Solidar System

THE SOLIDAR - A CURRENCY FOR PEACE

On a clear autumn day in 1994 an aspen tree attracted my attention. It was lit by the sun like a lamp, beckoning with its golden coin leaves in a breath of air. Absorbed by the beauty I pictured the sun’s ever-new energy dancing around me on its way out in space as warmth, partly saved and distributed by waters, forests, mountains, and all the small worms working in the soil under my feet.

Inspired by the energy interplay I began to search for a corresponding stream of money, reflecting the energy interplay I saw. How could we find a means of exchange always reflecting the energy we exchange on a market of goods and services?

I did not want personal values to destroy the logic, but I cannot deny that many conclusions made me happy and erased the rest of my right-left thinking. Consequences appeared, every day, every week, often thanks to inquisitive friends who forced me to go into details. Still I had to stick to the premises of nature, refusing politics to mix into the system.

During the time of development I realised that in my curiosity I had stumbled on, not just a monetary system, but potentially an entirely new economics for ecological, social and cultural renewal - even peace - because poverty can be abolished by a fair money system.

How the system operates

The proposed Solidar is electronic, regional, convertible and complementary. A new Solidar is nothing but an electronic number, issued free of charge every night as potential money on so-called Basic Accounts for basic income to persons and commons in a Solidar region. One-way locks on the Basic Accounts hinder deposits. This makes possible a lifetime basic income for a decent life to those who chose to join the system. Note! All the solidars on the market are running at the same rate!

The Solidar is “born” as money the first time it is used. At that moment it enters the market as payment on a so-called Trade Account where all sums are gradually reduced - and return as new base income next morning, equally distributed to the solidar users in a region of appropriate size. The the solidar reduction on the market would automatically be the same rate as the inflow of base income.

Ever-new streams of solidars would then follow the variations of sold products. It means that the streams of solidar money would reflect the flow of goods and services on a real market. always served by ever-new time-limited money. That makes the Solidar a symbol of real value at any time - like winds to breathe.

You can also see the system as an ever moving network of passing money-rills, running like blood in the capillaries of a body. The concentration of money passing the companies would be like blood vessels converging in the organs of the body of society.

The structure of the system

The Solidar Commons only have Basic Accounts for society use. Companies have Trade Accounts only. Private persons have Trade Accounts for transactions and Basic Accounts for receiving and saving daily basic income, enough for a decent life.

One-way-locks on the Basic Accounts would hinder deposits and transfers between them. Transactions are made on the Trade Accounts where the sums are gradually reduced at the same rate all over the Solidar Region. Transferring a big sum takes a longer time.

Used solidars could not be deposited because of the one-way locks on the Basic Accounts. So, if you want to save you would work for salary. Income from work enters the Trade Account where the sums are gradually reduced. It means that you pay bigger sums gradually to avoid loss. All big transactions would be paid gradually, running at the same rate all over the region.

You could let your basic income accumulate as interest-free saving on your Basic Account when you live on your salary for work. Your income enters your Trade Account where the solidars are gradually gone.

The disappeared solidars on the market are currently re-issued next morning, equally distributed on the Basic Accounts of the users and their commons according to votes among them. That would make a continuous circulation of ever-new money, currently distributed among the users in a Solidar Region.

The system has to be regional because of different human and nature resources in different parts of the countries involved. It means that the Solidar has a different relative value due to different real resources in different regions.

The Solidar could be introduced in a municipality or within the members of a regional association, a coop, or a private enterprise. As soon as a Solidar is used it enters a Trade Account of a seller. From there it moves as payment on the market until it is gone and replaced by a new Solidar, also once used from a Basic Account. That makes an ever new stream of life-limited money reflecting real values sold on a free real market without loans or debts.

When the total sum on the market is the same in each round it makes a constant circulation. But in case of a nature disaster, a pandemic disease or another big sudden change of real value the amount of basic income and/or the rate of demurrage on the Trade Accounts could be regulated. There is technology for an automatic regulation like that.

At the departure of a user his or her accounts are nullified along with a proportional part of the commons. That is for the balance of the system that is needed for sustainability.

THE SOLIDAR FLOW IN A REGION

1. The rate of reduction on the Trade Accounts could be regulated as with a tap in case of a sudden ecological and/or demographical change, for example by a natural disaster.

2. Exchange to foreign currency by import and for travelling.

3. Exchange from foreign currency by export and for visitors

Companies have Trade Accounts only. The commons only have Basic Accounts, and private persons have one of each from birth to death.

For private import you pay from your Basic Account where no deposits could be done. Companies only have Trade Accounts for transactions, so their import costs would be mediated by the Commons to prevent speculation.

You receive export income on your Trade Account where the sums are gradually reduced. For import you pay from your Basic Account where no deposits could be done. For private import of foreign currency you buy it from your Basic Account via the Currency Reserve.

As companies only have Trade Accounts for transactions their exchange would be mediated by the Commons. That is for preventing speculation in money.

The gradual money reduction on the market is normally compensated by a corresponding inflow on basic income every night, equally distributed among the users and partly to the commons according to democratic decisions in the region.

Speculation-proof exchanges would be done via the administration of the Currency Reserve, from where the Solidars are exchanged to and from foreign national currencies and other currencies within the region - and also with solidars from other Solidar regions with different rates of exchange.

By import and for travelling the Solidar is exchanged from Basic Accounts, private and public, maybe via a group of ecologists for handling the Currency Reserve in the system. Their job would be to protect the balance of trade in the region on the premises of ecological and fair trade.

Foreign currency enters the Currency Reserve by export and tourism where it is used for import, travels and to pay foreign debt. Visitors would get a time-limited Basic Account for their travelling funds and a Trade Account to use it. Remaining Solidars could be exchanged back at their departure.

Income in foreign currency for export goes to the Trade Accounts of the exporting companies. As it cannot be saved it would be used for current expenses like salaries, company improvements and returns to the owners. Private persons could buy and sell over the borders of the region in the same way.

Even the Commons could import when it is needed, but it cannot export. That would be done via Solidar Coops and Enterprises on a market of goods and services, only.

The Commons are for society purchases for common needs and protection. It could even pay for international aid like soil- and water sanitation, fuel cells for solar energy in deserts and other global needs. Orders for such projects would go to companies inside and outside the region. If the system succeeds it could spread to any region where the reform is needed. Principally it could spread all over the world where electricity is available.

The Solidar Commons could fund costs for international cooperation. The speculation-proof way of exchanging solidars makes it possible, even in a large scale.

If the system is used in develloping countries there would be space for much bigger basic income than here, even in the commons.

The Swedish Finance Inspection has reported that they have no objections against the system, mainly because it does not allow transactions on behalf of others.

Consequences

A nature-congruent system like this could change not only economics, but a new and healthier spirit of society. The relief of interest might be seen as a triviality for some people, but it could soon be clear that it is a way to many win-win solutions, even sustainability.

People who live on basic income would supply the market with money while resting or working idealistic. Those who work for salary would fill the needs of others. Their savings would accumulate untouched on their Basic Accounts, maybe to fill a dream in the future. But most people would surely combine the use of their two accounts and vary their saving and consumption during the cycles of life.

All are needed in a system with the combination of Basic and Trade Accounts. Those who live on basic income could work idealistic or just recover. They would supply the market with money for those who work for salary and produce what is asked for. All are needed, and all could contribute to a peaceful society in their own way.

Demand would be the only incentive for production, because there would be no obsolete investments to protect anymore. Streaming, time-limited money cannot be accumulated. It would be the end of much misuse of people and nature.

Commons without taxes

The Commons would be a body evolved from a democratically strengthened form of our existing national and local governments to handle the provision of services such as railways, power stations, street lighting, garbage collection, and to organise other large scale works that is agreed about for the common good.

The Basic Accounts for the Commons make a simple and organic replacement for the taxation system of today. The money reduction on the Trade Accounts could be regarded as a negative interest compensated by the daily basic income for people and their commons.

The compensating basic income would make a neutral, zero-interest economic system with a potential to spread to other regions.

Private basic income would replace the private part of taxes of today, such as social allowance, child allowance and pension, including insurances and the administration of it all.

The attractive passive saving on Basic Accounts promotes a decent lifestyle by free choice. That is needed by us you know when the climate and biosphere is threatened by over-consumption. In poor parts of the world there would be space for more basic income.

The Solidar Commons are funded by ever-new streams of new-issued, time-limited money. The interest costs of today, and the taxation and transfers would then be gone, and so would the interest costs of companies, now eating about 40% of the Swedish consumer prices.

Interest-on-interest would be gone in a system like this. Interest is now charged by bank after bank where the interest is added to interest on loans with its security in another loan against interest in round after round. As result we have got an explosive debt expansion of interest-on-interest in a global economic system. This makes immense social problems, as it demands an ever growing economic growth, leaving the poor behind.

Even the rich are affected by an economic growth that threatens mankind and the planet.

The Solidar gives hope after all. It can free us from our money addiction in a nature-congruent way, where the municipa taxes would be gone. A part of the state taxes would probably remain for a time as a national protection. The more poverty, the more impending are the risks of war. The speculation in money and the following poverty now threatens our dream of world peace.

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A Solidar pilot project could start in a region of appropriate size. If it shows to be attractive enough to spread it could reduce risks of war, even globally if it spreads.

In addition to saved human and natural resources the system includes a continuous capital allocation, promoting decentralisation, releasing people from polluting long transports and social disasters. The Solidar would give a maximum of result by a minimum of sacrifices, because there would be a giant cost-efficiency in an "economic economy".

Pleasure of work

The more pleasure of work, the more you work. Basic income makes you free to choose your work, with or without salary, using your creativity and talents. And if you work for money you would let your basic income accumulate on your Basic Account for a dream. In the meantime you fill the needs and wants of others. Dreams can come true because the passive saving in the system.

Dreams are strong. Remember the speculative money-market now occupying about 98 % of the money on Earth. It is built on dreams. The same dreams could make us slow down our consumption to an ecological level by free choice.

Passive saving would reverse the stream of poor people hoping for work in big cities. There is logic in that, because where there is money, there is job. But the money cost. A built-in mal-distribution caused by interest-on interest prevents people to settle where they want to live.

Free market of work

The basic income promotes a lifestyle based on new values. Free money makes you free to work. That is the opposite of a system producing victims. The really poor are sacrificed first. For the sake of peace we need to break the old coupling between work and money. We need money to be able to work, not the other way around.

The security of the basic income gives freedom to refuse destructive work. If you do what is needed you could claim for salary. You might even be sponsored by the commons if the work is needed for society protection such as cleaning infection clinics or disarming land mines.

Freedom of work makes a free market of real goods and services, and people get a chance to use their gifts in the work. When we realize how wrong the old coupling between money and work is, then we could turn it all around. Maybe we understand one day, that money is there for us to be able to work. That day the era of slavery is gone.

The planet needs soil and water sanitation and renewable energy from sun, wind, and waves. The big projects could be financed by ever-new streams of time-limited solidars. That could slow the pathological consumption in the world. The biased, debt-creating system of today has a built-in compulsion of economic growth. Most of the interest costs, mainly baked into the consumer prices, are paid by those who have little or no compensating income by capital. The poor and the nature pay the bills.

Doing nothing is life dangerous. Many people starve to death every day, year after year, because of the devastating money we use.

Solidar Business

The built-in friction in the system makes small scale production, shorter transports and saved resources. Black work turn to white, and economic crimes would be history. If the Solidar is spread worldwide it could be the end of real poverty.

Time-limited, ever-new money makes a flexible real market served by fine-meshed networks of moving money-rills, automatically and momentary adjusted to availability and demand.

The money-reduction on the Trade Accounts of companies motivates gradual payments all over a Solidar Economy. Expensive things would be paid by instalments or leasing such as equipment for production of different kinds. Houses would be paid gradually during the construction, and flats would be leased until they are fully paid. A diversity of non-profit coops could be started without loans and debts.

To avoid loss all companies would pay their costs gradually, at least at the same rate as the money-reduction on the Trade Accounts. In case of a surplus returns would immediately be sent as gradual returns to their share-buying supporters. Bigger transactions are gradual all over a Solidar Society.

New demands are filled by new production adjusted to actual needs and wishes, as there would be no obsolete investments to protect. Companies and private persons could donate surplus on their Trade Accounts to help organisations, or they could support a needed production by buying shares.

When a company does not sell anymore it would be closed without bankruptcy, because there are no loans or debts in the system.

How to get rich

A big salary means a long term salary. It could even last long after the work is finished - even until you die and your accounts are nullified. It means that you can get parallel streams of income at the same rate.

Getting rich is possible, but not at the cost of others as the system is not a zero-sum game, and not a pyramid, just an ever new stream of passing Solidars that you cannot take hold of. See it as a wind to breath or water evaporating to clouds, falling as rain, again and again.

Saving the Solidar untouched means saving nature. But there is a risk. The economic man might build up a fortune on his Basic Account until he dies. If he was wiser during his life he would have used his time better, spending more time with family and friends or giving and helping when it still was possible. His lack of life-quality would be a warning though. He could rather encourage his descendants to catch the day in a better way than he did.

When you get old you could take the chance to help others instead of letting your saved basic income disappear when you die. Some would surely buy shares in a hope-inducing production, and others might contribute to sanitation projects, and all would surely like to give gifts to those they love before their accounts are gone. The one who die with empty accounts would die in peace.

Introducing the system

The system could be introduced as a pilot project in a village or municipality where the taxation do not cover the needs anymore, maybe because of an aging population. It could also be introduced for countryside entrepreneurs lacking risk capital in the system of today.

When the system is prepared it could remain resting until it is activated, maybe as a regional civil preparedness to compensate for insufficient pensions.

Before we introduce the system in real life we could make a computor game on the premisses of the Solidar. In case the player who dies with empty accounts would win in the game! A game could be a useful siulation of the system. It could even be sold, because its mind-blowing qualities. It would help the players to think "outside the box".

For introducing the system in the third world the electricity problems must be solved, maybe by technological aid to build sun plants in deserts. That would be possible in a system that does not create debt. As there would be no loans in the system there would be no risk for countries to be indebted anymore. The end of debt would change the world.

Context

The amount of the virtual money of today is varying around 98 % of the money on Earth. It enters the market as debt against interest, issued worldwide at an explosive rate to pay a likewise explosively growing global debt. More new money is a way to postpone the built-in collapse of our monetary system. It cannot survive without “economic” growth, and the life on Earth cannot survive an “economic” growth. Today we need economic lifeboats.

Doing nothing could be risky. It could make a scared mankind to ask for a World Government. Even if the first world leaders would be wise, it does not guarantee that the followers are. History shows examples of that. Even the most caring people can get speed-blind and develop greed for power. These power-addicts usually lose their conscience. Some turn to beasts.

Money-power works like a drug. Combined with chemical drugs it could be the end of life on the planet.

Another nightmare is that nations with collapsed economies would build simple independent economies by trading with one another. Because of the threat they could evoke in a still resting financial game there could be military consequences. We need win-win-solutions, and timing is needed.

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Let me tell a true story!

One day I took out money from a cash machine together with my six years old grandson Alvin and his little sister.

– Great, said Alvin. You can get money from a wall! – Well, I said, I can only take the money that I already have. Not a lot. – I see, said Alvin. – Who makes the money? – Banks, I said. – How kind they are! – Well, I said. Money costs. – So the banks make new money, right? – Hmm, I said.

Alvin continued. – But the new money doesn´t cost, do they?

He needed an answer. Fortunately his sister interrupted and I was released. I do not like to scare small children.

Even adults are questioning the man-made pyramid of debt money. I wonder what would happen when we get an open discussion about money. It has begun, so we need to be careful. Acting too fast could be dangerous, and too slow is also dangerous. Timing is needed for peace. So, let us be prepared in proper time!

oo0oo

There is another true story. It is from Gotland, a poor island in the Baltic Sea. The inhabitants used to exchange goods and services without bank money since a long time. They negotiate about the prices in hours of help. A farmer on the island told me the story.

A fuel station was broken. In spite of a warning signboard the customers put money in the machine and took the receipt - but they got no fuel. They complained of course and were told to come back later and get their fuel by showing the receipt. And so there were many receipts on fuel moving as payment a long time after the station was repaired.

I liked his story from real life, and I mentioned that they had used home made money. The farmer protested indignantly, but soon he calmed down and said: “Yes, we used the receipts, but we never made false money.” I asked about the difference. The difference was the fuel, he said, because it was already paid. But he doubted about the security behind the bank money. At last we concluded that money is a matter of shared believes, and a question of life or death.

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My background:

I was born in 1940. Once I had a family of nine including 4 foster-teenagers who later rendered me a job as a foster home adviser. After studying psychology, social sciences and Waldorf education I worked with autistic teenagers. Suddenly was a widow with 3 children in school age. Inspired by my own money problems in addition to ideas by Rudolf Steiner and others my mind was dealing with the phenomenon of money during the seventies and eighties. I also stumbled onto “three-folding” through a five years work in a Norwegian organization consisting of producers, sellers and consumers who regularly met and negotiated about prices, amounts, sorts and qualities. Later I started a fair-trade silk import in Sweden. Today I work in two organizations, one for ecological and social renewal, and one for helping refugees. Now I am retired. It is great! Almost as if I was a Solidar User.

Åsa Brandberg, Sweden, nypeng@hotmail.com

”You never change things by fighting the existing reality. Build a new model that makes the existing model obsolete.”

R. Buckminster Fuller

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A NATURE CONGRUENT MONEY SYSTEM BEYOND CAPITALISM AND SOCIALISM

The proposed economic system has a time-limited currency called Solidar. It is issued as life-long and daily basic income, free of charge, issued as potential money on so-called Basic Accounts for buying and passive saving. One way locks hinder deposits there. In addition there is a so-called Trade Account for transactions. There all sums are gradually reduced and re-issued to all the users as new basic income next morning, equally distributed, enough for a decent life until you die. One-way locks hinder deposits on the Basic Accounts.

Every man, woman and child have one Basic Account and one Trade Account. Solidar Coops have Trade Accounts only, and the Solidar Commons only have Basic Accounts for common use in the society. According to Swedish statistics the Solidar Commons could totally replace the municipality taxes in Sweden provided it is introduced regionally all over the country. The system could even work in poor countries where electricity and cell phones are accessible.

As all sums on a solidar market are gradually reduced one would prefer bigger sums to be paid by leasing at the same rate as the money-reduction on the Trade Accounts. Both sellers and buyers would prefer leasing to avoid unnecessary loss on their Trade Accounts.

The two-step way of issuing the Solidar makes it represent real value sold on the market at any time. That is a way to get stable prices, preventing inflation and economic crimes. The flexible networks of ever-new money that follows could never be grasped or used as means of power, as the solidar is time-limited like everything else.

People living on basic income would supply the market with money while resting or working idealistic. Those who work for money would fill the needs of others, letting their basic income accumulate untouched on their Basic Account for future use – but most people would surely combine the two lifestyles during the cycles of life.

The passive saving and the built-in slowness of the money-flows is a way to reduce our over-consumption by free choice. It is also a way to protect nature recourses now destroyed by ruthless exploitation.

The Solidar Societies would be decentralised because of the daily re-distribution of basic income. That would result in many small scale enterprises and a new freedom of choice in many life situations. It also would free the municipalities of today from the taxation burden.

The daily re-distribution on the Basic Accounts would allow people to start enterprises and cooperatives in a real economy of household. Introduced in developing countries it would contribute to a global fair distribution of energy, even world peace. Imagine the rich world financing the poor world with interest-free solidars. The dream of building solar cell fields in Sahara might then come true, because the proposed system has no loans or debts.

There is a built-in slowness in the system. You would find many thin money-rills all over the market, because you pay all bigger payments by leasing to avoid unnecessary loss. People and companies would not like to receive too big sums on their Trade Accounts because the sums are gradually reduced in the same ecologically adjusted rate. A regionally elected administration for the system could adjust the rate of money reduction and/or size of the basic income in case of a sudden demographical and/or nature disaster.

You can buy part-ownership of the Solidar Coops, gradually as usual, and receive gradual returns when there is a surplus on the Trade Accounts of the coops you support.

There are many levels of governance, some close like famlies, others more distant and overlapping like municipalities and nations. The pilot project has to be local as an experiment. But when or if the experiment works, the other governances could follow up.

There is a speculation-proof way of exchange in the system. By export you receive your export income on your Trade Account where all sums are gradually reduced. For importing goods or foreign currency you buy it from your Basic Account via the Currency Reserve. As companies only have Trade Accounts for transactions their exchange would be mediated by the Commons to prevent speculation.

Solidar users have one Basic Account and one Trade Account where the sums are gradually reduced. Solidar Coops have Trade Accounts only, and the Solidar Commons only have Basic Accounts. According to Swedish statistics Solidar Commons could replace all municipally taxes in Sweden provided it is introduced all over the country. Because of the cost-efficiency of the system there could be a lifetime basic-income for everyone, enough for a decent life from birth to death.

THE SOLIDAR FLOW IN A REGION

The Commons and the Basic Accounts are like communicating vessels.

1. The rate of reduction at the Trade Accounts could be regulated as with a tap in case of a sudden ecological and/or demographical change, for example by a natural disaster.

2. Exchange to foreign currency by import and for travelling.

3. Exchange from foreign currency by export and for visitors´

The technology makes a speculation-proof way of exchange possible. By export you receive your payment on your Trade Account where all sums are gradually reduced. For import you pay from your Basic Account where no deposits could be done. For importing goods or foreign currency you buy it from your Basic Account via the Currency Reserve. As companies only have Trade Accounts for transactions their exchange would be mediated by the Commons to prevent speculation

The zero-interest solidar would reduce our over-consumption by free choice. More free time for others and idealistic work would then be possible. In a transition time we would need a lot of idealistic work. New freedom of chosing work would give a higher life quality and economic security. Meaningful work is good work, with or without economic reward.

Bigger sums are paid by leasing at the same rate as the money-reduction on the Trade Accounts, as the sellers would prefer money streams of small relatively small sums on their Trade Accounts to avoid loss. The two-step way of issuing the solidar makes it represent real value at any time, preventing inflation and economic crimes, forming small flexible networks of ever-passing money on a real market of household. You could see the solidar streams as an ever fresh wind to breathe.

According to Swedish statistics Solidar Commons could replace all municipally taxes in Sweden provided it is introduced all over the country. Because of the cost-efficiency of the system there could be a lifetime basic-income for everyone, enough for a decent life from birth to death.

There is a built-in slowness in the system. That makes you pay all big costs by leasing. You can buy parts of Solidar Coops gradually, and receive gradual returns when there is surplus on the Trade Accounts of the coops you support. Electronic locks hinder Solidar transactions on behalf of other persons and companies. That is why money speculation is impossible, and that is why the Swedish Finance Inspection had no objections against the system.

By a sudden demographic or natural disaster the rate of the Solidar flows could be adjusted to the new situation by regulating the amount of basic income – or the rate of the money reduction on the market. But normally the Solidar flow would adjust by itself to the variations of actually sold values, because the amount of the time-limited solidars always correspond to the actual real values sold on a free real market. The solidar is backed by real value at any time.

At the departure of a user, his or her two accounts are nullified along with a proportional part of the commons. That is for the balance of the system. Only real value could be inherited, but when you get old you might support people and good initiatives with your saved basic income before you die. The one who dies with empty accounts would die in peace.

A free market of work

Free money makes you free to work. That is the opposite of the system of today, where you survive only if you work for money at the cost of others. The Solidar System breaks the old coupling between work and money.

Demand would be the main incentive to produce when the money is time-limited. It also means that there would be no obsolete old investments to protect, as the time-limited solidars can never be saved.

The economic security because of the basic income gives a freedom to refuse destructive work. If you do a needed work that others refuse you could claim for a high salary, or you could be sponsored by the commons if the work is necessary for society protection. The result would be a free market of work in addition to the free market of goods and services.

The money-reduction on the Trade Accounts of the companies motivates gradual payments all over the economy. Expensive things would be paid by instalments or leasing. Houses would be paid gradually during the construction, and flats would be leased until they are fully paid. A diversity of non-profit coops could be started by buying shares gradually and receive shares at the same gradual rate.

To avoid unnecessary loss even companies would pay their costs gradually at the same rate as the money-reduction on the Trade Accounts in the society. In case of a surplus on the accounts of the company streams of returns would immediately be sent to its share-buyers instead of being lost, as companies have no basic income. The method promotes a diversity of requested production, and small-scale markets would spread, even on the countryside.

When a company can not sell anymore it is closed without bankruptcy, because there are no loans and no debts in the system.

New demands are filled by new production more adjusted to actual needs and wishes, because there would be no obsolete old investments to protect.

Companies and private persons could give a surplus on their Trade account to persons or help organisations, or just support a needed production by buying shares for it. That would make a flexible market of work, served by fine-meshed networks of money-rills and small-scale real markets of household, free from money speculation. That would be a break through. It would be the first time that the market would be adjusted to availability and demand only.

Returns to the supporting co-owners of coops would be a buffer for the companies in case of a surplus that could not be saved because of the demurrage on their Trade Accounts. So, the returns would motivate people to support productions that are really asked for.

The concentration of money-rills in companies could be seen as blood vessels converging in the organs of the body of society. Combined with the passive saving it could reverse urbanisation and promote a culture on the countryside.

The built-in friction in the system makes many fine-meshed networks of instalments and leasing all over the society, even promoting small scale production and shorter transports. That would result in saved resources, black work turning to white, and protection against economic crimes. If spread worldwide the solidar would mean the end of starvation and misusing people.

Being rich

Getting rich is possible, but not at the cost of others. A high salary means a long term salary. It could even last after the work is done, even until you die and your accounts are nullified. It means that you can get many parallel streams of income, all coming at the same rate.

You could also get income from some part-time works as a way of earning more. Maybe you support some companies as well, and save your basic income for the fulfilment of a dream.

Saving solidars means saving nature. But there is a risk: The economic man might build up a fortune on his Basic account until he dies. If he was wiser during his life he would have used his time better, spending more time with family and friends or giving and helping when it still was possible. His lack of life-quality could be a warning though, because his low life-quality could encourage his descendants to catch the day in a better way than he did. As there is no inheritance in the system aging people might prefer to donate a stream of solidars to good purposes before they die. Those who die with empty accounts would die in peace.

Introducing the system

The system could be introduced as a pilot project, maybe in a village or municipality where the taxation does not cover the needs anymore, maybe because of an aging population. It could also be introduced to stimulate a multitude of countryside entrepreneurs lacking risk capital in the system of today.

Once prepared the system could remain resting until it is activated, maybe as a regional civil preparedness or to replace the shrinking age-pension funds.

The solidar can be introduced parallel to other currencies as there is a speculation-proof way to exchange it to and from other currencies and solidars from other solidar regions with different rate of exchange due to different nature and man-power.

Software, cell phones, microchip cards and scanners for the first users should be ready as a preparation.

For introducing the system in the third world electricity problem has to be solved, maybe by sun plants in deserts.That could be possible with the help of a monetary system does not require return payment, such as the Solidar System that has no loans and debts.

Imagine the chain of aha-experiences that would follow on an open debate about the nature of money! Such a chain of insights could start in many ways, even involuntarily which once was the case on Gotland, a poor island in the Baltic Sea.

People on Gotland often exchange goods and services without mediating money. They often negotiate about a payment consisting of help with the harvest. It is very inconvenient, because all want help with the harvest at the same time.

One of the farmers told me that a fuel station on the island had been broken. In spite of a warning signboard people put their money in the machine and took the receipt, but got no fuel. They complained of course, and they were told to save the receipt to get fuel later. Because of this event fuel receipts were moving as payment on the island a long time after the fuel station was repaired.

I liked the story from real life and told the farmer that they had used a currency of their own. He protested very intense, and then he got silent and said: “Yes, we used the receipts, but we did not make false money.” I asked about the difference, and he concluded that the difference was the security of fuel behind the receipts, but he was not sure about the security behind the bank money. At last we agreed that money is a matter of belief, and a question of life or death.

Åsa Brandberg

E-mail: nypeng@hotmail.com

About me:

I was born in 1940. Once I had a family of nine including four young foster-teenagers who later rendered me a job as a foster-home adviser. After studying psychology and Waldorf Education I worked with autistic teenagers. 1980 I was a widow with three children in school age. In addition to ideas by Rudolf Steiner, Silvio Gesell and others I began to think outside the box. Later, inspired of the idea of Social Threefolding I started a fair trade silk import, mainly for mail order. Now I work in a few associations, and sometimes I look after my grandchildren. I also try to help hidden refugees. Being retired is great if you like to help. And who doesn´t? It is almost as being a Solidar User!