BUILDING THE FUTURE :
ECONOMICS
Summary
Transition Towns SA Economics
Vision 2009-02-20
Purpose
·
This summary gives
an overview of the Economics aspect of the Energy
Descent Action Plan entitled Building the Future
which is being developed by the Transition Towns Movement
in South Africa.
·
This will
contribute towards the development of a social system in
South Africa that truly incorporates the constitutional
principles of Freedom, Equality and Dignity enshrined
in the Bill of Rights.
·
It clearly
illustrates that our present, manmade, economic system
can be changed and it presents an integrated model of
many ideas that could be included in a system that promotes
Social Justice and Equity.
Major Elements of the Vision
A.
Three Systemic
Monopoly situations in the global economy are identified and
alternatives explored:-
1. The Bankers Monopoly over
the Creation of Money.
2. The Land and Natural
Resource Ownership Monopoly.
3. The Control over Labour
Monopoly.
B. The Bankers Monopoly, in
which money is created as interest bearing Debt, has inbuilt
features that require perpetual growth: impossible in a
finite world. True sustainability will never be attained
while this continues.
This system promotes
competition and greed and systematically transfers wealth to
a very small minority of the world’s population. True
equality and dignity can never be attained whilst this
endures.
C. The Vision explores the
concept of Community Capitalism and how it could be
instituted to counter the Bankers monopoly.
1.
Money would be
created as value rather than as debt and brought into
circulation through a National Mutual Trust Fund (NMF)
a semi private investment corporation.
2.
The NMF would
concentrate its investments in areas of long term
productivity growth.
3.
All citizens would
be shareholders in the NMF from which a basic citizens’
income would be paid to all adults.
4.
The NMF would be
granted the necessary investment capital, interest free,
from the central bank of the nation on an annual basis
authorized by an act of parliament.
5.
The NMF would thus
make every citizen a capitalist interested in the efficient
and effective use of capital.
D. The land ownership
monopoly is addressed in the vision by instituting a system
of Land Value Rental Collection.
·
The payment of
this rental will give stewardship rights to those
best able to utilise land and natural resources in the
interest of all citizens.
·
Those excluded
from direct use of land and resources will be reimbursed by
way of a citizens’ income.
·
All citizens will
thus indirectly become landowners thus upholding the
constitutional right to equality.
·
Parts of an open
letter to Mikhail Gorbachov, from thirty American Professors
of Economics, in support of this method of collecting
government revenue by charging market rents for the use of
land, are quoted in the document.
E. The payment of a
citizens’ income, based on dividends from the NMF and
the collection of land value rental, will provide a
flexible tool to counter inflation thereby
keeping the value of money constant.
F. People across the world
have been dispossessed of their land; their living
environments have been despoiled and their resources
plundered. Thus a Labour Monopoly resting firmly on
the Bank Monopoly, which in turn rests on the Land and
Natural Resource Monopoly exists in most parts of the world
today.
·
For the majority
there is very little true economic freedom and almost no
equity.
·
The Rights of
Dignity, Equality and Freedom espoused in the
Constitution of the Republic of South Africa have been
seriously violated.
·
Our present
economy, rather than being called a capitalist, free-market
system, could be characterised as a Servitude System.
·
The vision shows
how the element of servitude can be replaced by a supportive
service system of equal opportunity and optimum freedom
based on the principles and philosophy of Ubuntu.
G. To incorporate Ubuntu
into Societal Institutions requires a deep seated
Transformation of Banking that takes into account four
elements from which the Money Power of banks, and the
banking elite, is derived.
·
In essence it is Trust
and Faith in the future productive power of
individuals, companies and the institutions of society that
enables banks to create money.
·
Six reform
principles for balancing power, and converting banks into
true servers of all citizens, are elaborated on in the
vision.
·
A top priority for
the immediate future is to foster a widespread interest
amongst the public in the way our financial system actually
works and then to harness this Money Power for the
good of all humanity.
H. Stability Indicators
for determining the wellbeing of different fields and
functions within society would need to be developed to
ensure that for instance: the general cost of living remains
stable; the price of common consumer goods stays constant
and that the health of communities and ecosystems is being
maintained. Thus the wellbeing of the population at large
and the environment will be nourished and supported by a
Living Steady State Economy.
I. In a steady state
economic system money should be created and destroyed in
direct proportion to the production and consumption of
wealth.
·
A number of
innovative ways of doing this are explored in the vision.
·
Though
constitutional changes might be required to bring about many
of the reforms suggested modifications to the Act of
Parliament governing the procedures of the Central Bank
could be sufficient to begin movement in the right
direction.
J. An interim list of 12
Practical Steps that can be taken towards
implementing elements of the vision has been drawn up.
K. Existing and future
projects that incorporate aspects of the vision are
being identified and a preliminary list is included in the
document Building the Future.
For further information contact
Don Northcott, Director,
Community Exchange Systems, PO Box 30196, Tokai, 7966
Email
don@ces.org.za
Focus for February/March 2009
Crash Campaign
Lobby to get proposals for
Monetary Reform – national and international – included
in the Agenda for the G20 meeting on 2 April
2009-02-12.
The complete document BUILDING
THE FUTURE (ECONOMICS) can be accessed through
www.transitiontowns-africa.org
For details of the Crash
Campaign go to
www.jamesrobertson.com/g20monetaryreform.pdf
Join
the