Let's think of two companies who have used this model: We have Uber that has disrupted the taxi industry, and Airbnb that has disrupted the hotel industry. They both use the concept of a SHARING ECONOMY made popular by millennials, but the concept was alive long before they started (think of vacation time-shares, etc.). They also use EXCESS CAPACITY by using your personal vehicle, bedrooms, or even an extra couch in your home. Another big part of the mix has been CROWDSOURCING because whenever millennials hear of a great idea they all pitch in to see it succeed.
The largest and most expansive market that is truly in need of "disruption" is our Federal, State, County and local Government . Talk about EXCESS CAPACITY! It is our estimation that we, the taxpayers, "own" 35 - 45% "Excess" government capacity. We can see this in the huge percentage of wasted and inefficient man-hours spread across so many agencies and departments around the United States. As every single person in our country is affected on a daily basis by our Government, it is clearly time for it to be disrupted or, better yet, to be re-aligned? Our government needs to adapt to our rapidly approaching Abundant economy and lifestyle. We are not here to "disrupt" for the sake of disruption; that is counterproductive. We are here to innovate and motivate.
We look forward to engaging your fertile mind to produce the most dynamic adaption of our Government as we move forward with bold ideas in the 21st Century! Our SIZE MATTER CHALLENGE is split TWO parts, and your ideas in both areas are eligible for the monetary prizes. We want your ideas and mechanisms to be:
A. Ideas to re-design our Government: We want the millions of Federal workers in Washington DC, who are the "bureaucracy" to provide the absolute necessary functions for society with precision and compassion without a bureaucratic overcoat or a regulatory minefield as it's underpinnings. We estimate that at least 35% of Government can be eliminated without a negative effect on support. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) in August 2015, there were approximately 23 million Federal / State / Local Government employees; contrast that with 12.3 million private sector employees in the Manufacturing sector. Why do we need "issue ABC" being worked on by 18 different departments at once? Why can't a budgeteer, or secretary, or analyst, or HR person, or (you name it) be used across agencies and departments. Let's get efficient; it's your tax dollars at work. How can our government be more creative, more helpful, assist the public in those needed functions, without taking over or trying to control our lives? How can the framework and functionality of our government run parallel to the rapid, exponential technology changes in the next 2 decades? How do we adjust the size of the government civil service workforce? Will the rapidly coming-of-age field of Robotics play into the staffing and functionality of our Services? We can and should do better!
B. We know that now is the time to look at how we can truly be forward-looking to the BIG PICTURE of Self-Governance! We're asking you to Close your eyes, Open your mind, and Think of our Society 15 years from now, 50 years from now, 100 years from now! This portion of our challenge involves your breakthrough concepts in every area of our lives which involves the Government (which is practically everything, so you have a wide berth and open canvas)!
Here are a few broad ideas and categories to begin thinking through as you develop your submissions. Your submissions are not limited to these topics, they are meant to provide guidance as you formulate your ideas:
We have a Vision to provide a positive Grand Change to the Largest, Most Powerful, and Wealthiest Institution in our entire World: The United States Government. This entity is also the least changed, most inefficient, bureaucratic, red-tape laden vehicle in the history of mankind.
It is an entity that is owned by you and me, though often you'd hardly know that. The founding our our Government was for Freedom and a representative Republic, and a framework established for growth and change as we grew as a Nation. In 1789, there were 65 House Members and 26 Senators, representing the 13 Original States. Transportation and communications were vastly inferior to that of today, and certainly of our future. As our country grew, so did the numbers elected to Congress. In 1913, over 100 years ago, we had 435 House Members---the exact number as today. Then, each House member represented approximately 30,000 citizens. Today, that number is 710,000. Trust us when we tell you that most of them are "out of touch", and truthfully, with the way the system is set up, it's no wonder.
Please join us in looking toward the future on this vital topic! Do we still need to have long lines in voting booths with challenges, irregularities, poor turnout, and disputes? Do we not have the technology, safeguards, and ethical monitoring to ensure a much higher rate of participation through our smartphones directly, instead of manually showing up at some voting location that you have to hope is the right place? Do we need these 435 "geniuses" to control every decision of our lives? Is there a better way, a more thoughtful road ahead in this area? We think so, and we welcome your ideas.
Imagine YOU, as an individual, having a real impact on your government! Imagine interacting with the Government in a positive manner, and helping challenge them to react to our problems with pro-active solution, not flawed and reactive legislation.
One solution: Self-Directed Taxes, or SDT's! This is a Do-It-Yourself action that takes at least a percentage of the process out of the hands of the government officials, and places it directly into the hands of the citizenry. We will use ICT (Information and Connective Technology) as a genuine self-empowerment tool to efficiently and effectively build an awesome system for our $3 Trillion tax base, instead of the current quagmire that flows our dollars from your wallet to Washington DC and then back to your community. Let's add True Participative Democracy. Not just votes. Money.
An elected official should welcome this true "representative" type scenario. Let's bring competition to the agencies of the Government! Have THEM come to US to justify THEIR existence, not the other way around! It's time for us to create a fundamentally better system that provide "a government of the people, by the people, and for the people---to ensure our shared vision shall not perish from the Earth." After all, it's not the "government's money, it's "our" money! Over time, the desires and wishes of the electorate will be borne out in not just votes, but in the mother's milk of government-----tax revenues. And while we're on the subject of money, let's not forget about "currency" that is now a hotbed of discussion, from Bitcoin to electronic transfers, digitized protocols, to scan recognition. The future is here.
Think of the founding of this country, and think back to our history books as to the development of our communities, the seedlings of our now-major cities from what were just a few homes and roads at their origins. We reflect on how our infrastructure has, in some ways, not changed at all. In other ways, it has (and needs to) change rapidly. From horses to covered wagons, from locomotives to the first automobiles, from the first attempts at flight to upcoming missions to Mars----we are a nation on the move. How does our Government play in these two major areas? It is our calling to rise up and make the needed improvements and technological changes. An interesting concept could be a new, brilliantly devised Public-Private Partnership model, to combine a percentage of your tax revenues with your private sector business ideas, where it is mutually agreeable. Grow those to multi-billion dollar entities from infant ideas. Provide positive changes for our society, hope and optimism for the masses, and tomorrowland solutions on both a national and global scale. Build a 21st century bridge that easily crosses both ways, to connect both sides. Entrepreneurs spend an inordinate amount of time trying to navigate through both the public and private sector in search of funds. The government spends tens of thousands of man-hours in the preparation of grants, funding, and the like. With this idea, we will have a say-so in where the money goes! The system can be changed with Self-Directed Taxes, Public-Private Partnerships, and new concepts that open the floodgates to your brilliant solutions!
When putting together your ideas / concepts / submissions for this "SIZE MATTERS" Challenge, we ask you to keep in mind the long game. Consider these:
a. Interplanetary Travel: Will we get to Mars soon, and have a colony there? Most likely yes. Think now about their "governance", and everything associated with setting up a new planet!!
b. The world of Virtual Reality is staring us down as you read this. Should this be incorporated into this broad topic, and find the challenges, solutions, opportunities, and realities.
c. Human Longevity is a topic which interests many of us. What happens in our governance model when the retirement age is no longer 65, instead it's "never" or "always" or 185?
d. Robotics is an essential part of our future and it will require an ever-vigilant review as to the size, scope, and capability of usage.
e. Artificial Intelligence (AI) How will this ability of AI in reasoning, problem-solving, knowledge engineering and the advancement towards Singularity affect our Governance model? We want your ideas!
f. Exponential technologies. Yes, change is happening rapidly, and that will not change. In fact, it will accelerate. Let's think how we keep up with this reality.
It's a brave new world, with many intersections of challenges and opportunities on the graph paper.
DO NOT UNDERESTIMATE YOUR IDEAS!
Think about this: Our mentor, Dr. Peter Diamandis, battled with the Federal government and NASA for a decade in trying to convince them, after seeing the futility of their own efforts, to let the private sector enter into the world of space travel. He never gave up, and as a result of his perseverance we now have a healthy, thriving, exciting space race in the private sector in ways not even thought about in the public sector! The "father" of Abundance clearly laid out the path for this concept, to make it a reality.
SUBMISSION and RULES:
Submissions can be in two forms, and both types are equally eligible as an Award winner:
a. An entire plan (i.e, WHOLE), which has a well-presented "big picture" flowing down to specific details of how you would reduce and reshape the size of our Federal Government. Although not specifically required, any accompanying graphs, charts, budget projections / analysis, descriptive modeling, and creative presentations are welcome.
b. Any individual idea (i.e., SPECIFIC), which may or may not be attached to a bigger idea / plan, is also welcome. This can be as simple as a couple of short paragraphs which describe the problem and discuss the solution, or it can be a paper on the subject, not to exceed 4 pages in length.
Winners are on a first-come, first-serve basis, i.e, if similar ideas are submitted by multiple people, the first idea submitted will win. The Submissions can be from an individual, group, team, family, friends, or other. There are absolutely zero restrictions on who may enter. We will judge and provide awards on this Challenge based on ideas and effectiveness ---------regardless of age, ethnicity, gender, occupation, geographic location, or any other category of separation. You may enter and contribute your thoughts and ideas as many times as you desire.
c. As we are looking for 21st Century solutions, we strongly encourage any integration of exponential technologies that can be added to the equation and to the workplace. Whether it is in un-manned systems (robotics, drones), or biotech advances, material science, etc., any forward thinking ideas that are rapidly changing our way of life are highly important in our Award decision making.
| SUBMISSION EVALUATION CRITERIA | MAX POINTS AWARDED |
|---|---|
| Solution Oriented | 25 |
| Use of Exponential Technologies | 15 |
| Size Reduction in Government | 15 |
| Logical / Accurate / Substantiated | 15 |
| Realistic / Ability to Implement | 10 |
| Creative / Out-of-the-Box Thinking | 10 |
|
Supporting Documentation / Intangibles / WOW factor |
10 |
| TOTAL | 100 |
Winning Criteria:
Each substantive idea that meets the criteria of a genuine concept to provide a solution to Excess Capacity within our Federal Government is a potential winner of the Challenge. We are looking for great ideas that will provide efficiency within our Government. Think of terms of better use of personnel and a "mobile" workforce. Reflect on the use of advanced technology in unique and productive applications. How can robots be used across the myriad of Departments and Agencies that affect our lives? How will human longevity affect the workforce, i.e, is there a need to completely re-think and re-structure how we hire and retain the civil service workforce? Can Government be structured and operated more like a successful business than as a "caretaker" bureaucracy?
The submission can be an individual concept, or a submission that includes a comprehensive and complete plan. The idea needs to be well-presented and a narrative example shown with it. If calculations, charts, graphs can be incorporated it will be helpful; but they are not required. Creative and out-of-the-box thinkers are encouraged to submit their ideas. A scorecard will accompany the Judging Criteria.
PRIZE / AWARDS:
In the scheme of things, the monetary rewards for this Challenge are rather paltry:
$500, plus One Pound of (Excess) Government Cheese (per each Award / idea accepted). (why the Cheese, you ask? To show the ridiculousness of things, that the Government is still in the business of giving away Cheese. It probably costs $5000 in our Taxpayer dollars, with all the overhead, departments, agencies, regulations, rules, and guidelines-----for our Government to actually "give" you One Pound of their Excess Cheese).The reason for the relatively small prize is that this is an altruistic Challenge for each of you.Dig into your hearts, knowing that we are all in this together, and together we can make a difference. Let's get better, quicker, more effective delivery of services from this giant entity that we all do own----each of us---our Federal Government. We hope and expect that there will be many, many Award winners-----hopefully hundreds! There certainly is no shortage of things we need to "fix" in Washington!
The "best of the best" award winners, as selected by the online community, will also receive the following:
SIZE MATTERS GRAND CHAMPION Trophy, presented by SIZE MATTERS Co-Founder, Alexa Mendez at a luncheon, PLUS an ADDITIONAL AWARD in the amount of FIVE THOUSAND DOLLARS ($5,000).
