X
FROM
STATE TO WORLD OPERATION
THE
LOCAL BEGINNING OF A POTENTIALLY
UNIVERSAL
SYSTEM, DEVELOPING ECONOMIC
UNION
WITH POLITICAL ISOLATION
The
world is accustomed to political money systems, all of which are
established by the power of the state - without understanding of such
systems by either the people or the statesmen. To establish a money
system by rational processes, and through the voluntary cooperation
of its users, is without precedent. People do not want to understand
money; they merely want to use it. This is consistent with their
attitude toward all utilities. They expect the specialist to
understand the theory or philosophy or science of the utilities they
use; they desire merely to enjoy them. This attitude is a necessary
corollary of the practice of specialization of labor for the
production of greater wealth.
This
outline of the valun system was not written with the expectation that
it would be read and understood by all prospective members of Valun
Exchanges. The hope, on the contrary is that it will convince those
persons who have the quality of leadership for this great human
project. Such leadership will cause the mass to follow, for they love
to follow and go places. To tell the common man that he has within
him the power to create money is interesting; to tell him that he can
be assured of control over his economic and political affairs is
fascinating, but to explain the innards of the new gadget that is to
thus serve him is boring.
Every
money system that has thus far existed has been faulty and adverse to
the interests of the people. But they have been handed to them as
finished tools; they had only to use them; and they have always
avidly done so. Likewise, they will use this valun system without
understanding it, once it can be used to ring a cash register.
While
a private movement cannot have the prestige of a government project,
we must still count on the only power that we can exert – and that
is the power to inspire confidence. Faith springs eternal. Men yearn
to place their faith in other men. Those of us who will dedicate
ourselves to this grandest of all projects for humanity must by the
earnestness and persistence of our pleading inspire our fellow men
with confidence in our integrity and in our judgment.
We
have one great advantage. That lies in the fact that any one can try
the valun system without its costing him anything. Assume that we
make the membership fee the nominal sum of 1 valun and that we
estimate the check clearing charge at 3 cends and deliver to each
member a book of 100 checks. Thus the total charge would be 4 valuns
with nothing paid down and the four valuns to be the first debit on
the member's account. Thus there is practically no sales resistance
once we reach the point where we can actually begin enrolling.
These
four valuns would be debited to each account and credited to the
account of the Treasurer of the Exchange. Thus the Exchange would
open with a credit balance - and this would be its working funds to
carry it until there is more demand for check books by new or old
members. It should be noted that the Exchange itself would have no
money creating power, but would operate on a credit balance.
No
capital is to be invested in the Exchange; and no deposits are to be
made to open a check account. In fact every account opens with an
overdraft, due to the membership and check book charges. No funds are
required beyond the funds needed to promote the project to the point
of actual opening. For this we must depend upon voluntary
contributions; or we can borrow funds payable out of the Treasurer's
account when established.
OUR
GREAT ADVANTAGE
Another
great advantage we have is that we don't have to win elections, or
convince the majority, before operation. The valun system is only for
those who want to come into it. There is nothing to argue about, as
in a political project whereunder it is proposed to impose a plan or
a system upon those who do not favor it. Those who like it can come
in; those who don't can stay out.
How
many are needed to make an Exchange function? This is not easy to
answer. It depends to some extent upon how compact the membership is,
and also how varied are the lines represented. It also depends upon
how much the enrolled membership is "rarin' to go." It
would seem advisable, however, not to undertake operations unless
there is assurance that at least one quarter of the members' business
can be done in valuns.
When
we get our first Exchange in successful operation we will have
conquered the earth - because there will be no stopping the spread of
the system. The publicity for the idea - which in the promotion of
the first Exchange will require effort - will come automatically
after operation. It will then pass into the realm of vital news; and
the press and radio of the entire world will report on the
experiment. Nothing could be such big news as the fact that a
community of private enterprisers had solved the age old money
problem and found the key to prosperity and the doom of collectivist
philosophy and war propagation.
The
promoters of the first Valun Exchange should concurrently promote the
Valun International Trading Union which could actually start trading
on a dollar basis before the valun is available. It should have a
monthly or weekly publication devoted to promoting the valun idea and
to mutual trading among members of the V.I.T.U. It should carry
advertising cards of members, bidding for trade - and thus will be
developed an acquaintance among these members who would be potential
valun members in the first Exchange. If located within the state of
the first Exchange, they would be prospective Class A members. If
located elsewhere, they would be prospective Class B members.
The
V.I.T.U. would unify all persons who may be interested in the valun
movement; and would consolidate such interest behind local efforts to
establish branch exchanges. Thus class B members would graduate into
Class A members of local Exchanges, and the spade work for
enlargement of the system would go on continuously. When justified,
editions in other languages would be printed.
To
serve as a unifier of all nationalities there should be selected –
say from the language Esperanto - a limited lexicon of words commonly
used in commerce and these should be translated into all languages so
that valun members of all tongues may trade with each other without
difficulty. Having broken the bounds of political money isolation, we
should lose no opportunity to expand our system and unify trade.
All
the Exchanges in the United States, and in other nations, will be
federated through the Central Board of Valun Exchanges which would
authorize each new Exchange. It could be made up of five delegates
elected by the Board of the first Exchange - one to retire in favor
of a delegate from each succeeding Exchange until each Exchange shall
have one delegate on the Central Board. This has the potentiality of
becoming a world federation of peoples on the economic plane; with
one language of trade, and abolishing all international money
changing.
What
will such a unifying system lead to? Here is plenty of room for the
play of imagination, but one can conceive of only good resulting.
The
ultimate result may be not only the complete abandonment of the
political money system but also a coordination between the valun
system and the political system for tax collecting purposes.
Certainly if the present cumbersome and deceptive and oppressive tax
system with its many nuisances could be unified and made automatic,
it would not only reduce the tax burden but make it less bothersome.
This could be accomplished by attaching to the check charge a pro
rata amount to cover national, state and local taxes. It would
distribute the cost of government on the basis of capacity to pay,
since one's check writing capacity would, with certain exceptions and
modifications, be a definite indication thereof. Since corporations
merely distribute the cost of their taxes in the cost of their goods,
it would seem advisable to make all taxes direct and individual. If
such coordination should come about, it would necessarily imply the
right of the membership of the Valun Exchange to approve the rate -
and thus would be had an additional control over government
expenditures, to say nothing of the restraining influence that would
come from the abolishing of all hidden taxes.
[Note
from David T. Freeman: This alternative money
system must not be used to "collect" any "taxes"
- otherwise it will most likely end up being destroyed, and put us
back where we started! One of the ultimate goals/results should also
be to eliminate all "taxes," not to assist in "collecting"
(stealing) them. For a detailed explanation of why, and the
alternatives, I strongly recommend reading all of the Reports,
particularly #16: TaxEducation for Everyone.]
[David
Freeman's note appeared in the original. Links to his page, which is
over ten years old, are included.]
Another
tendency that would result from the valun system would be not only a
decline in trade isolationism but also a spur to political isolation;
and perhaps when we think the matter through, this is just as we
would have it.
TRADE
A UNIFIER
Men
divide in political concepts, in religion, in social customs and
racially - but unite naturally on trade. There is nothing snobbish in
trade. Trade is an undeclared but inextinguishable democracy. Peoples
of the highest culture trade with those of the lowest; and distance
is no barrier. There are no clashing ideologies in trade. It has but
one common motive - self advancement or profit.
Governments
do not contribute to this unifying influence that is common with all
peoples in all parts of the world. On the contrary, they interfere
with it. Their greatest separatist implement is their separate
national money units. To this is added their tariffs, their subsidies
and their embargoes. Lately they have come to use trade as an
implement of economic warfare. Governments are trade disturbers and
creators of international friction.
If
trade is a unifier and promoter of wealth and interdependence, while
governments are separators, disturbers and provokers, should we not
strive for political isolation and economic union?
There
is no more need for ambassadors or other government representatives
in other nations, than there is for churches to send
plenipotentiaries to each other. They are but spies, provocateurs and
intriguers. Trade does not need them. Trade found its way around the
world before the diplomatic idea was invented. What services they may
render to tradesmen and travelers can be better rendered by private
agencies - such as have no power to ensnare peoples in quarrels and
intrigues.
Intervention
of any kind by one government in the affairs of another nation is
undemocratic, presumptuous and indefensible. All wars are negotiated
by diplomats. If governments had no contact with each other, the
provocative background could not be laid and private industrial and
financial interests, and war mongers, would have no tool for
international exploitation.
Reciprocal
trade agreements for reduction of tariffs and negotiation of most
favored nation agreements have no merits. Tariff is a method of
taxing the citizenry, and nothing else. While it is designed to
benefit special interests, and is one of the poorest forms of
taxation, it nevertheless is nobody's business but the nation that
applies it. It cannot injure any other nation. No nation needs to
have tariffs because another nation has them. A free trade nation is
not adversely affected by the tariff walls of other nations.
The
delusion that one people dare not cast off political control over
commerce until others have done so, is a trick that preserves
political power over all. This conspiracy of all politicians against
all peoples makes each people confront a world wide bind that
frustrates their aims of freedom. Unless a people is intelligent
enough to deal singly with its own politicians, and their hidden
industrial supporters, free trade can never come. No single people
controls the politicians of all nations, but the politicians,
internationally united back of the reciprocity or conference idea,
thwart each people.
There
is no such thing as "cheap foreign labor." An American
laborer, in ratio to what he produces, is paid no more than any other
laborer. The same is true of differing wage standards within the
nation. There are merely different standards of production - and low
standard production localities can compete with high standard
production localities only in things where there is some natural
local advantage. However, if any nation wishes to set up tariff
barriers against the bugbears of "cheap foreign labor" and
"foreign dumping," it is its own affair and justifies no
reprisal.
Tariffs,
subsidies, embargoes and patents contribute nothing to the economy.
Arguments presented in support of them are synthetic logic designed
to serve the special interests that use the economic power of
governments for their private advantage. Government can contribute
absolutely nothing to the economy of the nation by intervening in
trade, domestic or foreign. It is only an irritant, a perverter and a
debaser.
MONETARY
DISARMAMENT
But
trade interferences are the minor evils of government. Its major evil
is its war making power. To escape this evil will be our greatest
victory. We come at long last to the way out - for the valun system,
once it gains such general acceptance as to entirely displace the
political money system, will write the doom of Mars. Nothing could be
more obvious than that peoples do not spontaneously rise against each
other. They must be agitated by demagogues - but this is not enough.
The demagogue must be in control of the government money power before
he can effectuate his demagogy. All agitators first striveto
get into political power - because, with that, comes the money power
of government. Before the war precipitation the demagogue professes
to be a man of peace, and is interested in military preparedness only
"for defense." Even the cost of this he dares not reveal to
the citizen. He does not raise it by taxes; he "borrows" it
- which is a method of creating money that the constituency does not
understand.
In
the mean time the diplomats start the pot boiling - and in due time
comes the incident that precipitates the war. Both before and during
the war the public is not permitted to find out the cost of the war -
and is even deluded into believing that it is profitable. For
instance, our national income after federal taxes was, in 1941, $88
bns; in 1942 - $104 bns; and in 1943 - $112 bns. Thus our net income
after paying Federal taxes has risen in these three year, $24 bns.
Thus the war has paid a per capita dividend of about $200 - although,
according to conservative estimates, it will actually cost each of us
about $3,000. Of course, that we are profiting from the war, is but
an inflationary illusion; but, like the other shocking revelations
that will come to us after peace, it will be too late to do anything
about it. That is the game of war that politicians play through the
political money power.
War
is purely a politicians' game, and there is no natural basis for it.
There is no people that wants to make war on any other people; and,
to bring a people into war, their own politicians must first deceive
them and ensnare them. There is one way and one way only that this
politicians' game of war can be defeated. This is to deny to
government the money creating power, through which it frees itself
from citizen control. We have heard war referenda advocated. It has
never been tried - and would be a great embarrassment for war mongers
- but it is conceivable that even this might be successfully maneuvered
by a clever politician if he still controlled the money power. Take
away his money power, however, and you have imposed upon him the
unbeatable referendum. It would mean that every penny of expenditure
- cash, pay-as-you-go - would have to be asked of and paid by the
citizen. Thus every step would require his approval. There would be
no camouflage, no illusion - and propaganda would have met its
neutralizer. This is the war panacea; the formula for perpetual
peace. Monetary disarmament is the only effective disarmament.
So
we who are engaged in promoting the valun system are furthering a
world trade unifying and perpetual peace movement, however
unconscious of this grand aim we may be. Every step forward we take,
tends toward world economic union and political isolation and toward
the curbing of government power to pervert domestic and foreign
exchange and promote war.
Money
freedom knows no barriers; knows no bounds. It presses on to
unqualified freedom. Once man gains money mastery, there is no power
that can thwart him. He will inevitably reduce government to the
status of a public utility designed to render specified services, and
not to control his destiny. He will unleash his natural powers of
wealth production and bind the evil forces of adversity and war.
Democracy,
to be effective, must be implemented with the money power. Once the
money power goes democratic, everything goes democratic. There can be
no autocracy or aristocracy - in either government or business - when
the individual's money power is exerted. The will to work and win and
the will to peace is in every man. Give him the money tool and he
will carve his destiny and the destiny of the world - a brotherhood
of peace and plenty.
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