The very same sensor-based monitoring system used to monitor a
nation’s people would be used by the Ministry of Economy & Trade to ensure
our nation’s AI knows as much as possible about what is consumed, produced,
traded and lost. With enough sensors and
data-sharing collaboration with private sector, the ministries can deduct much
automatically about the population’s consumption and production. The amount of information shared can give us
a very clear picture of the nation’s economy in detail. This is the definitive and purest definition
of “economy”. Economy today is often
measured in currency, but fundamentally, currency is a standardized measurement
of value and resources.
The Ministry of Economy & Trade would be responsible for what
I believe is an entirely different way to see a nation’s economy. In fact, I think we need to see the economy as
a measure of the perceived value to the people of the nation. For example, a house downtown Manhattan will
have a higher value for consumers than the same house in a small town in
Alberta, Canada. Both would however
consume the same amount of natural resources.
Both the perceived value of the product and its drain on resources are
important elements in a future economy. Nowadays
to calculate economic value by the currency value of products and services in
the free market. We must start moving
away from currency values as the foundation of the economy and focus instead on
the social contribution value of products and services instead. The focus must be on the people, always, not
on economic processes and systems like employment, taxation, stock
markets. There are way too many social
services provided today by people that are not remunerated, but that should be
somehow compensated.
I like to take parenthood as an example since it is often one of
the most economically underrated occupations we can find. Its specific value is very difficult to
measure. Raising a child to productive
adulthood is of obvious value to all, but there is no good way to calculate the
value with numbers right now. After all,
once a young adult starts contributing to society on its own, the new
contributions are attributed to the young adult, not to the parents and
community that has reared him or her for a great many years. However, with AI and proper data, such things
as parenthood contributions could be calculated rather easily despite the
inherent complexity and thus, parents could be properly compensated for
positive social contributions based on real outcomes.
Of course, to compensate any sort of contribution that doesn’t
involve a counterpart, like what we observe while trading, still requires the
exchange of value. If parenthood and
other social value contributions can be measured, then, it can also be
accurately compensated with money. After
all, social contributions add value into the economy, so fair compensation is
required is it not?
The goal in our future is not to lord over other people or nations
through by the amount of money available, but in how many resources can be
leveraged and how much actual value is produced to ensure a happy population
and healthy nation. Note that I explicitly
resisted mentioning a nation’s wealth as a primary goal.
A new
economy
Seeing the economy this way allows us to manage the productivity
of the land, the availability water and air within a nation in a balanced way,
just like a financial ledger. The
nation’s natural resources are converted into food, products and services. Revenues and expenses. Usable resources and expended ones. Thinking this way allows for a trade economy
to align properly with environmental health simultaneously. In parallel, social contributions that add to
the health and happiness of a nation can be measured by AI and compensated
accordingly, motivating a population to contribute positively to the economy through
their passions and be compensated with money to trade, a money that does not
consume national resources at all, hence digital.
The Ministry of Economy & Trade would manage automated systems
that would ensure this balance.
On one hand, it would monitor the Ministry of Infrastructure’s
fully automated AI systems that transforms natural resources into the basic
things we need. It would also calculate
and add how much money would be distributed to everyone in the nation as basic
income that would be traded for the basic produces and services produced. The Ministry of Economy & Trade keeps
this in a balance, ensuring efficiency in extraction of natural resources and
its distribution to the people to satisfy their basic needs.
On the other hand, the ministry provides a basic income, which in
turn is spent by the people to consume the produced goods and services they
need. Full cycle.
Naturally, most citizens will contribute to society by producing
entertainment, raising children, helping each other, build businesses and a
small percentage of the population would be employed in the government to help
manage the nation. I suspect the trend
towards self-employment will continue with the continued increase in the number
of excellent artificial intelligence available. It will allow any individual to innovate and
create according to their desires, thus make available new products and
services unassociated with any governmental need.
When people add value to society in other ways than trade (like
parenting, for example), they would receive money as compensation (in trade with
the government), for the added value and thus have more money to spend in
trade.
The idea of “social value for money” is somewhat new but it is
discussed as a modern way of moving towards the future within academia.[1]
Citizens will be able to trade their services based on offer and
demand. Then, a portion of gains made
from the value added by citizens to society, would be taxed to pay for
government salaries and the expense of social value add in the nation. The citizen’s taxes serve in part to pay for
other individual’s addition in social value as well as ministerial costs.
To keep the amount of money in circulation sufficient to sustain
this automated system, the Ministry of Economy & Trade would of course need
to create new digital money based on algorithms. An example of how this would all work and
full details on the economy are in the Economy Section of this book.
How can this ministry ensure there is enough money in circulation
without causing inflation or depression?
It must be done by matching monetary value with something that will
always be needed by human beings and of constant equal human value. I recommend water. We are after all 80%-85% water. It will always be needed. So instead of basing our money’s value on some
mineral, or the amount of it in circulation, or perceived economical strength
or wealth, the value of money can be constantly adjusted to the value of one
liter of distilled water. This would
force every other product or service to be compared in value with the perceived
value of water to humans. Thus, the measurable
money value of every product and service is always compared to a liter of distilled
water, whose value wouldn’t likely change over time.
To avoid any measure of government abuse over the emission of
money into the economy and its distribution, I strongly recommend a
decentralized algorithmic and AI-controlled money system, such as cryptocurrency
or something else like blockchain technology to handle all of this. The Ministry of Economy & Trade could facilitate
the creation of the system and release it in a similar way to how Bitcoin was
released, so that even the Ministry cannot control the algorithm and the
blockchain after release. It would need
to be designed correctly and replaced if issues arise, but the money system
would have clear rules any citizen could read up on and use, without any way to
manipulate it unfairly. cannot change
the algorithm and parameters. Ultimately,
we can create a system without possibility of abuse by only a small portion of
the population and that is self-sustaining, dynamic, fair and secure.
Changes to
land ownership
To ensure equality is kept and no person can cumulate financial superiority
over others, money is not the only thing that needs to change.
Land, for instance, must not be owned by any individuals or groups. That sounds like a radical idea for those who
have worked hard to create safe investments in real estate. After all, land is always useful, and
buildings are needed for housing and businesses. It is a safe bet. The concept that land is nobody’s property
yet available to all is an old aboriginal concept and quite fair.[2]
As detailed earlier, the economy should belong to the whole
nation. The nation’s people are
responsible for its management. Though
there is a need for private or public entities to control pieces of land for
different exploitative ventures for a good, creative economy to flow properly,
there is no socially beneficial need for anyone to own pieces of land forever. After all, land can be abused, polluted and
misused by its owners. Such actions we
know from history and modern times always affect everyone and not solely
whoever is operating or living on said parcel of land. Land is never truly only exploited or
affected by the owners. It is constantly
changed by the air that comes from elsewhere, neighboring lands, the flow of
water over and under it, the animals, birds and insects moving in and out. It is a dynamic thing that is ever changing. A change on one piece of land affects all
other lands and everyone.
Thus, I suggest we instead let the Ministry of Economy & Trade
supervise the exploitation of land as a natural resource and prevent any type
of individual ownership. Thus, individuals
and groups could rent the land under certain terms based on the people’s
desires and needs. An easy example would
be the need for additional energy for a city.
The people, represented by this Ministry could then lease the land for
this specific purpose to a private entity selected by the Ministry of
Infrastructure. The private entity that
won the bidding process could then proceed to build and generate the energy as
needed under contract. Thus, the use of
the land is tied to the generation of electricity. The appropriate land the private energy
company needs is leased from the citizens of the nation under conditions that
it will be used responsibly to provide a certain amount of electricity to the
population. Because it is a lease, it
has a term that may be renewed later after review and it can be revoked if the
terms of the lease are not respected.
This protects the citizens against illegal or socially irresponsible use
of the land. Just like modern leases,
these could be transferred to others under the same terms as agreed originally
or for other terms with the approval of the nation’s citizens.
Land lease terms can be given to individuals wishing to build a
house. They don’t own the land. They have borrowed it, leased it from the
people of the nation with the terms of living on and caring for the land with
the family.
Though the building itself may be owned by others, the land itself
is leased from the people. If the
occupants start using the land in a way that is against the people’s wishes
according to term lease, then the Ministry of Justice could intervene to protect
the land and the nation’s people’s rights.
How do we make sure the citizen’s desires are respected in all
this? Well, it is divined in the same
way as everything else in the ideal world.
The citizen’s online feedback system for each area communicates back and
forth with all government ministries so that we know what requests are made by
the population. Combined with the artificial
intelligence analysing needs and assessing best use of resources within the
economy, and of course the best experts we have, land could be optimally used
with minimal instances of abuse. Also,
in this case, fewer individuals or entities would be able to fool the system to
lease large percentages of land and use them properly. Even if such a thing happens, the AI online
system would allow the population to be aware of it, and if the leasers are
using the land properly according to the population’s desires and needs,
perhaps it is perfectly fine. After all,
entrepreneurship should be encouraged if it is turned towards the needs of the
population and serves the purpose of the people.
What the system avoids, or at least it should avoid by regulation,
is the unfair accumulation of unused land by owners just wishing to sit on
properties with no intent to use them.
The Ministry of Economy & Trade should prevent land leasing without
intention of doing something tangible with it.
“Land leasers” could do so to transfer the lease at a profit after
spending effort preparing the land for it’s final lease owner, for instance,
and make a business out of that, just like modern land developers. This is added value, so it is fine.
This system also helps generating cashflow between the government
and its private citizens as benefits from land leased from the people goes back
to the people in the form of basic income, government programs and citizen
compensation for social value added.
Abolishing
or transforming the traditional stock markets
This Ministry should also try to regulate types of trades that serve
only to increase the amount of money held without adding any social value in
exchange. Citizens and groups that
choose to invest money in anything, should be doing so with the intent of
creating value to our society or gaining non-monetary value directly. Nowadays, it is common to use monetary
systems to simply increase the amount of money on hand without adding value to
anything.
I’ve mentioned in a previous chapter that the current stock market
should be dismantled. The reasoning
behind that comment is that it often serves as a platform to enrich the already
wealthy without contributing any social value.
There is all sorts of abusive processes within the current stock
exchanges allowing certain companies to skim money off trades, siphoning money
from investors, without contributing any effort to the trades. This must stop. This old investment system has become so
overly complicated that few can understand the abuses happening in there
today. There are now so many ways to
abuse the stock market exchanges these days, causing the rich to get even richer,
paid for by all investors, including anyone who is vested in mutual funds, retirement
funds and so on.[3]
I believe we need to use alternate means of investments available
to us and reform a new stock market system that is more impervious to all these
types of abuses using modern technologies.
Investing in the stock markets is only one way to invest.
Companies on the stock market already have received investments to
fund their operations from private investors.
The initial public offering (or IPO) is usually the next step for
companies whose initial investors wish to get a return on their investment. This is where the private shares in the
company get sold to the public. It is a
good way for the initial company shareholders to make a gain on their
investment in a company, which is perhaps one of the reasons these first
shareholders have encouraged the company in the first place. Alternatively, private company investors can receive
dividends off company profits over time if the company chooses not to get publicly
listed.
Investing in companies gives it lifeblood and having the ability
to invest in ideas with the promise of a return has been a tremendous catalyst
to innovation in the modern world. So,
we want to keep that energy flow going moving towards the future.
Where it becomes a problem is when these stocks are sold in all
sorts of creative ways, where people are literally “playing the market”. Buying a stock at a price gambling it will go
up is fine because it allows the current holder to recuperate the investment
made. However, when buying and selling a
stock becomes less about the investment in the company, but more about how much
the share price will move over a period, the intent behind the act becomes les
socially useful.
Basically, I would like to see our world rid of such tools like
the traditional stock market and see it replaced with modern era ways to invest
in ideas. Even moving towards
cryptocurrency security exchanges are much superior to the antiquated
traditional stock exchanges. One of the
advantages of cryptocurrency is after all, its decentralization and its
transparency. Also, most of the work done
in these new age exchanges, like tZero, is all run by software with no added
value from the controllers of the exchanges.
Thus, investors can still invest in something like the traditional stock
exchanges to buy securities in companies that they believe in, but while
avoiding all the skimming and scams that enrich large companies involved in the
stock markets.[4]
There are so many alternatives nowadays too. If you think about it, Kickstarter is an
amazing product that allows individuals to invest in the future delivery of
products they want to see produced. This
is of great social value because the investors are in many ways buying a
product they want to have and at the same time it gives the project owners the
liquidity to create their business.
Systems like Patreon allow artists to be supported financially by fans
that like what they are doing. YouTube,
iTunes and other online media allow people to sell their media in innovative
ways without the hindrance of complex company structures. Microloan systems and blockchain allow individuals
to loan small amounts of money to others that need it for real projects
securely with promise of receiving a return on the investment in a planned
fashion. In fact, there are many
emerging ways for us to invest hard-earned money in projects whose product we
really care for.
So, we now have options to invest in companies with the hopes of an
investor’s return on investment, like our shares being sold to someone, or we
can easily use online systems to invest money in exchange for future products,
art or services we know we’ll enjoy.
Both investment options carry risk.
Both investment options need to be regulated to avoid abuse, cheating
and the creation of money out of thin air.
Blockchain technology is an easy solution to help with keeping investment
trading fair, transparent and to avoid any sort of unwelcome/illegal money
skimming.
The stock market used to be one of the only ways for initial
investors to sell their private shares.
This is no longer true, so the stock market is losing its usefulness to
private company growth. Other tools have
emerged that offer significant social value.
In fact, less than 1% of US businesses are publicly traded.[5] As a society, we should only allow
investments that help innovators grow new ideas. Not obsolete systems that allow the rich to
grow the amount of money they have without adding value to society or even the
companies listed. System transparency
and proper regulation and supervision by an entity like the Ministry of Economy
& Trade is very important to prevent the emergence of just a new way for
the rich to fleece the average citizen.
[1]
Sophie Butland (March 2018) Forget ‘value
for money’; how about ‘social value for money’.
- https://www.socialenterprisemark.org.uk/forget-value-for-money-how-about-social-value-for-money/
[2]
Zebedee Nungak (2003), Inuit perspectives on land ownership, Windspeaker
Publication, Vol. 21, Issue 7, p. 15. - http://ammsa.com/publications/windspeaker/inuit-perspectives-land-ownership
[3]
Camilla Hodgson (September 2017) ‘A history of human greed:’ the 26 different
ways people have cheated markets over 200 years. - http://uk.businessinsider.com/market-misconduct-report-the-26-ways-people-have-cheated-markets-over-200-years-2017-9
[4]
Barry Ritholtz (March 2014) Speed
trading in a rigged market. - https://www.bloomberg.com/view/articles/2014-03-31/speed-trading-in-a-rigged-market
[5]
Mary Ellen Biery (May 2013). 4 things
you don’t know about private companies.
- https://www.forbes.com/sites/sageworks/2013/05/26/4-things-you-dont-know-about-private-companies/#703e29f6291a
