Day 255: How will Companies be Nationalized and What does it Mean? LIG

How will companies be nationalized and do you foresee any resistance?

Within LIG, nationalized companies would not be owned by the government – they would be owned by each person of the population directly. One of the great down-sides of nationalizing companies as how it has been done in the past, is that the government owns the companies, and thus – the companies are managed in a way to benefit the government, often creating inefficiencies due to corruption and fraud. With LIG – the government would be the vehicle to transfer the company from the private to the public sector – but the company would not be owned by the government, where the government then supposedly runs the companies ‘on behalf of’ and ‘in the interest of’ the people. No – each citizen would become a shareholder of the company and have the ability to perform their shareholder duties. The Liquid Democracy platform would herein be beneficial to allow such large numbers of people to participate in events such as annual shareholder meetings.

In terms of the process of nationalization – herein the laws of a specific country must be consulted. In countries where nationalization occurs through providing compensation to the current business-owners, we suggest this would be the last investment for which personal income taxes would be required. The government would then purchase the companies on behalf of the people, however still with taxpayers’ money – which implies the company belongs directly to the people.


What does it mean in effect that a person owns an equal share in a country's national companies?

We suggest that every citizen becomes shareholder of those companies that are nationalized as part of a nation’s national heritage. In being a shareholder, each citizen owns an equal part of the company and hence:
-    Each citizen has an equal vote in important decisions, such as nominating directors.
-     Management and daily operations are likely to remain as they are.
-    The companies and their management are directly accountable to every citizen.
-    Citizens can submit shareholder resolutions.
-    The companies serve the interest of the shareholders, which means: they serve the population as a whole.
-    Government officials play no privileged role in the management of the nationalized companies – they are citizens and thus their role equals that of every other citizen.

In terms of receiving dividends, every citizen has a right to receive a Living Income Guaranteed, funded by the profits of the nationalized companies, when they have no other means of supporting themselves (as determined by the particular means-test of the country).

So the share-income from National companies does not work as stock dividends do in today's world, if those who have sufficient means to support themselves have their Shares but don't get LIG?

Correct.

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Day 193: Is Equal Money Capitalism Doomed to Fail?

This blog is in response to a comment made on one of our Previous blogs:
Day 162: EQUAL MONEY CAPITALISM - The Way Forward

The idea of equal contribution, equal share, equal this and equal that is probably doomed to failure form the beginning because it will require consent as to what an equal contribution really is. This is impossible to determine and thus causes conflict. Victor Schauberger develops a different viewpoint based on his observations of nature. Nature always produces abundantly so there is always enough for all. This idea is always adopted in the Venus Project. Taking these considerations into account, I believe it is possible to set up an "economic" system where all is indeed free and freely shared by all. - Axel

With regards to your comment I would like to draw your attention to the following Response which has been made to a similar comment on the Equal Money Goals on the Equal Money website Homepage :


The comment:
I do not like this Goal and Suggest Rather the Following…
"Who determines the "Best Possible Life for all on Earth"?" December 03, 2012 16:25


Our Response:
We live in a physical reality which works through particular laws of nature. 'What is Best' is thus never determined from someone's personal view or opinion - but derived from how things practically function and operate within this world.



Therefore, meaning of 'Best Possible Life for All on Earth' will be determined by each one through democratic means, where input must be backed up by scientific evidence and must take place within the framework of Constitutional Equality.

The same principle applies when looking at ‘what is equal’. When we say ‘providing for all equally’, we do not mean ‘providing for everyone the same’. On an individual level everyone still has different requirements in terms of tending to one’s needs – and thus the support one require will vary from person to person to reach an equal level of living standard. Within this, some will get more, other’s will receive less – depending on one’s individual situation – but the outcome remains the same in terms of having one’s basic needs taken care of and having everything in place to live a dignified Life. Determining what is required for each one to live at this level will require investigation and individual assessment which will take time and effort – but is not impossible.

Taking this into consideration, equality is not doomed to fail. In terms of ‘consent’ – all that is required to be agreed upon is that all are of equal value as Life within this world, and that one agrees that all ought to receive the support necessary to live a dignified life. In terms of determining the ‘necessary means’ for each, this will be mostly a scientific undertaking and not based on personal opinions. Conflict can then only arise when there is a point where someone does not understand why another or self receives or gives in a particular way and perceives a point of injustice/inequality to be existent. Herein, the scientific procedures/evidence would be put forward to indicate the extent to which someone receives/gives. Unless one can provide scientific evidence/proof that shows otherwise – one would have to re-align oneself according to the information put forward or go through a correctional process as insistence that something is ‘not fair’ while the evidence shows that it is equal, would indicate a form of mental disharmony within the person which requires addressing. 

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• Day 171: Life-Force and Expression in Equal Money Capitalism
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• Day 181: Applied Equality in Equal Money Capitalism
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Day 166: Corporate Social Responsibility in Equal Money Capitalism

Note: The EMC is an entirely new project that was started a few days ago. We’re at the moment in the phase where we are brainstorming by answering questions. It’s a messy process – but an effective one to get all the relevant points addressed. So – also note that points will evolve and change as we go as we are not setting things in stone, but on a journey towards designing the EMC. The principles upon which EMC is based are laid out in the previous blog-posts. From those principles, we work our way towards what life in EMC would practically be like and how the system will function from an economic perspective.

Allocation of Profit Shares and Price Determination

Q: Will profit share allocation be calculated on a yearly basis as is done now or how it would take place?

A: Profit is not to be understood in the same way as it is now. At the moment - profit is what is left after wages have been paid and production costs are covered. Within EMC - there will be no wages - your profit will be your wage.

So - every time a product is scanned when it is bought - the computer sees what percentage of the price is allocated to whom - and immediately the money-allocation happens accordingly. So - there's no need to wait a year to calculate profits - it will be immediate.

So - understand - that within EMC - you only ever pay for added value - added value is the value you add to a resource through labour - that - and then of course your tax. So - you're not paying for your resources. When value is given by a person - the person receives in return through profit. When resources are used by companies - they must give back as much as they can. So if a company uses wood within their production process, there will be a department within the company that plants trees. The same with using water - if clean water is taken - the dirty water after the production process is complete, must be purified and go back to the Earth. So - resources won't be owned - it will be a matter of take what you need and give back as you received.

Population Growth in EMC

Q: How will population increase be dealt with?

A: In terms of money supply - as more people are born, more money requires to be printed - because more people require an equal income. The money supply is increased through the government printing money and spending money. If population shrinks, money requires to be removed from circulation. In terms of slowing down population growth - income for those who are currently poor will play a big role within it. Many poor families have many children so that there are more workers in the family to bring in more income. When that necessity falls away, families will become smaller. It has been shown by scientific research that when a family's income increases - less money is spent on 'quantity' of children - and more is spent on the 'quality' of the child’s life - if you have a large amount of children it becomes harder to support them in such a way that they become the best and happiest person they can be.

Resources in EMC

Q: Who will own the resources in an Equal Money Capitalistic System?

A: No one will own the resources - they belong to the Earth and we may use them while we are here.

Q: How do we make sure that not too many resources are used in EMC?

A: On the level of companies - sustainable use of resources will be managed in two ways. A company must support the Earth in such a way that it can most effectively renew the resource that was used. This is managed by the Environmental Departments of Companies (See the section on ‘Immediate Allocation of Profit Share). For non-renewable resources or when the eco-system requires more extensive support - quotas will be implemented - placing a cap on how much of a particular resource can be used within a particular time-frame.

On the level of households – sustainable use of resources will be encouraged through a number of ways:
The first point is to introduce recycling – whenever you go buy something new - you bring in the old so it may be recycled by the company. This will already remove a lot of the strain on digging up new resources instead of re-using what has already been processed.
Second – products will require to adhere to certain standards - where warranty will have to be as long as possible so that people don't require to go and buy new things to replace old things too often.
Other waste that is produced by households will require to be managed by certain government departments or government funded companies. For instance – drinking water that is used in the home for instance, that people pollute - will be addressed by the sewage system, which is a government point - where the government is in charge of purifying the water again.

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• Day 163: Equal Money Capitalism - Redefining Profit
• Day 165: Equal Profit Share and Equal Money Capitalism
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Day 163: Equal Money Capitalism - Redefining Profit

Note: The EMC is an entirely new project that was started 2 days ago. We’re at the moment in the phase where we are brainstorming by answering questions. It’s a messy process – but an effective one to get all the relevant points addressed. So – also note that points will evolve and change as we go as we are not setting things in stone, but on a journey towards designing the EMC. The principles upon which EMC is based are laid out in the previous blog-post. From those principles, we work our way towards what life in EMC would practically be like and how the system will function from an economic perspective.

OVERTIME / FREE TIME

The point will be to optimize FREE TIME

Overtime - working past your regular hours. There will be no need for overtime, it will be unnecessary, because it is not your labour that holds the value - it is your life and all life is valued equally. Overtime would only come into play when for instance a natural disaster occurs and those assisting are required to lend a helping hand for longer than usual because the situation demands so in that case, one doesn't get paid for overtime - because it is a point of compassion and understanding - and to show that one is more than a self-interested human. Overtime now only exists so people can make more money - so they can buy more stuff - in EMC - you will have enough money to buy what you actually need. All economic slavery jobs where people are forced to do it to survive will end if people do not have to do it

Will we have more free time in an EMC - definitely - as we employ all the labour of each person - it will take less time to get the same job done. Every person will still work the same amount of time - this must be agreed on by all. For those whose jobs simply doesn't take up that much time or if a person's job is replaced by that of a machine - the Compassion Department of the Company will take care of you. This Department of the company creates jobs that will benefit society as a whole.

HOLIDAYS

There will be holidays, probably more than now - because with all the unemployed people that currently exist that are integrated into the labour force, each one will require to put in less time in the production process, it would be cool for everyone to have like 2 months off a year so that you can go and travel and stuff.

While you're on holiday, you will still receive your profit share of the products that you helped produce, because your added value helped to create the product.

 HOLIDAYS AND CHILDREN

 For those who have children - holiday time will be when your children are off school, for those who don't have children - it will be during the school time.

WHAT IS PROFIT-SHARE?

Currently profit is the money a company makes after they have covered their costs, including paying out wages. In an EMC - profit comprises of all the added value that is placed on resources - which is your labour. Therefore - within the price, the percentage share must be included of each one that was part of the creation of the product in such a way that each one ends up with an equal share of the company's profits, so - there will be no need for wages - as the profit becomes your wage.

EQUALIZING WAGES – COOPERATION AMONG CORPORATIONS

If a company at any time makes more money than they need to provide each one with their equal share of the profit as well as covering their costs - those monies will go into a fund that is responsible for assisting companies that are not making sufficient to cover their costs and provide each one with their fair share. That way a balancing effect takes place so that all companies are not only cooperatives in how they cooperate internally - but all cooperate with each other as well.

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Day 162: EQUAL MONEY CAPITALISM - The Way Forward

Equal Money Capitalism

Equal Money Capitalism will be the necessary transition step to as a global society towards establishing an Equal Money System as presented at www.equalmoney.org.

We are thus here starting a project of investigating what Capitalism should be like according to its very own principles - and thus, what requires to be adjusted within the current Capitalistic system to make it a system that works for everyone.

Within this first blog-post, we will give a rough outline of the points that will be taken under consideration and worked out into further detail as we go.

Employment

One of the current problems is unemployment. Employment is the means through which each one acquires the means with which to sustain themselves - as, in return for one's contribution, one receives an income. Therefore - full employment is not a negotiable subject - because if one is not employed, one loses all means of supporting oneself.

Capital as Life

At the moment - capital is referred to as intermediary goods - such as machinery and warehouses. Within Equal Money Capitalism - capital will refer to Life and include resources and people. Therefore - to value capital, means to value Life - and thus, all capital and all Life should be valued equally. For this - full employment is again a necessity.

Free Stuff

Within Equal Money Capitalism no free stuff will exist. This is one of the basic principles within economics (and physics) - There Ain't No Such Thing As A Free Lunch (TANSTAAFL). With anything that is produced or consumed - there is always a cost. If this cost is not represented and considered within the pricing of the particular good or product, one is in fact stealing. Currently, free stuff is used to compete for consumers at the cost of the labour force creating the goods - because they will be paying the difference.

Informed Decision-Making

Within Capitalism, the assumption is made that the consumer always has full knowledge available about the products they can buy - and thus, that they are always able to make informed decisions about the purchases they make - and that this mechanism, therefore - makes it so that only the best quality products are bought and stimulated to be produced, while inferior products will phase out. Obviously - this is currently not the case. The only point that is shared (and not even that comprehensively) is the ingredients. Labelling within Equal Money Capitalism will include not only ingredients, but also how the price was established - who contributed to the production process, what share of the profit goes to these participants - what are the externalities involved in terms of the harm that was caused towards the environment in the form of pollution and what resources were involved to produce the product, etc.

Equal Profit Share

Each contributor to a product will receive an Equal Share of the Profits. Herein, it is irrelevant how much time someone spent in contributing to the production of the good - what is relevant is the end product and whether the product would exist without the various contributors.

This will be an exciting time as we expand this proposal and develop it into an implementable system. So - stay tuned and visit http://www.quora.com/EMCapitalism to place any questions you may have.

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Day 125: Double Con - Australian Mining Interests in Africa

The Australian Government is channeling money which was allocated as Australian Aid Funds towards companies who are members of the Australian Africa Mining Group Industry. Instead of this money being used for that it was allocated for, it is being used by these Australian mining companies to further their own interests.

They have been using the Aid money to fund their own Corporate Social Responsibility programs.

Now, Corporoate Social Responsibilities programs or short - CSR - is supposed to be the an initiative coming from the company itself, where the company shows that it is not just interested with profit maximization but also wants to contribute to the environment and social community and show that it has some ethical values.

Obviously, this sort of initiatives/projects are supposed to be funded with the companies own money, as a sign of good-will, where the company "gives something back" to the community it is taking from.

So now, these Mining companies, are using Aid money to fund their CSR projects, as a PR-stunt, to make them look good and responsible, while of course if this money hadn't been available, they wouldn't have done it -- so it's really just a con. Furthermore, a lot of these companies have been known to be involved in human right violation, labour abuse, corruption and non-compliance with environmental laws.

So this whole CSR in itself is already quite a scam , as a 'band-aid' for all the corporate sins, where they show a little goodwill here and there but where the corporate word/system will not have a look at how these sins came about and so do away with the traditional way of doing business and come up with a new business design which is not drenched within complete inconsideration and disregard for Life on Earth and the natural balance of things -- because if they had, they would not have to go and make a little 'corporate social responsibility' project on the side -- their whole way of doing business would be Living Responsibility which is the only way we are ever going to be able to produce and distribute goods and services on Earth without creating disastrous consequences for current and future generations.

So I guess in a way, these companies are tired of 'keeping up the facade' Of "goodwill" and "good intentions" -- where they blatantly use Aid money to fund their so called "goodwill" -- while at the same time preventing this money from actually going to people who need it -- I mean, Africa's already poor, now here comes some Rich country and exploit the mineral resources while at the same time denying it aid so that it can use that money for its own private interests.

But then, again -- aid money is also not a solution, which you can read about in these blogs:
Day 20: The Insanity of Economics - Food Aid Does not Help the Poor
Day 106: Structural Adjustment
Famine Caused by Excess of Food - Only in Capitalism!


So what is the solution?

The solution is the way of the Equal Money System, where we take a whole new look at how we do things in this world -- as all can clearly see that what is going on in this world is a Complete Fuck-Up and this could have only been brought about by us human beings acting in a way that support Fuck Ups.

Check out the Goals, check out the Wiki and Vote/Comment on the policies. Here's a real solution to the problems in our world, which will be integrated into every aspect of society -- so we can do away with 'band-aid' solutions which make us 'feel better' but make no actual contribution to manifesting actual change in this world.

Visit now: www.EqualMoney.Org and educate yourself on what Real Change looks like

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