THE KEY RESETS OF SYSTEMIC CHANGE
FOR A SUSTAINABLE POST-INDUSTRIAL, POST-CLIMATE-WARS, POST-CULTURE-WARS, POST-EVERYTHING ECONOMY AND SOCIETY
Information is the lifeblood of the modern world, yet getting information that can be trusted is becoming increasingly difficult because of vested interests at one end, while anonymity makes all feedback, reviews and commentary suspect at the other.
The Democracy Reset extends the democratic process beyond passive electoral voting to include active participation in the decision-making process on a issue-by-issue basis and on a global scale.
Participants of a rally in memory of Anna Politkovskaya attach her portrait to the streets in St.Petersburg.
Whistleblowers, dissidents and protestors are an integral part a healthy society, yet they can find their reputations besmirched, careers destroyed, suffer imprisonment, lose their livelihoods and even their lives, simply for speaking truth to power.
People behaving badly or abusing others is a sign of social immaturity. Socially immature people abuse others because they simply do not understand the consequences of their actions because they lack empathy. This cohort is growing because of the failure of society to provide guidance.
There is growing concern that the business sector is shirking its social responsibilities through clever accounting, meaningless ESG commitments and by profit-laundering through tax havens. In a globalized world, the top-down approach of taxation, regulation or other localized measures are ineffective in dealing with this sort of irresponsible behavior.
PByT provides a bottom-up solution through the concept of a Global Social Capital Fund.
When you strip away all that divides us - class, race, gender, ethnicity, nationality, ideology and dogma - you are left with the essence of what it means to be human through our shared experience of the meaning and understanding of freedom. Affirming this shared experience is the starting point for the next major leap in human progress.
The Key Resets FAQ
What is the Global Social Capital Fund (GSCF)?
The business community has long recognized its social obligations extend beyond just generating profits and have adopted ideas like ESG (Environmental, Social and Governance) also known as 'stakeholder capitalism'.
ESG has either failed or has had limited success in tackling social issues like inequality, poverty and disadvantage and has been criticized as nothing more than a coat of green paint over business-as-usual.
The Global Social Capital Fund (GSCF) represents the evolution of ESG into something more practical and readily applicable.
It expands the obligation of the business sector beyond delivering profits to include the building, maintaining and preserving of social capital. This begins with providing funding to the non-profit sector, which is the engine room of global social capital.
The GSCF represents a rebalancing of the global economy following the economic experiment of deregulation and privatization, which created new efficiencies but also exacerbated inequality, poverty and disadvantage through the failed idea of trickle-down economics.
How is the GSCF funded?
Funding for the Global Social Capital Fund comes from a social responsibility levy of 1% - 2.5% of revenue built into the PByT subscription fee for corporations and other for-profit groups and businesses.
The GSCF, by putting a value on social responsibility as a percentage of revenue, will provide the financial basis for tackling some of the world's most intractable problems, triggering systemic change through a range of social, political and economic resets.
Why would the business sector support the GSCF?
The simple answer is because it's a market economy and people will be encouraged to look for the symbol of trust before using, buying, selling, investing or voting.
If enough people start to use the PByT service in making their purchase decisions then market forces will ensure that every business, large and small, will subscribe or risk going out of business.
Additionally, governments will be encouraged to support the GSCF by providing tax incentives to socially responsible business operators in recognition of the importance of the GSCF in not just funding the non-profit sector, but also as the basis for social cohesion on a global scale.
How can business afford 2.5% of revenue?
The business community spends anywhere between 5%-15% of revenue on advertising, promotion and customer retention, so 1% - 2.5% is not out of the question in supporting and maintaining the social fabric through the concept of the Global Social Capital Fund.
Importantly, this fund will create a new flow of capital beyond government handouts, private capital and the credit market ensuring that the global economy does falter, stall or, worse still, collapse during times of social, political or environmental stress, or health crises like the COVID-19 pandemic. This provides an existential reason for the business community to support this initiative by participating.
Further, we expect that national governments will begin to see the benefits of encouraging business social responsibility by reducing taxes for the socially responsible business operators and imposing higher taxes on those that are not.
What will be the key outcome of the Global Social Capital Fund?
The global economy is well on its way to reaching US$100 trillion in revenue per year. This means that about $1 - $2 trillion will flow automatically to build, maintain and preserve social capital through the Global Social Capital Fund.
The process will finally put to rest the failed idea of trickle-down economic theory replacing it with the idea of benefits trickling up, in recognition of the simple fact that human society like the proverbial chain is only as strong as its weakest link.
How does the GSCF concept work in practice?
The PByT Business and Group Member subscription fee includes a Social Capital Levy, which provides funding for the Global Social Capital Fund.
100% of the fund will be distributed back into to the community through the PByT Partner Program (Partner Program).
The Partner Program includes non-profit groups and organizations that join PByT and are accepted into the program.
The GSC Fund distribution is based on the following simple formula:
- The subscription unit price is calculated based on the GSC Fund value divided by total number of Subscriber Points.
- For each member of the Partner Program, the total number of Subscriber Points is multiplied by the subscription unit price to arrive at the raw revenue amount.
- The raw revenue amount is adjusted up or down, depending on the reputation of the partners to arrive at the final amount. This rewards the best performing partners and encourages underperforming partners to do better.
GSC Fund distributions are made annually to Program Partners that have at least 100 PByT subscribers, have been members for at least 6 months and have a positive PByT reputation rating.
What are Subscription Points?
Members of the Partner Program are encouraged to invite subscribers to their service in their profile in recognition of their value. These subscriptions will be used in calculating the GSC Fund distributions.
Will the Social Capital Levy increase and how?
The Social Capital Levy can increase but only in exceptional circumstances and by general agreement of all PByT members through the PByT feedback mechanism.
This provides a mechanism to deal with health crises like pandemics and existential crises like climate change, quickly and efficiently without having to rely on government bailouts, the credit market or private capital.
The whole process will strengthen democracy and expand democratic processes.
How will democracy be strengthened?
We now have the technology and the concept to strengthen democracy by giving people a greater say in how they are governed not just at election time but on an ongoing, issue-by-issue basis and on a global scale, resulting in the concept of open democracy.
In an open democracy, individual action through feedback rather than the political process will be the dominant driver of change and decision-making.
Open democracy coupled with the GSCF has the potential to trigger a paradigm shift in global relations.
How will the GSCF trigger a paradigm shift in global relations?
PByT provides the mechanism for democratizing economic power by expanding the idea of business social responsibility to include the building, maintaining and preserving social capital through a social capital levy built into the PByT subscription fee.
The distribution of potentially trillions of dollars will provide the global community with a new lever in dealing with rogue nations that can:
- Temper the behavior of belligerent national leaders.
- Prevent endemic corruption, state oppression and human rights abuse.
- Resolve trade and other disputes far more effectively than sanctions, embargoes and UN resolutions.
In short, a paradigm shift in global relations that will increasingly lead to peaceful co-existence, stable economies and greater prosperity and security for all, based on a common vision of the future.
What is the common vision of the future?
When you strip away all that divides us, you are left with the essence of what it means to be human through our shared experience and understanding of freedom. Affirming this shared experience is the basis of the common vision called The Freedom Declaration.
How is Bayesian Statistics applied in the PByT Analysis?
The following example provides a simplified explanation of how we apply Bayesian statistics in our analysis.
Suppose we want to determine if proposition A is more likely true than false.
The proposition and the feedback results could be expressed as a table as follows.
| Proposition A | A is True | A is False | Total |
|---|---|---|---|
| Feedback | 100 | 100 | 200 |
Based on the above raw feedback data, the probability that A is true is inconclusive at 100/200 or 50%.
But, what if we then subsequently discover that 50% of the respondents are experts in this field of enquiry and that they have a track record of being right 90% of the time.
Taking this new information into account and using Bayes formula produces the following:
Probability of getting an expert opinion = 100/200 = 0.50 ;
Probability the experts will get it right given that A is true = 90/100 = 0.9
Probability of A being true based on all feedback = 50/100 = 0.5
Probability of A being true based on Bayes Formula = (.50 * 0.9)/0.5 = 0.90.
In other words, the probability of A being true is a more definitive 90% taking into account the additional information about the reputation of the respondents rather than an inconclusive 50/50.
The above result can be expressed as a table below.
| Proposition A | A is True | A is False | Total |
|---|---|---|---|
| Experts | 90 | 10 | 100 |
| Non experts | 10 | 90 | 100 |
| Totals | 100 | 100 | 200 |
The reputation of the respondents is based on both direct feedback from people and also on machine learning.
Each iteration and successful resolution of an issue or question provides data for machine learning not only about a particular topic or question but also about the human responders building their reputation for recognizing fake news, area of expertise and level of common sense judgement.
We have algorithms that predict our buying choices, algorithms that can detect spam, algorithms that drive content based on our preferences and interests and we now have an algorithm for determining the validity of any claim, question or issue.
The process signals the beginning of the end of the toxic influence of "fake news", disinformation and misinformation on global affairs and on personal preferences and decisions.
Who runs PByT?
Powered by Trust (PByt) is administered by a small team headed up by CEO and Founder George Matafonov.