Tuesday, October 6, 2009

Tables For The Toxins In Power

I introduced a proposed formula for the toxins within power, being unaware of any such formula which may already exist.

In an even earlier article those toxins within power had been discussed, in the abstract, as one reason for the American tradition of trial by jury.

The formula set forth for calculating the effect that the toxins in power have at a given time is:
C = P ((T¹ .. Tº) - (A¹ .. Aº) + 1)
where P = O * Y ("O" is the office held, and "Y" is the time an individual has been in that office).

Therefore the full formula is:
C = (O * Y) * ((T¹ .. Tº) - (A¹ .. Aº) + 1)
When O * Y is simplified to P = O * Y; the formula fully simplifies into:
C = P ((T¹ .. Tº) - (A¹ .. Aº) + 1)
The (T¹ .. Tº) - (A¹ .. Aº) sections simply show that you add up the list of toxins, then add up the list of antitoxins, subtract the antitoxins sum from the toxins sum, to derive a value to then be multiplied by "P" which will deduce the corruption factor "C".

Since I feel that a working formula would go a long way toward a pragmatic technique for determining how corrupted or uncorrupted a particular individual working in government could be at any given time, I will provide some tables as an example of only a very few values that can be used to activate and use the formula.

A few examples should help to kick off more use of the formula in calculations involving local and other governments around the nation and the world.

The first thing we need to establish are the constants for the "office", symbol "O". Here are some constants for "O".

The "office" held is on the left side of the equal sign and the constant value is on the right side of the equal sign:
Office = Constant

President = 10
Vice President = 9
Speaker of the House = 8
President P.T. of Senate = 7
Cabinet Members = 6
Federal District Judge = 8
Federal Appeals Judge = 7
US Supreme Court Judge = 7
There, we have some constant values for "O" components. If we want to calculate for the Office of the President in the case of a president who has been in power for three years, we would then use:
C = (10 * 3) * ((T - A) + 1)
where "T" is the sum of (T¹ .. Tº), and "A" is the sum of (A¹ .. Aº).

Since in this case "O" = 10 ("10" is the "president constant value") for this example, and "Y" = 3 (three years in office when we calculate) for this example, we can simplify:
C = 30 * ((T - A) + 1)
Where "C" is the corruption factor to be derived, "T" is the toxins sum, and "A" is the antitoxins sum.

This formula shows that the exercise of any official is to resist corrupting toxins via antitoxins. The goal is to bring "T" and "A" to the same value, so that T - A sums to zero. Then 1 is added.

That is because P * 1 = P, which would mean there is no corruption in that office at that time. But the corruption factor, expressed as potential, remains.

Finally, we need to ask what, then, are toxins and what are their numeric values, and what are antitoxins and what are their numeric values.

To recognize some fundamental corrupting toxins, I turn to James Madison, 4th President, "Father of the Constitution", author of "The Bill of Rights", Cabinet Member, Congressman, and author of 30% of the Federalist Papers.

In his sage understanding, war is the number one toxin. Here is a table from his writings linked to above:
Toxin = Constant

War = 10
armies = 9
taxes = 8
dealing out offices, honors and emoluments = 7
ambition = 8
avarice = 8
vanity = 7
fame = 7
There, we have some constant values for "T" components.We can adapt his sage understanding for a table of antitoxins from his writings:
Antitoxin = Constant

Peace = 10
shrinking armies = 9
lowering taxes = 8
shrinking offices, honors and emoluments = 7
humility = 8
charity = 8
doing the people's work = 7
There, we have some constant values for "A" components. We have put our toes in the water and now we have some constants to work with.

We can now clearly show an example of their use in the formula.

Lets use C = (O * Y) * ((T¹ .. Tº) - (A¹ .. Aº) + 1) where: "O" = president, "Y" = 1 year, toxin = war, antitoxin = peace; so as to derive:

C = (Office * Years in office) * ((Toxin¹ .. Toxinº) - (Antitoxin¹ .. Antitoxinº) + 1)
C = (president * 1 year) * ((war constant - peace constant) + 1)
C = (10 * 1) * ((10 - 10) + 1)
C = 10 * 1
C = 10

Thus, a president who entered office in a time of war and brought peace that year fulfils the mission of zero corruption (C=10). The lowest the corruption factor can be is the office constant times the years in office. It does not equate to actual corruption unless the ((toxins - antitoxins) + 1) is a value greater than 1. What increases the longer an individual is exposed to power is the potential for corruption.

These formulas can or will be adjusted, added to, expanded, enhanced, and then used by students and teachers in many areas of politics.

It can be a quick tool for making ongoing appraisals that track how a politician is doing at any given point in time.

It is a simple tool of the people for keeping an eye on them, and officials are also free to use it to monitor themselves and avoid problems.

2 comments:

  1. A beginning, but aren't "shrinking armies" and "lower taxes", inter-dependent variables? What about the effects of changes in their values on other factors ... like employment, tax revenue, ...

    How about assigning toxicity values (<>0) to budgetary expenditure classes and multiply each class by its relative percentage in a total budget for which the office-holder has responsibility ... which would also have a value relative to that o-h's ultimate responsibility for its instantiation or operation.

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  2. Anonymous,

    Yes, only a beginning.

    The applications of various tables are endless, especially when local politics are taken into consideration.

    The formula should hold for sets of local tables too.

    These beginning tables are taken from the views of "The Father of the Constitution", 4th President, etc., a man named James Madison.

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