LGC 11.20 — Consumer Protection Act — PASSED

[ZMUN M441]

The Consumer Protection Act of 2022

Section I--Title
The bill may be cited as the Consumer Protection Act

Section II: Consumer Rights
I. Businesses operating within Lincoln may not be able to collect or share information about clients without consent.
II. All businesses that make up a noticeable share of the market

Section III: Increasing Democracy and Transparency
I. Businesses operating within Lincoln must operate in a Cooperate, requiring that all board members must fit one of the following criteria:
A. A current or former employee
B. Have a personal connection to the company
II. Requires that businesses operate under a workplace democracy framework including employee decision making on consumer decisions.

Section IV. Requires that banks must operate in either a credit union or co-op fashion in order to perform in a democratic fashion

Section V.: Construction of the Treasury of Lincoln
The act will establish an Independent Treasury for Lincoln that will open effective July 1, 2023. The treasury will act as the main financial resource independent and as an alternative to the national bank which has put the power of a powerful few at the expense of everyone else. The treasury will operate with the coinage of free silver on a 15:1 ratio in order to bring financial relief to farmers and laborers alike.

Section VI. The act will take place effective January 1, 2023 unless otherwise stated.

Occupying: Slot 1 of 10
Sponsor: Christian Man

[Sirius_]

Would this effectively bar major banks from operating in Lincoln?

[Aurelius]

Noticing some drafting/vagueness issues with this bill.

§III.I.A: "personal connection" is not defined. Vague and nebulous term. This will spawn a thousand legal challenges. One could reasonably argue that being hired to the board is a personal connection.

§III.II: "consumer decisions" is extremely unclear: I'm not sure what it's supposed to mean.

§IV is poorly constructed.

§V: what is a "financial resource independent"?

Penalties and enforcement mechanisms are not stated.

----

Constitutional question: are regions legally permitted to issue their own currencies?

----

Aside from the above drafting concerns, much of the bill has nothing to do with consumer protection per se. It appears to be an attempt to force all businesses to operate under a cooperative model. Aside from the relative merits of such a model, and the devastating effect that can be expected for the Lincoln regional economy, this bill does not provide any accommodation for the millions of businesses in operation in Lincoln that currently operate according to a traditional model. Should this bill pass, coming into effect on January 1, businesses will have only days to convert to a co-op model. Essentially, this bill makes criminals of every enterprising Lincoln citizen.

[Aurelius]

§II.I: "cleints" should be "clients". Scrivener's error - this should be correctable without a formal amendment.

§II.II: what constitutes a "noticeable share" of the market?

[Vice President Christian Man]

§II.I: "cleints" should be "clients". Scrivener's error - this should be correctable without a formal amendment.

§II.II: what constitutes a "noticeable share" of the market?

Any company that takes up greater than 10% of the stock market.

[Vice President Christian Man]

Would this effectively bar major banks from operating in Lincoln?

No, it would just modify the way in which they would be able to operate.

[Aurelius]

§II.I: "cleints" should be "clients". Scrivener's error - this should be correctable without a formal amendment.

§II.II: what constitutes a "noticeable share" of the market?

Any company that takes up greater than 10% of the stock market.

How are non-public companies, which aren't traded on the stock market, accounted for?

[Vice President Christian Man]

Big business greed and lack of worker representation, two things this bill attempts to address has disproportionately harmed the working people of Lincoln, but the Constitution comes first. If this bill is found to be unconstitutional due to limitations of the states', I will call for this to be modified or possibly tabled. I would wish at least for portions of this bill to be passed, potentially in a separate or modified bill, but I understand if it is unconstitutional. I knew posting this it would be a risk but I wanted to see how it would go.

[Vice President Christian Man]

Noticing some drafting/vagueness issues with this bill.

§III.I.A: "personal connection" is not defined. Vague and nebulous term. This will spawn a thousand legal challenges. One could reasonably argue that being hired to the board is a personal connection.

§III.II: "consumer decisions" is extremely unclear: I'm not sure what it's supposed to mean.

§IV is poorly constructed.

§V: what is a "financial resource independent"?

Penalties and enforcement mechanisms are not stated.

----

Constitutional question: are regions legally permitted to issue their own currencies?

----

Aside from the above drafting concerns, much of the bill has nothing to do with consumer protection per se. It appears to be an attempt to force all businesses to operate under a cooperative model. Aside from the relative merits of such a model, and the devastating effect that can be expected for the Lincoln regional economy, this bill does not provide any accommodation for the millions of businesses in operation in Lincoln that currently operate according to a traditional model. Should this bill pass, coming into effect on January 1, businesses will have only days to convert to a co-op model. Essentially, this bill makes criminals of every enterprising Lincoln citizen.

III. One that is either a current/former employee or who has consulted with the company.

IV. Employees would be given decision making on how the company operates (similar to the authority that management is given).

V. It was meant to make Lincoln self-sufficient in terms of its treasury, similar to a state bank but in the style of the Independent treasury that the US operated under in the 1840's.

I think it is fair to push the start date to July 1st to give companies time to adjust.

[Vice President Christian Man]

§II.I: "cleints" should be "clients". Scrivener's error - this should be correctable without a formal amendment.

§II.II: what constitutes a "noticeable share" of the market?

Any company that takes up greater than 10% of the stock market.

How are non-public companies, which aren't traded on the stock market, accounted for?

Those with less than 1,500 employees are exempt

[ZMUN M441]

Motioning for a final vote.

[ZMUN M441]

A final vote on this bill has been initiated.


Nay

[nerd73]

Aye

[Vice President Christian Man]

Aye

[LAKISYLVANIA]

Aye

[Senator Spark]

Aye

[Senator Spark]

Aye

[ZMUN M441]

LGC 11.20 passes, 4-1

[Former President tack50]

X tack50