Category: Local Politics

The Basic Living Standard: Freedom to Think, Freedom to Do, Freedom to Be with Personal Sovereignty that Brings Peace to All

The Illusion of Freedom

One of the biggest misunderstandings of the time and culture we live in is the way we understand, respond to, and relate to what freedom really is.

Many of us believe that we are free: that we can do what we want, think what we want, say what we want, and be what we want.

Yet we all live under rules that must be followed – rules which few would deny are becoming more intrusive, more prescriptive, and increasingly powerful in the consequences they impose if we fail to use our “freedom” in the way someone else has dictated it must be perceived and lived.

The Everyday Policing of Speech

Some reading this may respond with something like “Tell me something I don’t know.” And that would be fair enough, given the growing body of anecdotal evidence confirming that freedom of speech is not what it seems.

Almost everyone we might consider “ordinary” – those without an agenda, simply wishing to get on with their lives – now finds themselves policing their own relationships and interactions with the outside world.

Speaking truths rooted in common sense, or even in the way things have always been, increasingly risks offending those who demand the world operate according to their own design.

The Marginalisation of Independent Thought

Even reflecting on what is, at best, the marginalisation of independent thinking – and at worst, the steady criminalisation of individual thought – opens up a maze of debates.

These debates inflame questions about the role, scope, and power of groupthink, and how establishment narratives are not only shaping, but increasingly dictating blueprints for how everyone must live their lives.

Encroachment by the Establishment

To believe we are free in a world, country, and culture where the establishment seeks not merely to encroach but to manage every part of life is alarming enough.

Yet it becomes even more disturbing when we recognise that these restrictions and attacks on freedom are not created for the common good, but to benefit someone else.

The Role of Money as Gatekeeper to Life, Peace, Happiness and Freedom that is Governed by Someone and Something Else

Freedom Defined by Money, Not Ourselves

Yes, we are already in a fight for those freedoms outlined above.

The fight is increasingly hard because a division has already been created between what we believe freedom is, and what we believe we already know it to be – which itself isn’t what we are experiencing.

That we continually look outside of ourselves for validation should make sense, because when we think about the difference between what we imagine freedom to be – doing whatever we want – and what society actually allows us to do, shaped by those who create the narratives that control society, we quickly begin to see that there is a significant difference involved.

The Manipulation of Meaning

Creating circumstances where somebody can change the meaning of something so that a word comes to mean something very different from what we know it to be could never happen in an environment where people are confident in who they are, their communities, their culture, and what it ultimately means just to be themselves.

We have now reached the point where even the term common sense is being brought into question, sometimes considered offensive or demeaning.

This is because the fundamental basics of life – the value set that upholds the framework for a good life – have been replaced by a system that places money at the heart of everything.

Money at the Centre of Every Choice

Money has become so ingrained in every part of life that, without even questioning our motives, it dictates the decisions and choices we make.

Everything in life is based on what we can afford, earn, save, accumulate, or the cost and risk of cost.

Jobs are about what we earn now and in the future. Insurance is about betting against risk. Education is about securing a career that pays more than a working wage. The house we live in depends on the mortgage and deposit we can save or borrow. What we own depends on money already earned or borrowed. Holidays depend on savings or loans. Cars depend on leases or borrowing, unless bought outright.

Contracts Before Basic Essentials

It doesn’t matter who we are or what we earn. The world now requires us to sign up, subscribe, or rent services and products we once simply bought.

These arrangements are backed by contracts that must be paid before any income can be considered disposable.

Only food and basic essentials remain in the realm of pay-as-you-go – and even those are increasingly tied to credit cards, buy-now-pay-later schemes, or payday loans.

Judgement Through Wealth and Appearance

We judge people by their appearance, their property, their clothes, or their transport – signals of “who the world tells us they are.” And when we consider how much future earnings and financial security matter, even ordinary people outside the elites evaluate partners and marriage commitments based on what a potential partner can afford.

The Private Turmoil of Dependence

Few can see just how powerful, overwhelming, and controlling money has become.

Fewer still talk about it comprehensively.

Yet the reality is that what we do, what we have, how we are perceived, and whether we are accepted or rejected all revolves around money.

This leaves us in private turmoil and pain – what some might call or know as hell – because parts of life, or what is respected as life today, are cut off or restricted by money’s role.

The System’s Sick Success

This system is not natural. It has been deliberately created for the benefit of those who already have much more than they will ever need.

Its success lies in convincing the masses that freedom and status are directly proportional to wealth.

Meanwhile, the mechanics of the system ensure that resources flow away from those who have every right to them, leaving them dependent on credit and enslaved by debt.

In return, people have unwittingly surrendered property, ownership, and the peace of mind that comes only from self-sufficiency.

Fear as the Final Driver

Everything in life is driven by money – or more precisely, by the fear of not having it.

Everyone, at every level, makes decisions and behaves according to financial implications.

When people or businesses are pushed into dependence on external finance, even reason itself is abandoned. Questions of viability or self-sufficiency are ignored, as survival becomes the only priority.

When this mindset dominates, it doesn’t matter who someone is or what position they hold. They become vulnerable to the power and control of whoever influences what happens next.

This is the world we live in today. The plans, strategies, and changes overtaking life – many of which defy common sense – have taken hold because someone, somewhere, intended and created it to be this way.

This Is by Design

Where this all becomes difficult to accept is in recognising that nothing about the journey which has brought the world to this point is accidental.

It is by design.

The reason is simple: people who know they are free, cannot be controlled.

Freedom Cannot Be Controlled

If people cannot be controlled, they will not accept, take part in, or contribute to a system that is stripping away everything from them.

Everything that should, and always will, remain naturally theirs.

The Drive to Own and Control

Those who want more – who want to control more, own more, and take everything from everyone else – cannot succeed unless they first control people themselves.

They cannot take everything away unless they make the process appear legitimate.

Control must come first, because without it, the system suffocates and then collapses, under the weight of its own injustice.

Freedom Does Not Look Like This

Because most of us are not physically imprisoned and we face each day with choices that seem to be ours, many believe we are free and living free lives.

However, what we are experiencing – where we are coerced by narratives, advertising, groupthink, the media, and even the “free-minded” influencers we follow online to keep up – is not freedom at all.

Coercion Disguised as Choice

Beyond the natural requirement to meet the basic and essential needs of maintaining human life, anything that influences our behaviour or sets frameworks for “acceptable” choices is not freedom.

It is an infringement upon freedom.

At its most basic level, it is simply doing what we are told.

Money as the Measure of Freedom

Because of the way the money system has been designed, people believe they are free if they have enough money to do what they want or to buy what they think will meet their needs, as the system suggests them to be.

But money has become the value itself – rather than the work, the products, the property, the services, or the people involved.

We now believe we can only have anything, whether it is to meet needs or wants, if we have or can obtain the money to pay for it – and that these things are all the same.

Our freedom is dictated entirely by our relationship with money.

The Illusion of Value

If money were as real as we believe it to be, the value of the money in our pockets or the salary we earn would not reduce without us doing anything that changes anything.

Yet it does.

And the value of our money changes, because money is under someone else’s control.

The game, or rather the whole deck of life, is stacked in someone else’s favour.

The Mathematics of Decline

In the UK, inflation typically reduces the value of the £Pound by 2–3% each year.

This means prices rise, and your money buys less over time.

  • Inflation is measured by the Consumer Price Index (CPI).
  • If inflation is 3%, £100 today will buy only what £97 did a year ago.
  • The effect compounds: after 5 years at 3% inflation, £100 is worth about £85.87 in real terms.
YearReal Value (£100 Start)
0£100.00
1£97.00
2£94.09
3£91.27
4£88.53
5£85.87

To keep up, your income must rise at least as fast as inflation. Otherwise, your purchasing power declines each year. And in truth, when we look more closely at the figures against what it costs to buy the things that we rally need, inflation seems to be putting those prices up a whole lot more.

Running to Stand Still (Revised)

Because inflation in the UK typically reduces the value of the £Pound by at least 2–3% each year, you must increase your income by at least this amount just to maintain your current standard of living.

The effect compounds: after five years at 3% inflation, £100 is worth only about £85.87 in real terms.

This means you are running uphill simply to stay in the same place.

Of course, this is assuming the official rate of inflation is accurate – if the real rate is higher, the decline in purchasing power is even greater.

It Doesn’t Have to Be This Way – The Alternative Is The Basic Living Standard and an economy that puts People First

Because money sits at the heart of everything in life, very few of us can visualise a way of living that works differently. And as we’ve already discussed, you aren’t supposed to – because this is how you come to believe you are free, when in fact you have been enslaved.

Money as the Toolkit of Control

Money, in the way we use it today, is the toolkit of the greatest crime ever inflicted on humanity.

Its genius lies in the way it convinces people to participate in, and even further, the very crime being committed against themselves.

In this system, money is the only god. But it is not benevolent or caring.

It is unjust, unfair, and strikes no balance when it comes to equity, equality, or what is good for mankind.

Two Masters Cannot Be Served

Man cannot have two masters.

For as long as money and the money system remain the only god, people, community, the environment, and basic human values will never be what life is truly about.

The system is designed to keep us dependent, fearful, and compliant. Whilst it slowly takes or destroys everything that is genuinely important and of value to us all.

The Alternative: The Basic Living Standard

There is an alternative. And although it may sound radical to suggest that one rule changes everything, the truth is that a future awaits where real freedom is not only possible for some, but becomes the way of the world for all.

The Basic Living Standard (BLS) is that rule.

It guarantees that everyone’s essential needs – food, shelter, energy, water, clothing, healthcare, and the means to participate in society – are met.

It is not charity, welfare, or a handout. It is a universal right, paired with universal responsibility.

Real Freedom Through Self-Sustainability

By meeting everyone’s basic and essential needs, the BLS creates the foundation for self-sustainability and genuine freedom.

It dismantles the false god of money by ensuring that survival is no longer dependent on debt, wages, or exploitation.

This is the only way to achieve real freedom: freedom to think, freedom to do, freedom to be, and personal sovereignty that gives peace to all.

What Financial Freedom Is and What It Means

The simple difference between the world that is destroying us and the world we need is this principle: We should only take what we need to meet our basic and essential needs, and reject completely the idea that there is anything good in accumulation, control, or influence beyond that.

No person or organisation should have the right hold or control any more than they need for themselves or those they have direct and meaningful responsibility for.

Abundance

Natural abundance is the state of having our basic needs met and knowing they will continue to be met through our contribution and work – without interference or control from others.

Yet what we have come to believe abundance to be is wholly manufactured. It equates to accumulating, owning, and controlling as much as possible, regardless of the cost to others or to the environment.

When we recognise that true abundance is simply safety, security, health, happiness, and the basics that sustain them, we will also understand that these are the real foundations of inner peace. And peace is what abundance is really all about.

The Peace to Relax

Think carefully about how you feel when you no longer have to worry about what you will earn, borrow, or buy; how people will judge your clothes or job title; or anything else that creates fear of loss, anxiety about the future, or depression about what you think you may have already lost.

Yes, life has its own natural anxieties – relationships, health, and personal challenges.

But these are not manufactured to benefit someone else or a system that exploits us in every conceivable way.

When you have natural peace – because you are not in a constant race to keep up (while condemned to fall behind unless you add more than 3% value to your financial ‘worth’ each year) – if you are not already too far behind – you begin to see life through an entirely different lens.

Freedom to Think

When we have the freedom to think, we have the freedom to learn what life is really about.

We can be open to joys and pleasures that appear too simple or meaningless when we are trapped in pursuit of someone else’s agenda.

These joys hold value and meaning that help us grow into the human beings we truly are.

With this level of freedom, we see life’s mechanisms and systems in a healthier way.

Our expectations become simple. We develop patience with others and understand that we are not defined by what we have or earn, but by how we treat and respect others – even when there is no advantage to gain.

Freedom brings the ability to experience natural joy, not happiness sanctioned by someone else’s criteria.

It allows us to make and learn from mistakes, seeing them as value rather than cost – a perspective denied by the money-centric world.

Personal Sovereignty

Freedom on this level opens the door for us to be exactly who we are meant to be.

It facilitates personal sovereignty – the ability to make real, independent, and meaningful choices that affect only us, without fear of consequences from outside of ourselves.

This sovereignty exists beyond the participation and contribution required of us within the community to do our part, ensuring that everyone’s basic and essential needs are met.

It is the balance between individual freedom and collective responsibility, and it is the essence of financial freedom.

The Framework for a People-Centred Life

The Basic Living Standard is the formulaic basis of the life we all need.

It guarantees that everyone has access to everything necessary to meet their basic and essential needs, in return for each person contributing through work and activity to ensure that every necessary process – and yes, every business – is completed so that everyone’s needs are met.

Businesses That Serve Needs, Not Greed

The entire system revolves around this formula.

Businesses and organisations exist only where a basic or essential need must be met.

They never grow beyond the size necessary to serve the community in which they are located and involved.

This ensures that the purpose of business is not accumulation or profit, but service to people and the environment.

Technology as Support, Not Replacement

In this system, people are supported and aided — but not replaced — by technology and AI. The need for human contribution remains central, because participation is not about money or profit. It is about people, community, and the environment around which our lives revolve, and the experiences we share together.

The Same Rules Must Apply to Everyone

For fairness, balance, and justice to exist, the same rules must apply to all.

Part of the human condition is the instinct to survive – an instinct that quickly evolves into selfishness.

It drives us to use any advantage, whether through opportunity or design, to take more, hold more, or obtain power over more than we actually need.

We often justify this behaviour by believing it makes us special compared to others, or by using it to visibly demonstrate superiority.

Survival Instinct vs. Shared Responsibility

Yes, it can be argued that this is how humanity naturally behaves.

But just because it appears to be the default response to fear of lack, it does not mean it is right.

When there is enough of everything for everyone, and when we have the knowledge and understanding to build and manage a world that works for all – as we now have, the pursuit of excess is neither natural nor justified.

The True Depth of the Basic Living Standard

In this sense, the Basic Living Standard is not just a benchmark or guarantee of dignity and financial independence.

It is also a framework that requires everyone and everything to function with its principles in mind.

Every process, system, and mechanism must flow from and to its implementation.

The BLS is not simply about meeting needs – it is about ensuring that the way society operates is aligned with fairness and responsibility.

No Special Rules, No Hierarchies, No Excerptions

There can be no special rules for anyone. No exceptions or hierarchies where some hold more power or influence than others. No materially based differences that allow one person to be perceived as fundamentally different from another.

Only when everyone and everything plays by these basic but essential rules, can the integrity of the system be assured.

Integrity Between Person, Community, and Environment

Ultimately, it is the integrity of the relationship between person, community, and environment that must be protected.

This integrity ensures that fairness is not just an ideal, but a lived reality – one that sustains balance and justice for all.

The Local Economy & Governance System (LEGS)

The Local Economy & Governance System offers the framework and societal structure that enables the Basic Living Standard to function.

It ensures that everyone can thrive and enjoy the freedom to think, to be, and to do – the personal sovereignty that guarantees peace for all.

A Human Economy

LEGS is a human economy.

Everyone who can, works or contributes, and contribution replaces currency as the foundation of exchange.

This means that the value of each person’s effort is measured not in money, but in the way it sustains people, community and the environment.

The End of Inequality

Most of the social issues we experience today are the effects of inequality – wealth inequality, social inequality, and the distortions created by a money-centric system.

In LEGS, these issues disappear. They no longer exist because the system is built on fairness and the natural law of cause and effect: when everyone contributes and takes fairly, everyone’s needs are met.

Businesses That Serve Communities

As described in the Basic Living Standard framework, businesses and organisations exist only to meet essential needs.

They remain the size necessary to serve their communities, never expanding into monopolies or profit-driven empires.

This ensures that resources are not hoarded, and that abundance is measured by access, not accumulation.

Technology as a Partner, Not a Master

Technology and AI support people but do not replace them.

The purpose of contribution is not profit, but participation.

Work is about sustaining life, community, and environment – not about chasing growth or accumulation.

In this way, LEGS ensures that human dignity and responsibility remain at the centre of society.

A System Built for People

The Basic Living Standard cannot work within the collapsing money-centric system that we have today.

It requires a new foundation – and LEGS provides that foundation.

By reorienting governance and economy around people, community, and environment, LEGS makes possible a society where freedom is real, sovereignty is respected, and peace is shared.

Benefits of the Basic Living Standard and LEGS

The benefits of the Basic Living Standard (BLS) and the Local Economy & Governance System (LEGS) are wide-ranging.

They work not only at the individual level, but also across communities and the environment.

Together, they create a framework where fairness, responsibility, and sustainability replace fear, inequality, and exploitation.

Reducing Crime

When everyone’s essential needs are guaranteed, desperation disappears.

Crime rooted in poverty, scarcity, or inequality declines because survival is no longer at stake.

Contentment and Peace of Mind

True abundance is not accumulation, but having enough.

By ensuring that everyone has what they need, BLS and LEGS foster contentment.

People are free to live without constant anxiety about money, status, or survival, creating peace of mind and stability across society.

Removing the Mental Health Crisis

Much of today’s mental health crisis is driven by insecurity, debt, and the relentless pressure to “keep up.”

With BLS, those pressures dissolve. Freedom to think, be, and do allows people to experience natural joy, rather than manufactured happiness tied to wealth or possessions.

Ending the Benefits Problem

The current welfare system is built on dependency and stigma.

BLS replaces this with a universal guarantee: everyone has what they need, and everyone contributes what they can.

This ends the cycle of benefits, bureaucracy, and inequality, creating dignity and independence for all.

Sustainable Living and the End of Overuse

Because businesses under LEGS exist only to meet essential needs, they never grow beyond the size and capacity required by the communities they serve.

This prevents monopolies, overproduction, and exploitation of resources.

Communities consume sustainably, and the environment is protected.

Work and Contribution as Valid Beyond Pay

Contribution replaces currency. Work is valued not by wages, but by its role in sustaining the community.

Whether paid or not, every contribution matters – from caring for others to maintaining essential services.

Valuing Every Kind of Work

In a system where survival is guaranteed, people see the value in every kind of work.

No job is “beneath” anyone, because all jobs contribute to sustaining life.

Happiness in Any Role

People become happy and content to do any kind of job, because work is no longer about survival or status.

It is about contribution, community, and purpose.

Experience as a Shared Tool

Life experience itself becomes valued as a tool for the benefit of all.

Wisdom, skills, and lessons learned are shared within communities, enriching collective wellbeing.

Care Rooted in Community

Care for those who may be too young, too old or unable to contribute for any other reason is carried out by members of the community who are best able, and who still receive what they need to meet their basic and essential needs.

This ensures that care is not commodified or dependent on profit, but is a natural part of community life.

A System That Benefits All

The benefits of BLS and LEGS extend beyond individuals.

They strengthen communities, restore dignity to work, protect the environment, and create peace of mind.

By removing scarcity, inequality, and fear, they build a society where freedom, sovereignty, and justice are not privileges, but universal realities.

Life Beyond Survival

Freedom Creates Time for Life

When freedom and personal sovereignty are real — when the compulsion to “keep up” is gone – something remarkable happens. Time and space open up.

Social activities, sports, and hobbies stop being luxuries or calculated uses of “spare” time that isn’t really spare at all. They become normal parts of everyday life.

The Basic Living Standard and LEGS make this possible by removing the constant pressure of survival and competition.

Instead of chasing money or status, people can invest their energy in pursuits that bring joy, health, and connection.

Communities thrive when individuals have the freedom to play, to create, and to participate in activities that enrich life rather than drain it.

Yet the greatest gift of this freedom is not only the chance to do more, but the chance to be more.

With peace of mind and comfort secured, people gain the space to think differently and expansively about who they are and what their existence really means.

Freed from fear and scarcity, we can explore our true selves, discover new perspectives, and embrace the human experience in full.

Rediscovering Real Relationships

Equally important is the refocusing and repurposing of face-to-face, in-person, real-life relationships.

In the money-centric system, digital interactions and transactional exchanges have all too often replaced genuine human connection. But under the Basic Living Standard, relationships regain their rightful place at the centre of life.

The priceless social skills and social learning that come from real-world interaction equip every person for a happy, healthy life.

They foster empathy, cooperation, and understanding – qualities that cannot be replicated by algorithms or screens.

When survival is guaranteed and competition is replaced by contribution, people are free to build communities rooted in trust and shared experience.

This is not just a benefit of the system; it is its very purpose.

Human beings are not data points or consumers. We are social creatures, and our wellbeing depends on the strength of our relationships.

Conclusion: A Future Built on Real Freedom

The journey through this essay has shown that what we call freedom today is little more than an illusion.

Rules, narratives, and the money system have combined to create a world where survival is dictated by fear, debt, and inequality.

Yet this system is not natural – it is by design, and it benefits only those who already have more than they will ever need.

The Basic Living Standard and the Local Economy & Governance System offer a different path.

Together, they dismantle the false god of money and replace it with a framework built on fairness, contribution, and sustainability.

They guarantee that everyone’s essential needs are met, that businesses serve communities rather than greed, and that technology supports rather than replaces people.

The benefits of this transformation are not limited to crime reduction, mental health, or dignity in work. They reach far wider – across personal wellbeing, community strength, and environmental sustainability.

They reshape how we understand abundance, how we value relationships, and how we live in balance with the world around us.

They restore the integrity of the relationship between person, community, and environment, ensuring that freedom is not just an individual experience but a shared reality.

Beyond these practical gains, BLS and LEGS deliver something even greater – the freedom to live fully.

Time for hobbies, sports, and social activities becomes normal, not a luxury. Real relationships are rediscovered, and the social skills that equip us for happy, healthy lives are restored.

This is not utopia. It is a practical, people‑centred system that aligns with the natural law of cause and effect: when everyone contributes, everyone’s needs are met.

It is a vision of a world where freedom is not defined by money, but by sovereignty; where justice is not a privilege, but a universal reality; and where peace is not manufactured, but lived.

The choice before us is simple. We can continue down the path of fear, inequality, and exploitation and the destruction of humanity that it guarantees. Or we can embrace the Basic Living Standard and LEGS, and build a future where freedom, fairness, and community are the foundations of life.

The Basic Living Standard and LEGS create a human economy, where balance, fairness, and justice underpin life. They place people before money, with priorities fixed upon community and environment. The BLS is the simple benchmark rule — the rule of all rules – upon which all systems of trade and commerce are aligned. By recognising abundance in its natural form, where everyone has enough to meet their needs but not their wants, the dynamics of life are transformed. Every need beyond the tangible can then be met, because peace, freedom, and personal sovereignty flow from financial independence. This is what allows each of us to enjoy and learn from the human experience in full.

Glossary of Key Terms

Basic Living Standard (BLS):
A universal framework that guarantees everyone’s essential needs—such as food, shelter, energy, water, clothing, healthcare, and the means to participate in society—are met. It is not charity or welfare, but a right paired with responsibility.

Local Economy & Governance System (LEGS):
A proposed societal structure that replaces currency with contribution, ensuring that the value of each person’s effort is measured by its impact on people, community, and environment. LEGS supports the BLS and aims to eliminate inequality and exploitation.

Personal Sovereignty:
The ability to make real, independent, and meaningful choices that affect only oneself, without fear of external consequences. It is the balance between individual freedom and collective responsibility.

Contribution Economy:
An economic system where work and participation are valued by their role in sustaining the community, not by monetary reward. Contribution replaces currency as the foundation of exchange.

Universal Rights and Responsibilities:
The principle that everyone has the right to have their basic needs met, and the responsibility to contribute to the wellbeing of the community so that others’ needs are also met.

Abundance (Natural):
A state where basic needs are met and will continue to be met through contribution and work, without interference or control from others. True abundance is defined by safety, security, health, and happiness—not accumulation or control.

Money-Centric System (Moneyocracy):
A societal structure where money is at the heart of every decision, relationship, and opportunity, often leading to inequality, dependence, and loss of freedom.

Groupthink:
The tendency for collective narratives or establishment views to shape and dictate how individuals think and behave, often at the expense of independent thought and personal freedom.

Self-Sustainability:
The ability for individuals and communities to meet their own basic needs without reliance on debt, wages, or exploitation. It is a foundation for genuine freedom.

Universal Guarantee:
A commitment that everyone’s essential needs will be met, removing the stigma and dependency associated with traditional welfare systems.

Further Reading:

To help deepen understanding of the ideas behind the Basic Living Standard (BLS) and the Local Economy & Governance System (LEGS), the following resources are grouped by theme.

This structure will help you explore the foundational critiques, proposed solutions, mindset shifts, economic mechanisms, and personal perspectives that underpin the vision for a fairer, people-centred society.

Each link includes a brief summary to guide your reading.

Understanding the Problem

The Basic Living Standard & LEGS Framework

Mindset and Social Change

Economic Mechanisms and Work

Personal Transformation

BLS Freedoms and Personal Sovereignty PDF_Vers1_15Dec25Download

The Future of Work: Redefining Value, Meaning, and Human-Centric Employment in the Age of AI and Economic Change

AI’s Crossroads: Choosing a Human-Centric Future for Work and Society

Artificial intelligence is rapidly transforming the world of work, automating roles created by money-driven systems and exposing the fragility of an economy built on profit and status rather than genuine human need.

Without a deliberate change in direction, society risks deepening inequality, eroding community, and reducing work to a function of control and dependency.

The current trajectory, shaped by decades of economic and technological planning, threatens to devalue essential contributions and undermine the foundations of freedom and dignity.

But this path is not inevitable. There is an alternative: a future where work is meaningful, communities are empowered, and the economy serves people – not the other way around.

This work challenges the prevailing narrative and introduces The Local Economy and Governance System (LEGS) – a model for a human economy built on the basic living standard.

LEGS offers a practical framework for restoring value to real work, strengthening local governance, and ensuring that technological progress enriches lives rather than diminishes them.

The choice is ours: continue down the AI-led road of exclusion and control, or embrace a system that prioritizes human well-being, fairness, and genuine prosperity for all.

Rethinking Work in a Human-Centric Future

Beyond Money-Driven Roles

The work and employment of a better, human‑centric future will be real, tangible, and deeply meaningful. Unlike many roles today that exist primarily to prioritise the flow of money, this future will focus on impact, purpose, and the enrichment of human life.

The Challenge of New Realities

The near future is poised to introduce truths, realities, and perspectives about our lives that many will find extremely difficult to accept.

This difficulty arises because true freedom – freedom to do, freedom to think, and freedom to be – requires us to revalue everything: how we see, how we interact, and how we set expectations.

These expectations will need to operate in a completely different, yet ultimately rewarding, way.

Shifting Perceptions of Good and Bad

In this transformation, what seems good today may quickly be seen as bad, while what appears deficient or undesirable now may suddenly reveal itself as profoundly valuable.

One of the most striking areas where this reversal will become evident is in our daily relationship with work – what we do, and how we define the very act of working.

The Distortion of Work by Money

The concept of work itself has become twisted by its association with money and the reward of money for labour.

Work is widely accepted as “work” only if it pays a wage.

Within this framework, society has conditioned us to undervalue technical, hands‑on, manual, and physically demanding forms of labour.

These roles, despite their essential contribution, are treated as if they hold little real value.

The Rise of Professional Roles

Meanwhile, a whole range of so‑called “professional” roles – many of which either had no necessity or no clear purpose until recently – have emerged and now dominate the employment landscape.

Some of these roles did not even exist a few decades ago, yet they are rewarded and elevated far above the practical, human‑centric work that sustains daily life.

The Devaluation of Real Work in a Money-Centric Culture

When Real Jobs Lost Their Value

Money‑centric culture has made “non‑jobs” real while rendering real jobs valueless in the eyes of society.

Historically, work was simply whatever it took to make life function. People played different roles – some paid, some unpaid – to sustain a household.

There was an unspoken recognition that it takes diverse contributions from everyone to enjoy life together, no matter what those contributions might be.

The Shift to Consumerism and Financial Systems

This balance changed with the rise of consumerism and the adoption of the moneocratic FIAT financial system, reinforced by GDP metrics and decades of law and regulatory changes.

These shifts progressively pushed households into a world where every member had to work for financial reward before the essential tasks of maintaining a home could even be addressed.

Even self‑sufficiency – achieved through both employment and domestic work – was no longer enough to live on if one was engaged in “real jobs.”

Such jobs now attract only ‘minimum wage’, a measure that has never represented the true benchmark of what it takes for a household to live independently and for its members to experience genuine financial freedom and the peace of mind that it facilitates.

The Mechanics of Wealth Transfer

With an economic system so fundamentally bogus, it should come as little surprise that its clever mechanics were designed to transfer wealth to those in control.

To achieve this, the system had to create a mindset that persuaded the masses to facilitate what is, in reality, a crime against humanity – not only against those they were conditioned to believe were ‘lesser’, but ultimately also against themselves.

This required that people be “bought in” to a value set where a select few and those who took every step necessary to be like them, could become disproportionately rich by doing ‘jobs’ that required little effort – or none at all.

The Creation of Jobs and Economies of Scale

Jobs were reshaped and split off from existing roles as money began to demand output.

Economies of scale, hailed as progress, destroyed local businesses and community systems that had worked perfectly well and had the ability to facilitate self-sustained models of family life.

These practices imposed a new slavery to money, progressively making it our master.

Careers as Money Machines

Jobs that supported the growth of money‑centric culture became the new measure of success.

Young people have shifted from more traditional aims of living a balanced, all‑round life to pursuing careers defined not by trade, service, or goods, but by the pursuit of money.

Careers have become all about making money, expanding the ways to make money, and protecting every part of the machinery involved.

Quality of customer experience and the delivery that brings it seldom now sit at any industry or profession’s heart.

Entitlement and the Multigenerational Workforce

The splitting of systems into job categories defined people not by the real work they did, but by the possessions and status attached to their roles.

This slowly created a culture of entitlement.

A multigenerational workforce has emerged that takes much in life for granted, including the myth that wealth can only grow while jobs become less like work.

The belief that “what one wants is what one deserves” has spread, with the expectation that such entitlement can be imposed upon everyone encountered without consequence – even in the digital, parallel world.

Sleight of Hand at Scale

Those in created jobs believe life can only get easier, while those performing the essential tasks that make life work for everyone cannot earn enough to escape the constraints of their labour.

These ideas and the narratives that underpin them are little more than a distraction – a sleight of hand on an epic scale – deliberately hiding what has truly been happening at the cost of everyone involved.

The Switch in Values

The shift from valuing people and the work required to live, to valuing money as the only important thing, has made society lazy, entitled, and ill‑prepared.

People now accept change passively, no matter how illogical or damaging, even when the same destructive process repeats with increasingly bizarre and counterintuitive outcomes.

These changes almost always come at a cost to people, communities, and the environment, whilst being presented as having the best interests of everyone at their heart.

The Direction of Travel that the World as we know it is on

The Difficulty of Belief

People often find it hard to accept that all of this was deliberately planned by others.

Yet money – and the possession of wealth, power, control, and influence – is an extraordinarily powerful motivator.

For those who become addicted to it, there is almost no limit to what they will attempt or achieve.

The Mechanics of Power

When such individuals hold power, or gain access to those who do, they can reshape systems so that authority itself works in their best interests.

Slowly, almost imperceptibly, they change the structures of life so that everything begins to function in ways that serve them.

Long-Term Planning

The plans that have brought the world to its current state have not emerged overnight.

They have been underway for well over 150 years, steadily unfolding across generations.

This long trajectory has seen massive changes in the way international business is conducted. Changes that were only made possible through the upheaval of two world wars.

Unseen Problems Do Not Cease to Exist just because they are Unseen

The Hidden Nature of Change

Just because we cannot see or fully understand a problem does not mean it does not exist.

The adoption of a financial system that has created unprecedented wealth transfer – not only in the value of money itself, has also resulted in the ownership of business, property, and infrastructure, which has all steadily shifted into the hands of the few – at what could now be a disastrous cost to us all.

Technology as a Companion to Wealth Transfer

Alongside this financial transformation, technological progress has advanced in lockstep.

The chronology of events, from digital systems to information technology and hardware innovations, shows that these developments did not simply arrive at the moment we first experienced them.

They were planned, anticipated, and in many cases known to be possible for long periods of time.

Artificial Intelligence, and the AI takeover we now hear so much about, is not an isolated phenomenon. It is part of this broader strategy and plan, woven into the same trajectory that has shaped finance, ownership, and control.

The AI Takeover and Its First Victims

It is no accident that the first jobs to disappear in the AI takeover are those that are tied directly to the money project itself.

These roles, created and sustained by a system designed to prioritise financial mechanics and the transfer of wealth over human value, were always the most vulnerable to replacement.

Collective Choice and the Future of Work

The loss of other jobs, however, is not predetermined. It is our collective choice.

How we respond, adapt, and redefine the meaning of work in response to what is happening around us will ultimately determine the direction of the future.

Opening Ourselves to an Alternative Future

Awakening to a New Reality

Influencers are now beginning to ask the pressing question: “What happens to everyone whose job is taken by AI?”

At the same time, members of the elite openly declare that many jobs will no longer be needed within a decade.

People are slowly awakening to a new reality – one where the expectations we have been spoon‑fed and accepted so willingly, because life has seemed distractingly good, no longer add up.

This awakening is compounded by the fact that the economy itself sits on a knife edge.

Governments, behaving with illogical static rigidity, offer no meaningful response.

The contradictions are glaring, and the narrative no longer holds together.

The World Envisioned by the Few

The architects of this system – the people who designed and intend to run the world as they envisage it – have exploited and legitimised the theft of wealth, resources, and tools from the masses.

Through this process, they have been creating the foundations of a new world order built on control and deprivation.

Technology, ownership, and finance have been reshaped not to empower humanity, but to strip it of independence and place power firmly in the hands of the few.

The promise of “you will own nothing and be happy” is not a utopian vision. It is the culmination of a strategy that has taken from everyone to enrich the few, ensuring that the majority remain dependent while the architects consolidate control.

Systematic Devaluation of Real Work

It was purposefully engineered that people in manual, technical, and real jobs have been systematically devalued.

This devaluation has been reinforced by every institution and system.

Governments have deliberately abused their mechanisms to top up and subsidise wages, hiding the reality that the lowest paid wages are insufficient.

At best, this is exploitation; at worst, it is slavery – successfully concealed from view.

The True Value of Real Jobs

These real jobs are the ones that should be paying what it actually costs to live.

Yet the people in these roles – the very ones the new system will still need – will not willingly participate in servicing its demands if they are free to choose otherwise, especially when everyone else has been effectively cast aside.

Freedom as the Ultimate Threat

Freedom itself is the greatest threat to greed and to the furtherance of the moneycratic system.

Everything aligned with that system depends upon control.

True freedom undermines it, exposes it, and ultimately resists it.

Choosing Jobs That Make Life Work Rather Than Making Life Out of Work

The Dystopian System Already in Place

The dystopian system you may now be able to visualise is already baked in.

Within this dynamic, all the “non‑jobs” that the system has encouraged us to hero‑worship will inevitably disappear, replaced by AI.

The flow of money and wealth these roles facilitated has already reached its destination.

The elites are openly telling us this, and they are not trying to hide it.

The Fate of Technical Work

Yet not all jobs will vanish on the same timeline.

Technical roles – or at least a restricted number of them – will remain for longer than the created non jobs will.

This reality matters. It may be the knowledge of which jobs endure, and why, that provides people with the opportunity to resist and to choose a new direction, rather than surrendering to what otherwise appears to be a very dark fate.

All Jobs Must Have Meaning for People to Understand Their Value

The Illusion of a Life Without Work

Whilst we may like the idea of never working again and having every conceivable need met, there is nothing about this that is real.

The reality of being provided for in this way requires conformity and restricted behaviour.

No matter what toys or distractions we are given, such a life would resemble what we recognise today as being no different to that of a caged pet.

Activity as the Source of Value

Activity that contributes to a good life is not only necessary; it is fundamental to the value we each hold.

In the alternative future we must now consider seriously, contribution matters not because it is labelled as “work” or “employment,” but because it makes life good.

Any act that sustains or enriches life carries meaning, regardless of whether it fits the narrow definitions imposed by what the current system teaches us, or not.

The Irony of Non‑Jobs

It is ironic that people in high‑flying “non‑jobs” today often dream of simpler lives -baking cakes, crafting cheese, keeping animals, growing food, building with bricks and wood, or fabricating metal – rather than being controlled by the rules of a game and chained to a city desk.

The truth is that jobs with meaning are those that provide or support the provision of life’s essentials.

This is what every form of work, employment, or contribution should actually be about.

A Future That Serves People, Not Money

The future that serves people instead of money will be built upon direct relationships and locality.

 In such a future, everything will be transparent, and people will work and provide only for the people, communities, and environments that directly touch their own lives.

This is the foundation of meaningful work: activity that sustains life, nurtures community, and strengthens the bonds between people and the world around them.

Quality of Customer Experience and Locality Will Define Business Sizes – Not the Myth That Bigger Is Best

Freedom Through Localised Business

To choose freedom from the unnecessary oppression and exclusion that serves the few – and exists only by design – requires that we create businesses and operations focused on people, community, the environment, and their genuine needs.

True freedom lies in resisting the structures that prioritise profit over humanity and in building enterprises that serve life directly.

Rethinking Work and Economy

Some question how a future can exist where everyone works and still has enough.

Yet when work is about life rather than money, the realisation emerges that there is indeed enough of everything for everyone – provided we focus on need rather than the want that money‑centric thinking encourages for the benefit of the few.

In such a system, the economy ceases to be about job titles and power; it becomes about what we all do and achieve together.

Enough for Everyone

Everyone can work. Everyone can have a job. And everyone can have their needs met if we accept that there is no legitimate reason for any person to accumulate more than what meets their own needs.

Exploiting even the smallest advantage to gain whatever one desires undermines fairness and perpetuates inequality.

Integrity, Fairness, and Justice

Balance, fairness, and justice require integrity.

Everyone must act with the awareness that their choices affect others.

Taking more than one needs – no matter the opportunity, no matter how easy it may seem – always results in others having less. Even when the outcome is invisible to the one who takes.

Work With Meaning, Not Slavery

Work is necessary for everyone. But fulfilling work – work that sustains life and community – is not the same as financial slavery, where greed and exploitation are the only measures of value.

The future must be built on meaningful contribution, not on the hollow pursuit of wealth which can never and was never intended to be made available to and shared by everyone.

Key Takeaways

Before moving on to further resources, here are the central messages and insights from this work.

  • AI is Transforming Work: Artificial intelligence is rapidly automating roles created by money-driven systems, exposing the weaknesses of an economy built on profit and status rather than genuine human need.
  • Current Trajectory is Unsustainable: Without a deliberate change, society risks deepening inequality, eroding communities, and reducing work to a function of control and dependency.
  • Devaluation of Real Work: Essential manual and technical roles have been systematically undervalued, while “nonjobs” and money-centric careers have been elevated, distorting the meaning and value of work.
  • Freedom and Dignity at Stake: The existing system undermines freedom and dignity, making people passive in the face of damaging change and reinforcing cycles of exploitation and dependency.
  • A Human-Centric Alternative Exists: The Local Economy and Governance System (LEGS) offers a practical, human-centred framework for restoring value to real work, strengthening local governance, and ensuring that technological progress enriches lives rather than diminishes them.
  • The Choice is Ours: Society can continue down the AI-led path of exclusion and control, or embrace a system that prioritises human well-being, fairness, and genuine prosperity for all.

Further Reading

The following works are arranged to guide you through a clear progression: beginning with the foundational principles that challenge the myths of money and value, moving through critiques of collapse and exploitation, examining the role of technology and AI, and finally presenting the Local Economy Governance System (LEGS) as a practical blueprint for transformation. Taken together, they form a journey from diagnosis of the problem to the design of solutions, and ultimately to the vision of a sustainable, human‑focused future.

Foundations of Change

  1. One Rule Changes Everything – full text (20 December 2024)
    Introduces the single guiding principle that underpins systemic change, framing the rest of the discussion.
  2. Future economics must be tied only to people, their contribution, what is important to sustain good, fair and balanced lives – and legal currency must never again be open to speculation and manipulation (25 July 2025)
    Outlines the foundational principle that economics must serve people directly, not speculation or manipulation.
  3. The basic living standard explained (24 October 2025)
    Defines what a fair and sustainable living standard should look like in practice.

Collapse and Critique

  1. Breaking the money myth: rethinking value, exchange and equality (12 November 2025)
    Challenges the myths surrounding money and explores alternative ways of defining value and fairness.
  2. Money is the greatest crime of our time (12 November 2025)
    A powerful critique of how money has been weaponised against society and freedom.
  3. The coming collapse and the revaluation of everything needed to regain personal freedom and control (12 November 2025)
    Explores the inevitability of collapse and how revaluing essentials can restore freedom.
  4. Facing the economic collapse: the real crisis behind money, wages and freedom (14 November 2025)
    Examines the deeper crisis of wages, freedom, and exploitation hidden beneath economic collapse.

Technology and AI

  1. People need jobs more than AI and the tech revolution (1 September 2025)
    Argues that human work is essential for dignity and meaning, beyond the promises of automation.
  2. Technology and artificial intelligence should only fill jobs when no humans are available (13 November 2025)
    Argues for a human‑first approach to work, with AI as a last resort rather than a replacement.

Workforce and Revaluation

  1. Revaluing the workforce: escaping the grip of greed (26 November 2025)
    Calls for a revaluation of the workforce, freeing people from exploitation and restoring dignity to work.

LEGS and Transformation

  1. The Local Economy Governance System – online text (21 November 2025)
    Provides the full text of the Local Economy Governance System (LEGS) as a framework for change.
  2. LEGS – The Human Economy: a blueprint for transformation (1 December 2025)
    Introduces LEGS as a practical blueprint for building a human‑centric economy.
  3. The Local Economy Governance System (LEGS): escaping the AI takeover and building a human future (4 December 2025)
    Explains how LEGS can resist the AI takeover and create a sustainable, human‑focused future.

Closing Note

Taken together, these works reveal both the depth of the crisis and the clarity of the solutions.

They show how money has distorted value, how collapse is inevitable under the current system, and how technology – if left unchecked – will accelerate exploitation rather than liberation.

Yet they also illuminate a path forward: one built on fairness, locality, transparency, and human‑centric governance.

The choice is ours. By engaging with these ideas, we prepare ourselves not only to understand the scale of what is happening, but to act with integrity and courage in shaping a future that serves people, community, and the environment above all else.

Future Work PDF_Vers1_8Dec25Download

Power and Distance: Why UK Politics Fails the Public and How Local Governance Can Restore Trust

As a writer, commentator, and former local councillor, I witness the frustration, anger, and despair felt by individuals and groups – such as our farmers – who struggle with a system where politics and government no longer work for them.

I share some of these feelings myself, not simply because their experiences are clearly unjust. But because of the persistent, unwritten expectation from people who are being hurt by all this, that these problems are only temporary.

Too often the problems are dismissed as misunderstandings or assumed to be issues that will resolve once new politicians are elected. Yet very recent history has shown us that changing politicians changes nothing: the downward trajectory of growing unfairness and imbalance continues, remaining at best unchanged.

It is fair to say there is a widespread disconnect between what the public rightly expects from the system and what we actually receive. This gap exists in part because we have been conditioned to believe that government, politics, and the public sector operate in a very black‑and‑white way – clear, predictable, and straightforward in how they function.

Public Perceptions vs. Reality

Whilst this view should be one that we could all rely upon, the reality is very different.

The complexity and mechanics of policymaking and delivery are extraordinarily difficult to navigate – well beyond what most people imagine. And this is before we even begin to confront the thorny issue of corrupt or self‑serving behaviour, whether by a single individual, multiple actors, or indeed by politicians, executives, managers, and officers across a nebulous hierarchy that stretches through many levels and points of influence.

Most people believe that power in Parliament works like this:

  • An election is called.
  • We vote for the person we think will best represent us in our constituency (though in practice, most people base this choice almost entirely on political party affiliation).
  • That representative then decides how to act when a policy comes up for a decision, guided by what is best for us.
  • If our chosen political party forms the government, the policy is enacted.

And we believe that everything necessary happens as a result of this, because all the public servants working in government departments, quangos, NGOs, and any other service funded – and therefore led – by the government (in other words, paid for by us) simply follow the instructions of politicians. After all, it is the politicians who are the legislators, elected to make those decisions on behalf of us all – isn’t it.

That, in principle, is how public policymaking and implementation across the UK should work. Yet the reality is that it rarely does, largely because:

  • The hierarchical structures and systems reaching across the public sector are simply too vast – too much “big government.”
  • Most importantly, very few politicians or public servants actually see it this way.

Barriers to Effective Policy Implementation

Regrettably, the vast and convoluted structure of the public sector, with its top‑down nature and multiple ‘decision makers,’ often distorts the process.

Commands that reach them are reinterpreted, repackaged, and passed along in ways that suit the direction they wish those instructions to take.

As a result, the action at the point of implementation can look very different from the original decision – not because that decision was unclear, but because countless influences and policies, each carrying their own interpretations, reshape and redirect almost everything along the way.

This happens even before the protectionist prejudices of public servants add further obstacles.

The outcome is that two very different results – the one envisaged and the one delivered – can exist under exactly the same name.

And that, of course, is how it works – assuming that what government says it is doing, and has done, truly matches the actions it takes.

Yet the clever use of words and interpretation often means that, even before a decision leaves Westminster, the outcome we expect and the outcome intended are already heading in completely opposite directions.

If this already sounds complicated and conflicted enough, we must also consider what influences our politicians, and how those influences shape their decisions.

We should ask whether the people we see on TV and hear on the radio – the very individuals we elected – are truly the ones sitting at the top, occupying the seats where the ultimate responsibility rests.

The Mechanics of Power in UK Politics

  • Political parties select candidates to run in elections for Parliament, local councils, and mayoralties (typically only where local decisions reflect the interpretation of national policy once local policy is adopted). More often than not, his is also where elected politicians receive an allowance or salary.
  • Parties choose candidates who will follow instructions from the party – or more specifically, from senior politicians within it – regardless of the constituency they represent after a successful election.
  • The area or location itself doesn’t matter. It’s a numbers game: just as the first‑past‑the‑post system (FPTP) elects the candidate (and therefore the party) with the most votes in a given area, Parliament and councils also make decisions based on majority votes. This is why the party with the most seats after an election forms the government or administration – it is assumed that the result of all votes thereafter will fall in line with them and whatever decisions they make.
  • Locally and nationally, leaders of councils, mayors, and the prime minister become the de facto decision‑makers of their administration, mayoralty, or Parliament, because there is an expectation that members of the party holding power or the majority will always vote the same way and do as instructed.
  • Any party aligned politician who fails to vote as required by the party risks losing favour. Depending on the importance of the vote, they may be excluded from the party (have the whip removed), fail to be reselected as a candidate, or at the very least be sidelined until they are seen to be behaving as expected.
  • Whips act as party enforcers, pressuring and often bullying sitting politicians into remembering who put them in their “job” and what they are really there to do and who they are there to do it for.
  • Leaders and mayors are typically expected to follow whatever the party leadership or prime minister in London demands in relation to national policy, though they retain some flexibility where decisions are entirely local.
  • Prime ministers are seen to hold the ultimate executive authority over what happens in Parliament. This is why they can appear to function like a president—unless they take deliberate steps to remind everyone that we have a parliamentary system, where things do not always work in that way.

That is how most people working in or around politics and the machinery of government interpret the power structure today.

The prevailing assumption is that whatever Parliament, the prime minister, or cabinet ministers say the government is doing – and why – is usually how everything will unfold, once public servants play their part and make it happen as expected.

However, beyond the reality that political parties typically decide who represents us – even though we perceive the list of party candidates on our ballot papers as offering what a genuine choice – there is also an assumption that anyone elected as a politician, and therefore as a public representative, is automatically qualified, experienced, and possesses the knowledge, understanding, and capability required to carry out the responsibilities of the ‘job’ they have been ‘chosen’ to do.

In reality, while some individuals put themselves forward as political candidates with genuine public service in mind – and possess both the background and, most importantly, the integrity required to carry out the role of being a public representative properly – the majority of those who reach political office, appearing on TV and speaking publicly, do not.

The majority of our politicians sought the ‘job’ rather than the responsibility – even though some have never seen it this way. But they were willing to say yes to anything and do whatever was necessary to secure a position of control, allowing them to appear as though they were leading, when all the time, they have been led.

Yes‑men or yes‑women—it makes no difference. Anyone who advances by saying “yes” to those who hold power over their progress, and never pauses to say “no” when decisions affect the lives of the people they are meant to represent, does not truly understand what it takes to lead.

And any politician who claims they merely “played along” until they were in charge, promising they would then do the right thing, cannot credibly be believed.

Leaders who cannot truly lead depend on those around them. The people with ‘supportive’ jobs offering ideas, suggestions, or solutions that give the illusion they can.

When politicians, especially very senior figures or those ‘singled out for great things,’ have to rely upon others to supply the words that are later seen to come from their own mouths, they become highly vulnerable to anyone with influence who can reach them and exert control in a seemingly ‘helpful’ way.

Influence of External Actors

Unfortunately, the system we live within today is money‑centric, and our entire framework of values is shaped in the same way.

It follows, then, that money, big business, and those who control or are sanctioned by them have become the people – or influencers – that politicians increasingly turn to for guidance and solutions.

This reliance grows stronger as they approach power. Because it is the only way that out-of-their-depth politicians can identify solutions that appear to work within the very system they are supposed to control.

Politicians are just as captivated – if not more so – by big names and high‑profile figures in business, finance, and global governance organisations – entities that are closely aligned and working together with them because of what is perceived to be the symbiotic relationship between government and money.

The same relationship plays out between the most senior public servants and the policy teams for all of the organisations that have real influence. Much of their time is spent behind the scenes collaborating with counterparts who represent the real interests that set government direction.

At this stage, it should be clear that the real forces driving and controlling central government – and shaping both what it appears to do and what it actually does from Westminster – are those who advise, ‘support,’ and influence the government and its subservient politicians.

What we see is little more than a carefully staged performance: a well‑developed display of theatrics and political cosplay delivered by the political classes, rolled out in every direction where real power is supposed to reside, designed to make it seem as though that is how the system truly works.

Remember that the imposters are usually the ones who believe they should be there.

They don’t work for us. They work for them.

Some politicians are certainly honest. Yet even among those, many are either naïve or fail to grasp how the bigger picture operates within a system that is fundamentally corrupt.

This silent corruption stems from the way individuals act. Whether in their own interests, in service of their party, or according to personal beliefs.

In more extreme cases however, there is plenty of anecdotal evidence to suggest politicians have been compromised by their own actions or bought off with promises of post‑parliamentary jobs, directorships, speaking fees, or an endless array of sweeteners.

These incentives encourage them to vote in ways that align with the company they keep in London, rather than prioritising what truly needs to happen to benefit the local people in the constituencies they are meant to represent – That’s people like you and me.

Regrettably, it is not only politicians who are distorted by the distance created by the current system and structure of government across the UK.

Public servants, working across the many organisations and tiers of government funded by the taxpayer, primarily focus on and prioritise the agendas and practices handed down by their employers. Employers who have long forgotten what it truly means to be public service organisations.

Instead, they have fostered a protectionist culture that encourages risk avoidance and discourages anything that might compromise career paths, gold‑plated pensions, or the safety of sticking rigidly to tick‑box processes.

As a result, public servants often shy away from tailoring their workload to meet the specific needs of the very members of the public they are appointed to serve.

Consequences of Leadership Gaps

The simplest interpretation of the events that have led to this system‑wide malaise might be to conclude that no public servant works for anyone other than themselves.

Yet the reality is more complex: institutional factors have long created an environment in which protectionism thrives. Chief among these is the absence of genuine leadership in Parliament and across key public sector organisations – institutions filled with individuals beholden to agendas other than those of the people they are meant to represent.

As a result, the public sector has effectively been on autopilot for a very long time, propelled by inertia and sustained by the convenient myth that everything continues exactly as it always has.

Limits of Leadership Change in Westminster

Many people hope that another change in government will be enough to resolve the problems now facing the country – issues that just as many seem to accept as having been caused by the current Labour government, and in only the 17 months it has been in power.

Sadly, while it would be great for there to be a quick, overnight solution – or a set of solutions – that could be easily implemented and pushed through under some new scheme such as Reform UK’s proposed ‘DOGE,’ the reality is different.

As you may already have gathered from what you’ve read above, the problems are now beyond systemic.

Believing that simply cutting budgets and arbitrarily slashing costs will be enough for the public sector to regain balance and correct itself is, like so many politicians who fail to see the bigger picture, dangerously naïve.

Beyond the rot we have already discussed, one of the truly colossal problems in fixing public services is the influence that money, markets, and big business already exert.

Added to this are external power-centric players such as the EU and global governance bodies like the WHO, UN, and WEF, whose policies and power have become inextricably intertwined with almost everything the UK public sector currently does.

In reality, if Reform were to begin slicing and dicing across the public sphere without coordinating – and thereby subjugating – its policies to the demands of today’s ‘key’ influencers, the strategy it proposes would quickly resemble a game of Jenga. The players might believe they have steady enough hands to start by removing the foundational layers, but the structure would inevitably become unstable very quickly indeed.

The leaders of Reform may yet prove themselves to be the “Jenga Boys” of public policy, As bringing the whole house of cards down almost as quickly as they take power—if that is what happens at the next General Election, is the outcome their rhetoric currently indicates will be most likely if they lead the next government.

Without exception, all of our politicians are currently tied into the system that is backed and pushed by the establishment.

If all they intend to do is reach for sticking plasters and offer superficial fixes, the result will inevitably be the same, and their suggested approach will merely speed the process of collapse up – if it isn’t already complete by then.

Systemic Breakdown: Causes and Implications

The reason attempts to ‘fix’ the public sector as we know it will not succeed is the inseparable relationship it has with everything else beyond government and controlled by the elites – relationships that revolve around money and a financial system that is fundamentally flawed and now destroying everything.

Put bluntly, everything harming people today is a direct consequence of how the entire money centric system operates, and how it has been operating for a very long time.

Whether the collapse comes from factors seemingly beyond politicians’ control, or directly from actions the next government and its leaders are knowingly prepared and brave enough to take, the reality remains the same: the only way to restore balance, fairness, and justice for everyone across all areas of life is if the current money‑centric system is either deliberately brought down or allowed to collapse on its own.

Then – and only then – will the majority of us be ready to embrace the kinds of changes that must take place across every part of the economy, governance, and daily life, so that, in time, something recognisable as genuine sanity can be restored.

If those in power act only in ways that serve their own local interests, why shouldn’t your power remain local and stay with you?

It would be easy to stop here – having laid out the detail of what is wrong – and leave it at that.

Yet if you are reading this, the chances are you already sense that something much bigger and more profound is wrong, even if it defies logic and is difficult to grasp in terms of what exactly those wrongs are. Or rather what the true causes of the problems have been.

The reality is that there is nothing easy to accept about how government and the public sector operate, especially when measured against what any of us should reasonably expect – and what our lived experience increasingly shows us instead.

Members of the public are not alone in their disbelief. The reality we face is that many of those perpetuating the problems within government, politics, and the public sector are acting as they do simply because they are told that this is how everything gets done.

That excuse only goes so far.

Institutional Failure

For many, the real implications of institutionalised failure to take responsibility for those you serve are far from victimless.

They manifest in scandals such as Rotherham, the Grooming Gangs, and the Post Office cases. Stories brought into the light only because many different people, through their lived experiences which they effectively share, revealed events that can ultimately be understood and summarised as being the same thing.

Individuals are being failed by our system of government every single day. Not only structurally and institutionally, but also by the politicians and public representatives who hold local seats across every tier of government.

Too often, they act in ways that serve themselves, rather than doing what is right for the people they are meant to represent.

The damage of distance

The dangerous myth of the digital age – one we have been encouraged to believe – is that every kind of information and guidance we need for life can be trusted to appear on the nearest screen.

While this may feel intimate in nature, it is in fact a remote interface that creates distance not only between us and the sources we too readily trust but also erodes the value of genuine relationships and social interactions that once filled the space in between.

The irony is that politicians and decision‑makers continue to keep everything local when it comes to their own sources of information and guidance.

While this is no excuse for the consequences of their actions – or for the harm caused by the system they have enabled- it does reveal something important.

When people recognise that power rests with them, they naturally turn to local resources and relationships. Face‑to‑face interaction fosters trust in ways that distant sources never can, making it both sensible and effective to rely on what is close at hand rather than on remote influences.

The difference between us and the politicians – and those truly in power– is that they exploit the distance they have created between themselves and the public for their own benefit, all while constructing a narrative that insists whatever they do, and whatever harm they inflict, there is simply no alternative.

They can only do this because we have forgotten that the power they abuse is, in fact, ours.

If we were to recover, restore, and remember the true nature of our own power, we must return to relying on the people and communities around us – those who we can genuinely trust.

After all, the individuals you can look in the eye and interact with every day rarely have the opportunity to abuse that trust, and the behaviour such relationships foster and require makes exploitation far less possible.

A Vision for Local Governance and Economic Reform

Recognising how things could be different – and what it means to embrace an alternative system with all that comes with it – is an essential starting point for us all.

It will help shape or identify both the choices we will make and the responsibilities we must accept when the most obvious signs of collapse begin to appear.

When that moment comes, we will face a choice: to take a different path that restores power to ourselves, or to become fully enslaved and captive to a system that survives only because the power of each individual has been taken away and concentrated in the hands of one—or a few.

Be assured that once you realise you are there, those in control will have already put in place the safeguards necessary to ensure it can never be any other way again.

By now, everyone has heard of Orwell’s 1984 and the dystopian hell it depicts – a reality awaiting those who embrace and continue on the current path, only to discover, when it is already too late, that they have been stripped of all meaningful value.

The alternative is to reject the money‑centric, top‑down, hierarchical, and patriarchal system, that has long concealed the fact it has not only failed us. But has also enabled little more than sanitised or legalised criminal behaviour against us all.

Instead, we must embrace a system that places the dignity and freedom of every individual – rooted in people, community, and the environment – at the forefront of everything that we do.

The Local Economy & Governance System offers a new and alternative perspective, presenting the frameworks and rules that would shape a localised model of democracy and public policy‑making.

This system places what is right at the heart of every decision.

Decisions made by, or on behalf of, the people in each community, whose fates and destinies are inevitably and permanently intertwined.

Key Takeaways

Before exploring further reading and resources, it’s important to reflect on the central insights that we have shared.

The following key takeaways highlight the underlying causes of public distrust in UK politics, the influence of power structure and external actors, and the urgent need for reforms that refocus towards local governance.

These points offer a foundation for understanding both the challenges and the potential pathways toward restoring trust and accountability in public life.

  • Systemic Disconnect: There is a persistent gap between public expectations and the actual workings of UK politics and government. The complexity and hierarchical nature of the public sector often distort policy implementation, leaving many feeling unrepresented and frustrated.
  • Power Structures: Political parties and senior figures exert significant control over elected representatives, often prioritising party interests and external influences over genuine public service. This results in a system where decisions are shaped by those with power, rather than by the needs of local communities.
  • Influence of Money and External Actors: The increasing reliance on big business, financial interests, and global organisations has further distanced politicians and public servants from the people they are meant to serve. This money-centric system perpetuates unfairness and undermines trust.
  • Leadership Gaps: The absence of genuine leadership and accountability in both Parliament and the public sector has led to institutional inertia and protectionism, with public servants often prioritizing self-interest over public good.
  • Local Governance as a Solution: Restoring trust and balance requires a shift toward local governance, where decisions are made by and for communities. Face-to-face relationships and local accountability are essential for rebuilding trust and ensuring that power serves the public.
  • Call to Action: This work urges readers to recognise their own power, reject the current top-down, money-driven system, and embrace local, community-focused models of democracy and public policy-making.

Further Reading & Resources

To dive deeper into the challenges of governance, economics, and reform — and to explore practical ideas for change — these selected readings from Adam’s Archives provide context, critique, and pathways forward.

1. Foundations & Historical Context

2. Critiques of Politics & Leadership

3. Economic & Governance Challenges

4. Pathways Forward

Power and Distance PDF_Vers1_6Dec25Download

The Local Economy & Governance System | Policy Summary

Overview:

The Local Economy & Governance System (LEGS) presents a comprehensive framework for restructuring society, economy, and governance to address persistent challenges such as inequality, environmental degradation, and social fragmentation.

LEGS prioritises People, Community, and The Environment as the foundation for all policy decisions.

1. Principles for Policy Design

  • People: Policies must protect individual dignity, personal sovereignty, and wellbeing.
  • Community: Emphasize collective responsibility, local decision-making, and mutual support.
  • The Environment: Ensure stewardship of natural resources and embed sustainability in all sectors.

2. Governance Reform

  • Transition from hierarchical, distant leadership to local, democratic, and transparent governance.
  • Leadership is earned through service and accountability, not status or authority.
  • Decision-making structures (e.g., the Circumpunct model) ensure open, participatory processes.

3. Economic Restructuring

  • Implement a local circular economy: value circulates within communities, minimising external dependencies.
  • Money is treated strictly as a medium of exchange, not as a source of power or speculation.
  • Essential needs (food, housing, healthcare, transport, clothing, communication, social participation) are guaranteed for all through the Basic Living Standard.

4. Public Good & Social Provision

  • Redefine public services as Community Provision, locally accountable and ethically grounded.
  • Every working member contributes 10% of their working week to public services and charity, replacing traditional public sector staffing with a community-led workforce.

5. Sectoral Policies

  • Food: Prioritise local, natural, minimally processed foods; restrict luxury and processed foods.
  • Health: Prohibit public smoking/vaping; deliver social care through relational, community-based models.
  • Housing: Limit ownership to one dwelling per person; treat housing as a right, not a commodity.

6. Education & Skills

  • Focus education on developing key life skills, self-awareness, and personal sovereignty.
  • Balance academic, experiential, and social learning to support independence and ethical awareness.

7. Business & Enterprise

  • Businesses must serve the public good, not profit. Social Businesses are non-profit, collectively owned, and fill gaps where private enterprise does not meet essential needs.
  • Ownership and wealth are distributed equitably among contributors.

8. Technology & AI

  • Strictly regulate AI and technology to ensure they serve humanity and do not replace human agency.
  • All essential services must have human-led, non-digital alternatives.

9. Freedom, Sovereignty, and Ethics

  • Protect personal sovereignty, freedom of thought, and belief.
  • Foster morality and ethics through freedom, security, and shared humanity—not through rules or oppression.

10. Decentralisation & Locality

  • Structure society around decentralised, self-contained Universal Parishes, ensuring governance, economy, and community life remain local, ethical, and responsive.

Strategic Takeaway for Policymakers:

LEGS offers a blueprint for policy innovation that centres on local empowerment, ethical governance, and universal access to essential needs.

Policymakers are encouraged to adopt and adapt these principles to create resilient, fair, and sustainable communities – where the public good is always the primary objective, and every individual’s dignity and wellbeing are protected.

LEGS Policy Summary 20Nov25 PDF_Vers1_22Nov25Download

Discover a Blueprint for Fair, Sustainable Communities: Introducing the Local Economy & Governance System (LEGS)

Are you searching for a fresh vision of society—one that puts people, community, and the environment first? The new book, The Local Economy & Governance System offers a transformative framework for reimagining how we live, work, and govern together.

Why Read This Book?

  • A Timely Critique and Practical Blueprint: LEGS doesn’t just highlight what’s broken in today’s world—it lays out actionable steps for building a society where everyone’s essential needs are guaranteed, and collective wellbeing is the top priority.
  • People, Community, Environment: These three principles guide every aspect of the LEGS framework, from local governance and economic models to daily life and public policy.
  • Personal Sovereignty: LEGS places strong emphasis on empowering every individual to live freely, responsibly, and authentically. Personal Sovereignty is recognized as the foundation for dignity, ethical living, and genuine freedom within the community.
  • Authentic Governance: Say goodbye to distant, hierarchical leadership. LEGS champions local, democratic decision-making, where leadership is earned through service and accountability—not status.
  • Basic Living Standard for All: Imagine a world where full-time work at the lowest wage covers all core living costs—no more poverty, reliance on charity, or skipped essentials.
  • Community Contributions: Every working member gives back 10% of their week to support local services and charity, replacing traditional public sector staffing with a community-led workforce.
  • Ethical Business & Economy: Businesses exist to serve the public good, not profit. Social enterprises fill gaps where private business doesn’t meet essential needs, and wealth is distributed equitably among contributors.
  • Responsible Technology & AI: LEGS strictly regulates technology to ensure it serves humanity and never replaces human agency. All essential services have human-led, non-digital alternatives.

Who Should Read LEGS?

  • Community leaders, policymakers, and activists seeking practical models for local empowerment.
  • Anyone concerned about inequality, environmental sustainability, or the future of governance.
  • Readers interested in social innovation, ethical business, and resilient communities.

Get Involved

LEGS is more than a book—it’s an invitation to participate in shaping a fairer, more compassionate world. Start conversations, challenge old systems, and take practical steps in your own community. The journey to a better future begins with the choices we make and the values we uphold.

Discover LEGS PDF_Vers1_ 20Nov25Download