About GotChoices.org
Seems like everyone has at least a few opinions about how things “ought to be.” This web site is dedicated to explaining a few of mine.
The center-piece of the site is the book: Got Choices.
I like to think of as: "Yet Another Book About Life, The Universe And Everything." (Affectionate hat-tip to Douglas Adams and everyone else who enjoys thinking and writing about big questions.)
Is it a book about ethics, or philosophy; economics or politics; religion or sociology?
Yes!
As it turns out, economics is not really a science—at least not in the traditional sense. Science, on its best day, is an objective search for truth. Economics, on the other hand, has become more of an attempt to justify various pre-determined social constructs.
If you favor capitalism, you will believe in a brand of economics that supports that viewpoint. Perhaps you will identify with classical economics, which seeks to maximize production in a context of unencumbered competition.
If instead, you favor a socialized approach, there is another branch of economics that will tell you just what you want to hear. Keynesian economics will probably ring more true for you, as it seeks to maximize employment through a more centralized, command and control approach.
Choice economics aspires instead to promote individual agency—in other words, choice and accountability. This approach is also based on its own particular belief, faith, or philosophy. But it stands apart from other belief systems in that it tolerates and even facilitates all other approaches as well.
In a choice economy, you can set up your own socialized construct if you like. Just make sure everyone participating is there by his own free will.
If you prefer, compete in the open market, and get as rich as you like. Just don’t lie, cheat or steal in order to get there.
And if you don’t want to maximize anything other than your own enjoyment of life, do that! Just don’t expect everyone else to take care of you. Pull your own weight, and make sure the externalities of your choices don’t create an undue burden for others.
That is the book. And it turns out to be a lot to think about—especially if this is all new to you.
So in addition to the book, there are also a number of brief articles which cover related topics, in a more abbreviated format. These articles are meant to stand alone, so some material may be repeated from one article to another.
Finally, the most recent addition to the site is a section detailing a specific proposal for new money, based on the CHIPs model introduced in the book. It is hoped, others will join this effort to introduce an open source platform for trading privately issued credits, or open-source money.
I have included a book mark mechanism (in the upper right corner). Use that to save your place and you can come back later and read some more.
All written works on the site are authored by me, but I have been greatly influenced by a number of other people, so very few of the concepts covered are truly original.
The terms of the copyright are: You may access and share the site freely as long as it is done by reference (link) to the live web page. You are not entitled to reproduce, copy, distribute, quote, or create derivatives of the work in part, or in whole unless you accompany such use with full attribution, which includes a link to the live web page, gotchoices.org. Please contact me if you have any questions about use of the material.
All contents represent only my opinions and should not be construed as statements of fact. I reserve the right to change any part of the site as new information becomes available, as my understanding improves, or if I determine the previous language used did not accurately represent my intended meaning.
Since this is currently a non-commercial work, I have attempted to use only open-source and free resources (such as website hosting, icons and images) as much as possible. To the best of my knowledge, the images and figures on the site are either original by me, or have been obtained from web sites representing them as freely usable for this purpose. If you have knowledge that any such resource is not free for this use, please contact me and I will remove it.
Finally, this site is a work in process. There are sometimes pages on the site which do not yet have posted content. The drafts of these pages are in process and will be published when they are ready. As I periodically review the site, I regularly make changes and updates to improve style, accuracy, readability or presentation. I may also add, delete or modify sections as current events inspire. So check back often for the latest!
I sincerely hope these ideas help promote the kind of leadership and progress that furthers joy and fulfillment for the greatest number of people possible. The biggest barrier to this is, it is hard to get the information out to a large number of people. This is where you come in.
If you like something you read here, please share it with your friends. You can do that on a certain social media site using the Share link at the bottom of each page. Or better yet, just copy a URL and email, text or post it to your favorite site. I hope you will add a personal note explaining why you liked the article or chapter and why you think your friends should read it.
The ultimate goal of this work is, we stop relating to each other as a divided population of partisans (Left/Right, male/female, Black/White, etc.). These false, political divides keep us too busy fighting to ever get together and accomplish something positive!
Wouldn’t it be great if we could coalesce around the basic principles of choice, where a vast majority of us are already in agreement?
Then maybe we could use all that extra energy to improve quality of life for ourselves and our neighbors.