We need to get rid of capitalism and go to a resource and knowledge based economy.
The new currency
could be just the number of minutes or hours worked and tasks accomplished, instead of our current fiat currency. The incentive value of it would be there without massive hoarding taking place.
The Venus project envisions everyone having few or no possessions. If you wanted to use a camera or a log splitter, you would just check those items out like you do for a library book now. No money would be necessary to buy an item that you might only use for a few days a year.
I personally like the idea of aquaponics for a food supply. It uses less land, and can be done in an in ground green house that would allow for crop production all year round in many, if not most areas.
This new version of currency would act like money in so far as you can trade your labor credits for someone else's labor. The difference is in the how much labor can you do to accumulate those credits.
There are only so many hours in a week. Yes you could work 120 hours a week if you wanted to accumulate a lot of credits, but what for? If you hire someone to clean your house, walk your dog and mow your lawn, because you haven't got time to do those things yourself, would you really be gaining much from your excessive self imposed work load?
If you guarantee everyone food, a home, and healthcare, I would think that most people would do what was required (8-10 hours/week) and possibly another 10-30 hours more to have enough credits to spend on the goods and services they want or need, but I doubt many would even want to work more than that. After all, you already would have a roof over your head and food on the table.
Tasks completed should be worth more than time
at your job provided quality is achieved. Here is an example:
If you go to work making widgets for 10 hours (600 minutes) and you complete 40 quality tasks you would get 5 minutes for each completed task X 40 completed tasks (200 minutes) so your total you would earn would be 800 minutes that day (13 hours 20 minutes)
If you only completed 5 tasks your tally would be 625 minutes.
If you completed a 100 tasks You would get 1100 minutes (18 hrs 20 minutes)
This would be the productivity incentive.
Granted working on a large theoretical project
that may or may not have real world applications would have to be dealt with a bit differently. Instead of 5 minutes per completed task, it could have a bonus of 100,000 minutes if your theory results in an actual application. The reason the amount is so high is because it could take a decade or more to come up with an actual quality working application. Lets say you are trying to do a viable molecular transport device ("Beam me up Scotty!") It could take decades to work out the science and do testing on such a device so that it would have a practical and safe application.
The Resource and Knowledge Based Society
AKA Socialized Democracy
1. All humans get a small house to live in regardless of the capacity
to work and think.
2. All humans receive the nutrition they need to survive and thrive.
3. Money is no longer a needed commodity.
4. The more you contribute to the society the more you receive in
honors, goods and services.
5. Jobs will no longer be indefinately retained at the same place.
6. Every human has the right to higher learning for free.
7. Every human has the chance to be innovators without the need for
8. Robots will do most manual labor.
9. Exploration and conservation of our environment becomes key in
the happiness and survival of the human race.
10. Energy is gleaned from sun, wind, ocean currants and wave
action, harnessing the power in the magnetic field, and for space
travel lightwave energy is harnessed.
11. Goods will be allocated based on when you signed up for a thing
and the demand for such a thing. Bicycles are available for anyone to
pick up and use in your home complex. Most people will be living in
large spacious apartment complexes that come with all you should
need including a fleet of cars and bicycles to get around with. No one
owns them, they are for the use of all who live there.
12. Every home will have an interactive interface that connects you
to the net with a holographic display for connecting with people and
information anywhere you go in your home. a separate device in the
form of glasses with audio/visual interactive capabilities for when you
not home if you want it.
13. Transportation will be as easy as stepping into your vehicle, and
telling it where you want to go. Based on distance the vehicle will
decide whether to fly for long distances, use roadways for short
distances, or a version of rail where your vehicle gets on a sort of
maglev highway system.
14. Since our world has finite resources, the push to explore and seed
other planets and galaxies takes off.
15. A space station is built on the moon and asteroids are mined for
the materials needed to build spaceships capable of carrying 100,000
people each. Each station will have it's own recycling water source
and a hydroponics farm in which to grow everything needed to
survive. The light wave has been harnessed to allow for lightspeed
travel, as well as the gravity wave for slower speeds. This makes
reaching other galaxies attainable within a few generations. The
initial crew and supports total 8,000 people with the 100 k capacity
to allow for the growth of population over time. Everyone on board
will be cross trained on at least 10 different jobs based on their
capacity to learn them. Gravity is achieved through both rotation and
artficially induced gravity which will be increased overtime to both
allow for healthy bones and muscles as well as prepare for the
possibility of finding a habitable world with a higher gravity than
16. Few real manual labor jobs remain and they are split up with the
entire populace taking part to make things happen. For example lets
say someone needs to ride on a garbage truck to keep an eye on what
gets put out into the trash. Robots do most of the work but human
eyes are still needed to make sure kids and animals don't get caught in
the robotic arms. you may have to sign up for 5-10 hours per week
for community service to do this job. There are no regular long work
hours as there is a sign up to do certain things based on what it is you
want for a good or service. So lets say you want the newest version of
a piano for your own entertainment. You sign up to work at a factory
to make this piano for your self and everyone else who is currently
there who wants one. It could be as little as a few months assignment
or as long as a 10 year assignment based or if you like doing this job
or not. Most things can be made through 3 D printing but some
assembly is required for those things that are created from different
materials like it is for an instrument like a piano or guitar.
Buildings use extensive green technology and renewable resources.
flouresing anaeorbic algae is housed in liquid filled columns that
produce both hydrogen for heating and cooling as well as a soft light
that allows for energy consumption reductions at night as no lights are
needed to be able get around on the outer corridors of buildings.
Windows serve as both an energy source as well as natural lighting.
Opaque to clear solar cells are built into each window. also the heat
from sunlight is converted into usable energy
Everyone has a say on new laws. The best term I can come up with
for this is a Socialized Democracy.
rbe pt 2
Try to think of it like this: Each community sets up it's own labor
needs and how many man hours are needed to get the things done that
absolutely can't be let go, like trash collection, electrical grid upkeep,
nursing, teaching, roadwork and other ongoing construction, water
and sewer upkeep, food production and distribution, etc. That is
where the number of hours of community service is created. Currently
most cities have a relatively small number of people doing all those
things. We are a society stuck on the accumulation of stuff. If
everyone has enough of the basics and the stuff you want can be
achieved through 3D printing or working in a factory for a short time
to get the stuff you want or think you need, then most people would
be free to pick what they truly want to do with their lives. You could
choose to become a physicist if that was something that interested you
or you could choose to be a full time garbage monitor if that is more
what you would like to do. You could also choose to be a painter,
farmer, scientist, mathematician, factory worker, teacher, doctor,
nurse, or whatever strikes your fancy. The difference would be in that
you would take the pursuit of income and profit out of the picture so
you could be free to try new jobs or experiences out..
Everyone has a say on how laws are put forth and that would help
create a more equal society over time but you would still need a
central government and judicial system to make sure resources like
food are grown and distributed evenly. Our current system is unfair to
the majority of the population. A few have enough money to buy
whatever they wish, while at the other end of the spectrum they have
to buy what they can afford (if they can afford anything at all as some
have been reduced to going back to hunter gathering) which is often
Instead of a wage per hour, the new currency of sorts could just be based on the number of minutes or
hours worked. If you invent something that helps humanity greatly (Like inventing a viable
teleportation device) you could receive a bonus 1000 hours of work time added to your tally.
This would be used for those things not provided for in the society as a whole. Since most basics are
provided, it's not likely this "currency" would actually need to be used. Let's say though that some services
would need to be paid for (like a having a personnal trainer, chef, or massage therapist. You could then
trade your hours worked for their labor to give you the service you want. They in turn could then turn
around and get another service for themselves by paying for it with the hours worked pay out they have
received. In this way there would still be an incentive to work for something you want but no one would be
making massively more than anyone else.
Venezuela, Cuba and North Korea, like other communist countries
are dictatorships. That is not what a resource based economy has to
be. Here is how I think it could work. Ordinary citizens get to write
the laws and the entire population gets to vote on them. You could
have an equal power triumverate (3 elected people in charge of
distribution of food and other goods along with the power to sign
laws that the people want in place) that would either agree to sign
the peoples will into law or not. The people can over ride the
triumverate veto with an 80% vote. That should help ensure that
minority interests are less likely to be infringed upon. Also you
would still need a judicial branch to decide if laws are constitutional
and that minorities were not over run and have their rights taken away
by majorities. and to make sure laws are either followed or
consequences are mete out.