PROPOSAL FOR A RESOURCE BASED ECONOMY:
A NEW DIMENSION TO WEALTH
For our economy to transition to a resource based economy, it needs a stepping stone, a platform from which an easy, smooth transition might work. If it is not easy and painless, it will not work.
This new system must be approved and regulated by the united nations, who already act as the intermediary for global wealth through the IMF. The IMF must be abolished, and replaced in favor this new system. In order to create a resource based economy one must define and quantify the value of resource, and create a means for distribution and exchange. Our current system is a monetary one backed by debt, we have previously used a monetary system backed by gold, i propose a share based system based on resources, with the value a single share always equal to the basic cost of living, including shelter, food, and clothing, and each person owning at least one single, immutable, non-transferrable share from which to build upon and create their fortune. This share based system would create a safety net for the bare minimum of essentials, so even the poorest, most sickly members of society would not have to worry about paying to maintain their basic needs. It has also been proven and time tested that corporations tend to be far more responsive towards their shareholders than their customers, it stands to reason the same will be true for a similar sociological construct, only doing away with the disadvantaged party.
Beyond basic needs, more shares can be acquired through government jobs, from which all blue collar, maintenance, and other dirty but necessary jobs will transition to. A mininum wage will be set that is always relative to, if not at least equal to a single share, raising the basic cost of living to a second tier, which can be used to buy goods or services beyond that of a single share, ensuring incentive and stability for employment for menial jobs, while allowing personal choice of employment. Total global resources will be counted by the regulatory body and compared against the cost of a single share, divided by the total number of people in the world, the surplus shares used to fund government and blue collar jobs, whos shares can be sold or exchanged for other non-centralized jobs or public services such as entertainment, mining, real estate or interior design, software, healthcare, electronics or engineering. Shares would be sold as both finite quantities like shares in a corporation, single shares with potentially infinite growth potential in the event of growing resources, and of fractionary share hours which act as currency with another dimension for time, for instance, .1 shares for 600 share hours, or 60 share hours, might buy someone a new computer, a 3D printer, or a kitchen table, roughly equal to the cost of time or energy it took for someone to make the good.
A single share would be divisible by the total number of share hours in a year, comparable to the total number of global resources, and sellable as quantities of time. As well, with the advent of 3D printing and websites like kickstarter, property itself will be redefined, and freedom of information will be essential to the creation of freedom of property. Physical goods will be transmitted via wireless signals, and built in home, rather than in a factory, and treated more like a public service than a sale, with people donating shares to the goods that best meet their needs, which can then be used to purchase the resources and manpower needed to complete their tasks. Education would be streamlined, free over the internet, and cheap or government provided via share surplus in educational facilities. Metals and plastics would be mined, farmed and processed, and shipped to the homes of people who would use the resources in their 3D printers to create utensils, furniture, instruments, sculptures, machine parts, and as technology progresses, even circuitry and houses, using designs created by designers, engineers and technicians who are paid in share hours either before a design is released to the public, or after it has been created. Say you've been entertained by a movie maker before, or you've read a screenplay online and you'd like to see it produced, you simply use whatever amount of share hours you value it at to fund the producers further endeavors, and enjoy as the movie is produced free of charge to the public. Or, alternatively, that movie producer may choose to create a corporation, trading resource shares for shares in the company, selling the movie for share hours, and passing the profits on to investors, who would then profit for life by the sales of the movie over time. If the movie makes more than the total number share hours a year per shareholder, it has turned a profit and those profits will be passed on to all who hold shares respectively. The same principles can be used to make mining companies, buy industrial grade 3D printers and labor for a real estate business, etc. etc. while the addition of the dimension of time and shares rather than coin will ensure a responsibility to the shareowners and the sharegivers rather than the currency itself.
It is important that we understand that when we all share in one mans endeavor, he is responsible not just to the vision we have placed our resources in but the people who have shared in it with him. And its important that we tie this in to a sense of globalized ownership, because it is all of us that SHARE in this world, rather than just a select few who OWN it. Finally its important that law and the language of business be changed to reflect this new perspective, that when you share something, and it is not reciprocated, this is not a permanent mistake. For so long we have shared in companies who intentionally obfuscate the language by which they practice their trade, to confuse, deceive, and exploit the people that pay them and keep them alive. These corporations have passed themselves off as autonomous people, rather than groups of people with a common goal, and their common goal has progressively shifted from providing a quality good or service, to profiting from the exploitation of all, while providing the minimum amount of tangible results to ensure profitability for their own pockets. We must change the way we do business, for if we create a system that freely enables exploitation at no risk to profit, then exploitation is what will happen. It is not capitalism itself that is flawed, but the way we practice and regulate it. Companies must be allowed to die if they are no longer responsive to the people they serve, and are practicing inefficient or destructive business practices held afloat only by bailouts and debt. This only creates a black hole for the economy, sucking wealth in, depleting resources and creating none, rather than the symbiotic relationship a corporation ought to have.
For more on future technologies and a resource based economy, visit
www.thevenusproject.com. They're the inspiration for this idea, and i am only expanding upon what they have started.