[imagica]

All what it takes is to digitize the whole infrastructure and make transparent all the public spending with details of details of the details all the way down to where the money currently is, all that is including large loans. Public spending? No privacy whatsoever, no hidden transactions nor business trading behind curtains. Oligarchs buy popular support as well, they own televisions themselves to manipulate local politics, but with detailed accounting all that could potentially be stopped. Of course the efforts to implement these would be gargantuan because they would fight back.

[seer]

As a software dev in one of the Ex soviet block countries, I’ve heard several tales of accounting software projects being canceled because they would reveal inconvenient truths.

A good friend of mine once worked for a small software shop that was building some accounting software for power plants. When the project was almost done, the mafia guys in charge were reviewing it. The realized that if it was actually used, it would be waaay to revealing. The project got canceled immediately. With a clause to “stay quiet or else”...

And a couple of years back the government was trying to “crack down” on the gray economy. They released an app, that you could scan a receipt (from grocery shops, restaurants, everywhere really) and verify that the establishment has indeed paid its tax and has registered the transaction with the tax office.

However people “in the know” got access to a special api. When the verification is taking place there is actually a web hook being sent, which you can register for. And pay your tax “on demand” only when someone actually wants to verify it.

As far as I am aware this system is still in place today... Though its too esoteric to explain to the public so nobody really cares it seams. The public is like “sure government is crooked, like what else is new” :(

[jonhohle]

> digitize the whole infrastructure and make transparent all the public spending with details of details of the details all the way down to where the money currently is, all that is including large loans.

This is a use case for Bitcoin/crypto I hadn’t previously thought of. The public auditability is exactly the reason I don’t think it’s good for citizen use cases, but it seems perfect for government use cases. There’s an issue of how revenues get accurately added to the ledger, but tying a transaction to say an ID generated when a return is submitted would make it possible to track one’s own payment.

[jszymborski]

I don't think the problem is that people don't know _who_ the problem is.

[vkou]

People know who the problem is.

The thing is, if you want to do something about them, you're going to need to use a lot of violence - because those people will happily use violence against you.

Most people aren't interested in a starting a war, and would rather keep their heads down, and mind their own business.

[galangalalgol]

That and the historic evidence that the prize for all that bloodshed is just a new set of oligarchs.

[tartoran]

You’d be surprised how much manipulation is taking place through local television and even social media. Local support is needed for elections, different politicians threat their existence..