parties).
Under the Security of State Allowance, GMOs
can be regulated if in the opinion of the
National Council they represent a threat to
the security of the state.
A title-in-nature is the legal instrument
by which citizens are able to claim and make
use of a natural resource in the Commons.
The claim must be specified and be specific
to that which the title holder is able to
practically make use of, i.e. no claims on
resources the applicants can't reasonably
act upon or for more than the specified uses.
The courts act as trustees for the citizenry
representing their interests.
Titles-in-nature mustn’t create a conflict
with prior titles-in-nature and no prior title
can be used to obstruct a claim that doesn't
conflict.
That’s it for features related to nature
at this time.
I’ll likely be adding more.
Next are features of isopublic in the category
of Society—
Eudemic society is the civil society of isopublic
operating under the moral philosophy of evolutionary
utilitarianism and morality of the Eudemic
Code.
Private property is a fundamental isopublican
right.
Property being in the Lockean tradition, i.e.
"Whatsoever then he removes out of the state
that nature hath provided, and left it in,
he hath mixed his labour with, and joined
to it something that is his own, and thereby
makes it his property.”
All property derives from this principle.
With employment, the laborer has consented
to the product of his labor transferring to
their employer for a voluntary wage, i.e.
there’s no such thing as "wage slavery,"
i.e. denying a person the product of their
labor, which communists, socialists, and all
collectivists do, is actual slavery.
"Cancel-culture" so-called, where social media
is used to attack a person's reputation, social
capital, income, etc. is not illegal in isopublic
explicitly but does come with legal risks
that should greatly mitigate this harmful
phenomenon.
Cancel-culture is in isopublic generally immoral
under the Golden Maxim which holds laissez-faire
(i.e. live and let live) as a virtue.
Under Compact law, publishing false-factual
information (e.g. defamation, fraud, etc.)
which often is a part of cancel-culture, is
a violation as is harassment and interference
with another's equal freedom.
Given that justice is a public good in isopublic,
i.e. available to all, and doing harm to someone
wrongfully is unlawful, anyone engaging in
cancel-culture would take considerable legal
risk, either with civil or criminal penalties.
The do no harm principle is to be imbued in
Compact law.
Violators are punished for harm done, not
for harm that might be done, i.e. isopublic
is a self-regulated society.
Regulation by the state is a violation of
due process, i.e. violators are denied their
day in court and punished for potential, not
actual harm done.
In isopublic there is no compulsory education,
i.e. there’s a separation of school and
state.
Education is market-based and the responsibility
of legal guardians.
There is religious freedom in isopublic so
long as the religion is practiced as a personal
faith, i.e. no theocracy or theocratic political
influence, i.e. there’s a separation of
church and state.
Note that just because religious observances
are not permitted or recognized by the Tricuria,
that doesn't mean it endorses atheism but
that the Tricuria must remain neutral on the
question.
Thus, there are no religious representations
or displays on public property or during official
functions.
In isopublic, there are two categories of
legal person—dependent and independent person.
A dependent person is one who is mentally
unable to act responsibly in society, i.e.
not able to competently comprehend consequences
of actions such as children and mentally disabled
adults.
A dependent person must have a Certificate
of Guardianship.
Dependent persons can't enter contracts but
guardians can on their behalf.
The legal obligation of guardians is to maintain
their ward and do no criminal harm.
The Tricuria can’t interfere with guardian/ward
relations except to remedy criminal harm done
under the Guardianship Allowance.
Guardians are legally liable for the actions
of their wards.
By final court decision, a person can be ruled
dependent or independent.
Under Compact law, dependent persons in isopublic
can't participate in sexual activity or be
exposed to sexually explicit material that
is deemed by the courts to be nonessential
to the dependent's health.
Depictions of dependent person sexual activity
(such as child porn) are legal in isopublic
so long as no actual dependent person is involved
or consumes such material.
This because no real child is involved.
Pollution is illegal in isopublic.
Pollution is any non-natural substance that
causes a nontrivial, nonconsensual, and measurable
harmful effect on another's person or property.
Such harm as determined by final court decision
would be remedied by the perpetrator as compelled
by the Tricuria.
If the violation is considered to be caused
with intent, knowingly, or from gross negligence,
the responsible parties are to be subjected
to a criminal inquest and, if convicted by
final court decision, there's to be both civil
and punitive remedies, i.e. civil damages
up to three times the estimated measurable
costs and prison time.
That’s it for features of isopublican society.
Features of the economy of isopublic are as
follows—
The national currency in isopublic is the
ValEN (for Value Exchange Network).
The basic unit of currency is called the valen
(for value exchange unit).
The ValEN is administered by the National
Council under authority of the National Interior
Council with the National Council having ultimate
authority.
Laissez-faire capitalism is the economic system
of isopublic, i.e. the separation of economy
and state.
Isopublican money, the valen, is "true money."
True money is based on three operating principles—a
constant sum of currency units, demurrage,
and digital cryptography.
The purpose of true money is to provide the
most accurate price information to economic
actors, thus the name "true money."
The constant sum of currency units, called
the Grand Sum, prevents price distortions
due to inflation and deflation.
The demurrage fee is charged by the Tricuria
in the form of a tax on valens that haven't
been transferred after a set period of time
(e.g. annually, quarterly, maybe monthly)
to promote currency circulation to reduce
speculation and hoarding which both practices
increase price volatility.
The similarity between Bitcoin and the ValEN
is that both are cryptocurrencies, but Bitcoin
is persistent, has a changing total of bitcoins
in circulation (though more static over time),
and has no demurrage.
Bitcoin has the properties of digital gold.
The demurrage fee assures that currency isn't
accumulated by the wealthy, and in Bitcoin's
case early adopters, which is why “sound
money” (e.g. gold and silver coins) is value
regressive, meaning poor consumers must pay
persistent money for perishable goods of wealthy
producers.
Bitcoin and all forms of digital currency
would be illegal in isopublic since they compete
with the ValEN and take revenue from the Tricuria.
Thus, if one consents to be physically in
the isopublic, one agrees upon signing the
Compact not to use other forms of digital
money for all enpolity transactions.
The ValEN is intended to be based on open-source
software operating on a central computer system
administered by the Tricuria National Interior
Department.
The ValEN is to be anonymous such that the
Tricuria can only gain access to a user's
account by court-issued warrant based on probable
cause.
A ValEN user account is to be considered private
property.
Commodity-based money (e.g. gold and silver
coins) is legal tender in isopublic, however,
all transactions using commodity-based money
must be by transferring the physical money.
Using proxies or redeemable notes of commodity-based
money are to be prohibited under Compact law.
The Tricuria has one source of revenue, the
ValEN Tax or V-tax.
The V-tax is a charge that is applied to every
valen transfer.
The National Council sets the statutory rate
each based on forecasted Tricuria spending
over the coming year.
Because the cost of the Tricuria is relatively
low and the V-tax is spread over the entire
economy, the statutory rate should be low
(1% or less est.).
In the event of a state of emergency, the
statutory rate might be increased to cover
increased costs.
The Tricuria is prohibited from enacting trade
sanctions.
The only trade restrictions are those justified
under the Security of State Allowance.
That completes the category of Economy features
of isopublic and the entire table of features
currently contained on the Features of Isopublic
page which can be found at isopublic.org/features.
As a final reminder, I’ll continue to make
additions and revisions to the table on an
ongoing basis.
My hope is for these features to be integrated
into the future Treatise on Isopublic followed
by the Annotated Compact.
Here ends this episode of Discourses on Isopublic
and my 3-part series on the features of isopublic.
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This is Dean Adair signing off until next
time.
