In the midst of the Coronacrisis we hear many calls for a “new economy”. These come from both sides: from the upholders of the current economy, and from those who have always longed for a more relaxed, less destructive and exploitative one.
Is it possible to create a “new economy” by reforming the current one; is it possible to invent a “new economy” to replace it? Perhaps we should first look at what is generally understood by the term “the economy”.
“The economy” is generally understood as the social sphere where production, distribution and trade take place, as well as the consumption of goods and services by different agents. There is much more to it, but when we look around we see many separate national economies. Together these form the global economy but the latter has no independent existence apart from the separate national economies.
What determines the boundaries of these national economies? It is their currencies. The South African economy is where the Rand circulates and the British economy is where the Pound circulates. Sure, all national currencies ‘leak out’ into the global economy, but each country/economy aggregates the value of all transactions in their domain to come up with a measure of their success or failure – their GNP.
Why does “economic activity” need to be aggregated; why is there just one measure of “success” or “failure”? Who determines the boundaries of these discrete economies? Do there even need to be boundaries?
A better description of “the economy” is that social sphere where people act together to make money. There really is nothing more to it than that. When people do things for each other and no money is involved, that is said to be outside the economy. It is not recorded and therefore not aggregated, and the value of it is not added to GNP.
If people created and exchanged their means of life without using money, would that still constitute an “economy”? Is it possible to have a moneyless economy? Would that be a “sphere” separate from the social totality?
Think about it. No money, no economy, only a “noconomy” where human beings create and exchange their means of life. No national currencies, no aggregation, no parasitic entities feeding off it and trying to steer it in a direction that benefits their narrow, selfish interests.
There is no need for currencies to efficiently exchange what we have and can do for what others have and can do. This might sound simplistic, but follow the logic of what would occur if we climbed off the “money grid” and used instead the multitude of non-controlled means of exchange to exchange our energies!
And that’s why I wish this software was.
1) Open source
2) Modular, with extensions and add-ons
How is this any different from the Crypto currencies that are being used now? Looks like this will be the new system put in place and your system runs on Blockchain as well .
It is very different from crypto-currencies. Read our article here: https://www.community-exchange.org/home/bitcoin-versus-talents/
Blockchain is not a currency but a way of distributing information and making it safe.
This is the way to go exchange however need to look at production. Worker controlled business is more efficient that private enterprise and the old state socialism https://www.workerscontrol.net/
http://thetake.org/
The voluntary exchanging of goods and non-financial services is an integral part of human life.
The successful completion of each exchange however requires that the wants of each participant are met by what the other participant is offering. The matching of wants with offerings presents a major logistical hurdle on the path to completing an exchange.
However if one of the participants in the exchange had for exchange an item that belonged to the category of universally exchangeable items then the hurdle would not exist. Money is our traditional name for items belonging to the category of universally exchangeable items[UEI].
UEIs do not exist naturally, they have to be created. Historically new money was created independent of any exchanges and it’s production was thus open to abuse as we well know.
The introduction of credit cards introduced the creation of new money, as debt for the purchaser, for entry into the purchase half of a complete exchange and the subsequent settlement, by the purchaser, of the new money debt completed the supply half of the exchange authenticating the value of the new money.
This is in fact the only way that new money should be produced. It is guaranteed to be honest and should be the only way that new money is produced.
Unfortunately whilst society is still beholden to producing new money apart from completed exchanges our problems with
Money will remain.
I think you’re missing the main advantage of the system. It os an indirect system, so the invented units of trade are the ueis.
The idea is that when there is a critical mass of users there will be the variation needed between all the producers . I have set up a rural group .. we have lots of food but not so much cultural life or second hand goods , so creating links with groups in the nearest city would be the thing to do for our group for example.
There is no proof that money exists by barter, nor that barter was always preponderant before the emergence of currency. It is only an economistic delirium that has no anthropological proof. Now, you have to see what serves best after money, this is fine in my opinion.
It is hard for me to imagine a complex modern economy without some form of money to enable the complex system that requires many people with varying skills, being rewarded in some way for their knowledge and efforts. The only system I can visualize would be coop groups that would be owned by the company, and they would share the profits.
It doesn’t need to be one or the other … we just need to take away as much power as possible from the wasteful systems in place to put into peoples hands.
The indigenous US tribes who were nomadic in the central plains were frequently moving. They tended to share the work, the hunting, the defense, and the work. As they accumulated possessions, they became an ever-larger burden when the tribe was on the move. When these possessions became too much of a burden, they would have a ceremony where they gave away all the accumulated possessions and lightened their burden. If we are going to use the bare system with some form of money as a convenience, this convenience has to be backed by some form of value such as gold.. We can not let someone fire up the printer and print paper money while you and I have to work for ours.
I think the problem with the mainstream economy is the exploitation of labour force by businesse owners, not exchange means. the Capital as Karl Marx stated is a social relation through which the value transfers from workers to business owners. Therefore, as far as the capital functions, exploitation continues, no matter what currencies we have utilized.