Sustainability Programs

Sustainable Civilization: From the Grass Roots Up

Chapter VI - Sustainability Programs, Politics, and Technology Sustaining civilization goes well beyond air, water, food, shelter, and new generations. It is also about education, specialization, development of technology, etc. Do you believe that a few friends in an isolated "village" can sustain civilization alone?

INTRODUCTION

Village size organizations can function on a barter system, and may not have much need for formal laws, or a complex economy for internal purposes. Absent a large scale disaster, they could provide a healthy, nurturing environment for an indefinite number of generations. But villages appear to be limited in the amount of specialization that can take place, and if unable to communicate, and conduct physical exchange of unique products, development is so inhibited that mankind's progress would essentially come to a standstill, and most likely regress.

POPULATION

A stable population is essential. Children may be a joy to the parent, and of value to the eventual future of the community, but typically until adulthood they are a burden. And any children beyond replacement for the parents pose a threat. Yet despite wars, famine, pollution, resource depletion, and a crowded globe, most of humanity still doesn't get the picture.

In a limited resource (air, water, food, etc.) situation, the lower the overall population, the greater the amount of resource that can be expended per person, with surplus for experimentation, research and development.

BREEDING

In a group of free individuals, there is to some extent always a breeding program ongoing, where the wealthiest, best looking, most successful, etc., mate with peers, or can be more selective in selecting a mate. (Or the strongest and most prone to violence do what they want.)

We have however in the "developed" nations had an ongoing misguided program of expanding the numbers of the least-fit, those who without assistance would have never "made it" on their own, and from whom society never had any hope of any beneficial contribution.

Conversely, in growing numbers, those with higher education, significant earnings capacity, and better living conditions have opted for less than replacement level children.

This needs to be corrected. The physically and mentally fit must no longer be subjugated to the less fit.

To maintain a stable population level, yet improve humanity overall, there will need to be some form of restriction on breeding, whether bringing back "taboo's", economic incentives (or disincentives such as IMPOSING a tax on every child, vs granting tax deductions), or outright enforced controls.

We have governmental incentives to have more children, and other incentive programs which increase the population. While there is such government, THESE MUST STOP. In the end, these transfer the cost of children from the parents to unrelated families. Eliminate tax deductions for children. IMPOSE a tax on the parent of any child beyond replacement.

If people do not voluntarily address procreation, eventually either mother nature, or the government will. What if the government imposed a license requirement on having children? This would encourage creation of a market in parenting sales. Say NO parent has the right to more than their personal replacement child. "Wealthy" could have more children by buying the parent permission of the poor. The poor person(s) then does not have children, and the estate of the wealthy is divided among a larger "pool" of children, diluting how much each gets. Parenting rights cannot be "sold" until a person reaches a proper mature age (30?) A married couple, who decide to have only one child, could sell their remaining parenting right. Parenting rights can also be sold to the government, for example in exchange for old age care, or left by will.

THE BIG ECONOMIC PICTURE

The federal government is running $500+ billion annual deficits with trillions in debt on the books. If the baby boomers start to retire in 2008 as they become eligible, government costs in Social Security benefits will soar, even as tax revenues plummet. The debts of Social Security and federal pensions are not on the books, with estimates running from $57.8 trillion up to $74 trillion. Our "fiat" currency is already strained almost to the limits by the tax/spend & borrow/spend politicians.

U.S. consumer debt in 2006 is around $2.2 trillion dollars. Our desire for cheap foreign products sends $600 billion more OUT of the country every year than comes in.

As of late 2007, the sub-prime real estate finance “bail out” promises to be yet another millstone tied around the neck of the floundering U.S. taxpayers. (Apparently those in power in Congress, and the Whitehouse, have not read the history of the Great Depression. In both scenarios the bulk of the borrowers were essentially in zero down loans, and of such a financial status they could walk away.  Those who took and made such loans knew the risks, but did so anyway.

Locations, such as China, that do not have the web of environmental, labor, wage & benefit, etc. laws and regulations in place in the U.S., are obviously at an "advantage" when examined strictly on the question of cost of production in currency.

For so long as products from such locations can be imported without application of a tariff at the U.S. border that brings the currency cost up to equal what internal production would cost, the typical consumer is going to continue to purchase the lowest price tag item. It doesn't matter whether the item is imported and sold by a large chain store, or a mom & pop store, it still has driven out some aspect of local production, and sent a significant percentage of the purchase price out of the community.

It is difficult to envision how the federal government can divert economic disaster, and individuals may not want the government to even try.

Traditional government means to manage the economy are spending, interest rate control, financial liquidity, etc. These tools work to tweak the economy away from inflation or deflation. Our federal government though simply has such a large amount of debt that it cannot be paid, even if the economy would remain robust, because any realistic debt repayment schedule would strangle a robust economy. Our government will not even slow down on adding new debt.

A problem presented in economic discussions with rising real energy prices is they are both inflationary and deflationary at the same time. Oil as energy and feedstock is a significant component of much of the world economy. Inflation as we have come to accept is essentially the government dumping more “dollars” into the economy, allowing the government to siphon off value for its purposes, even as it lessens value of the currency. As the real price of oil is driven up, so goes the real price of goods and services.

Real price increases force people to limit spending, some things just will not be bought, slowing the overall economy. Our government officials, accustomed to getting what they want in the way of their benefits, and handouts for their voting public, can be expected to rely on their favorite hobby of keeping the money flowing, further ruining the national currency.

Federal cash, or cash equivalents, fixed dollar payments, etc., could easily become useless. Although currency may become useless, you still need a local means of exchange that bypasses the gloom of the big picture.

THE LOCAL ECONOMIC PICTURE

Every community has drains on its income, some perhaps not so visible. Perhaps the largest drain on income, and indeed even accumulated wealth, has been inflation, followed by taxation. Add up how much of earnings is lost to Federal and State income tax, Social Security tax, Medicare, etc., vs the amount that returns to the community in viable benefits from these governments. I'll tie this back to what I allude to re pension or social security payments, where I expect the big picture to cause problems with traditional currency.

Even the most innocent appearing, "mom and pop" store, can be a significant drain on the local economy. A foreign product or service, is a foreign product or service. In a store selling for example items that are virtually all made in China, the only part of the funds spent there that could continue to flow in the private, local community are the after tax profits.

As bad as consumer spending on foreign produced products is, if the spending is financed, yet more money leaves the community. (Where do you send YOUR credit card payments?)

Do you have a company pension plan, 401(k), IRA, whole life insurance, etc.? How much of your money in these products do you think circulates in the local community? As a distinct example, purchase in the marketplace of stock of a local firm sends your money to the sellers account, NOT necessarily (or likely) someone local.

Another drain on local wealth I would conjecture that is often overlooked are those who earn income, live frugally, and send a significant portion of their income to family located elsewhere. It doesn't matter whether the elsewhere is another U.S. city, or a foreign country, it is still money leaving the community.

In 2006 the Miami Herald estimated that migrants sent over $300 billion in remittances to home countries. It’s nice to help relatives “back home”, just realize what you are doing to your “new” home. As an example, money drained from the U.S. economy and sent “home” to Mexico from the U.S. is the second largest aspect of the Mexican economy.

India ($24.5 billion) Mexico ($24.3 billion) China ($21.1 billion)

The money flow has become the world's most effective poverty alleviation program, said Donald Terry, a top official of the Inter American Development Bank (IDB). However, he also notes that, ``if you're No. 1 in remittances, you're not developing jobs in your local economy.''

CURRENCY TO FACILITATE TRADE

Barter is typically thought of as a direct trade of goods or services. You grow a flock of chickens, and need a tooth cavity filled. Both you and the dentist are by your activities creating physical value. The barter exchange occurs when you and the dentist agree on an equal value, for example 8 chickens for a tooth filling. "Buyer beware" applies to determining the value to you of what you trade for. Your property and skills are your measurement and storehouse of value.

General acceptance of common means of value, i.e. grain or gold (grown/mined), or the modern equivalent of grain to feed an industrial economy, electricity, all permit less direct transactions. You raise chickens, the farmer grain, the miner digs the gold, and the dentist tends to teeth. You all create physical value. Whether you carry around grain, gold, or indefinable dollars, your transaction with the dentist is nevertheless still barter - a trade of a physical value for a physical value. "Buyer beware" applies to determining the value to you of what you trade for. While "buyer beware" includes the quality of the grain or gold, manipulation of the inherent value of the "currency" remains virtually impossible and taxation difficult. Your property and skills are your measurement and storehouse of value, some of which can be held in the more convenient barter/coin form.

The next step is a receipts (debt) currency. The grain, gold, or power is held in some secure manner, and some token representing the commodity is in circulation. In theory the currency still represents barter; the receipt can be exchanged for the agreed item of value. This step in economics introduces though relative ease of fraud - you cannot tell a "real" receipt from one with no value behind it. For example, if the grain silo owner, who issues grain receipts, knows the silo is never empty, there is ready temptation to write an extra receipt that lets the silo owner perpetrate a fraud on his neighbors - create economic value, without any physical value or cost to the silo owner (at least no cost until caught). Your property and skills are your measurement and storehouse of value, some of which can be held in the more convenient receipts/token form (if you trust your silo owner).

When you get to an un-backed/fiat currency, such as is in use in virtually every nation on earth, the numbers on the currency represent nothing, which government officials love. You still raise chickens, and still need your tooth filled. There is (for now) still a marketplace where people will pay you dollar$ for your chickens, and the dentist will probably still accept the money. The government can though print as much currency as it likes, and typically does. The extra money in circulation - people with more money - leads to increased spending and rising prices. With higher prices the government prints more money. Those who lose are those who have an income defined in some fixed dollar amount, or those who hold economic value in the form of dollars vs. physical assets.

A backed currency is one where the connection between the stated currency value and the barter item represented remains stable. As with grain, gold, or kilowatthour the item you agree upon as a basis for barter does not need to be fixed in quantity; in fact you might want it to be something easily increased, IF such an increase means an increase in the capabilities and therefore physical wealth of your community.

LOCAL CURRENCY

A primary goal of establishing a local currency is to facilitate ongoing local economic activity irregardless of economic fluctuations (money confidence problems) elsewhere.

All exchanges between parties are, in effect barter. Currency functions as a common means of exchange, allowing exchanges to be multi-step, item/service to currency, then currency to item/service, vs direct exchange. The currency unit must be easily understood, and accepted by the community. In essence, the only viable method to fix a currency value is to denominate it in some clearly definable "commodity". The currency in essence then serves as receipts for such a commodity, or a promise to deliver such.

To disconnect from the fluctuations, and potential crash of the present national fiat currency and the looming global crisis, the unit of the local currency must NOT be directly tied to the national currency, nevertheless there needs to be a means of converting between the two.

Currency Base

Does the barter backing have to be a physical object, such as grain or gold? The author presents an argument for currency based on the kilowatt-hour (kwh). In the modern world, electricity is the premium type of power. It is a "commodity" that can be created and used to perform valuable work, or entertainment. It is clearly defined, readily measurable with the right tools, and virtually impossible to "counterfeit".

Virtually every modern community is already wired and metered to measure the physical withdrawals, and in growing cases deposits in the flow of kwh. The power can be sold to those using the national currency, adjusting for the fluctuations of the national currency, while keeping the local connected economy completely separate from the fluctuations of the dollar. Those who want to opt in/out of the kwh currency just come or go based on the kwh price in external currency as of the time of their transaction.

1 - kwh                                           1-kwh

Power To Build The Future

1 - kwh                                           1-kwh As a receipt, the power company issues such whenever it receives a net deposit from local generation, fuel sold to the bank/generator, etc.. The power bill would be paid by the same note.

The chicken grower takes the birds to market, and receives the kwh notes in exchange for the birds. The notes function as any other currency, at least within those entities who accept them pre-crash, such as the dentist.

THE INDIVIDUAL PICTURE

How secure is your job or business?

What are you invested in?

Are you planning on retirement with a pension from a private sector employer, or the government, or a stipend from Social Security? The federal government can, if it elects, cease Social Security, make it means-tested, or perhaps worse, pay everything promised in useless printing press money. For now, private firms that default on their pension plans might have the deficit covered by the federal government, with the same eventual printing press challenge.

You need to understand the financial markets and products, and realize the risks you may be taking by going along with the crowd.

RETHINKING THE LOCAL ECONOMY

To become sustainable means to integrate our economic and social lives into the environment in ways that maintain and enhance it rather than degrade or destroy it; sustainability is a moral imperative to pass on our natural inheritance not necessarily unchanged, but undiminished in its ability to meet the needs of future generations.

Sustainability also includes the concept of carrying capacity, which means finding the balance point among population, consumption, and waste assimilation. Carrying capacity applies to the economy, taxation, and government programs as well.

Sustainability is NOT per se an environmental movement, although preservation of nature is an aspect. It is more about creating a sensible stable human community. At the present, while the benefits of growth accrue to the few, not necessarily even local, the costs of growth tend to be distributed across the community. The cost of growth needs to be borne by those who benefit from such.

Every decision one makes--in life, community, and business--can be gauged against this definition. The simplest way to do so is ask yourself whether your choice supports the local community. As peak oil returns limits to our horizons, you cannot escape the fact that you are an intimate and interconnected member of the web of life where you live.

Disconnect from consumer culture. As with eliminating your dependence on oil, this doesn't mean never again make a consumer purchase. But stop buying what you don't need, or that which has no enduring significance. Try to shop for locally produced products, those (somehow!) produced without toxic byproducts and large inputs of fossil fuel energy. Realize though that for so long as the present picture global economy remains, local cannot compete on a price basis with the far side of the planet.

Carrying debt for the purpose of consumer spending is a waste. Conversely though, debt for the purpose of controlling an asset that even "holds" value in inflation may be a prudent move. (At least while the current economy continues to function.) If you pledge the asset though as security for the debt (i.e. a home mortgage) and do not have sufficient cash reserves to keep up with the loan, realize you may lose your bet (and your home).

In conflict with an exhortation to stop consumer spending is the fact that money in the bank is, thanks to (primarily) government generated inflation, a guaranteed LOSS in purchase power. As a sad example, as of OCT 2006 you are probably better off holding rolls of pre-1981 pennies, than deposing money in a bank or credit union.

If the peak oil crowd is right (no evidence to the contrary) then to the extent any good or service is a "daily" need, it will either need to be taken care of at home, or somewhere within essentially walking distance. Things taken for granted today are likely to become a "luxury". But until and unless enough people wake-up, and in fact until things get bad enough, many things are not going to change.

A personal example: I am a lawyer, nearing retirement from Army civil service. If the "worst case" scenario comes to pass and we are in "survival" mode, I do not expect that my neighbors will have much need for services of a lawyer. Nor do I have confidence that my pension (or Social Security) will be paid, or that if it is, the money will have any significant meaning or value. Even though I see a coming problem, I CAN'T see resigning.

I am also an Arizona Master Gardener. At the moment, there is no significant money to be earned as such, but it may become a valuable retirement skill, if for no other reason than to feed my family.

In the meantime, I research, experiment, prompt discussions, and write.

LOCAL PRODUCTION

If your community is to become truly sustainable, it must adhere to the definition of sustainability. Too many people think sustainability means the continuation of the status quo of the Industrial Growth Society.

In most places the current business environment is hostile to small business and home-based business. We dare not however wait for the Greater Depression before trying to do something about our situation. One of the ways to take back power from the people who have taken over our political and monetary systems is to break their strangle hold on the local economy. Local production not retail is key. The value-added to the community is in production, not reselling something from somewhere else. An area where people show a willingness to pay a premium price (greater than that for "slave labor") is custom and quality handicraft. This 'small shop' approach fits a coming paradigm of high energy costs for shipping. A level playing field is not going to happen while cheap energy allows slave labor products from 12,000 miles away to enter without the tariffs to compensate for the present safety nets here. We want our safety nets and benefits, without personally paying for them. This cannot continue. If the fuel costs for shipping had to be paid for in purchase of "present day" energy, instead of the underground storehouse of ancient sunlight, even distant slave labor would have difficulty competing.

Given our current situation it will be difficult to get the public to see the need for local, higher cost products. Everyone is encouraged, and to encourage others to start small and think big. There is essentially NO reason for local unemployment. Surely there is something you can do, make, fix, etc., with greater skill than another, and they have a specialty in turn.

As an example, if someone wants to get into the shoe making, or other such business, for now, it must just be their hobby, as we're NOT going to compete with the imports from China.

KEEPING THE ECONOMY LOCAL

Support a local currency if you find a means to disconnect such from big picture inflationary trends.

Pre-crisis though, creating a local currency, and a web of business using such, is potentially going to be "frowned upon" by multiple levels of government who do not want their revenue streams interrupted.

My "Two Cents" is we need an atmosphere and local rules that encourages home enterprise. Existing zoning and/or business license/taxation requirements may pose sufficient barriers as to prevent some from implementing a "sideline" business that they might otherwise have an interest in operating. The very people who would benefit in the future from such hobby businesses waiting in the wings, will probably balk at changes today that would allow them to start to develop. But it must be done.

In a sustainable community, some business operations will be "short term", some ongoing. For example landscaping and building for rainwater harvesting is going to be for the most part a short term business. Although it takes skill initially to get collection in place, once someone sees what needs to be done, the work of the business is easily replicated, and if done well, remains functional for a long period of time without further intervention.

An obvious problem is going to be those with living arrangements that precludes any significant growing of food. They will have to purchase such from savings or earnings, steal it, or leave. Along with growing food goes safe recycling of the human effluents back to the growing medium. A great deal of food can be grown in compact areas if the growing medium is kept fertilized, and it receives the attention required. Intensive gardening requires indefinite attention, and a variety of knowledge, and appears to be a practical ongoing business with this specialist allowing others to pursue their specialty.

RETHINKING THE LOCAL BUSINESS ENVIRONMENT

How to improve the business environment for local enterprise, and make our communities more sustainable and self-sufficient? Tossed out for consideration:

Identify and plug the (economic) leaks. Identify products that could be produced locally, but are not currently. Identify skills that are present in the community and those that need to be developed to produce these goods. Establish a network to facilitate local business development. Create a local green business directory. Appeal to local loyalty to entice market share from non-indigenous enterprises. Improve the self-sufficiency of your community through economic development with special focus on food production and small scale water supply systems. Create an increased sense of community by working together to start and support local enterprises.

Establish a local currency to improve the use of capital, facilitate trade, and encourage doing business locally.

Publish a newsletter and website to promote your efforts, encourage participation, provide an objective source for local business news, and alert readers to issues not covered by the mainstream media services.

COMPELLED ALTRUISM

In a rapidly expanding economy, with what was seen as an unlimited source of energy and vastly enhanced growth of food, "charity" at the point of a government gun was not widely objected to. It became un-acceptable to question this wealth transfer (theft) and the destructive results.

This meddling to breed for the least capable is perhaps the program most dependent on an overproductive, expanding, resource wasting economy. Consider that when the (virtually) free energy subsidy of oil ends, and socio-economic activity relies on current energy flow, there will be greatly increased real prices (in terms of earnings per unit of labor). This greatly reduces the lifestyle of the working and makes every cent of earnings critical.

At the same time living expenses for the working rise, they will rise for the non-contributing. This means that as workers have rising concern about their jobs, and find their useful income dropping, the socialists will be demanding greater and greater percentages of workers income.

How much of this are you going to tolerate?

IMMIGRATION

We must think and act more realistically than present immigration procedures. Immigration refers to arbitrary government regulated movement of individuals. There are those who advocate elimination of any limits on immigration. What if the government was taken out of the picture for setting rules, and deciding who can move where, and is instead limited to protection of individual rights?

If a community has realistically implemented sustainability concepts, it should be clear that an immigrant (adult or child) to a long-term sustainable community would cause a net increase in the relevant population unless they are a replacement for a native born resident.

NOTE: The assumption is that the community is already AT the maximum population that can be sustained on the available water, food, etc. If every other community is also at maximum population, or worse (as we have now) well beyond long term sustainable population, purchase of the needed extra resources is not a viable option. Given these (which I believe may be best-case) parameters, how do you address immigration?

Each multi-generation homestead if already at their safe population has internal incentive to restrict new births, as each new mouth takes a portion away from everyone already there.

Perhaps the immigrant could purchase the parenting right of an existing person, in effect for population purposes becoming their instant "child", subject to the limits of their "adoptive" family. Perhaps such an immigrant should not parent a child until they have been here for some time period, consider (15?) years.

LIMITS TO NON-RESIDENT ACCESS

Related to consideration of permanent immigration is the issue of those who have no permanent connection to the area lingering about. Do you want continued personal security? Do you want the ability to exclude unwanted intruders from your home and business? At what point do you want to cede control? You operate a restaurant, and someone parks their hot dog cart on the sidewalk outside? How about your neighborhood? Your schools?

Under current law you only have control authority within your privately owned property, you home, perhaps your neighborhood if it's not open to the general public (think a gated neighborhood, with privately maintained streets). Face it, people will move away from danger, and toward wherever they perceive as a "better place". If your home or neighborhood is, or appears to be better off then others, you become a likely target for thieves (with or without government credentials). Get involved in your community, in particular any aspect which involves the "law" and your private property rights, self-defense rights, etc. Current U.S. law allows for the most part non-residents to freely walk about public (government owned/controlled) sidewalks, streets, lots, etc. But we are contemplating extreme times. What if you don't want strangers hanging about in your neighborhood in the middle of the night? If your neighborhood sidewalks and streets were once again private property, with mere easements granted to other property owners, only residents would have the right to use such, and only for what the easement authorized. Authorities would then be called on to enforce trespass laws, or where the law allows private citizen detention for the trespass. What about taking your entire community (city) "private"? If your community remains viable, while others that have failed to prepare are in collapse, what is the legal basis for maintaining your resource to population balance? A new person, is a new person. Must you, will you, wait until you are overrun? How do you improve the quality of life for the residents already in the city while avoiding the growth that news of the good life would cause? Each family, neighborhood, village, and city should look after itself first. Personal then local welfare, working upward from the grass roots must take priority over daydreams about addressing the problems of those who take no steps to solve their problems themselves, or make them progressively worse. Water collection and food growing at the home level makes it clear what the life support limits are. I suggest it is similar with sidewalks, roads, and other currently considered "government" property. It needs to return to private ownership. Government is force. We need a paradigm of voluntary cooperation and partnerships to work together. This means though not only work such as building a new library, but also working together to establish and maintain limits. Public projects and programs paid by taxed theft or slavery discourages involvement by the victims of the theft, and by those who benefit by it thru no effort of their own. Consider a community with limited water. The city takes all the water, and gives it away. Demand would rise, supply, recycling and conservation development would fall, and the per person supply would diminish. In contrast if each homestead is free to use their own collected water, yet must pay the full costs for other water, efficiencies are encouraged, as are naturally imposed limits to new development and expansion. We are not likely to see, or desire, sustainability imposed from political authority. But we need to have governments stop rewarding actions contrary to sustainability. PLANNED FUNERALS

Deaths must essentially match births. There are those who are chronically depressed, and dream of suicide. Why do we stop them? Perhaps society should accept voluntary suicide, perhaps of adults over 30, or under 30 when diagnosed by (3?) physicians with a terminal and painful or debilitating condition.

UPPER COMMUNITY LIMIT

It appears in history that numbers approaching 1 million were the upper limit for cities. A city of a million, if part of a larger civilization may expect some significant percentage, say 80% of it's population to be permanent residents of extended families, giving us around 100,000 homesteads, with the other 20% considered transitory, coming to the city on less than a permanent basis for education, to learn or practice a trade or skill, etc.

A transitory population will have some needs that differ significantly from permanent residents. Some homesteads may absorb the temporary population, whether due to charity considerations, providing for a relative, or a paid border arrangement. If however the temporary residents are present for a purpose such as attending college, one might expect them to be concentrated near the purpose of their visit. Facilities such as college need to be within a regular daily commute for permanent residents, but also have appropriate temporary living quarters. (Note the need for expanded community production to be able to provide “life support” for the temporary residents.)

The limited resource and population base of small villages provides little reserve capabilities to cope with disasters. Even minor disturbances in water or food supplies, or a natural disaster damaging infrastructure, could be a death knell for the village without outside support.

CREATIVITY

The U.S. patent office estimates 1 patentable invention per year, per every 1,000 people in the population. But don't let statistics mislead you into believing an energetic isolated eco-village should expect 9 new ideas every year.

It takes creative people, educated and with extra time and resources for significant advances. It takes easy access to previous knowledge, tools, expert assistance, etc. An information and goods exchange among a network of eco-villages should be expected to yield far more new inventions each year than the same villages kept isolated. Communication and trade must be maintained, which in a low energy environment probably means being physically nearby.

Not every invention is in the best interest of civilization (think of a device that could destroy every living thing, so simple to make any kid could do it...) Even without posing a physical threat, inventions are not necessarily welcomed with open arms. There are always those who oppose anything new. With innovation the demand for a product or service may wane (buggies and horsewhips after the auto).

Not every site has the same resources. Not every group of people has the same capabilities or interests. Specialization nurtures expertise. Trade nurtures specialization. But it also nurtures the "theft" of inventions, reducing the reward for the inventors efforts.

We need an environment that nurtures positive creativity, avoiding careless waste of resources, contamination of the environment, and unacceptable risks. Thoughts?

ECO ECONOMY

Your first step, determine what product or service is being produced or provided in a manner contrary to your ecological belief system, and stop buying it. Convince your family and friends to stop buying it. Get them all to tell the provider why their business has been lost.

"The earth is finite. It cannot provide for continually growing numbers of people.  It can't even provide for anywhere near the present population.  Current economic practices which damage the environment, in both developed and underdeveloped nations, cannot be continued without the risk that vital global systems will be damaged beyond repair.  Pressures resulting from unrestrained population growth put demands on the natural world that can overwhelm any effort to achieve a sustainable future"

World Scientists Warning to Humanity, the Union of Concerned Scientists.

Prices must reflect the ecological reality of the situation. As touched on earlier, fossil fuels have been replacing human labor at an arguable "exchange" rate of a gallon of fuel doing around 562 hours of human labor, which at the U.S. minimum wage each gallon is around $3,000 worth of human labor.

Oil has annually provided in recent years energy to power civilization that is roughly equal to the dedicated labor of more than 250 billion slaves. This is ending. It's not so much as what an eco-economy CAN be, as what it CANNOT be.

"In a sustainable society, durability and recycling will replace planned obsolescence as the economy's organizing principle, and virgin materials will not be seen as a primary source of material but as a supplement to the existing stock" - Lester Brown, Worldwatch Institute

When human numbers were small, and the earth covered with a dense, diverse ecology, a tree cut here, an animal or fish taken there, made little difference to the system as a whole. With our vast numbers now, and technology, we clear cut entire forests and eliminate entire species.

For all practical human purposes, we have done, and continue to do damage that may never be repaired. Limited population is an essential element. The very life processes of each person places that much of an additional demand on the counterbalancing ecology. Any projection of the future is at best, a guess, based on present information. But using present knowledge and technological capabilities, a sustainable, technological society can continue to exist, and develop.

Try looking at the world as a series of sealed bubbles. You are personally responsible for what you do, or allow, at home, your property, your town, country, the world. You can't pollute. In multigenerational family owned homesteads each generation has the incentive to continue to upgrade the homestead.

Air. We've got to stop pollution. Humans have burned fuels for energy for a long time, and we today burn at LOT. If we didn't derive the fuel by concentrating the energy component from the environment (carbon from biofuels, hydrogen from water, etc.) we shouldn't be putting it into the environment. (Biofuels and systems to split hydrogen from water will be major factors for portable power, unless of course Mr. Tesla's broadcast power proposals were accurate, and are implemented.)

In theory, if the community is growing its own food, it should be balancing the CO2 output of the residents, perhaps not exactly locally (due to open air and winds) but on the average. The best the community can do for other air pollutants is to avoid producing them, and refuse to deal with anyone who does.

Water. The Ogallala Aquifer WAS a huge store of "fossil water", under around 225,000 square miles in the Great Plains region (the U.S. "breadbasket"), which has long been a major source of water for agricultural, municipal, and industrial development. Use began at the turn of the century, and has now greatly surpassed the aquifer's rate of natural recharge. Some places overlying the aquifer have already exhausted their underground supply as a source of irrigation. Given high power pumps, it may only be decades before vast areas are pumped "dry". Given the loss of high power pumps, the irrigation will cease. Probably 1/3 of the U. S. cropland is irrigated in this unsustainable manner, and will then "disappear".

The Colorado River examples another source, while renewable, allocated beyond its natural flow. Often nothing reaches the ocean of what was once a river that could handle ocean going shipping. The next cycle of lessened rainfall in the catchment area will have serious repercussions for those dependent on this water for their life. Limited population is an essential element.

We do not have the technology to replace the quantities of "fossil water" that have been squandered. If "global warming" fears materialize, heat and reduced rainfall pose a deadly threat. Ocean water can be "de salted", but not in sufficient quantities to maintain the present population and the necessary crops, nor is enough energy likely to be available to transport the water to distant fields and population centers.

If the air is clean, then rainfall should be clean. We need to then avoid polluting it within the community, including "salts", concentration of which threatens crops, and soil life.

Food. Bio intensive, perhaps in concert with some aspects of the hydroponic, aeroponic and aquaponic systems. Most farmland is "mined out" of trace minerals, and does not produce appropriately healthy food, and absent chemical fertilizers, is incapable of producing a quantity of food anywhere near present production.

Cropland must have trace minerals restored, and be maintained in such a manner that these minerals are returned to the land and crops, including our bodies when we no longer need them. We can grow terrific crops, and properly nourish a few, or greater quantity of lesser quality crops and feed a greater quantity of less healthy people. What we have today is a version of the LATTER.

Industrialized food production, processing, long distance shipping, etc., obviously subjects this vital life support aspect to far greater "uncertainties" than does growing food locally.

TRADE

It does not appear probable that long distance shipping of products, in particular overland on roads, or by air, is sustainable absent fossil fuels. While many of the components of high tech devices require such unique processes that they are not likely to be made "locally", in many locations, there is likewise no need for entire devices to be assembled, packaged, and shipped.

In example, the high tech manufacturing "essential" components of a computer are no where near the overall mass and volume of a complete computer. Frames, cases, connectors, etc. can be hand crafted locally for assembly.

ENTERPRISES

Manufacturing. "Key" components of systems or devices.

Pedal power transport and devices (people today could use the exercise anyway) Wind driven devices, motion, moving matter, energy generation / storage Light rail (REALLY light, powered by P/V or small biofuel engines)

Energy generation / storage. Solar p/v, thermoelectric, thermo heat-engine, biomass production. Providing power not only for the community, but outlying customers.

Selective surfaces are materials that reflect, or absorb, given qualities of energy or matter. A diode only allows electricity to move in one direction. Certain membranes allow thru water, but exclude "contaminants", including dissolved salts.

High concentrations of u/v, an ionizing frequency of light, can provide significant "excitation" of water molecules such that the electricity needed to electrolyze water is BELOW that which can be generated when the hydrogen is again burned or used in a fuel cell. This is not an over unity device, since the extra energy is coming from sunlight. If the complete spectrum of light is used at the concentrations necessary the water heats too much, decreasing the electrolysis efficiency and making more complex containment necessary.

Assisted living homes in the pre crash economy often receive significant income for providing relatively low levels of service to residents. (Typically taxpayer subsidized) Post crash there will still be those who cannot personally provide the care that a fragile weak person requires.

Holistic medicine. Avoid injury and illness, vs complex and expensive corrective steps. Those taking personal risk based on their employment, should be insured by their employers for those risks. Those taking personal risk on their own behalf, should shoulder the bills for such risk. Like unto regular oil changes and other maintenance in a car prevents major repairs later, it is similar in many aspects for our bodies. A campground may have post crash value as low-cost temporary lodging.

Gardening. For those who can't / won't grow their own food, skills in creating and maintaining an effective and low - maintenance garden could be a growing demand.

Recycling. There is no away to throw things to. Components and materials must be taken apart, sorted, stored, and made available again for new projects. If there is no garbage pick up, and no "city dump", would you pay to have things taken away? Would you run a business where you were paid to take "stuff" away, and paid again for the parts after you took them apart?

Sewage management. Forcing someone to manage your feces / urine would be slavery. If you realize you must recycle such to survive, but don't want to, and the city won't let you connect to the sewer, how much would you pay to not have to worry about it? (Ties to gardening)

An ecological economy is by its own terminology NOT based on a once-thru process of disposable goods. The fossil fueled industrial age COULD have given everyone high quality, high durability goods, and permanently lifted worldwide living standards. What we DID was produce at the lowest cost, lowest quality possible, a "disposable" product.

With current economic thinking, advertising, and business practices, an ecological economy appears at first to be an antithesis of a healthy economy. It does NOT seek change for the mere sake of change, deliberate repeat business by planned obsolescence, etc.

Nanotechnology promises a revolution in materials engineering, and product construction, provided we do not lose the underlying support community for such high-tech industry.

Quality. A thoughtfully designed and executed product can have lifetime appeal and usefulness, and be a cherished heirloom, passing from generation to generation. A quality item is less likely to be replaced merely because "new and different" is produced.

Durability. Don't you have that favorite shirt, pair of shoes, watch, etc., that you just love to wear? Do you wish they would last longer? Why don't they? Standardization of components. Imagine trying to play music if every record, tape, or CD required a special player. Along the lines of the shipping discussion above, standardized components and subcomponents, assembled to make various devices, yet designed to be re arranged at the consumer level, leads to enhanced recycling.

Recycling, of not just materials, but individual components and assemblies. Current electronic devices, while "neat", are in most cases not repairable, requiring the entire device to be discarded when there is a single component malfunction.

Food. Of the highest nutrition, in appropriate proportions. Grain, potatoes, rice, etc. continues to be presented, even by physicians, as the base of the food pyramid. These carbohydrate items are the most profitable for farmers, and for the food processing industry, as cheap carbohydrates are processed into "snack foods". Most of these contain little though beyond calories, and certainly do not qualify as a healthy diet.

Consider for a moment, have you ever heard the phrase "corn fed", or "grain fed" in reference to fattening up cattle, hogs, etc. for the slaughter?

As discussed earlier, much of the farmland in use today has been depleted of the micro nutrients we need. Yes, plants can still be forced to grow on the depleted soil, but the food cannot contain the nutrients we need. The growing medium must be fully restored, from "outside" sources if necessary, and the minerals eaten must be returned to the soil. Therefore recycling must include the valuable atoms which comprise our bodies, once we non longer rely on them.

No net loss.

Expanded copyright and patent protections. These protections encourage new ideas, discoveries and devices to be brought to the public, by ensuring that the proper credits and accolades, as well as the financial benefits of the creation accrue to the creator.

Short term patent protection, such as the 17 year United States patent, provide a relatively short period for benefits to accrue to the creator, then the invention becomes "public domain". In some instances, the inventor may not find the financial risk of research to be worth the potential gain of an invention. Compare this to copyright protection, where the song "Happy Birthday" still warrants royalties…

We've got lots of sunlight. But so far, getting from sunlight to energy types used in current commerce and technology is not efficient. Low energy input approaches are required. Some perspective. Say we're looking for a kilowatt of electricity. Compare use of a 10% efficient p/v panel, to the area required to grow food for one living horse. Or for producing 1 hp of power from an engine burning wood, or other biofuels?

RELIGION

Take your pick, they are all a leap of faith. There is no ongoing event to evidence that any particular formal religion has a rational factual basis. Most clearly have biases that are clearly contrary to a long-term sustainable civilization.

POLITICAL STRUCTURE & CHALLENGES TO POLITICIANS

Humanity is past a sustainable population. In an ideal world, we would use the remaining oil ONLY to create an infrastructure that is sustainable on solar input, and voluntarily focus on reducing the population to sustainable levels.

But what would happen to a politician who proposed measures appropriate to these ends, such as:

Repeal income tax dependency exemptions, child tax credit, and all deductions for child care. Have a one time only, limited time grant for abortions, then cease public spending for any pregnancy related cost or child care costs, and cease welfare. Eliminate immigration for other than critical national defense abilities. Eliminate government mandated union membership. Eliminate deductions for donations to "charities", providing health insurance, life insurance, or other benefits other than salary.

These have all contributed to a situation where motivation to independent action has been suppressed, to gain the "benefits" of a steady job. Such jobs making taxation easier. Leading then to demands that the government "fix" the disparity between those with, and without such benefits, by the government assuming the insurance business.

Repeal social security, Medicare, etc. These programs “reward” the non-contributing of society, or impose the expense of the ills, or ill conduct, of the few on to the productive members. Consider the Social Security reform discussions, with means-testing as a favored approach. This means that those who pay the most into a government mandated, gun to your head “retirement” program, get the least benefit from this program. A completely irrational approach. “Charity”, should be voluntary, not imposed at the point of a gun.

Eliminate corporate double taxation, where corporations must still pay corporate income tax on amount paid out as dividends to stockowners. (For that matter, eliminate the limited liability aspects of business entities. If investors “own” the “upside” of their investments, why do they not own the “downside” and costs of business liabilities.  How is it that some fictional, paper entity can be found “guilty” of torts, or crimes, and the human owners get off free?)

Eliminate federal deductions for state income tax, property taxes, etc.

Eliminate estate and gift taxes.

How do we avoid corruption? How do we avoid institutionalism?

Democracy, or one person, one vote, majority rule, is self-destructive. It is mob-rule. It is three large hard-core rapists and a pretty woman on a desert island, with a vote of 3 to 1 that the female must sexually service the men, or die.

"Democracy is a regular feature of decaying civilizations. When a democracy is established, the destitute consume the capital of the wealthy, and the civilization must then decay until invasion destroys it." - Sir Flinders Petrie.

Twentieth Century welfare programs in the U. S. example the defect. Greater payments were made to those with more children, encouraging greater births in families who could not afford to care for the children, leading to following generations of welfare recipients that grew greater in numbers, both from excessive births, and expanded scope of the programs. Welfare is one example of the "tragedy of the commons", or "public goods game", which shows cooperative progress is endangered when it becomes clear that it is possible and "profitable" for individuals or groups to "free ride" on the productive efforts of others. In games experiments, a functional "out" from such a "tragedy of the commons" is for the producing, cooperating members to be able to punish welfare free riders, even if it means a cost to those punishing.

The disproportionate weight given to the vote of city dwellers also examples the defect. In an area which should be the center of education, research, manufacturing, etc., attracting the best of humanity, many present cities are gross drains on resources, far beyond any benefit returned. Estimates are that the current city of Los Angeles, California, has a "footprint" of ecological effect that is larger than the entire State of California. Do you believe that the entire population of LA are contributing citizens?

On the U.S. federal level, the Constitution originally contained some protection against such "mob rule", by assigning to each State two senators. Originally, the Representatives were elected by the people, and Senators were sent to represent the State Government. Therefore, Senators owed their allegiance essentially to the governor and legislature of their home state, NOT to the people. The distinction is that they had incentive to avoid proposals that cost the State. When it was changed that Senators were elected by a democratic popular vote, such protection was lost.

Each distinct PROPERTY, or some other fixed unit, regardless of the number of people living on the property, has one vote. It is up to the owner of the property to decide how the speaker for that portion of land is selected.

A vote can only change the primary charter if the vote is unanimous. (Protecting the original intentions of the founders, those who after sought admission to the village under the terms of the charter, born under the charter, etc., from the arbitrary democratic mob rule of any "majority".)

The village or city does not have the power to "tax". It does though have the authority to sell goods and services that are determined excess, with members having first priority to purchase such.

Decisions where the charter does not clearly control must pass by a 2/3 majority of the total possible votes. Likewise earlier such decisions can be overturned by a vote of more than 1/3 to modify or eliminate. This in effect means that for any such action to remain valid, more than a 2/3 majority must want it in place at any given time.

The tragedy of the commons must be avoided. When an asset is held in common, and all have an unlimited access, the typical result is prompt depletion.

PRIVATISM

“Give a man the secure possession of a bleak rock and he will turn it into a garden; give him a nine year lease of a garden and he will convert it into a desert”. Arthur Young – English Writer.

MILITARY SOCIETY

(Please excuse my drift into a science fiction work) The people in the U.S. military command, control, and maintain some of the most complicated hardware on the planet, in conditions that are often far from pleasant.

Our military are volunteers. Whether they signed up for a job, for the educational and other benefits, or as a career, our military people are just that, people. The military organization is the most "integrated" I am aware of. We see every race, religion, national origin, economic background, etc. in the military, at any level. For the most part, it is promotion by merit, vs popularity.

STARSHIP TROOPERS Robert Heinlein Rico's teacher, Mr. DuBois, asks "'What is the moral difference, if any, between the soldier and the civilian?" "The difference,'" Rico answers, "lies in the field of civic virtue. A soldier accepts responsibility for the safety of the body politic of which he is a member, defending it, if need be, with his life. The civilian does not" "Can you tell us why our system works better than any of our ancestors?... Because under our system every voter and officeholder is a man who has demonstrated through voluntary and difficult service that he places the welfare of the group ahead of personal advantage" The point being that those who voluntarily bear the burden should make the decisions and get the benefits, not "free riders". I cannot see how that a individual, neighborhood, city, state, or nation, if "prepared" for the crash, will be able to survive without obvious means of defense, and the obvious ability and willingness to use it. We can’t continue to ignore and downplay self defense. Winning peace, not just at the level of "war", but down to local one-on-one crimes takes eternal vigilance at all levels.

(ST) "Naked force has resolved more issues throughout history than any other factor. The contrary opinion, that violence never solves anything, is wishful thinking at its worst."

In a home invasion, or if one of your family is assaulted, I advocate all should respond. In my personal capacity, I started teaching our daughter how to shoot when she was 4. At 11 she could handle a .45 ACP pistol and/or carbine reasonably well. Firearms are no toy to her. She's also taken martial arts training, as well as all of the other crash and post oil era training/education I can think of.

Your local police cannot be everywhere that real crime is. Technically in most of the U.S., every citizen has the authority to make a citizens arrest, but it's discouraged by the professional police. We need to encourage personal initiative with offenders taken to the "on duty" staff.

We must be prepared to wage war. If fighting on the level of war is required, total involvement is required, from the extra food to be grown, it's delivery to the troops, resupply efforts, etc. There are no civilians in war, only those incapable of actively fighting or providing support.

But unless we’re involved in a war, maintaining a professional full time military, separate from other normal functions of society, is a drain on resources.

(ST) "Once someone asked me if I knew the difference between a citizen and a civilian. I can tell you now. A citizen has the courage to make the safety of the human race their personal responsibility." What's NOT going to work is a society attempting to maintain industries, programs, and people that drain resources without providing any benefit back to society in general. Perhaps time spent "drafted" into military service will be a means of paying taxes?

I do not see that a government limited to those who have so served is necessarily something to be feared. I can't though see the military involuntarily taking over from the civilian government, until / unless that government has already failed such that the population "demands" the change, and I still have a difficult time going from the concept of military control in a disaster period, to a long term military government

We readily see the "organization" advantages of the military in response to civil unrest, or natural disaster. Send in the "National Guard", which is the state army, composed primarily of part-time soldiers, people who have self-selected for the extra "hastle" that guard duty represents, including being sent into disasters, while earning less than in their normal jobs.

Americans readily demonstrate they are not frightened powerless peasants. Even little old neighbor ladies join "neighborhood watch" programs. Rather than demand police or military protection, I suspect they will BE the military civilization.

Perhaps I need to re-read my Heinlein to look for clues as to a practical long term "military" government… (ST) "One of the older cadets took a crack at it. 'Sir, revolution is impossible . . . because revolution --armed uprising -- requires not only dissatisfaction but aggressiveness. ... If you separate the aggressive ones and make them the sheep dogs, the sheep will never give you trouble" Rather than hold my breath for a military imposed organization, I'd still suggest everyone get their personal affairs re-aligned to survive the crash, and to cope as well as you can in the post oil era.

Create a neighborhood watch and neighborhood clean up program.

Implement your own "planned collapse", but realize the consequences, not only for you, but in the bigger picture.

You go off-grid, grow your own food, and enter into cooperative agreements with neighbors to swap your various handicrafts. You are no longer part of the tax base. As taxpayers "disappear", or per taxpayer revenue falls, government must raise rates, go further into debt, or cut non-essential programs.

Eventually, you are looking at government doing nothing but defense / law enforcement / emergency response… All potentially done by volunteers. But, gone are excess revenues that can be expended to provide life-support for non-contributing individuals.

Besides laws and paychecks, coercion can take many forms:

(ST) "Service guarantees citizenship."

Perhaps Heinlein will be proven right…

LAWS

Only those formal laws minimally required to provide for defense against outside threats of force, or provide deterrent and redress for inside initiation of inappropriate force. All government activity diverts the fruits of labor at the point of a gun.

Spending for military and police equipment, and the wages of the personnel, is in general a net loss to society, unless of course we experience an invasion, or someone (outside the government) forcefully violates you. The purpose of the military is to prevent a foreign invasion; the purpose of criminal punishment is to prevent another crime, whether from the same individual, or another; the purpose of civil courts is to address fraud or redress of initiated harm. When you get to any legal framework beyond this, you can quickly get into unlimited government intervention. Consider, Alvin and Bob feel that Dick has a problem, which they want to fix. After a brief session, they decide what they are going to force John to do to help Dick. Dick at the point of a gun is not allowed any input or objection to the decision. The above examples what takes place when governments stray from their function of military and police protection, and courts of law. While a government using a fiat currency can create currency using the printing press, it does not create value. If a government wants a subsidy payment to anyone to have any value, it must first take value at the point of a gun from someone who produces it.

Politicians pandering for the vote of the “poor and/or weak” rob those who produce, to divert the “fruits” of productive effort to their selected serfs, to perpetrate their own political power. But every cent so diverted to the sustenance of those who, in their own turn, do nothing, is a loss of funds that could have been supporting even greater accomplishments. And when such “charity” comes from politicians who depend on it for their power, you can be assured that money will continue to disappear into such a void. If we have a limited government, a significant challenge is to keep it limited. The primary "Constitution" cannot be changed without a unanimous vote of the representatives. Consider, you either voluntarily moved to live under this government, or were born under it. If you do not want it changed, why would you grant consent for some less than unanimous group to change the rules?

"Doctors without Borders" appears to advocate medical care regardless of local licensing. Actually, I concur, a government issued license should not be REQUIRED to practice medicine, or any other profession, rather it should be seen as a statement of "quality control". So long as the practitioner you elect to visit is required to tell you of their qualifications, or lack therefore, let it be a free and open market. If you CHOOSE to be attended by a “voodoo” practitioner, it is your chose, so long as you have not been fraudulently misled.

Economically, every handout to a beggar (by direct voluntary action or government theft) represents additional stress placed on the environment and drain on resources. We have, for a century, enjoyed virtually free energy, available only at the pumping and processing costs, vs any need to divert current production. This is ending. All of the excess production it has allowed is ending. With this, the excess tax revenues, ends.

GOVERNMENT "SERVICES"

Perhaps communities, indeed individuals, should select the services they desire to receive, and pay for them. If you live in a self-reliant multi generation homestead, fireproof, with someone armed always at home, and your neighborhood maintains the adjacent road, what city tax paid services do you need?

TECHNOLOGY

Living technologies vs sterile machines.

PHILOSOPHY

We are probably approaching the crash of our present “civilization”, not due to an alien invasion, or cosmic catastrophe, but due to our collective, blind, ignorant decisions, or lack of decisions, and lack of rational philosophy. Our now, and more importantly, our future, needs intelligent minds, who can understand, conceive and implement new ideas.

The data, numbers and calculations for sustainability are relatively simple. Getting people to see them, accept and act on them, is not.

Those few, who see problems and take personal responsibility for finding and implementing solutions, also continue to allow themselves to be ruled by those who have no clue. Whether the population in general is aware of it, civilization needs a philosophy that encourages the best from everyone.

There was a time when I looked at the tragic mess they’ve made of this earth, and I wanted to cry out, to beg them to listen – I could teach them to live so much better than they did – but there was nobody to hear me, they had nothing to hear with… Intelligence? It is such a rare, precarious spark that flashes for a moment somewhere among men, and vanishes. One cannot tell its nature, or its future, or its death. - Ayn Rand, Atlas Shrugged

We face danger, in particular the probability that a large portion of the present living population will die early, and unpleasantly. Each will probably have to work, and work hard, to survive. You will have to know what you’re doing, or readily accept and follow advice from those who do. But be careful in whom you select to follow. Be awake, aware, and thinking.

As yourself what other human do you accept as your mentor, or on the dark side, your master? When your wages are no longer high, and money and luxury easy, what will be your view of those who refuse to contribute, and demand the government force you to provide for them?

If the rest of them can survive only by destroying us, then why should we wish them to survive? - Ayn Rand, Atlas Shrugged

If you do not want to be forced into a particular profession, act, etc., do not expect that you have any right to force others to follow your wishes. Humans must be free to trade as willing participants. Your will to participate may stem from hunger, but it is still your personal decision. Does a slave make a better product that a private skilled craftsman? To what other human do you grant a claim on your life, mind, body, and fruits of your labor that is senior to your own? Charity may satisfy some moral or religious good, but should it be imposed at the point of a gun? Who has the “right” to initiate physical force, vs the right to respond with physical force?

Everyone has some potential to earn by the use of personal mental and physical capabilities, to provide some item or service that is of sufficient value to someone else that they are willing to trade some value of their own.

Your efforts improve the value of something, in simple example planting seed, tending a crop to maturity and delivery of the harvest to market. Even the simple sedentary “act” of sitting on a front porch, as the eyes and ears to watch a home, or neighborhood, has value.

It is said that money is the root of all evil, if so then what is money? Money is simply an agreed common intermediary barter item, used to make simple the voluntary exchange of goods and services at an agreed upon value. Money is a unit of mutual trust. Therefore in attempting to tell you that money is evil, they are telling you to see voluntary cooperation is evil. Money is not evil; it is a symbol of trust and voluntary cooperation. Money is the means by which the productive and trustworthy in the world can meld their efforts into even greater accomplishments.

What then is evil? Killing when the one killed is not being punished for the first unjustified death? Forceful enslavement? Theft? Irrational mindless activity at the cost of others? Are these not all “evil”, whether practiced by an individual, a religious zealot, or the government of a nation?

Money, as it is circulated in the world of the early new millennium, is an illusion. If money is a medium of trade, it should have some type of clear value relative to the two ends of each trade. The currencies issued by national governments has no inherent value, it only has such value relative to the goods and services of the nation and world as the governments of the world support.

Even in short-term, localized emergencies, the value of money, whether barter or government currency, can disappear, even if only for a brief period. But even in a protracted emergency, barter, some means of exchange of clear value for clear value, will relatively quickly return. When confidence to any significant scale in an unsupported paper currency disappears, the currency is doomed.

What corruptions, typically attributed to business, are not in true scope attributable to the actions of government that enforces at the point of a gun monopolies for a business that would otherwise be competed OUT of business, or provides protections from responsibility for the owners and operators of the business? Do not in your mind inseparably mix business with corporations.

Corporations are children of special interest governments, where the government at the point of a gun tells the investors, customers, and victims, of the corporation, what actions taken on behalf of the corporation are subject to the rules of civil society, and what are not. The government tells you whom of the agents and owners of the corporation that are subject to the rules of civil society, and who are not. These corporate protections are not part of some agreement between you and the corporation; they are an agreement between the corporate originators, and the government, which is imposed upon YOU at the point of the guns held by the government.

When you hear stories of drug conglomerates being aware of simple natural cures for scourges of humanity, that are withheld because of a drive to profit, consider how such cures are withheld. An individual, partnership, or current artificial corporate entity has no power to keep a cure off the market, once discovered, even if hidden, it will be found again and again, with increasing frequency.

The current ability to keep cures and treatments off the market resides in the hands of over-powered governments. Even patients and doctors that have full knowledge of risks, and that are willing to take the risks, are prohibited under the law and regulations of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) from taking such risk, unless the treatment has been approved by the FDA. The FDA test and approval process is time consuming, and expensive. Essentially, only those treatments that offer a significant profit for large scale drug companies can be approved. If YOU found a cure for every cancer in a few simple seeds in your yard, you would be PROHIBITED from offering such, as would physicians, regardless of notice of the risk, unless the FDA approval process had been followed.

Ask yourself, in day to day transactions, when is it that you reached an agreement with someone about value and exchange, and when was it that someone ordered you, ultimately with the threat of a gun, to act?

It is often alleged that inherited money, at least “new” inherited money, is squandered by the first generation after the one that generated the wealth. The producers knew the value of their efforts, and of investment. The heirs who never had to worry about their needs, or make any personal effort to plan or build for their future, have no idea of the value of what they receive, and squander not only the wealth handed to them, but their lives.

If the biological heirs of the top thinkers and producers are not necessarily “fit” to handle the value they stand to inherit, HOW could anyone thing that a large non-contributing population could possibly be a useful heir?

Without the thoughts and effort of those who produce the food, clothing, shelter, etc. of the world, not to mention electronic circuits and computer programs, what happens to those who have not clue of their personal capabilities, or drive to use what they have? We have a world where those who are awake and thinking have allowed themselves to be put under the rule of the insane and incompetent. We have a political system where those incompetent to handle their own lives, even basis subsistence, have become a major voting force, electing pandering and self serving politicians who impose control and taxes on those for whom the politicians could not qualify on merit to work for as household servants.

A return of thought and reason is essential to the overall survival of humanity. An example for “charity”, whether voluntary, or at the point of a gun. At an isolated bunker location, you have a room, water collection, an garden area sufficient to provide for ONE MORE person. Two show up. What criteria would YOU use to select one of the two? Make them dramatically different, one is a helpless whining idiot, and the other can clearly enhance the long-term chances of your group.

Rights are conditions of existence on earth, it is right for a human to use their mind, it is right to act on individual free judgment, it is right to work for your values and to keep the product of your work. If life on earth is the only visible purpose to our existence, it is right to live as a rational being. Any group, any gang, any nation that seeks to negate rights by force, is wrong, it is evil, and must be resisted, and if it persists, destroyed.

A cancer eats away on the inside of an otherwise healthy appearing, cooperative and productive body. At first it just steals a little of the nutrition that would have otherwise provided nourishment for normal cells, but soon it invades and destroys productive cells, creating a growing mass of a dangerous parasite, that the defensive immune system of the body continues to see as part of its own, and refuses to excise it as the danger it is.

“Only a ghost can exist without material property; only a slave can work with no right to the product of his effort. The doctrine that “human rights” are superior to “property rights” simply means that some human being have the right to make property out of others; since the competent have nothing to gain from the incompetent, it means the right of the incompetent to own their betters and to use them as productive cattle. Whoever regards this as human and right, has no right to the title of “human”.

The only proper functions of a government are: the police, to protect you from criminals; the army to protect you from foreign invaders; and the courts, to protect your property and contracts from breach or fraud from others, to settle disputes by rational rules, according to objective law.

Without specialization, without cooperative trade in society, each person only knows, and can only accomplish what is in their own mind, and possible with their own muscles. Anyone capable and willing to initiate force against a weaker opponent can steal the physical productive output of that weaker person (forcing them into slavery). But this drives mental and physical output “underground”, reducing the overall per person quality of life, for the temporary relative but not necessarily actual qualify of life improvement for the slave master. (How do the living conditions of a Pharaoh compare with the poorest worker of the 20th century United States of America?)

In the middle ages, “secret societies”, such as we hear of the Masons, developed to protect the skills, and lives, of their members, so expect such may again become necessary, on some scale. For so long as the greedy are in power, live modestly, without pretention, attracting no unnecessary attention. In the past, communication and organization of such minimalist yet developing organizations was hampered by lack of communication, a barrier removed by modern communications (at least for so long as such remains in operation). The more free and unfettered communities develop, the more the truly enlightened can again stand in the open and breathe free.

You need a dentist. A village does not even have enough people to demand full-time local service, let alone provide for training subsequent such professionals. A significant, yet arguably manageable jump in scale is required the more subtle yet valued trappings of civilization..