In his lecture “Fixing Broken Government” for the Long Now Foundation, Philip K. Howard suggests that this time of trouble in the US might be one in which we can make some big, useful changes. He hopes for a change in “governmental operating system” comparable to the Progressive, New Deal, and Civil Rights eras. Instead of protecting children and other workers, establishing safety nets, or addressing civil rights abuses, however, he would like to un-paralyze our government.
Based on the idea that laws have “piled up like sediment in the harbor,” paralyzing our public servants, and on his truism, “Only real people, not rules, make things happen,” Howard proposes three new principles for modern government:
1) A spring-cleaning on all law with budgetary implications. A law does not become one of the 10 Commandments because some dead people passed it. He also proposes an “Omnibus Sunset Law” under which all laws with budgetary implications automatically expire after 10-20 years.
2) Laws should be radically simplified. Replace 95% of the 100,000,000 words of binding federal law, all the details, with individual responsibility. Allow public servants to use their judgment. Laws are to set goals, general principles, and allocate budgets and to determine who is responsible if the goals are not met.
3) Public employees have to be accountable. There is no need for minutia in law if people are held accountable if they do a bad job. That means they have to be fire-able.
On playgrounds:
“There is nothing left in playgrounds for a kid over the age of 4. Nothing. Seesaws, jungle-gyms, climbing ropes…merry-go-rounds are abandoned. There are a few diving boards left, but not many. Not very many high boards. Why’s that? Because they all involve not just the risk, but the certainty that something might go wrong. They also happen to attract kids to the playground so they don’t get fat and die of obesity. They also happen to teach kids how to take responsibility for themselves, and to be athletic. These risks are vital for for child development, which the American Academy of Pediatrics and all kinds of other boring people would write books about, but we don’t have a legal system that allows kids to take the ordinary risks of childhood. It’s lunacy. ….The range of exploration of a 9-year-old in America has declined by over 90% since 1970. Kids are not allowed to leave home by themselves. And that ability to wander around the neighborhood, to explore the creek, all that sort of thing is absolutely vital.”
Nathen's Miraculous Escape 
July 20, 2011 at 9:24 am
I saw this on the ‘Long Now’ list, but had not listened to it yet. This sounds really good. I only hope our outmoded system has not reached an impasse that requires it to crash and burn before any changes can be made.
I had such great hopes when Obama was elected, but now understand that he is unable to oppose the oligarchy, which, though not as large, has huge force of will, and will resist any change that favors society as a whole.
July 20, 2011 at 9:48 am
PS: When I left home in the late 60s on my quest for adulthood and spiritual fulfillment, I just assumed that when my generation came into our power, we would change everything that was wrong with the government. We had a supporting role in the great changes of the 60s, civil rights, medicare, etc, which were mostly put through by those older. Maybe I assumed that there were more of us than there really were, or that we would keep our ideals into our later life more that we did. To look at it now, I would have to say that we accomplished very little in the political arena. The ones my age who dominate politics now, were the ones who stayed home and took over daddy’s business, and never expanded their horizons beyond their own personal comfort and circle of like-minded friends at the country club.
Like a winded, beat-up wrestler in a tag-team match, I pass the torch to the next generation with the hope they do better than we did.