How To Fix Life...in 7 steps
1) Money Creation and Extinction
Everything made by mankind is composed of only 2 primary ingredients... human & natural resources. At the source, natural resources are a free gift from nature to all. Human resources, then, are the only real cost of everything made. Since human labour is already measured and priced using hours, it only makes sense to use hours as the basis for currency.
The quantity of money in existence should always equal the depreciated value of the assets in existence, as closely as possible. Human labour should automatically bring new money into existence. Consumption should automatically extinguish money. Money should not re-circulate.
2) Income
Income can only be generated two ways:
Labour
One hour of labour creates one hour of new money as income to the worker.
Only socially-productive, commercial labour creates new money. Socially-productive, commercial labour is labour that produces goods or services that people other than the worker himself are willing to purchase.
Pursuing a post-secondary education is also socially-productive labour. Acquiring knowledge enhances the value of our human resources and increases society’s collective wealth. One hour of study creates one hour of new money as income to the student. Course outlines establish how many paid study hours each course includes. All students can pay their tuition fees without any debt, and still have a sufficient income to live comfortably while learning.
Endowments
At birth, all people inherit an equal right to a share of the Earth’s natural resources.
Throughout their lives, all people contribute more to society than just their paid employment. Raising families, caring for loved ones, maintaining friendships, all have enormous social value. Endowments simply recognize this equal right and reward these voluntary social contributions. At 20 years of age, every person becomes entitled to receive an endowment of 8 hours per week, for as long as they live.
3) Commercial Credit
Commercial enterprises no longer need any start-up capital. Once registered as a business, commercial entities simply open an accounting line-of-credit at a bank of their choice. Since workers create all of their own income themselves, simply by working, the employer has no labour costs to pay. Commercial raw materials, supplies, and all other inputs are simply transferred between businesses without the need for any money at all. All commercial transfers are simply recorded as accounting entries at the business banks. The “seller’s” outstanding line-of-credit is reduced by the value of a transfer, while the “purchaser’s” line- of-credit is increased by the value transferred. Sales to consumers also reduce the outstanding balance on a business line-of-credit.
4) Public Capital
All major assets, like buildings, machinery, infrastructure, vehicles, etc., that have been designed to last for longer than 10 years, are also transferred to those who require them without the need for any money at all. The user is simply responsible for paying the normal depreciation cost of using the asset. A house that took 12,000 hours to build, and was designed to last 100 years, would depreciate at the rate of 120 hours a year. The depreciation cost to the user would be only 10 hours a month. (how many hours do you have to work now to pay your rent or mortgage each month?)
The ownership of all major assets would remain in the public domain. Users would enjoy an exclusive, private user-ship right for as long as they wished, if they pay the monthly depreciation costs responsibly. Users could not resell major assets for a profit. Speculation and inflation would vanish. Exorbitant rents to property owners would disappear completely. All people would be on a level economic playing field.
5) Commercial Prices
Commercial prices are calculated by totaling input costs, all of which are denominated in hours. Price = internal labour + operating inputs + asset depreciation. No profit is added. No financing costs are added. Neither are necessary. Private capital is no longer at risk. There are no shareholders to reward. Capital is a free public utility.
Since labour itself creates the money to pay workers, and workers produce the major assets which are transferred freely (not for sale), then more income is generated than the combined total of final prices. In other words, incomes exceed prices. Also, government labour creates new money, but government services too are provided freely (not for sale). Plus student labour and the endowments add income with no corresponding market prices.
The government also consumes a portion of the goods and services produced commercially, which reduces the supply of commercial goods and services available to consumers. Again this causes consumer incomes to exceed final consumer prices. Some excess income is needed to pay for future, ongoing asset depreciation costs, plus some excess income is necessary to fund personal savings without stalling the economy, but too much income could create a supply shortage of goods and services. To compensate for this one government tax must be added to prices. A natural resource depletion premium would replace all other taxes, including income taxes and sales taxes.
6) Natural Resource Depletion Premium
When necessary, a natural resource depletion premium must be added to prices to slow down the rate of consumption and resource depletion. All natural resources would be classified according to their annual depletion rates. A totally renewable and fully sustainable resource would have a depletion rating of 0%, a totally non-renewable and critically unsustainable resource could have a depletion rating as high as 50%. The depletion premium would be calculated by multiplying the total labour cost of supplying the resource by the depletion rating. If it took 10 labour hours to produce a barrel of crude oil, and the depletion rate for crude oil was set at 50%, then a barrel of crude would cost 15 hours. If money doesn’t recirculate, and there is no artificial system of debt to sustain consumption, when resources cost more than what was paid out to produce them, then consumption rates will fall accordingly.
7) Economic Equality
If your own life is priceless to yourself, and you truly respect others, you must also respect that their own lives are priceless to them. On that basis, if every person’s life is infinitely valuable, then the value of every human life must be equal. We may all have different talents and abilities, and some may have been blessed with greater gi!s than others, but if we are all honestly trying to develop and contribute our very best to society, then we all deserve to enjoy the beauty of life and the bounty of the Earth equally. No one is given a choice before their birth of selecting their abilities or attributes. We all have to make the best out of what we are given. It is cruel and unreasonable to devalue the worth of another human being on the basis of something that was beyond their control. We all need love and respect. We all have families that we care about. Who honestly has the right, and wisdom, to judge another person’s worth?
Using these 7 simple concepts, the primary nature of the economy can be changed from a competitive, high-growth, profit-driven model to a more cooperative, sustainable and equitable one...
• where all people matter equally
• where all have a real opportunity to develop their full potential
• where a willingness to honestly try your best counts equally for all
• where a lack of money is not an obstacle
• where inner fulfillment is more important than material accumulation
• where richness of heart supersedes richness of pocket
• where family and community trump individual greed
Is such a society possible?
You bet it is... there is simply no other way we will make it as a species.
The earth is telling us to change, nicely for now... but our time is running out.
see http://www.financialParty.ca for more detailed information