INITIATIVE
Butterfly Society
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Most financial metrics show growth and are therefore considered better
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Stock market
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Intangible value
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Money supply
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World GDP growth
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US GDP growth
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GDP v GPI
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... while metrics for social and environmental impacts trending dangerously worse
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Value of $ down
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Wages flat
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CO2 concentration
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Temp v CO2
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Sea level rise
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CO2 emissions
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FOREWORD
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INTRODUCTION
Mutual Credit3 can be implemented as a parallel banking system (accessible on the Internet), which allows us, the participants, to issue money for the things we mutually decide are what we value.
Using Sociocracy4 as the inclusive, participatory decision-process as well as an organizational model, makes it reasonable and efficient for us to decide together what we value.
Common Good Communities cooperating with each other across the country, and eventually the world, enables us to create a society that benefits everyone.
Issuing the money for the things we value is how we create the economic, social, and cultural conditions in which we all live.
We need to decide what to issue money for and we need to regulate the money supply so that the money maintains its value with no inflation or deflation.
In the existing system, the vast majority of people have to earn money to live by doing what someone
who has money, pays them to do. In the existing system, there is never enough money to fund all
the things we generally agree would be good.
If there is no compulsion, and the amount of money available is equal to and backed by the valuable goods and services being produced, distributed, and consumed, then the economy and society would be made up of all the things that the participants voluntarily do for each other.
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NEW THINKING
We can offer a new understanding of economics, based on a keen observation of what is really going on and what has been missing.
It is important to remember, or understand, the meaning of rights and politics: how ‘We, the People’, are supposed to decide together what we actually value.
When we use an inclusive, participatory decision-making process that genuinely honors our equality, we create a culture that is an expression of our values.
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EXCHANGE FACILITATED BY MONEY
NO NO NO
The first and most important element of the new economics recognizes that only things that have a material value, namely goods and services, should have a price. Rights and culture have unmeasurable value and must not be for sale
Money as a unit-of-value makes it possible to assign a price to goods and
services that represents their value. It is the price that makes all the goods and services
commensurate and comparable. Money as a means-of-exchange makes it possible to exchange the
values.
As so many reformers have pointed out: without monetary reform, no other reform is possible.
Adam Smith’s phrase ’the greatest good results from everyone pursuing their self-interest’ points to the
mutual benefit that arises from the exchange process. What is missing is the altruism of the
production side. A better phrase would be: ‘The greatest good arises when the egoism of consumption
supports the altruism of production’.
Money is not valuable in itself.
For money to be experienced as valuable in itself, it has to be scarce.
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CULTURE, GOVERNANCE, AND ECONOMICS
Our culture and government are dominated by economics.
Corporations and the super wealthy manipulate our government and control the culture so that both the government and the culture serve economic purposes.
Rather than being citizens creating together the world we want, we have been reduced to consumers.
CULTURE ... Religion, Science, and Art, are the main categories that make up the culture. ... What if Truth, Beauty, and Goodness were recognized as the pillars of culture ...
GOVERNANCE ... What would happen if we took our equality seriously, and governed by hearing from each one of us?
ECONOMICS ... What would happen if we all cooperated with each other to produce all the goods and services we agree we want? What if we distributed the surplus from exchange so everyone had what is needed to live?
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RUDOLF STEINER
Rudolf Steiner proposed a Threefold Social Order after the First World War, 100 years ago
Cooperative Economy, Equal Rights, and a Free Culture
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THE CREATION, DISTRIBUTION AND CONSUMPTION OF VALUE
Once the entrepreneur has formed the idea, and the market research confirms it is a desired product or service, the entrepreneur is capitalized by the community, with community-created credit.
Steiner proposed that economics be governed by associations of producers, distributors and consumers that would determine the true price.
Shall we fund the Pursuit of Happiness?
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RIGHTS AND GOVERNANCE
The sense for Universal Human Rights is what unites all the peoples of the world.
The privilege of the rich countries and the privilege of the super-rich class is what divide us. Rights unite, privileges divide.
Corporations use goods and services to compete for money to enrich their owners, without regard for social justice or environmental sustainability. Satisfying the needs of consumers is not their aim, so consumers need to be manipulated by advertising, the media and education to want what they offer to make money for their owners.
The Federal Reserve System was established by representing that it was a takeover of the money power by the Government. This was an illusion, a sleight of hand, a deception maintained to this day. The Federal Reserve System is owned by its member banks.
A Ward is a neighborhood where people can meet face-to-face, and where everyone living in the Ward has a right to participate.
Sociocracy has a similar intent. It is a very sophisticated decision-making process that is based on the absolute equivalence, or equality, of the participants.
Sociocracy is also an organizational structure and method of organizing that scales very well from a
small company to an entire nation.
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CULTURE, PUBLIC EDUCATION AND FREEDOM OF THE PRESS
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SUMMARY
The three spheres of society, namely, culture, rights, and economics, are useful categories because they allow us to place our ideals of Freedom, Equality and Solidarity in their rightful place
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APPENDIX / COMMON GOOD OFFERS A PAYMENT SYSTEM TO CREATE A SOCIETY TO BENEFIT EVERYONE
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BUTTERFLY APPENDIX
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MUTUAL CREDIT APPENDIX
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SOCIOCRACY APPENDIX
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THE WARD REPUBLIC
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BERNARD LIETAER APPENDIX
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BUCKMINSTER FULLER APPENDIX
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COLONIAL SCRIP APPENDIX
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POPULIST MOVEMENT APPENDIX
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MODERN MONEY MECHANICS APPENDIX
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UNIVERSAL BASIC INCOME APPENDIX
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NATIONAL DIVIDEND APPENDIX
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THE COMMON GOOD AGREEMENT
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BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH
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