The Duty Points Act of 2024
An Act to establish a system of Duty Points for the purpose of determining the eligibility of citizens to vote in federal, state, and local elections.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.
This Act may be cited as the "Duty Points Act of 2024".
SECTION 2. DEFINITIONS.
In this Act, unless the context otherwise requires,
(a) "citizen" means a person who is a citizen of the United States of America;
(b) "Duty Points" means the points assigned to a citizen based on their contributions and actions towards the society, as specified in section 3 of this Act;
(c) "voting age" means the age of 18 years or older;
(d) "voting threshold" means the minimum number of Duty Points required for a citizen to be eligible to vote, as specified in section 4 of this Act.
SECTION 3. ASSIGNMENT OF DUTY POINTS.
(a) A citizen shall be assigned Duty Points according to the following criteria:
(i) A citizen shall receive 100 Duty Points upon being born in the country or upon being naturalized as a citizen;
(ii) A citizen shall receive 200 Duty Points for each year of service in the country's military;
(iii) A citizen shall receive 50 Duty Points for each year of service in the country's civil service;
(iv) A citizen shall receive 20 Duty Points for every $10,000 paid in taxes to the federal, state, or local government;
(v) A citizen shall receive between 100 and 500 Duty Points for being awarded a "Person of the Year" honor by the President or the Congress, based on their achievements and merits in various fields;
(vi) A citizen shall receive 50 Duty Points for having a college degree or higher education;
(vii) A citizen shall receive 10 Duty Points for each donation of blood or organs;
(viii) A citizen shall receive 5 Duty Points for each hour of volunteering for a charitable cause;
(ix) A citizen shall receive 100 Duty Points for each adoption of a child or a pet;
(x) A citizen shall receive between 100 and 500 Duty Points for inventing or innovating something that benefits society, as determined by a panel of experts;
(b) A citizen shall lose Duty Points according to the following criteria:
(i) A citizen shall lose 1000 Duty Points for committing murder;
(ii) A citizen shall lose 500 Duty Points for committing rape;
(iii) A citizen shall lose 100 Duty Points for committing theft;
(iv) A citizen shall lose 200 Duty Points for lying under oath or perjury;
(v) A citizen shall lose 100 Duty Points for driving under the influence or DUI;
(vi) A citizen shall lose 500 Duty Points for tax evasion or fraud;
(vii) A citizen shall lose 300 Duty Points for assault or battery;
(viii) A citizen shall lose 400 Duty Points for cybercrime or hacking;
(c) The assignment of Duty Points shall be recorded and updated by the Department of Duty Points, which shall be established under the authority of the Secretary of State.
(d) A citizen shall have the right to access, review, and appeal their Duty Points record, in accordance with the rules and regulations prescribed by the Department of Duty Points.
SECTION 4. VOTING ELIGIBILITY.
(a) A citizen who has reached the voting age and has accumulated at least 1000 Duty Points shall be eligible to vote in any federal, state, or local election.
(b) A citizen who has not reached the voting age or has less than 1000 Duty Points shall not be eligible to vote in any federal, state, or local election.
(c) The Department of Duty Points shall provide a list of eligible voters to the relevant election authorities before each election.
(d) The Department of Duty Points shall verify the identity and Duty Points status of each voter at the polling station or through online or mail-in voting.
SECTION 5. EFFECTIVE DATE.
This Act shall take effect on January 1, 2025.
Interesting ideas, but I have to say, some of it is kind of retarded, and the other problem is it all hinges on having a working system to begin with. But this is theoretical anyway, so the latter is fine, but must be kept in mind.
And, like with any system, all of it is prone to loopholes and corruption. The systems that give the most points will be taken over by the people who want power, leading to similar issues as we currently have in the political class.
So a year of miliary service is equivalent to forty hours of volunteer charity? Not only would the math have to be tweaked a lot, but "charitable causes" would have to be tightly regulated or it's an incredibly easy foot in the door for the locusts.
Rewarding civil service with more power seems like a terrible idea in anything but a perfect system.
The lolbertarian in me wants to scream "taxation is theft" (and it is), but I suppose it's still better to reward the people paying into the system, than those that are a drain on the system, so this is...okay...ish. Once again, loopholes abound though; the people with the most money would be given more power to shape things in ways to give them more money. Although since it seems to be a flat 1,000 threshold versus scaling, probably still fine. Although it does again makes paying $100,000 in taxes equivalent to a year of military service.
This I like the idea of. There are still issues of abuse, but very cool idea in theory, and I think these should be awarded on the state level as well. And perhaps monthly as well. The idea that people are being recognized for good behavior is a great idea.
At the risk of being repetitive, this would only work in systems with actually decent education and medical fields.
Same goes here but, also, is a pet the equivalent of a human child?
So rape and tax evasion carry the same voting demerits? And tax evasion is five times worse than drunk driving, which can kill your fellow citizen? And what's with the very high value for hacking, when it can have varying degrees of victimization?
Also, one big amendment I'd tack on to this is to make it absolutely set in stone, perhaps as something like a constitutional amendment. Otherwise you run into the problem of the people with voting rights being incentivized to vote for representatives who would make it harder to vote, consolidating power in the hands of the citizens who can more easily accrue points.
Oh, and one other big amendment; crimes against children needs to have a massive point loss, especially if you're rewarding people for adopting children. Should be right up there with murder.
Also, I'm just heading out to work now, so I will engage with your lengthy reply when I get home later. But thanks for taking the time and effort