Albert Gore, Vice President
I am a software developer, and one of my projects was a prototype program for the California GAIN workfare program in fall of 1988. I develop in PowerBasic syntax, under the MS-DOS operating system, on "IBM PC" compatibles. I have been programming and developing software since 1969, originally in assembly language on mini-computers, for about 6-1/2 years.
I also have worked on a program to help manage a temporary short-term work agency, to help people find work quickly, even if it is for a week or a day.
The problem as I see it, is that
THE BEST SOCIAL PROGRAM IS A JOB.
When Jobs Are Not Plentiful, Theft Increases, Stress Increases, and Abuse Increases.
Instead of government putting enough dollars at the start of that equation, our government agencies have been putting too many dollars at the end of that equation, trying to treat the after-effects.
We have developed too many agencies for child abuse, sex abuse, wife-beating, elder abuse, etc., while we neglect government's responsibility to be sure that people can find a job quickly and easily.
This is something like instead of vaccinating children for polio, we are spending all our money on wheelchairs and braces, and lifetime disability payments, and caregivers.
The pendulum has swung too far toward seeing every kind of stress-related misbehavior as a sort of crime, filling up our jails and prisons, building more prisons, instead of facing the reality that when people have a job, they will eat right, and that their minds will stabilize, and they will be better behaving. Virtually everyone has more self-esteem if they are "making it on their own".
I don't have enough time to pursue a court case to establish these principles in law. Is there some way that we could work together, behind the scenes, in treating this symptom of a sick economy in a philosophical or political level?
Part of the problem in my opinion, is that our current crop of social workers are too heavily educated on obsolete Freudian concepts, and under-educated in nutritional concepts.
I have another project, called "NutriZen\BodyEquations", a system for better managing all the thousands of nutritional facts. I also have a book-format version. I sent Hillary a complimentary copy. Ideally, I would like to see all social workers, probation officers, mental health workers, judges, etc., understand more about nutrition.
If you can relate to my unique study-note format for studying nutrition, and want to share this knowledge base, I will grant you a license to duplicate it, at any good quality print shop, where the number of copies can be docu- mented, and pay me a royalty of $X per copy. You will need a later copy before doing this. I made some more corrections after that copy.
Stress depletes nutrients from the human body. This depletion causes mis- behavior. Economic uncertainty and dietary deprivation thru unemployment, coupled with the alcohol and drug abuse that follows, in trying to numb their feelings about their bleak future, are stressful.
It is government's job to see that someone, whether public or private, makes it possible for any able-bodied person that wants to work, to be able to go down ready for work, and find a job, even if it is just for a day.
I have worked on some software to help agencies or churches, any group that wants to help, to manage lists of job openings and skills offered.
The important thing is to make it easier for people to find "something constructive to do". That organizes their minds, and stabilizes them.
The GAIN experiment was a good idea, but it did not let everyone participate, because it depended upon funding, a government check handout, whereas my proposal would put government into the position of a "jobs broker", merely facilitating more efficiently, what already exists in the private sector.
Government does not always have to be "payor", handing out a benefit check. When society's economic systems failed, the people always had barter to fall back on. In today's situation, this means the "underground economy". I am proposing to help the state governments write software to facilitate the underground economy, to help people quickly find something constructive to do.
Even when cashflow is stagnating, a computerized system could pay people in credits, within the computer, "auto-barter". The answer is not going to come from Washington DC and President Clinton. There is just so much that government can do, with "checkbook mentality", to stimulate the economy. The answer must come at the local level. I am offering to the states to use my software source code toolkits to make their own custom software, that they can then release to their state's local agencies, in compiled form.
If you want to get serious about helping these Community Development Banks, I will grant you a license to use the source code, under the provisions discussed herein, and we can leave the dickering over how much the royalty will be, for later, only after the software helps somebody, and only if the government can make use of it.
I can make copies available to any state---including the federal "state"--- that will sign a license agreement, acknowledging that I am not putting this source code into the public domain, that I reserve the copyrights, and they will agree to pay me some token amount of royalty for each compiled copy that they generate with my source code.
Signers of the agreement will be given a password, or I can send floppy disks for a small copying charge.
I also developed software for courthouse calendar systems, and for an issues processor system. I was listed three years in "The Lawyers' PC" fall software directory, '88, '89, and '90.
I would be willing to license use of my court-related software on a similar royalty basis, to any entity that could provide its own programmers to take on maintenance and modification.
There is some reluctance on the part of programmers to work in lowly BASIC, so, perhaps, in time, I might make a "C" version of my toolkits, but they are only available in PowerBasic, at this time.
I have started trying to do some conversions from "C" language to PowerBasic, and keeping a list of the substitutions of text-strings required. I will gather all these changes eventually into a C_to_PB and a PB_to_C converter.
If I fully document all the functions I have in PowerBasic, and make "C" language versions available, would that make your programmers happy?
Have someone try to call the BBS number, and or send me a FAX, telling me that you are ready to get serious, and I will give you a password, and load the source code libraries for your programmers.
I need a statement, that, in principle, the government is acknowledging that I am not putting this source code into the public domain, that I reserve the copyrights, and they will agree to pay me some token amount of royalty for each compiled copy that they generate with my source code.
Shari Soza, Yreka CA 96097-2413
07-15-93
bcdream1.ltr bcdream1.doc made in 12-22-95, to .rtf on 01-25-96