go3v

advocating Governance based on Verification, Valor, and Virtue.

Democracy should not be managed to serve Wealth,
rather, wealth should be managed to serve democracy.





Humane Money 3


update 2023-4-23


Part 2: Structure

A proposed simple structure that will enable the immediate implementation of a Universal Humane Money (UHM) system.

Complaints about what is, and airy suggestions of what should be, are completely useless unless they are accompanied by some at least roughly outlined, somewhat plausible, and tolerably consistent alternative that could conceivably be implemented and could conceivably be sustainable. What follows is such a rough sketch regarding a humane money structure. So, now to the dreaded weeds:

A Number

Given, from Humane Money 2, that time is inseverable from humans and that money only symbolizes time, we start by looking at how much time a human has in a given period. Thus it is time, and only time, that determines how much money must be added to each human's account.[1] So let's take the year as a familiar reference period and the hour as a typical unit for thinking about time, which together form a reasonable framework for thinking about money. Rounding hours per year to the nearest whole number, we get 8766 hours. Any number could be chosen, of course, with any rationale for why one number is better than another, but in keeping with the understanding that money is human time, it seems fitting to make money and time relate to each other, one to one. Similarly, it makes sense (to me, at least) that the monetary unit be called the Hour so that in both the spoken and written word, the relationship is constantly reemphasized. Thus, every human has a natural right to a debit of 8766 Hours per year in acknowledgement of their natural and inevitable contribution to the community.[2]

Beginnings and Ends

When can the accumulation of Hours in return for productivity start? Simply, the moment a person acquires a UHM account with the institution designated to handle monetary affairs – let's call it the Hours Management Agency (HMA). (I'd like to call it the Humane Allocation of Hours Agency (HAHA), but fear the lack of humor so common to humankind.) This moment of acquiring an account should be set at no sooner than 365 days following certification of the mother's pregnancy by an appropriately licensed medical professional. Again a bit arbitrary, but I would suggest that other start points are equally or more arbitrary, silly, open to manipulation, difficult to determine, or to justify.

Since the capacity to communicate economically improves considerably from birth to the mid-teens, just as does the capacity to communicate using other media, and the right to vote (more below) is usually granted in the mid- to late-teens (reflecting that growth in abilities to communicate), the Hours accruing during a person's early years will not be available for use by anyone, i.e., no withdrawals from the account, but all deposits will be allowed. This will ensure that every young person will start independent adulthood with a considerable economic reserve.

But – each child also needs to learn how to responsibly and honestly communicate economically before it reaches adulthood. So while the regular annual deposits are held in escrow, other deposits (e.g., compensation for satisfying the demands of others and any gifts) can be made available exclusively for the child's personal use. To encourage child caretakers to teach responsibility and moderate expectations, and to prevent caretakers from manipulating child accounts for personal gain, safeguards may be advisable. To the degree this is well done, it will further improve both the child's economic competence and economic reserve before transitioning to adulthood.

When does the accumulation of Hours end? Simply, the moment the person economically dies, which is to say the moment death is certified by an appropriately licensed medical professional.

A more pressing question to many, perhaps, is what happens to the account after the person economically dies. In this context, consider that money reflects each individual's time. It has no value unless it is communicated – just as a word has no value unless it's communicated. When all individuals die, like their uncommunicated words, their uncommunicated time obviously no longer exists, so no longer has value and so must die with them. This is consistent with the necessary stricture that only the account holder can access their account. Remember, too, that no money is created by human time, just as no words are created by human thought; money only exists through the act of communicating, i.e., exchanging, time, just as words only exist in the act of exchanging thoughts. So no time ever gets transferred from the account of a deceased individual to any other private account under any circumstances, nor to the HMA or any other public account; such transfers would be just another form of catering to the BSHTRS, even if indirectly.

In answer to the plea, "but I want my children to prosper from what I have built", I point out that, like you, your children also have their rightful access to UHM and are also valued as full members of society; you need not worry about their security. Any other worries might be interpreted as an aspiration for BSHTRS club membership.

The HMA

How does the HMA work? Similar to state pension systems such as Social Security in the USA, it creates one, and only one, account for each person, adds to each such account a total of 8766 Hours per year in frequent increments (say, daily), and notes each withdrawal and each deposit to each account. It also assesses an exponential externalities fee (EEF) on the rolling sum of withdrawals per, say, the previous 365 days, in order to pay for the production of the public services that compensate for the externalities each account holder imposes by making withdrawals, as discussed in "A Few Details", Humane Money 2. The EEF is deposited to Earth Government[3] and local governmental units as designated by account holders (see below). The EEF also has the additional quality of providing the HMA a mechanism for managing the number of Hours in active circulation in keeping with the production possibility curve, and thus for determining the total amount of revenue going to governmental units. Consequently, it, too, is most obviously an intrinsic part of government.

There are, of course, further structural details that must be in place to ensure that the HMA consistently and sustainably acts so as to disincentivize and disadvantage tooth and claw BSHTRS. In many ways, setting up these structural details is the most difficult aspect of the whole business. Not because it's rocket science, but because it's so difficult to herd humans – many of whom have long held sacred cows they can't stop themselves from protecting, and who have as well, perhaps even if unconscious, BSHTRS sympathies or inclinations.

For this concept of money to work, money must never ever be turned into a commodity; its nature as being a medium of human communication and a symbolization of living human time must always be preserved. Otherwise, we might as well continue with the BS of the past disastrous 10 000+ years. Ergo, the HMA cannot convert Hours into any other currency, through either purchase or sale. This restriction is, and must be, fundamental and inviolate.

Age of Majority and the Vote

About coming of age and getting full access to one's own account as well as the vote: I would argue that 16 years should be the minimum choice, and would suggest 18 as being a better, not quite so young, norm. 18 is now the most common age of majority around the world and is about the minimum age at which a very minimal modern education can be acquired. However, there is also good reason to argue for the age at which a full, self-determining economic life has been established, i.e., when the individual has completely moved out of the parental management sphere. Thus a nominal legal age of adulthood might be waived conditional that a child can satisfactorily establish its adulthood.

Now regarding the vote franchise, its effectiveness in providing equality of voice will obviously depend on how it's structured. Good. So to what does the vote apply? I'll discuss here only one important feedback mechanism that is critical to the vote's optimization. Under the humane money system, each adult account holder's voting power is expanded beyond conventional models to include the distribution of EEFs to particular local governmental units of personal choice. Earth's government already exists, is desirable, and, for the present at least, is unavoidable and thus automatic, so the individual voter declarations will relate only to the higher governmental units: individual states and state subdivisions[4]. For instance, I might live in the USA yet wish to support South Sudan because I believe it to be exemplary, or I have roots there, or whatever. So I'd designate South Sudan as my prefered state governmental unit – my choice and mine alone. For the next higher level, my preferred policies and expenditures might be somewhere else in the world, e.g., a State in the USA, or one of the Lander in Germany, so I accordingly declare for that state subdivision. Finally, at the highest level, I think a particular council in Scotland is really getting it right and choose it – again, my choice. The HMA in turn distributes the fees it assesses on my account to these governmental units. Thus, the public services fees that are assessed on my spending will be divided between the governments of Earth, South Sudan, state subdivision X, and council Y. If the USA or Laos wants my fees, if a different state subdivision wants my fees, if the municipality I live in wants my fees, well, they can change their policies to the point where I choose them instead of South Sudan, subdivision X, and council Y. It's also very important to insist that the HMA must always establish and apply only one ratio at a time for the allotment of EEFs to the various governmental units all over the world - there can be no favoritism played toward levels of government based on region or nationality!

There is one more choice for the voter to make in this context. In addition to designating the various levels of government to receive fees, the voter can designate one 'non-governmental/non-profit' organization to also be a beneficiary. This provides a 'cost-free' way of supporting citizen created governmental organizations that attempt to fill the gaps left due to both market and other public sector failures.

Now the above paragraphs clearly imply that this monetary system is not confined to some arbitrary state or national frontier. Indeed, it is not, and, if the spirit of equality is taken to heart, it cannot be so confined. Consequently, every living human anywhere on (or off!) Earth is eligible to establish their individual account with the HMA.

Naturally, private organizations, since they are not individuals, cannot ever be eligible for an account for they do not themselves have time, but merely represent the time of their individual members - so all private organizational transactions must pass through their members' accounts.[6]

The exception to organizations not being allowed accounts is, of course, for legitimized governmental units established at the Earth, state, and higher levels. Unlike other organizations, governmental units do have accounts to receive deposits of EEF. Obviously, the account of the Earth level government is exempt from paying the EEF when making withdrawals. This is because there is no lower level of government on which it depends or from which it receives services. Each higher level of government, though, must pay the EEF since each higher level is unavoidably calling on lower levels for the services the lower levels provide. This results in the state level being obligated to pay the EEF to the Earth level. Each subdivision of that state, however, must pay EEF to both the Earth and the state levels since it recieves services from both, and each council or town must do likewise to each level of government on which it depends. Like any other account holder paying the EEF, the state subdivision can choose which state level gets its EEF obligation. The same pattern applies to the municipal level, it having the choice of which state subdivision and which state.[7] EEFs will of course apply to 'non-governmental/non-profit' organizations as well. An advantage of higher level governments having to pay the EEF to lower levels is that it will encourage the higher levels to minimize unnecessary expenditure. A disadvantage is that it will potentially make the HMA's task of setting an appropriate EEF allotment ratio more complicated.

Returning to private account holders, each individual's vote also applies, of course, to the process of selecting the government's managers. In its entirety, this is a lengthy topic, but most critically, like EEF distribution, this vote should be so structured as to provide real time, i.e., continuous, feed back to the managers rather than analog or intermittent feed back, as is currently the electoral norm. This will be done through each adult's HMA account by registering a change in their preference for representation at any time they feel motivated to do so. In short, instead of voting once every x number of years, voting will be continuous. Changes in management will be effected according to current levels of expressed support, not according to support expressed at an arbitrary particular moment in time.

In order to help prevent representation from degrading into personality cults, horse races, exercises in vanity, insider domination, kleptocracy, general kakistocracy, and other BSHTRS activity, manager selection processes must be indirect, incorporate adequate vetting procedures, and include elements of chance. The purpose of these requirements is to minimize attracting the egotists, attention grabbers, back-stabbers, bullies, status hunters, tricksters, rent seekers, and all tooth and claw thugs in general, i.e., those wishing to game the system to feed their desire for power and their eventual addictions to it. For power is clearly addictive and, even if at times it's functionally innocuos, it still remains addictive and highly likely to become nocuos. Management positions are power positions, but they should always reflect a genuine community cresendo, not the manipulative persuasiveness of smooth talking BSHTRS.

Initially (see below), this concept for selection of representation will apply only to the HMA itself, pending any natural evolution or demand that the concept's use be expanded to more areas of government. I have not fully detailed an entire structure - obviously - but there are thousands and thousands of words on this site already and it's supposed to be a brief sketch of just the money issue!