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Demo Notes: Notes About This Demos Demonstration
About Demo Notes
You likely got to this note from the demos Sign-In page. Please read this and the next two red-titled notes.
The book Beyond Plutocracy - True Democracy for America is simply referred to as Beyond on this Notes page.
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About This Demos Demonstration
This demos demo cannot be fully understood or appreciated until you have read Beyond.
This humble demo, written only in HTML code, cannot fully convey the look, feel, and function of a real demos. At best, it can only give you something of an idea about the twelve demos voting pages. Limited to only the barest representation of the voting pages and including no other pages, the image of the demos conveyed by this demo will likely seem too simplistic to one who would delve into in-depth pro and con arguments, demos member deliberations, and further information and research. An actual demos would include all of these features and capabilities along with several search, filtering, list sorting, and other tools.
Not included in this demo, each of the demos's nine economic and three electoral issues has its own heirarchy of pages for demos member deliberations of the issue. Also not inclued, demos deliberations are not limited to these twelve issues. In a vast, organized "deliberations tree" discussed in Beyond, Chapter 9, demos members may add issues to the tree for discussion among members.
A few of the voting pages allow you to select buttons or text links to change your votes. (In these notes the word "select" means doing any input action such as touching an object on the screen or using a touch pad or clicking a mouse button to choose an object or action.) Along with the twelve demos issue voting pages, this demo has a vote summary page. In this limited demo, any changes of votes on the demos issue pages are not reflected on the vote summary page. Nor are your votes actually sent anywhere when you select the send votes to the demos system button on the vote summary page.
This demo was designed to fit screens as small as 600 pixels wide. Every attempt has been made to keep the content simple and brief enough to prevent the need for scroll bars. These strict requirements cause the content to appear crowded into a small space at higher screen resolutions.
About the Demos Sign-In Page
The demo Sign-In page doesn't actually use the voter ID and password (and other possible security measures) the way a real demos Sign-In page would. Just select the Sign In button.
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About the Demos's Hierarchy of Pages
The demos Sign-In, Vote Summary, and twelve issue voting pages are like the tip of an iceberg visible above the water. Most of the iceberg is found beneath the surface of the water. And a large hierarchy of demos system pages exists beneath the more visible demos voting pages.
These pages are accessed when you select links on the demos voting pages seeking further information or more detailed pro and con discussions, etc. about an issue, candidate, or page. Within these pages you also may enter into deliberations with other demos members about issues and candidates.
None of these pages exist in this simple demos demonstration. All such links that appear on any of the pages included in this demonstration, lead only to various notes on this page.
Nine of the twelve demos issues are numerical in nature. Their current demos consensus is expressed as a simple numerical, percentage, or monetary value, or as a simple line on a chart displayed on the issue's demos page. Three issues—the electing of the president, senators, and representatives—are not.
Although the nine economic issues are expressed numerically, the demos members never need to make any mathematical calculations or have any contact at all with the demos's "under-the-hood" mathematics.
The nine economic issues form a functional whole with a logical flow of influence. Beyond, Appendix 1, Figure 3 contains a diagram which shows the interrelationship among these nine issues. Select the link if you want to see this diagram. A new browser window or tab will open displaying the diagram. When you are done looking at it, close that window or tab to return back here. See Beyond, Appendix 1, Figure 3
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Issue Pro and Con Arguments
In a real demos, selecting a brief pro argument, brief con argument, go to pro and con discussion of the issue, pro and con arguments, or P&C link (pro & con) on an issue's page will display a page containing arguments specific to the issue. In this demos demo, all such links lead only to this note.
Some demos issues' voting pages have room to allow very brief pro and con arguments on the page. Such brief arguments contain links leading to more detailed arguments. In detailed pro and con arguments, differing views relating to a given point will always be displayed together.
With potentially millions of people participating in such deliberations, how is it determined which views make it to the top of the heap for greatest visibility? As described in Beyond Chapter 9, a view, which can be presented by any member of the demos, receives higher positioning and greater visibility based on a combination of earning the votes of demos members who favor the view and a special "round robin" mechanism that gives all views their fair share of visibility.
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More Information on Demos Issues
In a real demos, selecting a More Information on This Issue link will lead to a hierarchy of pages containing detailed information relevant to the specific demos issue. These pages may contain descriptions, reports, graphs, charts, tables, a standard set of information on candidates running for office, etc. that aid in increasing one's understanding of the issue or person at hand.
In this demos demo, all such links only lead to this note.
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First Work Hour
In Beyond, Chapter 25, a new way of calculating wages and benefits is proposed in which both wages and benefits are paid on a sliding scale, each hour earning more wages and benefits than the previous hour. The minimum wage set by the demos defines the minimum wage that can be paid for an employee's first hour of work.
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The Federal Tax Rate
The amount we tax ourselves to finance the federal government is expressed as a percentage of all private sector income (including inherited) and revenue earned in the nation. The current percentage figure used in this demo is 22%. This does not mean that every taxpayer is taxed at this 22% rate, but that all of the taxes on private individuals, businesses, and corporations paying taxes at varying tax rates taken as a whole average out to be 22%. The amount that a particular taxpayer is taxed depends upon the amount of the taxpayer's annual revenue or income.
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On Green and Red Pie Chart Colors
In the pie chart, since the whole pie represents 100%, the percentage total of its slices must equal 100%. Since the pie can not be greater or less than 100%, if you color any slice green to increase its size, then you must color at least one slice red to decrease its size. And, if you color any slice red, then you must color at least one slice green.
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Demos Issues 5, 6, 7 Line Graph Voting Instructions
In this demo, the three issues that use the line graph voting method have the same tax rate line. In an actual demos, the electorate would have set a differing line for each issue.
For the dollar amounts listed along the bottom horizontal line of the graph, K = thousand, M = million, B = billion, and T = trillion.
You vote by selecting various segments of the tax rate line and coloring them green to increase the tax rate, yellow to keep it as it is, or red to decrease it. Two horizontally moveable vertical lines are used to to delimit or define a segment of the tax rate line. Simply drag one vertical line until it intersects one end of the desired segment of the tax rate line and drag the second vertical line until it intersects the other end of the desired segment. When you complete the selection action, green, yellow, and red buttons pop up from which you choose a color. The selected line segment will be colored the color you chose. You may repeatedly select segments of the tax rate line of any length and mixture of colors. All segments will end up the colors you select.
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Electing the President, Senators, and Representatives
For the three issues (10, 11, and 12) involving the election of the president, senators, and representatives, the demo only contains three names in what may actually be very long candidates lists. In an actual demos, the people with the highest ranking names in the candidates lists would be currently seated in office, and their names in the candidates lists would be colored red or indicated in some other manner. The highest ranking name in the presidential candidates list, the top 100 names in the senators list, and - the number of representatives differing in various states - the top names in the representatives list for each state would indicate candidates who are currently seated in office.
In the demos electoral system, the president and senators are elected from the nation at large, and representatives are elected from states at large. Although the nation has 100 senators and each state has several representatives, each member of the electorate may cast a vote for only one senator from the nation at large and one representative from his or her state at large.
Candidates' individual demos pages will follow a strict, standard demos format, as will all demos pages. Below certain levels in the demos page hierarchy, private individuals will be able to link their personal group or individual web sites. On their own sites, they may present what they say in any way that they please.
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Demos Candidate Verification
One task of demos managers would be to verify that each person in the candidates lists for president, senator, and representative qualify for the office that they are seeking. It would be the voters of course that make final decisions as to the suitability of candidates for office, but the demos would for each name on a list check such things as: that a name on a list is indeed that of a living person, that the person is an American born or naturalized citizen, and that the person meets age and residency requirements for the office that is sought. As a candidate progressed further up a candidates list and enjoyed a serious possibility of actually winning office, the demos would take a closer look at such things as criminal records, physical and mental health, etc. Or a candidate may stop running for office for personal reasons. Verification would be an ongoing process and a candidate could be removed from a list at any time over the years.
When voting, your currently selected candidate (green on the voting page) may no longer be available, and you would have to write in a new name (yellow) or pick a new name from the candidate’s list (red). A person whose name you wrote in may not qualify, and once again you would have to write in a new name or pick a new candidate from the list.
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Selecting a Candidate in the Candidates List
You vote for a candidate in the Candidates list by selecting the Vote link before the candidate's name. The word "Vote" becomes bold, uppercase, and red VOTE, the candidate's name is displayed in the Current Selection box at the top of the screen, and the candidate's vote total is increased by one. Your previous selection, if in the Candidates list, returns to Vote, and that candidate's vote total is decreased by one.
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