We should be tracking the government too

This was a screenshot of a tweet by James Melville.

I think that the discussion about digital IDs is all backwards now. Digital IDs is about tracking people, which is exactly the pitch. The focus is on being able to track people, and no one asks the most important question, why shouldn’t it be reversed? Why shouldn’t people be able to track the government too?

Every government meeting, every person who enters that meeting, every government contractor, every public spending decision that gets made with money that people being heavily taxed have to provide and every single person who enters that meeting, is accountable, they are trackable. They are permanently visible, they are verifiable. Melville was very correct.

This is not an extreme perspective. I think it's the most rational use of the same technology that they are trying to use on us. If there is digital tracking, the people who most require digital tracking are the government officials and legislators who make decisions that directly affects the lives of the citizens.

There is one thing that they are either deliberately being ignorant of or mentally blocking out intentionally. The government does not pay for itself, the public does. This money comes with ownership and historically, most people who pay with money expect to have some say on how it is spent. You cannot take someone’s money, and then have it spent and operate under a total lack of accountability.

My problem with it is that there is no courtesy involved, this is the most basic expectation.

If government officials are able to conceal meetings, sources of funding and cash without accountability and without transparency, corruption does not become just a likelihood but a certainty. Secrecy is a controlling mechanism and it is used to protect the controlling person’s interests. It is how controlling is needed to protect itself. We need to see the tangible proof of who communicated with who, who transacted with who and the entire trail of every penny spent. We can hold them accountable the moment they are transparent.

Which is why I wish blockchain was used for government.

_{Posted using SteemX}