Money and Time

Is there enough money in the world for everyone to have enough? If so, how would it affect the economy if everyone did?

Besides on hand currency, money as owned by the common people, is nothing more than ones and zeros stored inside computers. Positive and negative numbers. These positive and negative numbers are stored inside banks are the property of the bank. The negative numbers represent the monetary value of assets owned by the bank. To the extent that negative numbers in the form of loans are stored inside those banker’s computers, the associated property is owned by the bank. The person’s future positive income numbers are used to offset negative loan numbers.

Economies will always operate. If we need a currency, we can use rocks as long as our society agrees and accepts the rocks in exchange for goods and services. In the age of instant information provided by computer networks, buyers and sellers meet one another in an electronic market. Given the immediacy and persistence of information, barter economies in the modern age could work. The currency of a barter economy is comprised of products and time.

The question itself masks deeper issues. The fundamental issue is human time. Is there enough demand for human time so that everyone is able to earn money. As demand for human time decreases because of automation, where will the jobs come from?

Suppose we were to create an economy based upon the value of human time. I invest forty hours per week which established my value in the market. I am the producer of 40 hours of productivity. My time is banked and only converted to money when I have bills to pay. I pay taxes when my time is monetized. If I need to borrow extra money it is available at zero percent (0%) interest rate.

Solve poverty by lending people money and expecting them to pay it back from future monetized time investment. The book “Newland 2084” these topics and proposes a workable solution to Poverty.

Jobs To Survive

Quora question and my answer.

Imagine a world where no one has to have a job to comfortably survive. What activities would we invent to infuse our lives with meaning and structure?

In a future utopian world, where no one has to have a job to comfortably survive, is ambiguous in the phrase “no one has to have a job” which implies a choice of whether or not jobs exist and one can have one. The word “comfortable” would be measured in whose estimation? According to what criteria?

Clearly some number of humans have to work at jobs in order to make sure the undesirable jobs get done and, more important, to make sure dangerous and risky work like mining be done by the remote control of an experienced operator. Cops have to break up domestic conflicts. People get sick and need surgery. There is critical work that must be done. Spreadsheet estimates place the amount of human time consumed by essential of education, health care, and elder care services to be one third of the time available. The remaining two thirds is for everything else.

Entrepreneurs would still have ideas and want to build businesses to fill time and make money. Does money even need to exist? Maybe all we need to keep track of is human time. Your value to society of one hour of your time is one hour times your value multiplier, based on education, experience and age. People are going to entertain one another. Plays need to be written. Movies will still need to be made. Producers create products for which consumers will pay money.

Life will change with each passing generation. There will always be new fads to enthrall us. We will live in a world of plastic objects printed by 3D printers. We do this today. We will make composite materials many times stronger than steel. The amount of carbon brought to the earth’s surface is immaterial provided, the carbon is sequestered in plastic. Putting carbon into the atmosphere has its side effects. Therefore the future will be in polymers, plastics, composites, and high quality ash from carbon gasification.

If those who live in those utopian days have the free time implicit is the question. What they will the do to fill their allotted time of life with very much what we would do if we had more time and we didn’t have to work for wages to pay the bills.

1. Personal health and happiness
2. Family, friends, and meeting new people
3. Education
4. Producing and consuming works of art
5. Lowering the hassle factor of life
6. Volunteering for community, national, and international public service
7. Making enough money to travel to far away places to make great movies and photographs for internet slide shows.
8. Have a travel blog that has a following and earns lots of income

If money needs to exist then people can borrow enough money to meet minimalist basic needs, education, and medical needs at 0% interest. The loan is paid it back through a lifetime of work. I wrote about this idea in “Newland 2084”. The book elaborates on the premise that people arrange themselves into cooperatives where they aggregate skills, premises, equipment, materials and go into business. One member one vote. Compensate people for time. Divide profits fairly.