Future Historians

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===== Capitalism =====



=== Now ===

**Speech by Head Teacher to students at 2117 graduation ceremony** (Postcapitalism-RG)

As any three-year-old anywhere on the surface of this beautiful, wounded planet can tell you, the economic principles of our societies can be summed up in two simple words: Caring and Sharing. The values you learned at home and in Kindergarten will be the motors of adult activity as well. As you may have discovered in your studies, the words “economy” and “ecology” are derived from the ancient Greek word for “home”  ecos. As adults, our “home” is our natural environment and the human societies that nurture us. And as you already know by your own experience, our job is to take good care of our home while sharing cooperating with each other. 

You have already, from childhood, participated in forest reclamation projects (and enjoyed partying late into the night in the open air!) and you have no doubt also helped looking after little kids and showing off in front of elders to get them to laugh and tell you stories.  Now you are old enough to travel on your own and are probably dreaming of exploring the planet, of sailing across the oceans by crewing abord one of today’s great, non-polluting sailing ships, of flying over the continents in giant, helium-filled, solar-powered dirigibles, of meeting other peoples, seeing how they live, and of falling in love (and of being bored and lonely: bring a book). 

So you will not be surprised to enter societies whose economic systems may be very different from those you are used to. Some will use a form of money, others not; some will have colorful markets, some will choose to live austerely, others to relish physical pleasures. All, however, will respect the Planetary Charter banning capitalistic exploitation of land and labor and banning the Inequality that was the major characteristic of capitalism. 

Equality is the foundation of our society, but as you have already observed equality does not mean sameness or uniformity. What equality means to us is that humans are no longer starving or living on the hungry edge of starvation as they did by the billions under capitalism. What equality means is that every child, every adult has adequate shelter instead of living in the streets or crammed into shacks with no running water or hygenic facilities as they did by the billions under capitalism. What equality means is that sick children, elders, adults have access to health care and no one dies of curable diseases as they did by the billions under capitalism. What equality means is that humans are no longer face with the choice of starving or selling themselves and their children to others as a wage-slaves to be humiliated, abused and exploited as they were by the billions under capitalism. 

As you will see in your travels, equality is preserved in a variety of ways by different societies with different historical cultures. For example, for the indigenous peoples of Latin America, with the devotion to Mother Earth and their concept of buen vivir (living well without accumulating piles of commodities) this kind of equality derived directly from their native traditions to the extent that the indigenous were in the vanguard of that revolution in Planetary Consciousness that led to the Global Emergence of our New world from the shell of the Old.  

Starting with Latin America, “Reclaiming the Commons” which capitalism had been privatizing since Columbus began enclosing and enslaving the indigenous in 1492, became a world-wide movement as the sense of the planetary Commons extended to the air, the water, the forest and all the other values that 21st century capitalism in its death-throes was enclosing for profit and the dispossessed joined hands around the planet.

Yet it was among the prosperous Swiss known for their austere morality and stern work-ethic, that the idea of the Guaranteed Annual Income was first legislated into existence. Rather than encouraging only sloth and dissipation, it gave most people the sense of security against risk and the confidence to undertake long-term studies and projects, rather than accepting deadening jobs out of fear of poverty. The same security is achieved in other societies where the cumulative effects of free schooling, free transportation, free healthcare, free public dining halls and hostels where people can stay in exchange for a few hours of helping with maintenance. 

We live in a society whose economy is measured by the ERG. This currency was designed for an non-exploitative money economy where work is measured by hours of effort. Here, economic equality is maintained by regulating the maximum hourly wage at three times the minimum. The currency there is called the ERG, a natural measure of effort expended. An hour of strenuous, dangerous, outdoor  labor by construction worker is worth 300 ERGs. So is an hour of open-heart surgery. Pleasant work in pleasant circumsances requires less effort, it is assumed, and earns you only 100 ERG an hour. In any case, with a guaranteed basic income no one is obliged to work at all, and many chose to work short hours. On the other hand, energetic, ambitious people who work long and hard can exchange their ERGs for nice furniture, fancy clothes, foods, wines, and other luxuries, which are sold by their producers (individuals, coops, etc) at their cost of production measured in ERGs.  So money, here, reduced to the role of a means of exchange – more convenient than finding a tailor who needs open-heart surgery when you need a new suit.

Capitalism was about money breeding money through lending at interest and speculation in commodities. Conscious of this, the lands that have adopted the ERG as currency (either internally or in foreign exchange) have explicitly ruled out this possibility by decreeing that the ERG is subject to negative interest. So after a grace period of a year, your ERGs begin losing their value month after month if they are not exchanged for some use-value or other (a good or service provided by another). Use it or lose it! You earned it, enjoy it while you may! Here you have more fun as a jolly grasshopper than a stingy ant. I think you all know that already!

Of course in many of our advanced societies, much of production is not of goods for immediate consumption by individuals, but of goods destined to be consumed in further productive processes, for example raw materials, partly finished goods, and machine-parts. Here again, the ERG provides a transparent, universal measure for negotiating an exchange. The relative value of these goods (use-values) and the costs of transportation and such can thus all be calculated on the basis of the actual human effort that went into them. To prevent possible commodity speculation in the value materials like corn, or cotton, or copper, the collectives that buy them are carefully controlled to see that their accumulated stock are used up in the productive process.

Capitalism was also about money forcing people without money to work as slaves under people with money in order to survive. This capitalistic function of money for the exploitation of labor is also banned in the ERG economies, where all are rewarded for their efforts and none can profit from the efforts of others subject to his/her will. Clear legislation regulates apprenticeships, partnerships and cooperative enterprises so that no one gets exploited. Some folks prefer working on their own, offering a service or an artisanal product. Others gravitate to cooperatives or large collective enterprises. 

You, with your lives ahead of you, will have plenty of time to explore and chose what suits you best and then chose again, without every having to worry about unemployment (that other characteristic unique to capitalist society) and dire poverty. 
You may also find your niche in some of the communist and collectivist societies that have been set up in other lands. But wherever you travel and sejourn on our grandiose and still-suffering globe, I know you will remember that Caring and Sharing are “what makes the world go round.”

Now go out and have a good time (applause and hoots).

=== Then ===




=== How ===
Future Historians

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