The Basic Living Standard: Not a Fix for a Collapsing Money-Centric System, but the People-Centric Foundation of a New One

Although initially overlooked after I first introduced it in my book Levelling Level, published on Amazon on 31 March 2022, the Basic Living Standard (BLS) has increasingly attracted interest from readers and visitors to my blog.

However, I have noticed that when people search for BLS using AI, a whole chain of stories and information—often including quotes attributed to me—has emerged, much of which is either out of context or entirely fabricated.

This is concerning, especially when those outside the mainstream are trying to share solutions and perspectives that challenge the compliance and blindness of today’s system.

We must recognise that the so-called AI takeover is being built on delivery levels that, in many cases, are no better than the efforts of a lazy teenager responding to an encouraging parent. And the outright creation of false information and narratives—even regarding work from independent voices—is troubling.

Given that AI now tells those seeking a quick overview that the Basic Living Standard is a way to fix our broken economic system, I feel it is time to clarify: while I believe BLS is a pivotal solution, it cannot and will not work within the current economic paradigm.

The integral priority of BLS is to put people, not money, first.

The Basic Living Standard: Not Intended for the Current Economic System

I have never created or published financial models or projections to ‘cost’ or predict the impact of BLS on the current economy or financial system, because the two are mutually exclusive.

BLS was not designed to be part of, or to work within, the existing paradigm, which makes it impossible to do so.

Decision-makers, legislators, and their influencers will not openly admit that our system is structured against equity and equality.

It is only because the system works progressively against these values that the disproportionate levels of wealth and benefits enjoyed by those in power can exist as they do.

Paying Lip Service to Parity

While the National Minimum Wage should be the benchmark or minimum earnings floor necessary for financial independence, the reality is that no person can be financially independent or live free of benefits, charity, or debt on this wage when working a typical 40-hour full-time week.

The current economic and financial system survives because the National Minimum Wage does not reflect the genuine cost of living for the lowest paid, who must then be subsidised by government benefits, seek help from charities such as food banks, or go into debt to meet the growing cost of living.

The FIAT, Neoliberal, Global-Driven Money System: The Perfect Crime?

A hard truth about our broken and collapsing system is that its design centres on wealth transfer and impoverishment, relying on the ongoing creation and addition of new money to the economy.

Currency debasement devalues the worth and ownership of the masses, while creating additional wealth for the elites and enabling them to secure property, public infrastructure, and ownership of everything devalued by their actions.

System Collapse and the Choice We Must Make

The finite lifetime of what may one day be considered one of the greatest ongoing crimes against humanity is fast approaching its end.

How the masses respond to financial and systemic collapse will dictate whether the Basic Living Standard, or a similar benchmark, forms the basis of a new people-centric economic and governance system.

This new system would put people back at the heart of everything, rather than the money-centric focus we have now.

The current system is collapsing because it is fundamentally corrupt and wrong.

Introducing a system like BLS within the current system—even under the name National Minimum Wage—could not achieve its true purpose, because implementing it honestly would speed up, if not immediately collapse the current money-centric system – and that’s why nobody in power today who benefits from this system will ever agree or willingly help for it to be done.

Embracing the Shift: Making Life About People, Not Money

If we accept and adopt an economy and governance system cantered on People, Community, and Environment, we will naturally move away from financial modelling, projections, profit margins, and all the tools that reinforce money as the only important value in life.

The Basic Living Standard provides a clear focus for the paradigm shift from money-centric beliefs to what everyone needs—not wants—and establishes the basic standard for independent living without dependency.

However, BLS is not a policy that can work in isolation or as an add-on to the current system. It is a fundamental building block of the universal change we must choose and embrace, because we cannot fix what cannot be fixed.

The Basic Living Standard: The Basis of a New Way of Living

By restarting, reestablishing, regenerating, reforming, and replacing our economic and governance systems, the Basic Living Standard becomes the benchmark for guaranteeing that the lowest paid can sustain themselves and be financially independent in return for a standard working week.

It requires all businesses, organisations, and systems within a new framework of economy and governance to realign with ensuring that every person experiences this minimum standard as the foundation of society, business, and culture.

Improving lives today really should be as simple as creating a Minimum Wage and changing everything for those who need help in one day. But changing perceptions is not the same as changing the way everyone thinks.

That is why the introduction of a system that genuinely works for everyone cannot be openly embraced before the pain of collapse and the reality it brings.

Everything we know today exists because of a system built around money as a value set—a flawed belief system we have all been conditioned to accept.

Only when this system fails and excludes people, step by step, do those affected awaken to the reality that something is fundamentally wrong.

Yet those excluded are often viewed by those still inside the system as the ones who are guilty and wrong.

Out of Our Problems, an Opportunity Awaits

The collapse offers a moment when the balance can flip, and those who have been excluded may reach a critical mass that signals to everyone participating in the money game that a better, equitable way exists.

However, ordinary people must see, understand, and accept this en masse.

Whatever happens next will lead to wholesale change—whether we choose it or simply go along with it.

Only by being aware and honest about what we need, rather than what we want, can we take the leap of faith necessary to change everything and contribute to the creation of a new system where people, community, and environment come first.

The Basic Living Standard offers a benchmark for the frameworks and opportunities of a new way of living. Yet, it will remain unknown and inaccessible to those unwilling to step away from the comfort of an unsustainable relationship with the past.

Money, democracy, ownership, business priorities, and practices are just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the breadth and depth of necessary change.

Everyone must own and be part of the transformation ahead, because the change is about the needs of everyone, not just the wants of a privileged few.

There’s More…

In the coming days, and hopefully as soon as this week, my next book will be published, building on all I have been writing and sharing for over three and a half years.

Evolving directly from Our Local Future, first published in summer 2024, this latest work brings more detail and focus to the mechanics of implementing a new system for economy and governance, while simplifying previous concepts to make them more accessible and relatable.

The Basic Living Standard lies at its heart, and I am confident that we can flip everything to work for People, Community, and Economy, once we see the benefits and share the determination to implement a system and new code for life that truly works with equity and equality for all.

The Basic Living Standard Explained

Our Local Future | FULL TEXT

BLS is not a fix for the collapsing economic system PDF_Vers1_16Nov25 Download

Facing the Economic Collapse: the Real Crisis Behind Money, Wages, and Freedom

Facing Uncomfortable Truths

It is regrettable that most people avoid confronting uncomfortable truths about the crisis we’re in.

Many actively ignore or dismiss what they know deep down to be true, preferring comfort over honesty.

But this habit of hiding from inconvenient realities isn’t new. It’s been passed down for generations. People have often chosen what feels good over what’s obviously right, leading us to our current predicament.

Pretending everything is normal, focusing only on ourselves, and letting others make decisions for us has brought us to the brink of systemic collapse.

The comfortable system we rely on is failing, and we must face this reality.

The Source of the Problem: Money

Many prefer to hear hard truths from trusted figures like academics or politicians, but deep down, we know the truth doesn’t depend on who says it.

It’s time to think, research, and analyse for ourselves.

At the heart of our problems is the money system. We’ve been conditioned to believe money is everything, shaping our choices and values around financial cost, reward, and status.

Yet, the money system itself is artificial. A belief system manipulated by private bankers, big businesses, and the politicians they control.

They change the rules to enrich themselves, transferring wealth and ownership away from ordinary people, all under the guise of normality.

Imminent System Collapse

Politicians obsess over “growth.” But for them, growth means increasing the size of the economy (GDP). Not helping small businesses or working people.

Real productivity has vanished as industries and assets have been sold off to those who profit from the system, while jobs have been outsourced.

GDP figures are misleading, counting money created through private finance and government borrowing multiple times. Politicians have tried to spend their way out of trouble, but even that strategy is failing.

With rising unemployment due to AI and unproductive sectors and a government so possessed by fear that they are regularly changing their minds, lenders are now worried the scam will be exposed.

Desperation has set in, and the government seems set to resort to ever-increasing taxes, hoping to keep the system afloat and their secrets hidden.

The System Enriches the Few

Prices keep rising while wages lag behind, making it harder for most people to keep up.

This isn’t new—it’s how the system was designed.

Once, a single working adult could support a family. But now, financial independence is reserved for the wealthy, while dependence and poverty are imposed on the rest of us.

The Myth of the Minimum Wage

The national minimum wage is misleading. It’s not enough to live on, but rather the lowest acceptable wage set by those in power, regardless of the real cost of living.

However, even the average wage isn’t enough for genuine financial freedom.

Financial Freedom Is the Solution

Almost every social problem can be traced back to the fact that the lowest-paid jobs don’t pay enough for people to live independently.

Admitting this would expose the system’s flaws and those who benefit from it.

The system survives by prioritizing money over people. Every decision made by those in power serves the money system. Not human needs.

Choosing People Over Money

If we want a better world, we must redirect government, business, and our rules to prioritize people, not money or the economy.

Unfortunately, our political leaders hide the truth instead of addressing it, covering up the growing cracks in the system.

Collapse Is Inevitable. But We Have a Choice

Systemic collapse is inevitable. But we can choose what comes next and who benefits.

If we do nothing, things will only get worse.

Those who created this mess believe they can protect themselves with wealth and security, but ordinary people will lose freedom.

The powerful will restrict our freedoms to protect their own interests.

Paradoxically, a collapse could be an opportunity.

If we embrace it, we can build a freer, fairer system for everyone. Something only possible when the current corrupt system is removed.

Our Local Future | FULL TEXT

Facing The Economic Collapse PDF_Vers1_14Nov25 Download

Why People Can’t Just “Get a Job”

This morning, Chancellor of the Exchequer Rachel Reeves delivered her pre-budget statement ahead of the Autumn Budget, scheduled for 26th November.

Despite mounting welfare costs, Reeves offered no meaningful solutions — only strong hints that taxes will rise, paired with blame deflected onto everything and everyone except the government itself.

It’s no surprise, then, that Nigel Farage rushed out a bold announcement promising welfare cuts if Reform wins the next general election yesterday, while Tory leader Kemi Badenoch quickly followed Reeves with an online broadcast that, in substance, amounted to much the same.

As the government flounders, it seems poised to announce little of substance of savings on benefits or public services — yet millions already trapped in a financial vice not of their own making will see the cost of living rise again, working harder for ever-diminishing returns.

The Tories — who helped engineer the current crisis over their 14-year tenure up to summer 2024 — and Reform — now visibly undergoing their own establishmentisation makeover — aren’t offering help to people either. They’re offering help to the economy.

And that’s precisely where the problems began for those whose lives revolve around the benefits system today.

There are hard truths here. Truths that many untouched by poverty still find just a little too uncomfortable to believe.

There will always be people who are:

• Out of work for valid reasons

• Unable to work due to illness, disability, or caring responsibilities

But there are also many people who want to work and are able to work — yet still can’t. Why? Because:

• They can’t find jobs that match their experience

• They can’t find roles that fit their qualifications

• They simply don’t “fit” the mould employers are looking for

It’s easy to assume that anyone who wants a job can get one — any job, at any time. And it’s just as easy to judge those who don’t take “any job” as lazy, entitled, or abusing the benefits system.

But those who make these judgments often haven’t experienced what it’s like to be unemployed and dependent on state support.

The Reality of Benefits

Let’s be clear: basic benefits are not enough to live on.

We’re surrounded by comforting myths — stories we rarely question unless we’re forced to confront the truth. One of the most dangerous myths is that the National Minimum Wage is enough to live on independently.

Here’s the reality in November 2025:

• Universal Credit: Between £316.98 and £628.10 per month, depending on your circumstances

• Minimum Wage: £12.21/hour. For a 40-hour week, that’s about £2,116.40/month

• Actual cost of living: To live independently, a single person likely needs £16–£17/hour — around £2,773.33/month

That’s a shortfall of over £600/month, even for someone working full-time on minimum wage.

The Impossible Choice

Now imagine you’re unemployed, with no savings or support, and your only option is to claim £628.10/month. What do you do?

• Take a job that still doesn’t cover your basic needs?

• Or claim every benefit you can, just to survive?

For many, working full-time in a low-paid job — often under poor conditions and public judgment — while still needing benefits just doesn’t make sense.

The Myth of the “Benefits Culture”

The idea that claiming benefits is an easy ride is a myth. Genuine claimants are treated the same as those gaming the system. The rules are rigid, often making it harder — not easier — to find meaningful work.

Pushing people into low-paid jobs that still leave them reliant on benefits, food banks, or debt might reduce one type of welfare cost. But it could as easily increase the others — through the problems that an ill-considered attempt to push everyone into ‘work’ will create, like mental health issues, workplace burnout, and long-term poverty.

The AI Displacement Problem

A growing wave of joblessness is being driven not by lack of talent, but by the unnecessary and unchecked takeover of roles by artificial intelligence.

Skilled, experienced professionals — once vital to their industries — are being sidelined by automation that prioritizes cost-cutting over human value.

As more capable workers are pushed into the job queue, many will find themselves forced to claim benefits, not because they lack ability, but because the system no longer has space for them.

The Bigger Problem

Most people on benefits aren’t lazy — they’re surviving.

When life becomes a daily struggle, the benefits system can feel like the only option.

But simply cutting benefits without creating real alternatives — like jobs that pay enough to live on — risks pushing thousands into homelessness and crisis.

The Psychology of Work and Pay

Most people don’t need prestige — they need security.

If lower-paid or less challenging jobs guaranteed that workers could meet all their financial obligations and live with dignity, many would take them without hesitation.

The problem isn’t the work itself — it’s that the pay doesn’t match the cost of living.

When people know they can cover rent, bills, food, and essentials every month, they’re far more willing to contribute, even in roles that society undervalues.

What Needs to Change

We can’t fix the benefits system without fixing the economic system that creates the need for it.

If we want fewer people on benefits, we must:

• Build an economy where full-time work pays enough to live on — without top-ups

• Stop supporting a system that enriches a few by impoverishing the many.

Until the government legislates for a fairer system — one where the lowest-paid can live independently on a full day’s work — poverty will persist.

That’s where real change begins.

Did you know that Statistical Averages suggest we need to earn about £9.41 an hour net to live. But the real-world figure is probably £14+?

The Basic Living Standard Explained

Our Local Future | FULL TEXT

Why People Cant Just Get a Job PDF_Vers1_4Nov25 Download

The Basic Living Standard Explained

The Basic Living Standard is a foundational guarantee that ensures every individual earning the lowest legal weekly wage can afford all essential costs of living—without falling into debt, relying on welfare, or turning to charity.

It defines the minimum threshold of financial independence, where core needs—such as food, housing, utilities, healthcare, transport, clothing, communication, and modest social participation—are fully covered by earned income alone. It also includes provision for savings, unexpected costs, and fair contributions to society.

This standard is not aspirational—it is structural. It affirms that full-time work at the lowest wage must equate to full dignity, autonomy, and security.

***

No food banks. No emergency loans. No skipped prescriptions or unpaid bills. Just a life that’s livable, sustainable, and free from poverty.

The Basic Living Standard Explained_Poster_PDF_Vers2_22Oct25 Download

People need jobs more than AI and the Tech Revolution

Everyone’s ability to work and be financially secure is vital to humanity, whereas accepting an unnecessary AI and Tech-Takeover that nobody genuinely needs will ultimately only benefit the few

The narrative now dictating to us that the Tech and AI Takeover is inevitable is tiring. Not least of all, because the whole idea that progress can and will only go one way is a myth.

Indeed, the myth that the AI and Tech Takeover is now inevitable serves only those who stand to benefit from everything being pushed this one, very specific and wholly unnecessary way.

Granted, many of us do feel that once technology has arrived and it is in our lives, there is no choice but to accept whatever the implications and outcomes of its arrival might be. Even when for increasing numbers of us it is beginning to become frighteningly clear that we and everything that we know may be about to be affected in some disastrous, life-changing way.

However, you may want to ask yourself, ‘Is this tech takeover, and what is going to change a voluntary choice that I am making?’

Did you consciously agree with the direction everything that touches your life digitally is now going?

Did you agree to changes that may quickly lead to you or people you know having no work or hope of ever getting another job?

Did you knowingly allow the parallel, digital universe and the role of arbitrary judgements about you and everything you are, do or can be, to walk in and begin the process of taking over each and every part of your life through the clever use of man-made codes which have been called algorithms?

So many of us fall into the trap of going along with the idea that jobs we know of today will no longer be required or even exist within perhaps just a matter of months because we are told that it represents progress and that the changes that the introduction of new AI-based technologies across life will be better for us all.

But when the narratives and words of politicians, tech gurus and influencers say all or everyone, just exactly who are they really referring to?

Are you going to benefit and in what way?

Are those benefits real, or are they just distractions that appear to make the very small and seemingly meaningless things that we do every day much easier?

Are those benefits really meaningful and long-lasting, or do they cover up how the small wins everything outside of us tells us we need actually covering up the real, long-term losses in our lives that unless we quickly wake up, we will never be able to replace?

Regrettably, few of us are even thinking about the impact and consequences of the changes that we have accepted for the simple reason that everything we have seen and experienced so far, whether it’s the way we shop, are able to access so much through apps or online, or are able to access whatever we believe we want in mere moments online, leaves us with the idea that AI and anything related to digital tech can and will only ever be good for us.

But what was wrong with the way things were two years ago; five years ago, or ten years ago, where the tech that we had in our lives or that we had access to was concerned?

Didn’t life work just as well, and perhaps in some ways that may seem unrelated even better then?

Have computers, smartphones and digital tech really benefitted our lives in the ways that we are led to believe? Or have they actually disadvantaged us and changed our lives in ways that make us very unhappy and create what for some are unmentionable problems, in so many other ways?

Technology and technological improvement or progress is a phenomenon that we must begin looking at in relation to ourselves, the people we care about and those who we have real face to face contact with, regularly within our communities; You know – people living in the real world that is OFFLINE!

Do we actually need a world where we and those people around us do not have jobs and cannot work, because a machine or different software systems can now do all the things that every person does at work, or once did?

Do those people who don’t have jobs really benefit from no longer having work?

Is the best use of AI and new technology to replace us? Or the best use of AI and new technology to assist us?

Surely there can be no doubt that the world around us would be a much better place to live and experience if everyone who can work, does work; and that in return for doing a full weeks work, they in turn receive enough money or remuneration of whatever kind to ensure that they can cover the cost or be able to secure all the basic essentials that give them independence, rather than a situation now evolving where the masses look like they are soon to be left behind.

Where is the drive really coming from for jobs to be lost and make it all seem necessary?

Who benefits from it appearing to be a foregone conclusion that ending jobs and mass redundancy is not a choice that is any of ours to decide?

What we can be sure of is it will not ultimately be people like you and me.

Technology and the advancement of technology and AI is like everything right across life that is being driven by the quest for greater and continuing profits, and the wealth, control, power and influence that quickly follows behind.

We don’t see it because we aren’t supposed to and that’s why what’s really changing underneath what we can see is actually leaving us, our communities and our humanity behind.

The choices being made about the way that new technology is being rolled out and used are not being made in the best interests of the masses. Because if they were, they would not be threatening to take away jobs and resulting in outcomes like the destruction of communities and to lives that it will bring.

If the purposes driving AI and new Tech were genuinely about improving life for all, the changes underway would not be beginning to impact us all negatively, just so that business owners, tech owners and those that benefit can elevate themselves in every way, whilst their actions and choices begin to leave everyday normal people like you and I behind.

Yes, the idea that all jobs, tasks and requirements could be met by machines, software and automation will sound appealing if it means that everyone can do and have whatever they might want without ever having to do a day’s work or lift a finger in effort, ever again.

But just how real do you or anyone that you know believe that idea to be?

Do you really think that the tech companies and those who control AI and digital technology are working day and night at an incredible pace to create a utopia where we all do nothing, pay for nothing, are given everything for free and have whatever we want in our lives without paying for it or working for it?

Wouldn’t we be seeing and experiencing signs of this great giveaway already, if they really were on the altruistic pathway to greatest giveaway to everyone else ever known?

The answer is that whoever and whatever is controlling all of this only has the benefits to themselves in mind. Or they would be happy for AI, for tech and the advancements that are available to be used only to improve life and working conditions for everyone, rather than them being imposed at the head of a revolution, deliberately hidden in plain sight, that is apparently set to leave the majority of the people across the world behind.

The narrative about the role of AI is a myth and the creation of a prophecy that can and will only become true, because we believe the narratives and respond to them as if they were already true. Not Because they are actually real and the AI takeover is as complex or on its imminent way to sentience or being genuinely all-knowing in any way.

The irony is that if we continue to believe the hype; continue to be fooled into thinking AI can and will do all we are being told it will, simply because we have been blindsided by the speed that it works and what we have seen it do so far, we will walk into an elephant trap where the masses will have made themselves irrelevant and we will soon be of no use to those who are controlling all of this and believe it is their right to exploit everything and the lives of all others, if it will help them to achieve whatever they want to do.

The advances in digital technology and Artificial Intelligence are just another step in a long-term process of centralisation and power transfer by design, where the power and Personal Sovereignty that all human beings should have the right to enjoy, has slowly but surely been stolen, but with our manufactured consent.

Our independence and personal power have been progressively eroded and transferred to organisations and people who have no idea who we are, what we do and know nothing about the communities and places where we live.

Yet they now find themselves on the cusp of being able to control every part of our lives and existence through the removal of our independence, making life dependent upon them and their system, which can and will only be able to exist because we have failed to question and reject the idea that this all represents progress for humanity.

Without change, the creation of a mass sub-class of people who can do nothing more than exist – if it is indeed possible for them to continue to do so – is now inevitable and the only way our subservience to this system and what it is dictating can take us.

To be clear, the AI Takeover and technology revolution that we are being conditioned to expect is not necessary. It is not legitimate at any level or in any way.

Technology and innovation should always be used to benefit the whole of mankind. Not just those who create it, own it, regulate it or pay for it, with money they would never have even had, if they had not first corrupted and manipulated the monetary and economic systems of the world so that it would appear to have legitimately gifted them everything that they now have.

Life and what it should offer every person was never meant to be this way.

Power over us all was never meant to be concentrated within the hands of just a few.

Centralisation, remoteness and the dehumanisation of every process and function that maintains and provides for life was never meant to be funnelled into the hands of others. People who will soon have the ability to choose whether other people live or die, based on using the digital chains that our own eagerness to have more of everything has unwittingly enabled them to wrap around a lot more than just our wrists.

Walking away from a system that puts money and the technology that enables it first, as the absolute priority before the masses of people is key to creating a different future. A good future for all, where everyone once again has the opportunity to be free, to be independent and to enjoy fulfilling the functions necessary to create and maintain a genuinely good life. All the time working together and collaborating only with those strictly necessary within our communities to provide everything that is essential for life in a real, localised world where everyone and everything can be trusted, because it can always be seen.

Simplicity of life; simplicity of governance; simplicity of business models and structures; simplicity of money and the systems that only administer it are key to improving every part of life and creating the equitable experiences and opportunities that only real justice, fairness and balance in everything can provide.

Yes, the technology we have certainly has its place.

But the place of tech is to help humanity; not replace it.

People need jobs more than anyone needs a Tech Takeover. Because we all need to function in the world; to contribute to it and to what we all need from each other collectively in some way, and then in return receive whatever we need that will at the very least meet all of our essential and basic needs, so that we can function and support those we care about without ever having to seek or become reliant upon help.

We must reject the use of AI, Tech and the takeover of real life by the digital universe.

We need to get back to basics with the prioritisation of businesses and business structures that are essential to life being sustainable and maintained locally.

Businesses that employ people need to be sized in such ways that mean everyone in every community has work to do and a contribution to make within a system where everyone who can work does work and receives everything they need to be functionally independent and therefore able to meet all their own needs.

Imagine the 21^st century equivalent of the village green, where every essential and basic need for members of the community is met by small businesses dedicated to meeting just the needs of the people that everyone knows and meets face to face, pretty much each and every day.

Businesses that are and only ever will be big enough to provide services and goods to the people they serve as specialists in whatever it is that they do. So that customers always have the best experience possible for them to have, and the business itself prioritises just those needs and pays all of the staff and its working shareholders fairly and justly, ensuring that retail prices will never exceed an affordable relationship with what everything genuinely costs.

This scenario is not only possible. It has now become necessary, if we want to enjoy lives that are built around values and care for everyone, for our communities and the environment that supports us. Rather than pursuing a desperate path to make life and everything we ever do about whatever material wealth, possessions and power that we have.

Money, profit and everything that prompts and promotes the greed that underpins it are the real reasons for centralisation and the transfer of control.

There is no humane reason for any person to become impoverished by the implementation of any form of technology that isn’t being used purely for the benefit of humanity or the public good.