An international treaty secured with the UN, and all other international organisations, decrees that in international law, and also in the national law of all countries in alignment with said international organisations, one month every four years shall be declared totally outside the normal order of things.
I suggest the month of February when there is a leap year.
What would happen is that for the four years leading up to the month of February, people nations and politicians and economists would argue and discuss and vote for what system would be put in place for the month of Leap-Year-February.
There would be votes, referendums, or committees of experts who decide, and write into a law code how the constitution and the legal system would operate.
Come 00:01 on 1st Feb, the normal rules and systems would instantly stop and the new ones would come into play. At 23:59 on 29th Feb, the new rules and systems would stop and everything would continue picking up where they were left off at the end of January.
The current "lockdown" has shown how societies and economies should have enough resilience to deal with a month or two of craziness, so even if the experiment was a disaster people would only have to grit their teeth and hide in the basement for one month before coming back out to normality.
The idea is that there are lots of people proposing all kinds of political or economic solutions, e.g. no Government, full totalitarian communism, Green anarchy, universal welfare, corporate monopoly, military dictatorship, etc. etc. Some of these have been tried in the past or in foreign places with usually disasterous results. But actually the present world order is also pretty disastrous in many ways. Its just that there's no scientific control.
The idea is that one such "alternative" system is proposed, refined and then actually implemented in real life for one month. Both proponents and adherents of the regime should be able to get behind this. Proponents, because if they didn't get behind it they would spend the rest of their days being mercilessly teased for being fearties, and opponents because the months implementation would be the ideal way to prove that it was a stupid idea all along.
The idea also is that normal politics and society would learn from the experimental months, and so society and the economy would run in a more informed and efficient way, since people would have a deeper understanding of what doesn't work and why it doesn't work.
Problems with this idea: I don't think there are any to be honest.-- pocmloc, Apr 09 2020 If pre-existing power-relations would return at the end of the month, there would be an element of unreality to all this - of Saturnalia or carnival. To that extent, it's been baked.
If pre-existing power relations are *not* to be restored at the end of the month, then we could proceed from zero to bloodbath quite quickly. E.g. - "We have 29 days to dispossess the billionaire class; anything we're still holding when the music stops, we get to keep" - how do you think that might play out?-- pertinax, Apr 09 2020 you're inventing a purge?-- theircompetitor, Apr 09 2020 // how do you think that might play out? //
Profitably.
Your species' ratings will surge. We have sole distribution rights.
We might even put you on "pay-per-view".
We will "clean up".
[+]-- 8th of 7, Apr 09 2020 //you're inventing a purge?//
Doesn't seem like it.
//votes, referendums, or committees of experts who decide, and write into a law code how the constitution and the legal system would operate//
Seems an unlikely outcome with that in the preceding months anyway.
Might be best if each country takes a turn in rotation so only one country does this each time it's due, probably better not to throw the entire world economy out of whack all at the same time, it might take more than four years to recover from a set of bad choices.-- Skewed, Apr 09 2020 Why not use Belgium ? It's managed without a government for years; it was invented as a place to have wars in; no-one outside cares about it; half the inhabitants loathe and detest the other half. It's expendable.
Belgium. You know it makes sense*.
*in terms of using it as a social and political sandbox**, that is. "Belgium" as a social and political entity is irrational.
**and indeed as the other sort of sandbox too, i.e. a litter tray. The place certainly smells like it's been used as a repository for cat excreta of all*** types, for decades, and never been cleaned out.
*** faeces, urine, vomit, saliva and the output of scent glands. There are no doubt other unpleasant things that cats can emit into the environment, but those five can be taken as the base level.-- 8th of 7, Apr 09 2020 I've been social distancing from Belgium for a long time now. So far its paid off.-- RayfordSteele, Apr 09 2020 It says in the idea that it is the laws, systems and constitutional setup that is changed. //anything we're still holding when the music stops, we get to keep// - that needs to be written in to the proposed system, but it's kind of how things work now anyway so I assume it would still work in my proposed arcadian idyll of benificent socio-cultural experimentation.
//how do you think that might play out?// Well, if there is a genuine majority for a carefully worked out political settlement to tax the bejeezus out of billionaires, and everyone could agree a sensible way to write that into laws and constitutional settlement, then it could run for February and the billionaires would be hammered. They'd have the next 3 years 11 months to get it all back no problem. And perhaps people would realise the folly of their ways, and the February "experiment" 4 years later would be designed to maximise the resource capture of selected networked and familial individuals. Or perhaps everyone would, on reflection, see the value in disposessing billionaires, and would adjust the "normal" setup accordingly.-- pocmloc, Apr 09 2020 Just declare a billionaire hunting season once every four years instead, much the same effect as they frantically divest themselves of any excess wealth until they're merely millionaires in the run up to the open season to make sure they're not on the legitimate quarry list.-- Skewed, Apr 09 2020 //Why not use Belgium ?// [+]-- wagster, Apr 09 2020 Billionaires will always find a way round the sort of threat that confounds Joe Public. That's why they're billionaires. Knowing the problem is upcoming, they will merely move themselves and their assets out of reach for as long as is necessary.-- 8th of 7, Apr 09 2020 This idea is not actually about billionaires. It's a way of testing proposed alternatives within a democratic / autocratic / populist norm.
If there was that much popular appetite for bazookaing billionaires, they would have been bazookad by now.
No, this is more like "The country would be better if interest rates were 20%" "OK lets do it. February 2024, interest rates are 20%" and so teams of constitutional lawyers and civil servants draft an entire ghost parallel legal and economic code. Come February 2024, the new rules kick in. Of course, those with huge debts would offshore them, banks and lenders would restructure, etc. etc. some people would make meelions, some would be wiped out. But the process would be educational and informative for all.
"The country would be better if all weapons or potential weapons were illegal with instant incarceration for life as the punishment" "Ok lets do it. February 2028, the law on offensive weapons will be re-drafted. For that entire month, the armed forces will be shut down or sent abroad, anyone holding a sharp object in a public area will be instantly convicted and carted off to the slammer. etc. etc. They will all be released and all related criminal records expunged on 1st March.
These are just examples, the actual systems implemented every 4 februaries are to be decided by the usual political systems of lobbying, campaigning, advertising, and then a vote, perhaps 2 years through the "normal" times, giving 2 years for discussion of what experiment should be run, and two years to prepare for the experiment that was decided on. My guess is that the process would lead to some very dull and tame experiments compared to bazookaing billionaires or legalising murder, but it might be a useful way to try things that people normally couldn't bring themselves to vote for, such as joining / leaving the EU, scrapping / universalising state benefits, liberalising / tightening up gun laws, or even giving a much-derided opposition party a one-month chance to prove how useless and unfit for power they are once and for all.-- pocmloc, Apr 10 2020 //the armed forces will be shut down or sent abroad//
I thought we'd already baked that one, we sent them to Afghanistan didn't we, then Iraq?-- Skewed, Apr 10 2020 random, halfbakery