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.
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.
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.
Shifting People, Communities, and the Environment toward a New Way of Living—Secured by a Governance Framework for a Better Future
The Revaluation marks a transformative period—a shift in thinking, behaviour, and systems. It represents the transition from a money-centric, neoliberal, and globalised world model to one that prioritises people, human values, and local communities. In this new paradigm, everything is reimagined to support meaningful, positive life experiences for all.
Traditionally, “revaluation” refers to reassessing monetary or financial worth. However, the term has long applied to any kind of review or reassessment—of objects, actions, or opportunities—where the value we assign influences our decisions and actions.
In essence, anything with value can be revalued. Within the context of the global systems that have shaped and often harmed humanity, The Revaluation is a comprehensive transformation. It aims to build a world that is truly better for everyone. This includes the development of new systems, processes, and governance tools that not only secure and sustain this improved future but also prevent any return to the corrupt, inhumane, and damaging structures of the past.
Why The Revaluation Is Necessary
Restoring Our Moral Compass and Reclaiming Humanity from a System That Has Lost Its Way
For too long, we’ve neglected our moral responsibility to consider others—people, communities, and the environment beyond ourselves. Even those most vulnerable, including the lowest-paid and those reliant on the state, have come to believe that success and survival require putting oneself first. This mindset has made it easy to overlook how those with power and resources have taken this pursuit of “more” to extreme and damaging lengths.
Exploitation—of people, systems, and nature—has become so normalised that many instinctively withdraw from acknowledging social problems, especially when solutions might come at a personal financial cost. Money has become the dominant tool for shaping behaviour, influencing every aspect of life—even those that seem unrelated to finance. It has replaced genuine values with a single benchmark: monetary worth.
This relentless pursuit of profit, wealth, and control by a privileged few has led to the collapse of communities, the erosion of human dignity, and the destruction of the environment. The natural systems that once sustained us have been disregarded, and the principle of sustainable living—once a cornerstone of generational survival—has been cast aside. The result is a world where ordinary people struggle to live independently within systems that no longer serve them.
Tragically, this outcome has not been accidental. It stems from deliberate strategies designed to exploit the masses, with depopulation seen as a desirable end once those in control have extracted all they can. By making life superficially easier, they’ve masked harmful changes and encouraged people to embrace their own diminishing value.
The most insidious part of this strategy is the willing participation of the public. Many still refuse to believe that those driving these harmful agendas have been openly declaring their intentions for decades. Our own selfishness has been weaponised—used to distract us and blind us to the truth hidden in plain sight.
When the truth finally becomes undeniable, few will challenge those responsible. Their defence will be simple: “We told you what we were doing, and you chose to go along.” This complicity is deepened by the addictive nature of money-centric living. Money has become not just a tool, but the ultimate goal—an addiction that feeds itself, offering fleeting satisfaction while eroding real happiness and human connection.
Addiction leaves little room for reflection or accountability. Many reject the uncomfortable truth about their relationship with money and its consequences. The illusion of comfort is easier to accept than the responsibility that comes with waking up and choosing a different path.
Spelling It Out: How Life Doesn’t Work
A Breakdown of some of the Systemic Failures We’re Living With
The minimum wage is not enough for anyone to live independently. Without benefits, charity support (like food banks), or debt, survival is nearly impossible.
It’s cheaper to buy food shipped from across the world than to purchase locally grown produce—despite the environmental and social costs.
Retailers are more focused on selling finance packages than the actual products or services we go to them for.
Politicians promise whatever they think we want to hear, deliver none of it, and then do as they please until the next election, when the cycle repeats.
Local councils seem more interested in fining residents for minor offences than in providing meaningful services that help people live well.
Police forces often appear uninterested in tackling real crime.
People are expected to self-censor their thoughts, speech, and actions to avoid offending anyone who insists their personal worldview must be universally accepted.
We’re told that if technology can do something, human involvement is no longer necessary—regardless of the consequences for displaced workers, shuttered communities, or the unsustainable use of resources.
Individuals are increasingly treated as reference numbers—valued only for their potential to generate income for those who can exploit them.
Through the influence of big business, government, and the establishment, we’re being led to believe that farms are no longer necessary to produce food.
Money has become more important than people, values, or the planet.
Private companies and individuals can own and charge rent for access to natural resources that should belong to everyone.
Blame is always shifted elsewhere, even though accountability is one of the most powerful tools for learning and growth.
We’re told to champion diversity, yet the way it’s framed often reinforces divisions between people and communities that might otherwise not exist.
What Will the Revaluation Look and Feel Like?
Understanding the Transformation We’re Already Living Through
The Revaluation—and the process leading up to it—is already underway. We are living through it now.
It’s profoundly difficult to recognise this transformation for what it is, precisely because we’re immersed in it.
Every part of it is unfolding around us and within our individual lives in deeply personal ways.
This makes it nearly impossible to take an objective view—much like walking through a forest and only seeing the trees immediately around us, rather than standing on a hillside and seeing the entire landscape.
The changes we’re experiencing—best described as the gradual disintegration of the system we’re leaving behind—are happening bit by bit, affecting each of us differently. Yet a growing sense of shared experience is emerging.
Increasingly, people are recognising that governments and public services are no longer functioning as they should, and that our current system of governance is in disarray.
This doesn’t mean a dramatic event or series of events won’t occur. In fact, it’s likely that such disruptions are already on the horizon. At some point, the system we’re all riding—like a train—will derail.
We’ll then face a choice: attempt to repair and continue on the same damaged track or accept that our future requires a new direction—one not bound by tracks laid by others and not limited by a system incapable of change.
In truth, we’ve come far enough to know that change is inevitable. The real question is whether we’ll embrace meaningful transformation that could benefit everyone or resist it out of fear—clinging to the comfort of a train we’ve grown dangerously accustomed to.
The opportunity to engage in conversations and act toward building a Local Economic and Governance System is already available to us.
While the defining milestones of The Revaluation may not yet have arrived, they are surely close. Now is the time to explore, plan, and consider how a fully localised, people-centric system can work—for us and for everyone.
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.
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No food banks. No emergency loans. No skipped prescriptions or unpaid bills. Just a life that’s livable, sustainable, and free from poverty.
Being right does not automatically make anyone else wrong; even when you have the loudest voice
The Penny appears to finally be dropping amongst the masses that power does not necessarily mean virtue. And it’s certainly no guaranteed of integrity either.
Meanwhile, for the powerful, reality is also now dawning that position, influence and how loud they may be in public (or how many people hear them) doesn’t mean that they can do anything they want and that the power they seem to have will automatically make anything they do right.
The problem is, belief that position and being seen to have won the argument, got the result or controlled the narrative – often with words, deeds and actions that are morally apprehensible when it comes to political power, have not only convinced the political classes that ‘do as I say, not as I do’ is baked in.
Politicians really have reached the point where they believe they are right, no matter the consequences or real human cost from whatever they do or what they say.
All because they are the ones deciding what’s right and what’s wrong.
Wrong things shape our beliefs and make them feel right
It’s not only a problem that public policy that isn’t really about the public at all is damaging lives, people, communities, the environment around us and the businesses that we need to survive and thrive.
The fact that sanitised but nonetheless tyrannical behaviour is coming at us constantly through every channel and digital stream that most of us regrettably consider to be credible sources, mean that many people are becoming conditioned with the belief that behaviour that is reflective of what our so-called leaders are doing is not only correct, but good for one and all.
The Dehumanisation of Life through remote-controlled Techno-Tyranny
Regrettably, there is an urgent need for us all to recognise that the dehumanised way of life that is progressively taking over with each and every step taken towards the Tech and AI Takeover, where it seems that every need possible can be met through the tap of a finger on our phones, is feeding into the nightmarish version of an increasingly dystopian life and living environment for us all.
It’s sucking up lies from each direction, whilst simultaneously convincing us that we still have freedom and choice.
We’ve lost sight of the very principles and values that equip us to function, communicate and interact with other human beings face-to-face. All within a rapid, dehumanising transformation process, that is currently succeeding in convincing otherwise very sensible people that the only guides and directives necessary for a successful life come from a smart phone or online.
What is more, the whole process has already began removing and questioning ‘common sense’, taking everything in life backwards.
We find grown adults fighting over whether the basic tenets of life are either wrong, right, open to interpretation or that taking what should be obvious as read and thereby offending somebody over what only they might ever believe is itself enough to justify ruining the other persons life.
We are the sum of our experiences
It really doesn’t matter who we are. One thing that we can almost certainly be sure that we have in common, is that if you or I were to stop and reflect upon our current view of the world; what everything means and how we see it; we would both be right.
We would both be right, because as individuals that’s what all the experiences up until this moment have taught every one of us. Even when our experiences may have been harmful to us, been incorrect (because of what others have done) or because for whatever reason, they are basically skewed.
Experience is cumulative too. Whilst none of us may wish to admit that the understanding we have of anything can only be as much as layer-deep, or that we have only reached a certain level of knowledge about anything; such limitation of understanding can therefore mean that what we believe to be right isn’t completely right.
It can certainly be very disconcerting to reckon with the reality that reaching GCSE, then A-level, then degree level, then masters level, then doctorate level in the same very specific subject may well mean that whilst we may have a very good and correct subjective view; in objective terms, even then, as an ‘expert’ or with even a recognised level of qualification, we are still a very long way from getting it right.
Misplaced confidence based on our beliefs being ‘who we are’, when our beliefs come from those who influence us
Recognising the value that we give to others when they have been awarded academic qualifications is one thing.
Then there is also the phenomena which is the way that we give credibility to others simply because they have a role (like politicians or public officers) and most alarming today, to influencers (which can mean many things), based on nothing more than the reality that they have a platform of some kind, where the number of people watching, following, liking or subscribing gives them credibility that reaches beyond all other things.
Oddly, when anyone speaking or even writing doesn’t appear to have one or more of these status anchors, we seem to consider whatever they are sharing to not have the same legitimacy. No matter the content of what they say. And if what they say contradicts our own message and belief system in some way, there is all too often the chance that we will simply assume that whatever they offer has no value and that they are therefore ‘wrong’.
Misplaced confidence based on our beliefs being ‘who we are’, when our beliefs come from the establishment, religion and the shibboleths they impose
Perhaps more difficult to consider and accept is the role and influence that what we might otherwise call cultural or societal norms have on our beliefs and therefore behaviour. Because we can all too easily believe that these are just the things that ‘normal’ people do.
How we behave in public. How we consider some behaviour and actions to be acceptable whilst others are not. How we consider right and wrong. How we look up or look down upon others – in ways that would be called prejudices in any other terms. Increasingly how we stop and question actions and behaviours that we had previously not given a second thought to because we considered them to be normal, but now we stop and feel guilty because we thought them.
These are all based upon the belief systems that are set, adapted and increasingly forced into our lives by the organisations that we recognise as being the establishment. And for some more than others, from our religions which can become the most important source or framework for our behaviours and what we expect for ourselves and from others across our lives.
Whilst we must recognise that some of the rules and social codes that have come from our system of governance and our religions can be very good for us and for everyone in very specific contexts, we also need to understand, accept and therefore recognise that many of the rules and social cues that we live by were or have been created as forms of social control.
They have been created and are used to foster and promote fear of something that is apparently outside of our control, so that what we do have control over can in turn then be restricted and therefore controlled by someone else.
For instance, there is no need to question the existence of a God, Source, universal force or whatever we may each choose to call the focus of what we might ultimately believe in, to recognise that words and interpretations can change each time they are passed on.
We must recognise that ultimately, to further the scope, reach, influence and power of religions, the people who benefit from being in control of those religions have created compelling stories and interpretations of those stories and what they may or may not require of us. All based upon material that has itself been passed on potentially many times, each time by another person who was never actually there at the time whenever the chain of these stories first began or could be witnessed firsthand.
Genuine, voluntary and uncoerced faith in the system and faith in a religion can be the same or should be the same. In that they are most powerful, most compelling and most beneficial to us and to others, when they are left to us all to recognise what we believe to be true and in turn to then apply our understanding of everything in terms of what we know to be wrong or to be right.
There is no system in existence that seeks to control or compel others coercively that is also unquestionably right or correct
Doing anything because someone with authority or because a book says so isn’t voluntary belief or choice.
It is dogmatic servitude that excuses itself by insisting that slavish adherence to whatever it teaches, automatically makes it right – even when it is very clearly wrong.
We are indeed fortunate that what we might call the societal operating system of British Culture is based upon the secularisation that the evolution of a Christian system has allowed to develop, that was itself probably only possible because of The Reformation and the otherwise questionable parts of the reign of King Henry VIII.
However, the freedom of thought and expression that becoming unshackled from the Church has ultimately brought has also made us massively vulnerable to anyone who understands how narratives, group thinking and the tools that media offers can be used to introduce and make us subservient to contrary systems of belief.
Indeed, alien beliefs that run contrary that everything our society has been built on have been progressively introduced and are reshaping societal beliefs, leading to people questioning their own common sense, whilst others simply accept philosophies and agendas that are ultimately not offering anything that is good for anyone and least of all you or me.
Fear is today being used to disproportionately exaggerate societal problems, in ways that have created the risk that those problems may quickly become even bigger problems that we would never otherwise have experienced.
Whilst learning to stop, count to ten and then think about what is being said, who is saying it, why they are saying it and what is really happening would help every one of us to uncover the truths that are good for us all to believe.
Finding and creating beliefs that we can trust
There exists no person, no government, no establishment and no religion that has the right to insist that either you or I believe whatever they say or require of us, without question.
Such expectation is an abuse of the rights of whoever they are victimising or making a victim of. Whether that victim is aware or sees their relationship as being that of a victim under an oppressor or not.
This is not a question of those with responsibility hiding information from those under their care that would otherwise be harmful to them.
This is about those with responsibility for others abusing the trust that others have given and that has been assumed from anyone who is vulnerable and then either ignorantly or deliberately misusing that trust to abuse they very people they are there to protect from such abuse.
We are in troubling times
Regrettably, few institutions now exist where integrity can be assured from the actions, behaviour and decisions from anyone that we don’t personally know and have no good reason to belief that they are and always will be as good as their word.
The digitisation and mission creep of the online world has exacerbated this greatly and made the overall process of dehumanising everything progressively worse.
The reality we must face is that if we want to own our own beliefs and develop them using reliable and trustworthy sources, we can and must only use face-to-face relationships and the benefits of the social interactions that remain open and available to us without accessing anything that is only available to us online.
The only relationship that matters is the one that’s right in front of us
For all the benefits that we may be able to agree upon, the latest forms of digital technology and artificial intelligence are also introducing a much bigger and malevolent dark side into the world as we know it.
Almost every system that has and is being introduced into daily life for you and me, is either already or soon will be used as a tool of control.
And these tools can and only will work as effectively as they do, because we believe that what they bring or give to us is good for us in ways that make us forget or overlook the freedoms they have replaced and ultimately the non-financial price that we pay.
Yes, AI for medicine, AI for diagnostics, AI for workplace safety and purposes like these are and will always be good uses. Especially so when they are not about profit but about improving life and therefore the common good.
But AI in any form that appears to make life easier, quicker, or that replaces the need for us or any person to do anything are not and will not be good for anyone other than those who profit from it.
The AI and Tech-takeover really doesn’t offer the whole of humanity anything that any of us need in day-to-day life. But it is set to take away a massive amount from us that we do.
Of all the beliefs that we have been conditioned to have, the belief that whatever is outside of us is better than us and that it reduces our value in any way, is the worst one possible for any of us to have.
When we interact properly with others and use all of the senses and skills that we have to communicate and to read, listen to and understand communication in the circumstances that can and only will ever be offered through real one-to-ones, we will soon begin to remember or realise that these are some of the very best sources of learning – and therefore belief development that any of us could ever have.
Once you become a number, it won’t matter what you believe
Relationships – that’s real relationships, with real people, in real life, really matter.
Once all those relationships have been lost and we no longer have the ability to interact normally beyond familial or friend-based relationships in person and everything else is done without people with names online, our opinions, what makes us happy, what makes us healthy and what is actually good for us will no longer matter. Because the humanity in relationships and therefore the values that make us human will have successfully been cast aside.
The most concerning aspect of the process and steps that are now taking us towards this destination is just how quick and therefore soon we will arrive there.
Whilst most of us still don’t even question what we have unknowingly given up and that has been taken from us, because we have accepted the belief that what has been given to us or that we have often actually paid money for has been good or even better for us in some way.
Thinking for yourself isn’t about being right. It’s all about thinking the right way
Whilst we may not have used this term here until now, critical thinking is the key for all of us to unlocking the door to the pathway that leads to understanding what everything in life is all about.
Critical thinking isn’t just the magical formula that gives us back the power to define our own belief system.
Critical thinking is the golden gift that enables us to recognise and understand the value of all the experiences that have made us and therefore to self-define who we are, and who we will be.
A certain truth that we would all benefit from learning, understanding and living is that none of us are right or will be right until the time that we recognise we are all right and that being right is just the next step in learning what else is right, until we all agree that right is exactly the same thing.
Adam Tugwell 