We Believe in Focusing on Solutions At Voices for Progress, we believe in focusing on solutions—not just the problems. While the world is full of challenges, we see countless opportunities when people come together, share ideas, and build real momentum for change.
Voices for Progress was created out of a simple observation: small businesses and communities everywhere are facing uphill battles—whether from government overreach, lack of funding, or simply not knowing where to turn for help. As we became more involved with local and county initiatives, one thing became clear: people want change, but they often lack the tools and networks to make it happen. Understanding the Root of the ProblemThese challenges aren't new—they're part of a pattern that stretches back through history. There is a striking parallel between the billionaires of 2025 and the tyrants and despots warned against throughout history—from the Magna Carta era (1215-1225) to both the Federalist Papers (1787-1788) and the Anti-Federalist Papers (1787-1788). This comparison highlights timeless concerns about unchecked power, exploitation, and indifference to widespread suffering.
This is Where We Come InRather than simply analyzing these problems, we've built practical solutions. As experienced project managers and community development leaders, we designed Voices for Progress to empower individuals, businesses, and communities against these age-old patterns of extraction and control. We bring people together in organized, supportive networks and give them the tools to plan, fund, and complete meaningful projects—turning big dreams into real results while creating constitutional-level protection against wealth extraction.
Whether you want to launch a fundraiser, start a business, build a home, plan a community event, open a school, or just get through all the paperwork for your next adventure, our platform helps you maintain local control and community benefit rather than feeding distant corporate interests. Parallels: Billionaires as Digital DespotsBillionaires of 2025 are like the Tyrants and Despots from 1225. There is a striking parallel between the billionaires of 2025 and the tyrants and despots warned against throughout history—from the Magna Carta era (1215-1225) to both the Federalist Papers (1787-1788) and the Anti-Federalist Papers (1787-1788).
This comparison highlights timeless concerns about unchecked power, exploitation, and indifference to widespread suffering. Drawing on historical context and current realities, we can examine how this analogy holds up while exploring practical solutions. Historical Warnings: From 1215 to 1788The Magna Carta emerged as a response to King John's despotic rule—levying crushing taxes, seizing lands arbitrarily, and manipulating justice for profit. This wasn't mere greed; it was systemic despotism where the monarch viewed himself as above accountability, causing widespread hardship. The charter imposed limits on royal authority, establishing that even kings must be held accountable.
The Federalist Papers, written in 1787-1788 by Hamilton, Madison, and Jay, warned that without proper checks and balances, any individual or faction could become tyrannical. Madison's Federalist No. 10 specifically addressed preventing the "violence of faction" when powerful interests dominate at the expense of the common good. |
... However, the Anti-Federalist Papers—written by "Brutus" (Robert Yates), "Cato" (George Clinton), "Federal Farmer" (Richard Henry Lee), and Patrick Henry—raised even more prescient warnings about concentrated power. They argued that distant, powerful elites would inevitably capture any large system and use it to extract wealth from local communities. Brutus warned that a powerful central authority would "swallow up" state and local governments, while Federal Farmer feared that wealthy elites would manipulate any system to their advantage, leaving ordinary citizens powerless.
Modern Economic TyrannyIn 2025, the Anti-Federalists' worst fears have materialized through economic rather than governmental power. Billionaires wield the concentrated influence that Brutus and Federal Farmer warned would emerge from unchecked systems. The world's richest control trillions in assets while global crises—climate change, inequality, resource scarcity—reduce quality of life for billions.
Like King John ignoring famines while funding wars, today's "plutocrats" prioritize profits over planetary health, with their lifestyles emitting a million times more greenhouse gases than average citizens. Modern billionaires exert precisely the "soft despotism" that both Federalist and Anti-Federalist writers feared, shaping policies via super PACs, media ownership, and self-serving philanthropy. Their "escape plans" (bunkers, space ventures) mirror tyrants' fortified castles—preparing to dodge disasters while abandoning the masses, exactly as the Anti-Federalists predicted wealthy elites would do. VFP's Constitutional SolutionVoices for Progress addresses this crisis by heeding both Federalist and Anti-Federalist wisdom. Like the Federalists, we create checks and balances through our Public Benefit Contracts that establish constitutional-level protection against wealth extraction. Like the Anti-Federalists, we maintain local control through county-based working groups that prevent distant elites from capturing the system.
Our county working group network embodies the Anti-Federalist vision of power remaining close to the people, while our Human-Supervised AI and preference discovery tools ensure communities build genuine consensus rather than being manipulated by distant interests. By enabling template licensing, and local manufacturing, VFP builds the freedom and economic sovereignty that makes communities less vulnerable to the extractive practices both Federalist and Anti-Federalist authors warned against. Fulfilling Both VisionsThe Anti-Federalists feared that powerful elites would capture any centralized system; the Federalists believed proper structure could prevent tyranny. VFP synthesizes both insights: we provide the structural protections the Federalists advocated while maintaining the local control the Anti-Federalists demanded.
Our platform gives communities practical tools to create their own prosperity rather than hoping for benevolent despots, whether governmental or economic. The warnings from 1215, 1787, and today remain consistent: power without accountability becomes tyranny. VFP offers communities the practical tools to write their own modern Magna Carta while fulfilling both Federalist and Anti-Federalist visions—one project, one template, one Public Benefit Contract at a time. |
The People's Role in Democracy
The People express authentic preferences through systematic discovery and negotiate genuine consensus through structured collaboration. Legislators transform verified community consensus into laws that reflect the popular will. Executives faithfully administer policy according to approved budgets and laws, remaining accountable to the people who created the consensus.
This framework honors both the Federalist Papers' vision of structured governance and the Anti-Federalist Papers' insistence on local control and protection against elite capture. By reviewing the Federalist Papers, Anti-Federalist Papers, and the US Constitution together, we see that our founders intended a system where power flows from the people upward—not from distant elites downward.
VFP's platform restores this constitutional order by enabling communities to discover their true preferences, build verifiable consensus, and hold both legislators and executives accountable to the people's will through Public Benefit Contracts and transparent governance structures. (See: Government 101)
This framework honors both the Federalist Papers' vision of structured governance and the Anti-Federalist Papers' insistence on local control and protection against elite capture. By reviewing the Federalist Papers, Anti-Federalist Papers, and the US Constitution together, we see that our founders intended a system where power flows from the people upward—not from distant elites downward.
VFP's platform restores this constitutional order by enabling communities to discover their true preferences, build verifiable consensus, and hold both legislators and executives accountable to the people's will through Public Benefit Contracts and transparent governance structures. (See: Government 101)
