and this is the point, like mundharmonika says you could establish a decentralized and way more effective safety-net.
funds get locked into a smart contract. And the contract executes in the case that there is measurable demand. Directly into your wallet. The community can even elect a redistribution hub for homeless people. Lets say a multi-signature party consisting out of 4 coffee-shops, churches who ever is voluntarily acting as a hub. When 3 out of 4 report plus 1000 homeless people, --> the contract executes and the hubs gets the monetary resources. Right now there is lots of research in this field (mostly on the Ethereum Blockchain), like insurance against hurricanes and floods.
Centralized entities (like Washington, Moscow-Kreml or Brussels) are more efficient but not effective. The bureaucratic apparatus creates a massive overhead.
@mundharmonika and @lauch3d:
I claim no superior wisdom or insight. When I was young (in the 60s) we experimented with communities. And when I was very young (in the 50s) I involuntarily experimented with poverty. So I guess experience is more my guide than theory.
You are both right: government bureaucracy creates massive overhead and an opportunity for corruption. Big pile of money irresistible to some.
I like to think of government as a really large community where the members agree on values and goals. The more connected people feel to that government the more likely they are to participate in its direction. Kind of like Steemit. Few bothered to vote for witnesses because the witnesses seemed irrelevant. But now, we all see that witnesses are the only way we can possibly control the platform. If people felt that way about their connection to government, if they realized that votes are a way to control policy, then maybe they'd vote. And maybe the sense of government as being part of community would become a real thing instead of an apparatus that just gobbles up resources and takes away liberty.
Well, I say again, I have no superior insight and certainly lack your analytic skills. But I will resist a reality where people go hungry (even unworthy people), where they can't get medical care and where they are homeless. These people aren't abstract concepts for me. They're real, and I want to help them now.
Thank you both for taking the time to have a dialogue with me. I really appreciate it.
You are a pretty amazing person. Really inspire community spirit. Thank you. I will try to be equally generous to everyone on Steemit.