Start of an Idea

Our current economic system is built on greed and desperation. Most people are trapped in a paycheck-to-paycheck cycle of virtual slavery, with a lucky few collecting most of the world’s currency for themselves. How can we wonder that our society is so sick, when we have made the ravenous ‘more-more-more’ cancer the foundation of our civilization?


Instead of basing our system of value on exploiting and enhancing the worst traits of humanity, we should create systems which encourage and grow the best. Systems built on cooperation, where power is returned to the hands of individuals. What if instead of rewarding those who squeeze the most profit out of the fewest workers and shoddiest materials (incidentally creating miserable jobs and defective products), we instead reward those who help the most people? Before you cry socialism, there would still be jobs, pay, investment. Private industry would indeed form the backbone of this economy. It is simply an extension of a truth which every successful entrepreneur has realized - the key to good business is finding a need, and a way to meet it. The very definition of helping.


We require a shift in our metrics of a healthy economy. Rather than arguing that our economy is good because of low joblessness (when many people must work 2-3 jobs merely to live), or because the GDP is high (when the cycle of produce-use-waste has resulted in extreme damage to our environment), instead let’s base our measure of a healthy economy on the well-being of its citizens. We have a Bureau of Statistics. Let’s task them with keeping measure of some metrics, simple at first, and perhaps perpetually. Signals of the basic needs of the populace being met. Percentage of population adequately housed, percentage with adequate nutrition, cleanliness of waterways as compared to 100% clean, cleanliness of air as compared to 100% clean, percentage of population with access to clean air and water, percentage with access to greenspace (parks and conservation), percentage of waste being reused or recycled, percentage of population with access to education (including self-education/internet access), percentage with access to healthcare, median percentage of discretionary income. For a start.


We currently have a Federal Reserve system, which adjusts the amount of currency available to banks for lending and attempts to direct the economy away from extremes. Using this existing agency, instead have them base currency reserves on the metrics from the Bureau. Reward businesses and individuals incrementally as metrics approach 100%. One system currently being proposed is a Universal Basic Income awarded to individuals. The Reserve could direct this flow of currency, increasing both individual UBI and business lending as metrics improve. UBI is a supplement to work income, not a replacement, but will increase discretionary income and therefore encourage business growth and expansion. If people have a safety net of money to spend, they will spend it, and they will spend it on the goods and services that businesses offer, as well as on paying down debts rather than defaulting on them. Additionally, if the criteria for banks to lend money is no longer, “How can I eke the most investment return out of you?” but instead, “How can you help make society measurably better so we all win?”, businesses will have more opportunity to innovate and find solutions, rather than chasing next quarter’s profit margin.


The basis of the Reserve is simple. The Bureau reports initial statistics at the time the system is implemented. A base amount of currency based on those metrics forms the Reserve’s start. The Reserve sends currency to banks to be used for loans to private business and nonprofits as could increase metrics. Then, for each tenth of a percentage increase in a particular metric, the Reserve currency increases by one billion dollars. A percentage of that increase is distributed to the business (or businesses) most responsible for the increase, and another percentage is distributed evenly as a bump in individual UBIs (perhaps 10% and 20%, respectively).


For example, the Reserve sends money to a bank, which funds a proposed startup business which has an idea to trap carbon dioxide in the atmosphere and use it to produce fuel. During that year cleanliness of air increases from 86% to 87%, and access to renewable energy increases from 75% to 75.6% (statistics made up entirely on the spot). The Reserve increases by 16 billion dollars. 1.6 billion of that goes directly to the startup business. Another 3.2 billion is distributed as a bump in each individual UBI (about a dollar-per-month increase). The remaining 11.2 billion then funds further loans to other businesses seeking to increase metrics.


So. The Bureau of Statistics tracking metrics of society's improvement. An impartial Reserve directing currency based on those metrics. A Universal Basic Income to stimulate consumer spending and debt reduction. And a different system for businesses to measure success and receive funding. It’s an economic system which could only happen now, where information is readily available and the population interconnected. It circumvents the potentiality of mass automation and incentivizes radical solutions to world problems. And it makes the good of humanity the goal of our economy, rather than a byproduct. I hope you agree.



**edit** - Upon further reflection, I believe this idea requires more work to function effectively. However, I leave it up in the hope that a mediocre idea can spark a great idea in someone else.