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Frequently Asked Questions
Table of Contents
Is PoliticalSheepdog.com legal?
Recent information from our attorneys suggests
that PoliticalSheepdog.com, in certain configurations, will be legal
at a national level and certain states. Research continues
on its legality in other configurations and in other states.
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How is PoliticalSheepdog.com funded?
This is a good and necessary question. PoliticalSheepdog.com
is a privately held company owned by Dr. James L. Gamble, III.
The sole purpose of the company is to support and run PoliticalSheepdog.com.
During the development stage, funding has come from the private
funds of its principals. During the operational stage, funding
will come from a share of the innovators’ portion of savings realized
by the passage of their proposed effective, efficient public policies.
PoliticalSheepdog.com investors will receive
partial compensation as co-innovators for their role in creating
a system that protects citizens through better law and better government..
Payments to successful innovators and citizen lobbyists will come
from money saved by the public policies they support. Actual
savings will be determined after the law has been enforced for a
period of time. The means of collecting and the amount of
compensation will be negotiated individually with the appropriate
government agencies or through arbitration with that agency.
Negotiations would be enforced with penalties for the most unreasonable
party.
As an example of how innovators and citizen lobbyists would be
compensated, PoliticalSheepdog.com could address the issue of the
$60 billion obfuscation of government funds in radio wave rights.
Suppose the resulting law turned the waste into salable air time
in a new and creative way. In that case, the money to reward
the innovators and constituents would come from the pool of money
created by actual sale of the radio wave rights.
Negotiations will attempt to provide the innovators of good laws
with pay equal to the equivalent of the fair market value (marginal
revenue product) of the savings created by the good law. As
a possible alternative to negotiations with legislators when sufficient
support is lacking within a legislature, PoliticalSheepdog.com could
use sponsorship auctions in addition to the citizen auctions to
support the good law. The sponsorship auction would be necessary
to protect a system that provides fair pay for those citizens who
protect the national good.
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How can we trust the PoliticalSheepdog.com
process?
1. PoliticalSheepdog.com
must stand up to public scrutiny.
2.
Citizens will have a new voice in supporting
effective, efficient public policies.
3.
Empowering ordinary citizens helps defeat corruption.
4.
Legislators will have a new forum for hearing their
constituents.
5.
Checks by legislators and constituents.
ACCOUNTABILITY - PoliticalSheepdog.com directors will be
respected people who are known for their integrity, humanity, and
contributions to social welfare. Policies proposed by innovators
will be reviewed by economists and accountants (“bean counters”)
to determine their value. Some complex policies may be shaped
by citizens, using auction technology. Our long-term profitability
depends on our integrity.
FREE MARKET DEMOCRACY - PoliticalSheepdog.com trusts the
intelligence, concern, and creativity of individual citizens as
guardians of social welfare. The investment of trust in individual
citizens is the great principle of democracy and a necessity for
a free society. Prior to the year 2003, there was no free
market for individuals who create and support better laws.
PoliticalSheepdog.com allows the public to take back control of
the legislative process.
PoliticalSheepdog.com will be strictly nonpartisan.
To avoid partisan squabbling, long-term efficiency for the consumer
will be used to measure the success of a particular reform.
BALANCE - PoliticalSheepdog.com challenges the concentrated
caches of special interest money. Special interest groups
can corrupt the democratic system if they lobby legislators for
laws that increase their profits and thinly spread the costs to
individual consumers. In the past, for instance, common tools
wound up costing the government dearly due to the laws that governed
their purchase. Although $100 for a wrench might seem high,
spread across millions of voters, it becomes too small a matter
to elicit individual response, since the cost of challenging such
a law is beyond the means of the average person who will pay taxes.
Yet the commercial interests who benefit from such policies have
large amounts of capital to convince legislators to enact laws that
favor their corporate profits. Because individuals can more
easily pay a few pennies in taxes than band together as consumers
to fight against hidden waste, big special interest groups have
held an advantage.
Special interest groups that “peddle influence”
within our legislatures draw from their free market profits.
These commercially backed lobbies target a few key people in government
with a large pool of money. It is hard for individual citizens
to counter that kind of influence. This kind of influence
also has a corrupting influence. PolicitcalSheepDog.com will
create a new type of citizen lobby that reward citizens for guarding
the social welfare. PoliticalSheepDog.com will give the citizen
lobby a voice that can counter-balance interests of commercial lobby
groups that threaten social welfare. Special interest groups
have monetary influence, but constituents lobbyists will hold their
legislators accountable with their re-election votes.
The PoliticalSheepdog process will compensate
innovators and citizen lobbyists out of large pools of savings that
result from improved public policies. Influence peddling tends
to corrupt because it puts large sums of money in the hands of a
powerful few. On the other hand, paying citizens to
lobby for better public policies will improve the democratic process
without corrupting it.
NEW FORUM – PoliticalSheepdog.com will act as a real-time,
interactive forum for participating in a democratic society.
PoliticalSheepdog.com will revitalize the relationship of legislators
and their constituents.
CHECKS AND BALANCES – Legislators always have the right
to reject the legislation associated with PoliticalSheepdog.com.
In the PoliticalSheepdog.com arrangement, constituents associated
with PoliticalSheepdog.com act like sales persons for policy innovators
and legislators act like purchasing agents for a large firm.
Constituents can also refuse to lobby for legislation supported
by PoliticalSheepdog.com. These actions of constituents and
legislators can then check the actions of those associated with
PoliticalSheepdog.com.
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When is PoliticalSheepdog.com available?
PoliticalSheepdog.com is currently under development.
It will be undergoing trials in Maryland in the end of 2003.
We attempt to undergo trials during the New Primary Elections in
2004. Recent studies show that it is likely to be found
legal in certain configurations for the United States Congress and
some states, which will hasten the development stage.
Early activities of PoliticalSheepdog.com will consist of system
tests that may include public participation. While the auction
itself is not yet operational, the concepts that support PoliticalSheepdog.com
are already available in this website and in our periodic newsletter.
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PoliticalSheepdog.com:
NOW is the time…
Last revised: January 16, 2001
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