As a thought experiment, what would the world look like if we had:
- opt-out citizenship based on birth location
- opt-in subscription citizenship decoupled from geography
- voluntary and public tax payments (subscription fees)
The idea is to "put your money where your mouth is," taken to the extreme – even the playing field with opt-out citizenship, create equity by decoupling it from geography, and provide accountability by transacting in public. To me, this seems like it solves some people's alleged grievances, but creates new problems. It also raises other questions, like switching costs – can you move between governments as frequently as you'd like?
Ignoring the fact that this is totally implausible for a number of reasons – mostly due to violence – I've been finding it a fun idea to think about recently.
Would you want to live in this world? Will we inevitably converge on something approaching it?
Here's my answer: A new system will dismantle and devour the nation states. Its purpose is to serve as caretaker for local ecosystems and human populations. Each administrative region can have a maximum population of ~10 million people, and as populations shift, the boundaries move (during the annual gerrymandering festival! :P ). As ecosystems have fuzzy boundaries, the administrative regions overlap and share management of those areas. Every human is a citizen and can participate in the system as long as they live and work within it. The system will consume nation states as regions vote to secede from their nation state. If the nation state objects, the people in the region can nevertheless join the new system and abandon their national ties. Even individuals can opt to shift their contribution towards this new system. What can the nation state do if people stop using its currency and stop depending on its infrastructure?
The government is a best-of-breed system of representative democracy, details to be imagined. As a high-quality public education is introduced, it could probably become more direct.
There is a single digital currency, a single type of business entity, and a single stock exchange. In short, the finance industry serves to enable business, not to trade imaginary things at nanosecond resolution. Businesses have no privacy: Salaries, accounting, and B2B transactions are all a matter of public record. Copyright and patents have mandatory licensing with time limits which encourage innovation and creativity, but not hoarding and litigation.
There is no income tax. Every transaction is taxed at the same rate which varies regularly depending on government expenditure. Natural monopolies such as energy, security, transportation, and telecommunications are tax-funded and community implemented.
The initial goal of the system is to create a carbon-absorbing civilization as quickly as possible. Fossil fuels are taxed at double the usual rate, unless used to manufacture solar panels or windmills or what have you. The regions take care of each other: part of the tax system funnels wealth to impoverished regions and resources to wherever environmental improvement requires it. There is no military, because we cannot afford it.
People are not particularly good at identifying with those far away from themselves. Every year, a certain percentage of households in each region must move to another region, with limited choice to maximize mixing.