Party for Freedom and Progress
2022 Electoral Manifesto
A New Future For Carbania
General Outlook:The
Party for Freedom and Progress aims to combine market dynamism with careful and limited state intervention. We are firm believers in the free market. We believe that the best way to achieve prosperity is through a free market economy that allows people to innovate and produce products and services that people want. We believe that government intervention in the economy should be minimal and careful. We are fully supportive of individual liberty and believe in the dignity of all human beings. We will fight for liberty, security, jobs and social justice.
Taxation:• We shall simplify the tax code by eliminating all taxes except for:
1. 15% flat personal income tax
2. 10% flat corporate tax
3. 12% value-added tax
4. a corporate carbon tax of $12 per tonne of CO2 emissions
• Carbanians who earn an income of less than $3,000 will pay zero income tax.
• Corporations that invest in rural areas will pay 2% less in corporate tax for that year.
• We shall offer tax benefits to corporations that invest in renewable energy and electric cars (see 'Environmental Policies' section).
• We shall offer tax incentives to attract digital nomads (see 'Trade and Immigration' section).
• Small businesses (from ten employees and below) will pay a reduced corporate tax of 8%.
• Small businesses will be exempt from taxation for the first (1st) year of their existence.
• Small businesses’ assets will be exempt in cases of bankruptcy, allowing them to continue to operate during and after personal bankruptcy.
• VAT on electric cars and environmentally conscious products shall be decreased to 10%.
• We shall abolish taxation for humanitarian NGOs.
Spending:• We shall establish a Public Spending Review to identify, and cut, government waste and extravagance. It shall also identify programs and departments that can be downsized or handled more effectively, without causing any social harm.
• We shall establish an Office for Indigenous Culture to organize public events and festivals to celebrate indigenous culture.
• We shall establish a Minimum Guaranteed Income of $100 per month for low-income individuals (defined as less than $5.50 per day). It will be funded by merging existing benefits for low-income individuals and streamlining public administration.
• We shall hire more teachers (see 'Education' section) and police officers (see 'Security' section).
Public Administration:• We shall appoint technocrats in the cabinet and strive for gender balance.
• We shall ensure a balanced budget, eliminating deficits and putting an end to debt accumulation.
• We shall establish Annual Evaluation Reports for all civil servants. The Annual Evaluation shall rate a public official with 1 to 5 stars: 1-2 (incompetent), 3 (mediocre), 4 (competent), 5 (exemplar). The evaluation shall evaluate the conduct of each public official from 20th January to 20th December and be published on 21st January each year. The manager/supervisor of each public department/agency shall rate public officials with 1 to 5 stars, according to their judgement of their work, and provide a short commentary on their work. Citizens will be able to rate the services of public officials they interact with, both at public services and online (once public administration is digitized). Government Review Agents - appointed with a two thirds majority by the parliament - shall rate public officials of their respective departments/agencies with 1 to 5 stars and provide short commentary with their observations of each official. The overall rating of each public official shall take into account the ratings of managers/supervisors, citizens and government review agents. Each public official shall be rated according to the median rating. Public officials with positive rating shall see their wage raised while public officials with negative rating will see their wage slashed.
• We shall institute a new body of technocrats and police & financial agents, the Anti-Corruption Investigative Body, to monitor the public sector for any signs of corruption and to be an advocate of public interest.
• We shall examine carefully all regulations and cut the ones that do nothing to protect consumers and workers but instead add only red tape. We need smart regulations, not complex and anti-business ones. We aim to increase Carbania's ranking in the Ease of Doing Business Index.
• We shall establish an Office of Critique staffed by technocrats, so that citizens can offer their critique and make complaints about public administration. Their critique shall be assessed and the office will publish monthly a list of proposals to solve any problems.
• All government actions/legislation/public-sector appointments shall be made transparent and known to the public: all governmental activity shall be publicized on a website, 'Open-Gov'.
• We shall completely digitize all public services, thus ending red tape and ensuring that the all public services can be accessible from a single website. This website will be using a simple search engine-like interface to tie the government's vast portfolio of websites together and allow easy access to them by the citizens. Civil servants will have to undertake a mandatory one-month digital course to familiarize themselves with digital administration.
• Physical ID cards are to be paired with digital signatures (Digital ID). Digital signatures (Digital ID) will be mandatory for every adult Carbanian citizen. The digital signature shall be used to pay taxes, authenticate transactions with the government, do online banking and access health care records and shall be legally equivalent to manual signature. Each person will be provided a client certificate, to make the digital ID compatible with standard X.509 and TLS infrastructure. The system will be accessed only through a highly encrypted end-to-end, two-factor authorization system, which will be accessible only with a digital ID or ID card. Only people authorized by the person owning the data will be able to access their personal data.
Housing:• We shall expedite housing construction, streamline approval processes for projects in municipalities and reduce the stringency of zoning regulations (to allow denser housing to be produced or the repurposing of obsolete buildings into housing).
• Cities can be made increasingly affordable and accessible by building more infill housing. Greenhouse gas emissions will be reduced by denser cities.
Education:• We shall hire 1000 additional teachers for public schools. We shall also hire mental health counselors in public education, to ensure the mental welfare of our children.
• We will introduce lessons on economic literacy and digital literacy in public high schools. Those lessons shall be mandatory and aim to ensure that young Carbanians will be able to compete in the globalized economy of the future.
Internet and Technology:• We shall undertake an ambitious program of updating our cyber infrastructure to 5G and ensuring broadband connection to all parts of the country.
• We shall establish data as a property right. This will give individuals more control over their data and enable them to make money when companies use it to power their products and services.
Social Security and Retirees:• We shall make private retirement accounts tax-free.
• Prescription drugs for retirees shall be covered by the public healthcare system. In cooperation with private pharmacies, we shall ensure delivery at home of such prescription drugs, sparing seniors of trouble.
• Establish a hotline staffed by mental health experts to talk with lone seniors who may wish to call someone.
Healthcare:• We shall establish an Office for Mental Health to lead a public campaign for mental health awareness.
• We shall establish a Mental Health hotline, staffed by mental health experts, to talk with people with mental health problems.
• As already mentioned (see 'Social Security and Retirees' section), the state shall cover prescription drugs for retirees and ensure their smooth delivery to them.
Environmental Policies:• We shall institute a corporate carbon tax (as mentioned in the 'Taxation' section).
• We shall offer a 4% reduction in the flat corporate tax to corporations that invest in renewable resources and electric cars, thus creating thousands of new jobs in green industries.
• We shall ban the use of plastic by government agencies.
• We shall implement strict environmental regulations to protect our climate and natural wildlife.
• We make a commitment to become carbon neutral by 2040.
• We shall lower the VAT on environmentally-conscious products (as mentioned in the 'Taxation' section).
Social Policies:• We support the liberalization of the abortion law and believe that reproductive rights are human rights. Understanding the delicate nature of the issue, though, we promise that any such change with regards to abortion laws will have to be approved in a national referendum.
• We shall ensure equal rights for our LGBTQI+ community and make them feel safe to be who they are: we support civil unions for same-sex couples on national level and allowing the legalization of same-sex marriage by provincial administrations.
• We shall legalize marijuana for recreational use and shall pardon first-time non-violent drug offenders.
• We shall implement a syringe access program to provide people with clean injection equipment to prevent syringe sharing, thus reducing blood-borne diseases.
• We shall criminalize ‘conversion therapy’.
Security:• We shall increase the number of police officers by 2000 and raise their wages by 10%.
• We shall procure modern equipment for our police force.
• We shall create 'Rapid Response Teams': motorized police units carrying heavy equipment that will regularly patrol the streets of major cities and enforce law and order.
• We shall institute an Investigative Police Body to examine accusations of police abuse/brutality.
• We shall implement a program of job training for young (less than 25 years of age) first-time offenders on lite sentences, to ensure a proper integration in society after release.
• We shall harshen sentences for those convicted for murder, rape and abuse of children.
• We shall put an end to the communist insurgency through a combination of military and police operations. At the same time, communist insurgents who want to put down their guns and be reintegrated into society as lawful citizens will be pardoned (this does not apply to high-ranking officers of the insurgency but rather to common insurgents).
Trade and Immigration:• We shall bring highly-skilled and educated immigrants to our nation by offering them a quick path to citizenship - we need bright men and women from across the globe to make Carbania their home.
• We shall implement legislation to attract digital nomads: the government will tax the income earned by those who are self-employed, individuals, or newly employed in positions created in Carbania at half the normal rate. This new incentive will apply for a maximum of seven years for any worker who wants to move their tax base to Carbania, regardless of their nationality or job type.
• Persecution because of sexual orientation, gender identity and intersex status will be considered a qualifiable cause for asylum request.
• Simplify asylum law for refugee status.
• We shall create an Office for Investments that shall have a high budget and will advertise abroad our country, in order to attract foreign capital and create new jobs.
• We shall create the Office for Agricultural Exports, which shall provide technical assistance, free advertisement and low-interest loans to farmers who export their products abroad.
• We shall sign free trade agreements with the United States, the European Union and our neighboring countries in order to increase our exports abroad.
Foreign Policy and Defense:• We need to maintain close ties to liberal democracies, mainly the United States, the European Union, the UK, Brazil, Chile, Argentina, Columbia, Ecuador, Peru, Paraguay, Australia, New Zealand, Japan and South Korea. Carbania needs to align itself with nations that share our values of liberalism, democracy and human rights.
• On China, we shall pursue a pragmatic agenda of economic ties but making sure that they understand that our place is with liberal democracies and preventing investment into critical sector that may endanger our national security.
• We need to maintain the current defense spending with only slight increases over time. Those increases should mainly focus on buying new high-tech equipment for our brave armed forces.
• We shall establish a new Cyberwarfare Agency as an independent branch of the military forces, tasked with cybersecurity and cyberattacks on hostile countries.