Unfortunately, what you envision is a utopia that could never exist in our current culture. If you think about the large cities we have created, there are too many people in one place and too many have-nots to make common law or common sense the rule. This could only function well in a sparsely populated rural society. In the cities at the slightest weakening of the power structure due to a blackout or hurricane, primal instincts take hold and we have mass looting and the real chaos you mentioned at the beginning. So demo-cracy that is rule by the people (sometimes possessed by demons) is the best we can hope for. But we must continue to fight for reform and oppose the corporate oligopoly that currently has a stranglehold on things. That's my take.