"That's okay. I don't need money!"
Only two types of people in our world today can honestly say that statement!
Those who are living outside the money system, or those who have (perceived) excess stores of money. Since the majority of us will likely never end up in the latter section. It would be wise of us to choose to aim for the former.
Wait, why am I telling you this?
The Original God of War
Well, today more than ever, money dominates our lives and near every aspect of our globe. It has more power than any of the gods of antiquity! I could share more of my thoughts here, but I'll let Charles Eisenstein explain it more eloquently:
"Money’s divine property of abstraction, of disconnection from the real world of things, reaches its extreme in the early years of the twenty-first century as the financial economy lost its mooring in the real economy and took on a life of its own. The vast fortunes of Wall Street were unconnected to any material production, seems to exist in a separate realm.
Looking down from Olympian heights, the financiers called themselves “masters of the universe,” channeling the power of the god they served to bring fortune or ruin upon the masses, to literally move mountains, raze forests, change the course of rivers, cause the rise and fall of nations. But money soon proved to be a capricious god. As I write these words, it seems that the increasingly frantic rituals that the financial priesthood uses to placate the god Money are in vain. Like the clergy of a dying religion, they exhort their followers to greater sacrifices while blaming their misfortunes either on sin (greedy bankers, irresponsible consumers) or on the mysterious whims of God (the financial markets). But some are already blaming the priests themselves." -Charles Eisenstein Sacred Economics
This is the world where the "revolution" of Bitcoin began. However, this new god initially claimed to bring freedom from tyranny. But, it is proving to have allied with the gods' of old, the god it was purported to overthrow, 'money'. More here
I personally believe I was not destined to this earth to serve money. I have devoted too much of my life in the service of money. Slaving away to increase a number in a machine. Doing tasks I normally wouldn't do.
"But, at least the pay was good..."
That is why I propose we create a new form of money (as a medium of exchange), one that serves our needs and strips the god-like powers of the currencies of old.
What Are These God-Like Powers?
Well, this information could fill volumes, so I'll keep it extremely brief and focus on the critical points...
Omnipotence (all-powerful)
Money (fiat, bitcoin, gold, etc) is immortal (human-life scale), it exists outside the life-cycles and rhythms of our natural world governed by growth and decay.
Money is seemingly all powerful. The power to coerce humans to poison the very air we breathe, the water we once drank freely and the lands we need to grow our food. The power to encourage us to leave our spouses, children, families and communities at a second's notice because 'business' comes first (as we rationalize it was in their best interest to ignore them and serve the god, money). The power to manipulate us humans, the most powerful species on the planet, to devote the majority of our lives in servitude(work). What, if not an all powerful entity, could convince us to subjugate ourselves to these conditions.
Omnipresence (present everywhere)
Money is ubiquitous and has embodied every material item on the planet. Nearly everything has a price. The world today that is for sale is forever growing as this gods power spreads across our globe. Not unlike kings of old that claimed their ownership of the earth through divine right, the new kings claim ownership through economic right.
Omnibenevolence (supremely 'good')
Never a fact. However, a strong belief by the most devout worshipers of money. Who proclaim their god, along with his powers of the 'free market' will bring peace, abundance, and prosperity to all peoples...
This is a powerful force we're up against. If not the most powerful force humanity has yet to face! So, how do we conquer an all-powerful god?
Only a God Can Kill a god
Fortunately for us, we have had one here all along. Whatever belief system (if any) you ascribe to, I'm going to simply call this God the "natural world". The epic battle humans have been waging between these gods has been going on for thousands of years. We are at a critical point in history where this battle is coming to a peak. Never before has the god 'money' have had so much dominion (in the hearts and minds of men) over our God the 'natural world'.
So, we need to create a tool to disarm the god 'money'. How do we do that? Well, let's address each of its points of power and determine how it acquires them.
Omnipotence (all-powerful)
The first power the god of money acquired was immortality. The ability to 'not rot'. Before man (in agricultural societies) was at war with the natural worlds powers of growth and decay for securing 'his value'. With man seeking control of his domain, this was a stressful situation full of fear a doubt. A man could be wealthy one day, but a single infestation or locust storm could wipe away his fortune.
The ability to 'not rot'(durability), in man's perception, elevated money above the rest of the natural world. When civilizations began to worship this god they gained incredible powers as well. Suddenly, it was much easier to raise armies, manage empires, decimate whole forests and build cities!
The god's power grew.
Now this god was not just immortal, but it also had the ability to multiply upon itself (compound interest). This made money the most valuable form of 'investment' a man could make. Why attempt to take care of his family by simply managing a plot of land and growing his own food when he could worship money and have money "work for him". Suddenly, people were all too eager to betray their old gods and worship the god that 'worked for them'. Not all people were convinced, however, empire after empire spread the gospel of money. By sword, spear, arrow and bullet money's power enveloped the globe.
What man didn't know was that they were trading in their previous God's (the natural world) ability to provide abundance in for a god dominated by scarcity. Money gained control of mans' hearts by 'playing hard to get' so to speak. This scarcity ensured there would never be enough to go around, which left people constantly seeking the attention of their new god. Money, from time to time, would give man a taste, and it was good, but it was never enough...
Omnipresence (present everywhere)
As the new god's power grew it began to permeate every aspect of Mans life. Where once the majority of our needs were met and our lives were enriched by the money-less gifts of our communities and our God (the natural world). Now, we see the new god in every aspect of our lives. So much so, that we immediately distrust anything that is 'free'. "Nothing is free" we piously proclaim as we avoid these 'scams'... The god of money has so infiltrated our lives that many of us find it difficult to imagine the world could possibly exist without it. As if humanity hadn't been here for millions of years before its introduction.
There was a time in our history where many things were 'priceless' or gifts, were the mere notion of suggesting a monetary value may have been insulting. What do you find more valuable? A song that was sung by a singer who you paid $10 to, or a song from someone who did it for free; because they just felt like giving you a gift... The best things in life are free!
So, what do we do?
A new tool for an old God
Simply, we create a replacement to free humanity from the servitude of 'money'. This replacement (maintaining the biblical theme) would be born in the image of our old God (the natural world). This tool will maintain the few advantages money had promised (medium of exchange) while rejecting the elements that betrayed our natural world. It will decay, it would not be preferable to any natural form of 'investment'. It will be abundant and encourage cooperation, bringing happiness and prosperity to those who use it.
Introducing...
ONC (Our NeighbourGood Coin): Entering a New Paradigm and Rivaling the Old Money God's.
Addressing ecological destruction, UBI, stagnant Economies and building physical communities, all in one Coin.
ONC (Our NeighbourGood Coin):
- Is a medium of exchange, not a preferred store of value or form of investment.
- Generates a Basic Income: Creating a practical solution to the UBI (Universal/Unconditional Basic Income).
- Creates wealthier communities through adopting ONC.
- Is administered through a collaboratively owned exchange controlled by the ONC community.
A medium of exchange, not a preferred store of value or intelligent form of investment.
The reason for this is simple. We at Our NeighbourGood (ON) believe in life and the natural world, and we believe that life is worth investing in. As such we rid currency of its advantage over other capital and free our 'rational investments' to pursue other life-bringing stores of value.
Experiential (E) | Action | Embodied Experience, Wisdom, etc
Intellectual (I) | Knowledge | Ideas, Focus, Problem Solving, Skills, etc
Spiritual (Sp) | Intention, Faith, Focus, Karma, etc | Grounding, Balance, Attitude, Passion, Love, etc
Social (S) | Influence | Connections, Family, Relationships, etc
Material (M) | Physical Resources | Tools, Equipment, etc
Financial (F) | Fiat, ONC, Bitcoin, Etc | Mediums of Exchange
Living (L) | Living Resources | Soil, Plants, Water, Animals, Air, etc
Cultural (C) | Song, Story, Ritual, Ceremony, etc | Community
Health/Erotic (H) | Energy, Arousal | Motivation, Vitality, Endurance, Attention, Beauty, Strength, Sex, etc
Time (T) | Attention | Our Life!
As we see with the chart above. There are many ways to store capital (value) in our lives, capital that will bring much more joy and happiness than digits in a computer ever could! Presently, our culture's fixation on creating money is purely driven by it being the most effective (so we believe) store of value. With common phrases such as:
"You need money to make money..."
"Make your money work for you..."
We have positioned money at the apex of our thoughts and aspirations. By removing our currency's ability to store value we free ourselves from its alluring subjugation thus giving us economic permission to pursue more worthy, passionate, and joyful forms of value!
How does ONC remove its preferential status as a store of value?
Demurrage:
For more information see: Why You Want to Have a Currency That is Taxed! Guaranteed to change your mind (and possibly life) in 5 minutes or your Steem back!
This tax (or negative interest rate) discourages hoarding and encourages spending. The tax would be nominal, anywhere from 1%-10% per year and this rate would be set by the ONC community (those who use ONC). The underlying code would continuously apply this tax to the currency.
A major barrier to this system being employed with our physical cash systems is the expense to implement this taxation protocol. With the development of crypto-currencies, this can now easily be accomplished.
Demurrage ensures that money is no longer more valuable than our natural world, this change, if adopted globally would instantly change our interaction with / and willingness to destroy - our natural world.
"Whereas security in an interest-based system comes from accumulating money, in a demurrage system it comes from having productive channels through which to direct it—that is, to become a nexus of the flow of wealth and not a point for its accumulation. In other words, it puts the focus on relationships, not on “having.” It accords with a different sense of self, affirmed not by enclosing more and more of the world within the confines of me and mine, but by developing and deepening relationships with others. It encourages reciprocation, sharing, and the rapid circulation of wealth. ... I store meat in the belly of my brother." - Charles Eisenstein Sacred Economics
Basic Income
ONC isn't quite a 'Universal/Unconditional Basic Income' as it's conditional and it's not universal (yet). First, it would only apply to those who are participating in the system and it would be conditional on said participation. However, it is still a form of basic income and will help to maintain economic homeostasis within the ONC community.
Previously demurrage based systems used the 'tax' money to fund the efforts to 'tax' the money. Ex: Physical cash demurrage systems had to buy stamps to place on the back of their bills in order for the bill to be valid. This incurred the cost of stamps, employees, and offices to administer this service. Technology has rid us of that waste, and now the tax can be used to return the value back to the users of the currency.
A basic income is created by redistributing the demurrage 'tax' equally to those who circulate (at a certain threshold) ONC. The threshold is proposed to deter would-be abusers and can be adjusted and removed by the ONC community at any time.
Demurrage is applied continuously, however, the basic income would be distributed monthly or quarterly to encourage high circulation of ONC.
A basic income will be part of Our NeighbourGoods approach to living a more abundant and cooperation-focused life by helping to provide a feeling of economic security.
Wealthier Communities and Economic Stability
Use of ONC will encourage intra-community spending keeping value within the community opposed to the siphoning of community value we see today by massive international corporations. This is encouraged through the rapid circulation brought on by demurrage and the exchange fees to convert ONC into other currencies for use outside the ONC-community.
Presently, with our money sharing two opposing forces (medium of exchange and store of value) we are subjected to the destructive cycles of recession and expansion that our global markets routinely experience. A demurrage based economic system is one that is near-guaranteed to maintain high 'economic activity' as participants are always encouraged to exchange their coins for goods, services and other forms of value. This constant encouragement to exchange is in contrast to the cyclical nature of our economy that often times encourages people to 'save' their money.
If money is the blood of a community, then saving money is akin to creating a blood clot, which inevitably leads to death... A sign of a healthy body is the same as a healthy economy, an uninterrupted cycling of energy.
If employed fully ONC will create wealthier communities and provide more economic stability for the community.
ONC Community and Our NeighbourGood-Exchange (ONE)
Who is part of the ONC Community?
Primarily:
- Neighbours of Our NeighbourGood.
- Collaborators in any ON enterprises.
- Local participating organizations.
- Any person who routinely interacts with ON and would like to be involved.
ONC will not discriminate and ONC is capable of being used and owned by any who are eager and able to participate.
ON-Exchange (ONE)
ONE is owned by all coin-holders and is an Exchange and holding facility for fiat, other crypto-currencies, and ONC. ONE issue ONC as a 1-1 pair for native currency or any base currency is chosen by the ONC-Community. ONE will exchange fiat and various established Crypto-Currencies.
Exchange Fee and Community Proposals
The ONC-Community will determine an exchange fee for trading ONC into other assets, this is designed to discourage value from leaving the ONC-community. Fees gained through ONE will be pooled by the ONC-Community to be used for any proposal which garners enough support by the ONC-Community. Any coin holder can propose a project and coin-holders weigh-in, improve upon, and approve projects.
Coin holders who use ONC above a set threshold have equal voting and proposal rights in the exchange. Again, this threshold is set by the community as a whole and is designed to prevent would-be abuse.
Benefits of Adopting ONC
- Our communities will enjoy the benefits of a perpetually active economy. (Everyone loves a healthy economy.)
- We will be encouraged to invest in other more life-giving forms of capital as our stores of value. (Economic self-interest is a powerful motivator!)
- We'll be participating in a system that is beneficial for our environment. (Means a healthier environment for us, something money can scant buy.)
- We get to collaborate on group projects that increase our quality of life. (Vote and propose community funded projects.)
- We receive a modest basic income.
- What's not to love?
This concept is a key feature in Our NeighbourGood economic system.
As with all functions of Our NeighbourGood this information is collaboratively enhanced and designed. If you find any faults or areas of improvement to these proposals. Please, let's discuss and build a better system together! I am merely proposing the framework.
Rieki
Word-Smithing New Societies
