The one percent Treaty is a piece of paper that says "stop spending so much on killing and spend a tiny bit on not dying." More formally: every signatory nation redirects one percent of its annual military budget to the one percent Treaty Fund, which finances global health initiatives like your decentralized institutes of health, or D.I.H. It's legally binding, which means countries have to do it or feel mildly embarrassed at international conferences.

The Math.

The Problem: The world spends two point seven two trillion dollars a year on military forces to maintain a delicate balance of power.

The Hack: If every nation reduces military spending by one percent *at the same time*, the balance of power remains identical.

No country becomes more vulnerable.

The Prize: That one percent, a twenty-seven point two billion dollar a year river of cash, is redirected to cure all human diseases.

For comparison, twenty-seven point two billion dollars is about what Americans spend on Valentine's Day (flowers and chocolate is more than curing cancer, apparently), and roughly what humans spend on pet food every three months. Apparently too much to ask for curing diseases.

How It Works.

Funding: Creates a twenty-seven point two billion dollar per year revenue stream for the one percent Treaty Fund.

Execution: A network of decentralized institutes of health, or D.I.H., subsidizes patient participation in a decentralized framework for drug assessment (D.F.D.A. (a decentralized F.D.A.)), clinical trials that are forty-four point one times cheaper than the current model.

Governance: Decentralized Autonomous Organization, or D.A.O., governed by smart contracts and global population via Wishocracy.

Transparency: All research, data, and spending published on public ledger.

This Isn't a Trade-Off.

It's like if everyone in your neighborhood spent their life savings on attack dogs, and then called it a "safe community" because all the dogs are equally vicious.

When every nation builds one percent fewer explosion devices *at the same time*, you get two good things:

You become safer.

The global "you might all die by accident" temperature drops one percent.

Fewer chances of someone pressing the wrong button, which happens more than you'd think.

You stop dying from stupid things.

That twenty-seven point two billion dollars pays sick people to try treatments instead of waiting for death.

This is called a Pareto improvement, which is economist-speak for "everybody wins and nobody loses." It's like finding out that eating less poison makes you both less poisoned AND wealthier because poison is expensive.

The Dead Capital Problem (Or: Why Bombs Are the Worst Investment Since Tulips).

Here's something nobody tells you: when countries "invest" in military hardware, they're not buying assets. They're buying very expensive paperweights that occasionally explode.

A bridge.

Generates economic activity daily (trucks move, people commute, value flows).

Lasts fifty to one hundred years.

Makes everyone richer.

Pretty to look at.

A missile.

Sits in a hole doing nothing.

Costs one point five million dollars a year just to keep it from rotting.

Can only destroy things (including itself).

Makes everyone nervous.

This is what economists call "dead capital," resources trapped in a form that can't generate returns. It's like if you converted your house into a pile of TNT. Sure, it's impressive.
But you can't live in it, rent it out, or do anything except eventually blow it up, at which point you have neither a house nor TNT.

As President Eisenhower (a five-star General who knew about killing professionally) put it:

"Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies, in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed."

He literally ran the biggest military in history, and even HE thought you were being ridiculous about this.

A one percent treaty doesn't ask you to spend twenty-seven point two billion dollars curing diseases. It asks you to stop wasting twenty-seven point two billion dollars on things that sit in holes making you poorer and less safe, and redirect those same papers to things that make you richer and less dead.

It's not spending. It's stopping wasting.

The Reallocation: How to Redirect twenty-seven point two billion dollars a Year (Legally).

This is how you redirect twenty-seven point two billion dollars a year from the military budget to medicine. The process is so simple it's almost insulting that nobody did it earlier.

Nobody will even notice.

The Beautiful Mathematics of Mutual Stupidity Reduction.

If EVERYONE reduces their military budget by exactly one percent at exactly the same time, everyone maintains exactly the same strategic position.
America still has six thousand five hundred nukes instead of six thousand five hundred sixty-five.
Russia still has six thousand instead of six thousand sixty.
China still has enough weapons to kill everyone twice instead of two point zero two times.
North Korea: still terrifying but now one percent less so.
Nobody loses relative scariness.

The interesting thing about having thirteen thousand nuclear warheads is that after the first few hundred, you're just showing off.

I asked a general if losing one percent of weapons would weaken national security. He said yes. I asked if having one percent fewer weapons pointed at you by every enemy would make you safer. He stopped talking to me.

That one percent (twenty-seven point two billion dollars a year) cures the diseases that are actually killing people, unlike bombs which are mostly sitting around getting dusty and occasionally almost ending the world because a computer thought a flock of geese was a missile (this actually almost happened).

The Blueprint for a Saner World.

Treaties are magic pieces of paper that countries sign when they want to pretend they'll behave.

Sometimes they work (you haven't had World War Three yet). Sometimes they don't (you've had about two hundred other wars). But they're the only tool you have for getting countries to do anything together besides kill each other.

A one percent Treaty: Technical Specifications for Global Survival.

Article One: The Promise.

"We, the undersigned nations, being of sound mind and tired of dying, hereby agree to redirect one percent of our annual military expenditure to not dying instead."

Article 2: The Money Part.

Every signatory nation contributes exactly one percent of their military budget to the one percent Treaty Fund.

The U.S.A. contributes eight point eight six billion dollars (won't even notice, they've failed to account for over two point four six trillion dollars).

China contributes two point nine six billion dollars (what they spend on military parades).

India contributes eight hundred thirty-five million dollars (one aircraft carrier's wine budget).

Russia contributes one point zero nine billion dollars (Putin's shirt budget).

Saudi Arabia contributes seven hundred fifty-four million dollars (one prince's yacht).

The U.K. contributes six hundred eighty-six million dollars.

France contributes five hundred sixty-three million dollars (military cheese allocation).

And so on...

Article 3: The Incentive Mechanism.

Politicians who support the treaty receive Incentive Alignment Bond benefits: campaign funding from the political incentive pool (two point seven two billion dollars per year) and lucrative post-office career opportunities. Supporting the treaty becomes the career-maximizing choice.

Why This Is Actually About National Security (No, Really).

Here's what actually threatens nations today:

Real Threats (That Actually Kill People).

Pandemics: COVID killed more Americans than World War Two, Korea, and Vietnam combined.

Cancer: Kills ten million people globally per year.

Heart Disease: eighteen million annual deaths.

Dementia: Destroying the minds of every nation's elderly (and sometimes their leaders).

Climate Disasters: Making entire regions uninhabitable.

Mental Health Crisis: More people kill themselves than die in wars.

Fake Threats (That Countries Spend Trillions On).

Other Countries Maybe Attacking: Happens occasionally, usually over stupid stuff.

Terrorists: Kill fewer people than furniture accidents.

Space Aliens: Still zero confirmed kills.

The Communists and Capitalists: Mostly just sell each other stuff now.

Immigration: People moving around, terrifying.

Critical Race Theory: A graduate seminar that somehow threatens nations.

A one percent treaty addresses the real threats. It doesn't weaken your ability to handle the imaginary ones. You'll still have plenty of weapons for the communists, the furniture, and the space aliens.

The Rebranding Campaign: From "Weakness" to "Strategic Genius".

Politicians hate looking weak. It's their biggest fear, right after being caught with their mistress or having to use their own healthcare system.

So you don't frame this as "reducing military spending." You frame it as:

The Strategic Health Defense Initiative.

The Old Frame: "We're cutting defense by one percent" (Political suicide).

The New Frame: "We're building a biodefense shield against the real threats" (Political genius).

The Talking Points That Make Hawks Sound Like Doves.

For Conservatives:
"This is the ultimate America First policy. We're protecting American lives from the Chinese virus and any future biological threats. It's the Strategic Defense Initiative for the twenty-first century.".

For Liberals:
"We're redirecting the tools of war to the cause of healing. This is how we build a more just and equitable world.".

For Nationalists:
"Our nation grows stronger when our people stop dying of diseases we can prevent. A healthy population is a powerful population.".

For Economists:
"The R.O.I. is eighty-four point eight million to one. That beats every public health intervention on record.".

For Conspiracy Theorists:
"Big Pharma hates this one weird trick that makes medicine basically free.".

For Everyone:
"Your mom has cancer. This might cure it. Sign here.".

Implementation.

For the detailed execution timeline, see the Roadmap.

The Money Flow: Where twenty-seven point two billion dollars Actually Goes.

Once nations sign the treaty and money starts flowing, here's what happens:

The One Percent Treaty Fund.

Input: twenty-seven point two billion dollars annually from military budgets worldwide.

Distribution: The twenty-seven point two billion dollars flows into the One Percent Treaty Fund. An eighty, ten, ten automatic split divides it before any funds reach discretionary spending:

Eighty percent of the fund, twenty-one point eight billion dollars, is allocated to pragmatic clinical trials for patient subsidies, R and D, and pandemic prep.

Ten percent, or two point seven two billion dollars, goes to VICTORY Incentive Alignment Bond returns for perpetual investor payments.

Ten percent, or two point seven two billion dollars, is for I.A.B. political incentives as rewards for supporting legislators.

The eighty percent allocated to pragmatic clinical trials is then distributed by the actual people of Earth via the Wishocracy platform, not by a committee of 12 people in a conference room who haven't had a new idea since 1987.
While allocations are dynamic, initial priorities determined by the crowd are projected to focus on:

Patient Subsidies: The largest portion, creating a market for clinical trials.

Research and Development: Funding for breakthrough platform technologies.

Pandemic Preparedness: A global insurance policy against the next COVID.

The exact percentages will shift in real-time based on humanity's collective will.

Governance: 
Governance is handled by Wishocracy, a system of direct digital democracy detailed in the 'How to Replace Congress With an App' chapter. In short: every human gets direct say on funding priorities. Yes, even Florida Man. We'll risk it.

Year One Projected Outcomes.

Right now, only one point nine million patients per year participate in drug trials annually out of two point four billion people with chronic disease. A one percent treaty changes this:

Current System.

Pivotal trials: forty-one thousand dollars.

Only one point nine million patients per year participants per year globally.

One point zero eight billion people willing to participate, but turned away.

Fourteen years from discovery to patient.

With a one percent treaty plus a decentralized framework for drug assessment.

Sixty billion dollars existing plus twenty-seven point two billion dollars from the treaty.

Pragmatic trials cost nine hundred twenty-nine dollars, which is forty-four point one times cheaper.

Twenty-three point four million participants per year, a twelve point three times capacity increase.

For detailed impact projections, see the full economic analysis.

The Incentive Structure.

The military-industrial complex will LOVE this.

Why? Because they get to:

One. Keep ninety-nine percent of their budget (still plenty for bombs).

Two. Pivot one percent to biotech (higher profit margins).

Three. Look like heroes (rare for arms dealers).

Four. Invest in the fund (two hundred seventy-two percent, remember?).

Five. Not die of cancer (even arms dealers get cancer).

Lockheed Martin Presents: The F thirty-five Cancer Killer.

Boeing Proud Sponsor of: Not Dying of Alzheimer's.

Raytheon Technologies: Now With one percent Less Death.

They keep their contracts. They keep their profits. They just point one percent of their death machines at actual death. This isn't just about saving lives; it's about creating a substantial growth industry, the business of not-dying, and letting everyone get rich in the process.

What Happens If This Actually Works.

The Endgame: Reorienting Global Priorities.

A one percent treaty isn't the goal. It's the gateway drug. Once your species gets a taste of "spending money on things that help instead of things that explode," you'll want more. Your multi-generational strategy is to make organized violence less economically necessary.

You're not appealing to better angels. You're making peace more profitable than war. Turns out humans will do anything if you pay them enough, including surviving.

The Ratchet Effect: How to Boil a Frog (The Frog is the War Machine).

Once a one percent treaty is signed and the first cures for "untreatable" diseases start rolling out, the system becomes more valuable. This is how you sustain it.

Every five to ten years, you hold another global vote. The question is simple. "Hey, that worked out great. Grandma's dementia is manageable now. You stopped that pandemic before it started. Want to try another half a percent?".

It's a politically tiny ask with an enormous payoff. This creates a feedback loop from hell for the "war is good, actually" crowd. More cures lead to more popular support, which leads to more votes for more funding, which leads to more cures. It's a self-reinforcing flywheel for peace.

The military budget gets put on a diet, one delicious, life-saving, politically-unassailable bite at a time.

The Economic Gold Rush.

Eventually, the economic gravity of the planet will shift. The most talented scientists and engineers will be drawn to the massive opportunities in health and longevity, not designing better ways to blow people up.

The world's biggest investors will realize the greatest returns are found in curing Parkinson's, not in building another aircraft carrier.

Nations will discover that true power comes not from their capacity for destruction, but from their capacity for keeping people alive. The new geopolitical competition won't be about who has the most weapons. It'll be about who cured the most diseases.
Imagine a world where countries brag about their cancer survival rates instead of their missile counts. Weird, right? That's because you've been doing it wrong.

Objections.

For detailed responses to common objections ("This makes us weak!", "This is socialism!", "What if there's a war?", etc.), see the Frequently Asked Objections.

Avoiding Treaty Pitfalls.

Treaties fail in predictable ways. Here's how this one avoids the common killers:

Reservation Games.

Countries love to sign treaties then add exceptions that gut them. It's like joining a gym but reserving the right to never go.

Solution: No reservations permitted. All or nothing. Take it or leave it.

Ratification Delays.

Sign with fanfare, take a photo, then let it die in committee forever. Your species calls this "diplomacy.".

Solution: Provisional application. Takes effect on signature. Ratification just formalizes what already started.

Creative Accounting.

Reclassify "military" spending as "peacekeeping" or "homeland security" to dodge obligations.

Solution: Incentive Alignment Bonds, or I.A.B.s, make creative accounting self-defeating. Politicians who benefit from treaty compliance have personal financial incentive to ensure their nation's full one percent contribution flows through.

Reclassifying military spending to dodge obligations reduces I.A.B. returns for that nation's own legislators, the same people who control budget classifications.

Parliamentary Obstacles.

Executive signs, legislature refuses to implement.

Solution: Self-executing treaty. No implementing legislation needed. Direct effect in domestic law (per the Supremacy Clause in the U.S., similar provisions elsewhere).

Summary.

A one percent treaty is a piece of paper that says "Let's spend one percent less on killing and one percent more on not dying.".

That's it. That's the whole thing.

It doesn't end war. It doesn't destroy the military. It doesn't create world peace.

It just moves the FIRST one percent of your murder budget to your survival budget.

If you can't agree on that, if you can't agree that spending 1 penny less on death and 1 penny more on life is a good idea, then you deserve whatever's coming.

Addendum: The Actual Treaty Text (First Draft).

THE TREATY FOR THE one percent REALLOCATION OF MILITARY EXPENDITURES TOWARDS BIOMEDICAL RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT FOR THE PREVENTION OF HUMAN SUFFERING AND DEATH

*(Or: The "Let's Not Die" Treaty, for short)*

WHEREAS, humanity spends two point seven two trillion dollars annually on methods of killing itself;

WHEREAS, this seems somewhat counterproductive;

WHEREAS, diseases kill more people than all wars combined and don't even have the decency to be quick about it;

WHEREAS, we have nuclear weapons sufficient to end civilization twenty times but can't cure male pattern baldness once;

WHEREAS, this is embarrassing;

NOW, THEREFORE, the undersigned nations agree to stop being complete idiots about this, as follows:

Article I: Each signatory shall redirect exactly one percent of its annual military budget to the one percent Treaty Fund for allocation to pragmatic clinical trials.

Article II: Transfers shall be automatic, immediate, and irrevocable. No "we'll get to it later.".

Article III: Percentages may increase but never decrease. This is a ratchet, not a yo-yo.

Article IV: Compliance shall be verified by blockchain and A.I. No creative accounting.

Article V: Non-compliant parties lose access to incentive-alignment bond, or I.A.B., benefits and treaty fund advantages. Your opponents get what you forfeit.

Article VI: Success metrics trigger mandatory percentage reviews. When it works, we do more.

Article VII: Citizens have standing to enforce via domestic courts. You can sue your own government for non-compliance.

Article VIII: Withdrawal requires unanimous consent of all parties plus ten-year notice. Good luck with that.

Article IX: This treaty supersedes all conflicting domestic law. Yes, even that law.

Article X: Entry into force upon signature by two states. You only need two countries brave enough to go first.

IN WITNESS WHEREOF, the undersigned, being of sound mind and tired of watching their loved ones die of preventable diseases, have executed this Treaty.

Signed this day, blank, in the year of our ongoing confusion.

Nation Name.

"We choose life, I guess".

P.S. - Yes, this includes space weapons. Nice try.