Change This

Larry Lessig recently gave a speech at the Brenan Center campaign finance reform conference, to an audience that included several high-positioned members of the Obama administration.

In a nutshell, he said:

• If we could make just reform to the world, it should be providing public funding for national elections in the US. That's the single keystone that will fix the most problems.
• It would reduce corruption in government, and apathy in the populace.
• Laws and foreign policy would there after be passed based on "what makes sense" not "what makes the rich richer".
• More importantly, it would shift the incentive / motivation of big business. Businesses would find that money invested in innovation and invention would once again pay off better than that same money invested in buying Senators.

You want a flying car? A jet pack? To get off this rock and colonize space? To own a house that isn't just gonna be washed out to sea in another 20 years of global warming? To live safe from war or terrorism? To not be raped to death by some fat-cat businessman and his army of credit card companies and mortgage lenders? Then Change Congress. The rest should follow.

That shaved about 18 minutes off the presentation.