1. Everyman (an ordinary individual) has a right to contract
Please see or re-read this: the basic law of the money contract.
This was an elegant piece Riegel wrote to prove that government issue of money was a violation of the money contract. Their issue is still money in that it is used to spit-barter. Riegel said,
When a money exchange system is instituted, the participants enter into it per force of the necessity of escaping whole barter. They have found that to split barter into two halves, namely, the process whereby one trader (the buyer) receives value and the other (the seller) receives an interchangeable credit instrument, exchange is facilitated and as exchange is facilitated, so production is promoted and wealth increased.
I'm sure Riegel intended wealth here to mean mere stuff that could be traded rather than our narrower definition of only that capable of providing income, but ours is a reasonably large subset of the whole anyway.
We infer that all potential members, who would be owners of this private monetary system, are of majority age and qualify as everyman (ordinary individuals).
2. The structure of the proposed institutions determines their function
A central but supporting organization we have called the International Valun Exchange Society (IVES), supports all validation functions for all of its independent exchange customers. It is a de facto B member of each exchange. It may contract to print out the proposed V-Check blanks or not. But it will certainly maintain the standards for them and they will preserve the designs for each and every one of them. IVES would certainly maintain a list of all distributed V-Checks (and later the Exchange Notes when they are allowed). The V-Checks are purposed to be issued from each exchange by its A members as circulating money. They will have a six month expiration date and will be invalid without one. Each exchange will inform IVES which V-Checks are active. This makes verification easier.
We have off the shelf technologies that can make all of it much cheaper to run -at least to begin with- and we will want to take advantage of as much open source material we can, though we expect that we will have to devise the simple programming needed to manage transactions and accounts databases, where all the money really resides anyway. That's right, and before there were computers there were great books of double entry bookkeeping. Recall what we say: economics is in large part almost certainly bunk, but accounting is essential. Knowing what I know now, if I could advise students at any level which course to take, between economics and accounting; you can live without economics, but accounting is essential. In fact I fully expect that in order to get this thing off the ground at all, we'll need to secure the help of some accountants.
Each independent exchange is owned by its A membership. Each member would pay a nominal V1 dues each year in their local “public” currency. If that were today, it would be $2.65 -hardly a cup of coffee and a donut in some places these days- and more than likely this “public” money would have to be rigorously accounted for at all times and in all places.
Riegel mentioned a “sinking fund” but his ideas about implementation needed the most update as times and customs have changed somewhat. THEY do NOT appreciate it very much if you do something without being in debt to them. That part of the scenery has not changed. If it were not so, then there wouldn't be so much attention given to credit scores. I want you to let all that certainty to sink in real well too.
Your first response might be, “well who gave them the authority to FORCE people into accepting their debt?” Look on the money and it says right there what it is, a debt instrument (that's all right as all money is that), which says it belongs to some bank with some government's name and stuff on it too, as a “brand” of THEIR money. What have we said? The music stops whenever anyone says either, “I will no longer take your money” or “I have none of your money to pay you.”
All money lending businesses would be B members of each exchange in the territory in which they operate. These separate businesses would contract with people to borrow money or arrange financing of larger items. In most instances the “pay in advance” method for all money borrowed would be used and nothing but 100% reserve financing is ever allowed; you cannot create money to lend from credit, not in this system. All the money paid for rental of the money must come from already existing money, as too must all of the money which is to be lent.
3. The proposal banishes poverty and war.
Poverty banishment has always been simple. All one ever needed to do was start valuing people rather than what they consume. Turning it upside down and giving the indigent a guaranteed income (our “natural socialism”) only works so long as the most productive in society end up with the excess money, because that's where most of the only excess money will ever come from in this system. Knowing that there is a limit to “free money” is an incentive to work. What is work? Oh yeah, that's time taken out of the rest of your life to earn your existence in money terms. Got it? If you do something productive, helpful, provide a good or service, grow something, etc. you should get paid for it and what you're worth too. Riegel maintained back in his day that most labour was greatly underpaid. That's still the case. What excuses do the capitalists have? Never mind. It's THEIR money, not yours or mine.
Here's where I want to say a word about “backing” for money. A Valun is largely issued by an employee in the act of buying his employment from an employer as an interest free loan to the employer. Under the terms of the LC, on various pay dates, the employee's Valuns are paid back to him, thus canceling the debt.
The Valuns the employee has in his account are really his, they do not belong to anyone else and cannot be pledged for loans against them, etc. There is no need for deposit insurance. He may have them as V-Checks stuffed into his wallet along with his “public” money and cards, etc. Cards leave a trail and are not cash. Our V-Checks will provide familiar cash instruments and anonymity. Small farmers and shopkeepers have no particular reason to know with whom they trade except that they tender Valuns in payment so they must be a member of a local exchange.
The V-Check represents Valuns that the employee worked for; his time backed those Valuns. They cannot henceforth participate in any spurious price increases. The same is true of Valuns traded for precious metals through “public” currency exchange. Those Valuns are added to the supply, but they were “backed” by the precious metals (held in the IE's vault) that were exchanged for them. They cannot really be a source of price inflation. Recall what we have said, NOT ALL MONEY PARTICIPATES IN BIDDING AT EVERY SALE. So more money does not automatically lead to hyperinflation. There is speculation involved too as a cause. Why do people prefer money to have something to do with precious metals? Riegel called it a superstition and we agree. We fully expect that since 9/10ths of all Valuns will be issued from work, that none of them will enter the money supply “unbacked” by what purchased them. By comparison, better than 50% of what any government spends is unbacked simply because what it buys cannot be sold for what it was paid for. It has depreciated, sometimes rather quickly. These untaxed back spurious notes simply by their very abundance eventually result in general inflation. In theory, money that is taxed back and then re-spent would be “backed” but clearly no government ever does that; they'd rather preserve the status quo through price inflation, as much that they say things are worth “mark to model,” when they clearly are not, “mark to market.”
What everyone wants, and Riegel and Kitson before him discovered, is that if you want your money to preserve its purchasing power you design it to do that. You do that by choosing a relatively large chunk of purchasing power at a particular point in time, and then determining the current value of the chosen transaction. That piece of purchasing power worth $2.16 at the time is currently equal to $2.65 so it is their money that has changed against ours. We expect all of it to inflate against ours too; their prices for OUR money rise, prices in our money remain stable.
What “gold backed” means to a banker is not what you imagine it to be. The way THEIR institutions are currently set up and allowed to run, they need your money (which is really theirs) to swindle even more out of you, else they would … perhaps find some other business to be engaged in.
We base our Value Unit (Valun) on a dated transaction representing a good chunk of purchasing power related to the core of THEIR money; gold. Now there have been many others out there who have monkeyed around with all kinds of potential alternatives to central bank (STOLEN fiat) issued money that's then lent to captive (debt slave) governments, and their enslaved citizen populations with endless taxes, all THEIR money systems. Many of these would be money system creators have neglected or shunned gold and precious metals. This is a fatal error. Gold and silver may be superstitions, but they are also the enemy's dragons of conquest. If one does not secure them one way or another, the enemies of mankind will use them to further destroy and enslave us. Basing the Valun on a transaction involving gold is deliberately taking the bull by the horns. If one does not see this, one is most definitely a coward … or perhaps something worse.
But we don't base our money on what they say THEIR gold is worth from day to day, oh no. We base our money on what they said it was worth when it was near its record high. That's when THEIR money, their oldest brand, gold, achieved its greatest slice of purchasing power in terms of all other of THEIR brands of money; dollars, euros, pounds, yen, bitcoin, etc. Since our reference point does not change, all the prices in Valuns would remain very stable, only varying from area to area as real economies of scale and supply and demand work themselves out.
When the Valun began in 2011, it stood at $2.16 and for a time recently it was nearly $3. Right now it's at $2.65. What does this tell us? It tells us what the rest of THEIR money is worth to us. It tells THEM what OUR Valun is worth in the only brand of THEIR money we care to hold; precious metals. There are NO refunds either. This is not some get rich quick scheme or some “buy and hold” investment vehicle, although it is designed to hold its value relative to all else. It's a way to save the planet from what's at the root of killing it and us.
Our money is issued by us. It is not issued by a government, corporation or bank. It doesn't have to be paid back once it is issued. It is issued based on worth rather than debt. If it were the only money available, just how much of it would we willingly pay for 50% of what the US government currently spends money on? Very little. There would not be war without funding for it. This has been the point down through history too. So anytime someone pigeon memes about wars being caused by religion or something other than money, you can call the person on it. No one goes to war and fights and dies without being paid for it, period!
What would be the point of any war aimed at stirring up trouble so some rich bastards can make even more money without working for it by stealing resources form someone else if the only money to pay for it was ours? What they do is assuredly capitalism, which has been sold to the rest of us as what we could expect if we … just worked hard enough, knew the right people, went to the right schools, etc. etc. Most of us know by now that it's all largely BS, as more and more people are waking up to understand where we are and what brought us here. We design our system and our institutions not to be broken by criminal minds with criminal intentions. We will hence discriminate! This means throwing the criminal out; the precise meaning of the word. Since we cannot do so in THEIR system, we will most certainly do so in OURS!
4. It used to be that a man's word was his bond. That was fine as long as we were dealing with mostly honest men and women. The system, THEIR system has largely spoiled some, ruined others, devastated many more, especially made it seemingly worthwhile to cheat, steal, avoid work, waste time and resources, wear people out needlessly, etc. One cannot travel through one burned out village or town across America or for that matter increasing parts of the developed world without wondering just how so much wealth could have been destroyed. Meanwhile one sees that the stock market is high. Where's the prosperity to back it up? Oh, it's still out there for the few who can afford it. But that number is growing smaller all the time.
This is all well researched and verified and certainly tied together because most people badly neglected their basic reading and writing skills and preferred spending too much time in front of a television set. Good thing most don't anymore. To some people, the internet is just interactive TV. But it isn't. If I were sitting across from you right now, I would say things exactly as I write them.
We have neglected money because it was never ours. If we knew that we had some and knew that it was ours, and there would be opportunities opened up because of it, then more work would get done and these neglected assets would be recovered, repourposed and even with the present burdens of taxation lifted, more real wealth capable of providing an income, would be possible.
Where is the money going to come from? Not from THEM. Not without strings attached. You need your own money and you need your own self respect. These go hand in hand. It's not particularly funny how the fiat to issue money and self-respect have both been STOLEN by THEM and what we're given to replace it is some politically expedient victim status! No, our proposed very simple Labour Contract (LC) is the method to achieve your money. But we need to recruit as many as we can. What are the basic rules
1) Must be 18 or older
2) Must be able to prove legal residency (3 witnesses -could be documents- will do)
3) Must be approved by two already existing A members
and now we add a fourth,
4) Must agree to pay a once a year V1 dues in “public” money. That would be a minimum of $2.16 and right now it would be $2.65. This secures an A membership/ownership in their local independent exchange.
We need membership. We need to start membership drives. Deciding to have your own money is not something someone does and Abra-cadabra presents it to you. That's THEIR way. In fact, anything that's ever presented to you, if you never issue it, it cannot be yours. Think for a moment just what that rules out.
We need to think short term and long term. We may need a simple very direct one page Manifesto drawn up to announce to the world at large just what we intend. Our organizations will be private, but a lot of people are eligible to form exchanges, own and use them, etc. We'll need legal minds that run way outside the box, back to basic common law. Other matters we will be working toward as well, such as our own land registry. That's very important. It was suggested by a chap over in Britain who's given quite a lot of himself to the cause. What's the cause? Ultimately it amounts to a longstanding economic redress of grievances, getting what's been stolen from us back, but doing it so as not to uproot the current crop of tares among the wheat. Much of what we may end up with may be badly ruined, but with our money, we will have a chance of bringing it back. Without it, there's literally no chance at all. So it really kind of is up to you.
David Burton
Current Hypothetical Value of a Hypothetical Value
[8/25/16: Q: Mr. Burton. What exactly would each V-Check say on them?
A: We presently anticipate the ready need for V-Checks in the following denominations: V½ (the half Valun), V1, V2, V5 & V10 identified below by an *. Here presented with current comparable purchasing power in USD's (8/23/16) would be a complete list of intended V-Checks and eventually Exchange Notes:
*1/2 Valun = $1.32
*1 Valun = $2.64
*2 Valuns = $5.29
*5 Valuns = $13.22
*10 Valuns = $26.44
20 Valuns = $52.89
50 Valuns = $132.21
100 Valuns = $264.43
500 Valuns = $1,322.13
Of course people would be entitled to write personal checks for any amount in Valuns and cends.
Obverse side:
V-Checks would have the word V-Check, the name of the organization forming the local independent exchange (IE), the IVES symbol, some large numerical designation ½ Valun, 1 Valun, 2 Valuns, etc. The obverse side would have the words, “Bearer herewith tenders (whatever #) International Standard Value Units.” Obviously the language would change with the territory. This side would also have a place for the expiration date (always 6 months from the day they are presented to the member) and the number identifying the check. The expiration date must appear (and probably a particular standard for the stamp or whatever is necessary too) or the V-Check is invalid.
Reverse side:
Around the edges, it would indicate the number of Valuns; ½ Valun, 1 Valun, 2 Valuns, etc. Inside would be an advertisement for a B member business in that independent exchange. B member businesses would buy spaces on these reverse V-Check sides in “public” money, for now because we will need to pay for printing runs of V-Check blanks using THEIR money until we have what it takes to make them ourselves and pay for them in our own money.
V-Checks only need last 6 months, but we want the ink to be indelible. The paper they're made of could be based on the value and the number desired; we'd probably print the ½ Valun on cheaper paper than the other V-Checks and probably each would get larger, the V½ would be slightly larger than a dollar bill and each successive V-check would be slightly larger than its predecessor. After all, look at the comparable numbers in dollars.]
[8/26/2016: Q: I have read your blog and I still don't get how any Valuns could ever be taxed as income? Please explain.
A: All right. First let's be clear that when it comes to governments, it makes very little difference how we see things, it matters how the governments see things, and what the governments are compelled to do because those behind the curtains who run THEIR money are in control.
The business with the work to be done is paying taxes. They may be a B member of your local exchange, but they still pay taxes. Under law they are required by THEIR labor laws, to handle employment in THEIR money and make sure that, as far as possible, all taxes are paid. Governments never consider the requirements of their citizens, in fact they usually consider more ways to rob the public. They consider their own requirements ahead of those of all others. If you happen to feel otherwise about it, you deserve the eventual slap reality will render you for your insouciant assumption. It's time to grow up! Being a child forever is not bliss. A government's first mission is to prevent being overthrown. That has been the very substance of governance as an institution since from however far into the past you wish to go.
We have governments that have chosen to tax the labor of all working people everywhere -a idiotic and dangerous policy- and to use what are called “progressive” income taxes as part of this policy. The policy is always dangerous because it amounts to deliberate theft from the public instigated by those who actually own the money, so it proves the money does not belong to you.
You can usually assume that regressive is the actual intention everywhere you see the word “progressive” used – political “progressives” are actually political “regressives.” Taxing income accomplishes not only STEALING DIRECTLY FROM LABOUR (and they get to “withhold” too) and thus causing a deliberate disincentive to work, it preserves the status of the rich; those with so much money they'll never have to work for the rest of their lives!
Progressive income taxes preserves the elites. That was the REAL intension behind “progressive” income taxes, to “regress” the working people taken as a class of people by all the sociologists, economists, political theorists, etc. for the last 250 years or more, all those people paid generously, or not, in THEIR money, to say and print and distribute their ideas too. By the way, Karl Marx had a banker appointed handler (a Scotsman I believe), and was paid by the bankers to publicize his ideas. Income taxes come right out of the Commie Manifesto which in turn was paid for by elitists to bilk the working people everywhere out of their FIAT and their SELF RESPECT! OK? Just because someone thinks they're smart does not give them the right to STEAL, CHEAT or LIE and get away with it. Not forever anyway.
Any government will see that a business paid its employees in “public” money, and they must also see that Valuns were paid its employees too. There will never be any attempt to hide it from them. Any alternative or supplementary money operating anywhere must still account to its government for any taxes owed, to be paid of course in “public” money not alternative or supplementary money.
Now, it's certainly bad enough that most people have not awakened to understanding that literally NONE of the existing money out there is in fact theirs. The hasty child rushes to the conclusion, “I have a chunk of gold and it's worth something.” Fine, want to barter that away? It will then be gone and you'll cry like the child that you are, attempting to preserve purchasing power, but unable to recognize that all real value comes forth through yourself (innate wealth) and those people around you (their innate wealth), not things.
So income taxes will be required. Anyone paid in Valuns that they issued, receives them as payments in response to the loan (at 0 interest) of the money issued by the employee to the employer on the first day of work. The employee's payments in Valuns show up and are voided on the businesses' books. But they show up as income to the employee nonetheless. In the United States, the rules require that a comparable dollar amount (usually based on the last date in a taxing period) be figured for the income upon which taxes are due. That's easy enough for everyone to comply with. 1099's will do. What is probably also required is that more taxes be withheld to cover the projected extra taxes. We reiterate that it would become second nature to all VEN members (our market, our Valun exchange network) to save “public” money for all that requires payment in THEIR money and reserve Valuns for what we really need from the rest of us to live on.
Recall that the proposed Valun is right now approximately 2.65 times the purchasing power of a dollar. Here's what adding Valuns gives you in comparable purchasing power:
V1,000 = $2,650
V5,000 = $12,250
V10,000 = $26,500
V20,000 = $53,000
V50,000 = $122,500
V100,000 = $265,000
A Labour Contract (LC) would specify how many Valuns would be paid and when. The total paid out at the end of the tax period is income subject to taxes in THEIR money. You'd need to make sure you have enough of THEIR money to pay the extra taxes.
[/28/16: Q: I get that the organization of this thing matters. You say that each exchange is owned by its A members. Then you say you want some service organization called IVES. These are all grass roots democracies. Each exchange would then I suppose select delegates that would represent them at IVES. Something like that. So IVES is owned by who or what?
A: IVES is the servant and the creation of the independent exchanges (IEs) the nodes of the monetary system: the entire collection of IEs being the VEN or Valun exchange network, our grand market with the single ledger Riegel identified as a prime factor in deterring dishonest or discreditable behavior of members. This is not to be a lawless monetary system. It is to be based on a few very simple agreements.
A members that own each of the local exchanges would also own IVES and the relationship would likely be considered on a per capita basis; each member getting one vote in any and all IVES related elections. Thus the entire VEN is a private institution based on democratic ownership with IVES perhaps serving functions better served by one institutional function than having to provide these functions at each exchange. For instance, in previous posts, I have tasked IVES with certain juridical functions, to serve as an arbitrator concerning any possible disputes between members, should they arise. Our intention is to promote honesty and discredit, expose and dispose of dishonesty.
So how big a thing must this be to get off the ground? Pretty big. We'd need a minimum of 3 exchanges in each of the 50 states in the US for example. That would be 150 exchanges supporting 1 IVES which might task the buying and selling of advertising to local B member businesses but whose business is to ultimately support trade in Valuns using V-Checks, with a population of say 6 million. They could be printed anywhere, but they must follow certain predictable standards and someone has to maintain a catalog of all the active and inactive ones. This is all IVES functions. They don't care about who does what with any of the monetary tokens circulating through the VEN. They only care if they are active or have been cashed out; deposited. In cases of replacement, the old V-Check is expired and so its number is retired and -in accounting- the local money associated with the expired V-Check is reassigned to a new V-Check number. IVES maintains the codes and catalog of all valid and invalid V-Check numbers. Aps are devised to convey a question, whether a V-Check number is valid. The IVES hub would know. Also, since we like redundancy where it can add useful function, it would be assumed that each IE would know the valid numbers of its own open circulating V-Checks. Verification should be made as easy as possible with open source materials only.]
No comments:
Post a Comment