Our Local Future | FULL TEXT

Preface

Welcome to Our Local Future.

This booklet runs through the key changes to the way society functions that would make everything work much better for everyone and create a happy, healthy, safe and secure environment for us all.

Our Local Future is here because I’m fed up of listening to everyone who knows this or knows that, wasting valuable time arguing that only they know the next steps we should take.

People who should really know better are focused only on the journey and who controls it. Instead of considering the destination and what the outcomes will be that solve all our problems and create a world and culture where Balance, Fairness and Justice can be experienced by all.

Meanwhile, the constant debates over who or what is to blame; whether problems like climate change and the need for Foodbanks are real; or who is right vs who is wrong are just making everything that’s already wrong exponentially worse.

More often than not, these ‘blockers’ who let their egos get in the way, are the very same people who hear a new idea or proposal and immediately say ‘It won’t work’. Usually, because they only want change for everyone else, IF they can be certain that they will gain in some way, or at the very least don’t believe that they could lose.

Change is no longer a choice. It’s happening around all of us right now. And the difficulties we face are going to get worse before there’s any chance that things will get better.

The unspoken truth or secret ingredient that we all have to accept is that by embracing change that will help to make sure everyone has the best experience of life that they can, we will all end up with a system of governance and way of life that works in every good way that we could possibly wish for ourselves too.

Adam Tugwell, August 2024. Cheltenham. UK.  

Introduction

We accept that Today’s World is dysfunctional and broken. But we refuse to discuss, consider or collaborate on solutions and new direction other than what we already identify with or believe we somehow own.

So how about looking at a snapshot of what a world that genuinely works for everyone might look like. With the Moneyocracy that we are all addicted to gone and an entire system built around Authentic Governance fully functioning and operating in its place?

The problems that the World is experiencing today need no further introduction.

The chances are that if you are here, you are already experiencing the problems that People power and influence are creating for you directly. Or you can see and feel how they are affecting others without the ability to change things in some way.

Our Local Future jumps ahead and takes the reader to the key structures, learning and understanding of a society of Tomorrow that has left everything that is wrong with Today’s way of living behind.

Our Local Future demonstrates what overarching Public Policy could resemble, IF We can ever come to accept that Life will be better for Everyone, once we can step aside from everything that we believe to be benefitting us today, but is in fact doing nothing but harming us, whilst offering no benefit to Humanity or The World at all.

Part 1:

Where Things have gone Wrong

for Society Today

Key Lessons from Today’s World

From the Old World, which you may recognise as your today, we learned that The Elites were happy to destroy humanity.

The lives and the wellbeing of other humans were overlooked, so that the ‘few’ could maintain their position and an obsession with what they believed to be an indefinite flow of increasing profit and material gain. All considered obtainable without cost of any kind to themselves.

Money, material wealth and the influence and power that came with it were considered of more value than anything with true or real value, such as People, Community and The Environment.

Events and circumstances were created by The Elites and those controlling governments to enable profiteering, wealth creation and increased control over everything.

This wasn’t a conspiracy. It was the natural pathway of greed, an obsession with material wealth and the ignorance it fosters.

The circumstances that were deliberately engineered included wars, an environmental crisis and many other information-led events.

These events were justified by manufactured excuses and developed as narratives and a reliance upon the role of mass media to build stories that were accepted by the masses.

Yet these narratives were at best no more than partial truths with the wider and objective truths deliberately left absent, so that the real truth was almost always obscured or hidden from the view of the majority.

Whilst presented as being in the best interests of humanity with many goals, aims and agendas that sounded very plausible, many of these narratives and created stories promoted progress as the only option.

The narratives overlooked the certain reality the answers to mankind’s problems had already been demonstrated, tested and proven, and existed within historical working knowledge and understanding of the way that humanity works and nature functions wherever we might be around the World.

A healthy and motivated respect for People, Community and The Environment is not financially profitable for those who place material wealth, power, influence and everything that goes with it before anything else.

This basic but unassailable truth forms the basis of the blight that had for too long troubled and caused disharmony and unfairness for all humankind.

We Always Want More

If you really want to get into the realms of understanding the flaw that has created so many of the problems that we have, why it has become near impossible to fix them, and why too many of us seem to let the problems of others pass us by – even though we would hope for better from others if we were to experience the same; It is because we always want more.

More money, more wealth, more power, more influence, more acknowledgement, more of the things we like, more popularity, more time to do what we want, more people to agree with us, more love, more sex, more deference.

It doesn’t matter what it is outside of us. We all want more of it.

Even when we’ve got more of it than we could ever need or even hope to use.

What we Need is NOT what we Want

We have learned from the Old World that by living lives prioritising what we want as if it’s what we need, simply because what we want appears affordable in monetary terms, we condemn many others to being unable to afford what they need, with the outcomes that many experience want, in whatever form it may come.

Whilst the process, impact and consequences were hidden from view for so many, Wealth Inequality and what was known as The Wealth Divide was created from little more than the selfishness and greed of the few, which was supported and encouraged by all those who aspired to be like them.

We recognise that ignorance, blindness and the absence of awareness of the impact of our actions upon others does not and will not excuse those actions.

We therefore place our Self Awareness, Self Awareness of the Person and therefore Awareness of Others as key to maintaining a fully egalitarian model of society within our Principles of People, Community and The Environment.

No Business is more Important than The Public Good

Within the Old-World System and Money Based Order, the needs of Businesses and Shareholders were considered more important than any kind of human, community based or environmentally focused need.

Business, commercial activity and profit were therefore prioritised before anything else.

Driven by the accumulation of wealth, profiteering and the greed of The Few and those who aspired to be like them, words like ‘growth’ and terms like ‘GDP’ were presented as key measures for solving social problems and reducing reliance on government support such as welfare and benefits.

This manufactured narrative supported the concept or economic ideology of Neoliberalism which was embraced by the West around 1971.

Neoliberalism in led to Globalisation and the cultural acceptance that business and finance was and always would be more important than most people.

We have rejected this approach to business, economics and finance as a model for a fully functioning society.

The relationships between people of all kinds now thrive on the foundation of Putting People First before all things as part of the Three Principles of People, Community and The Environment.

NO business has needs which supersede the needs of The Community.

Any type of business or organisation that is essential to the safety and security of all Members of The Community is run and maintained as a Social Business with The Community as the only Shareholder.

Real Progress is NOT restricted to one direction

The Old World taught us that Progress and Progressivism are one dimensional.

Whilst guarded by those who championed it, the failure to accept that progress can as easily mean appearing to take a backwards step or that progress can be as multidirectional as moving in the directions of three hundred and sixty degrees, obsessive leadership and activists failed to appreciate the damage they inflicted across every part of life.

Their error was to depend upon the misplaced belief that discarding history and experience by constantly pushing forward and calling it progress, often meant going backwards in the sense of how outcomes and experiences for others are formed.

We do not see failure in anything.

We acknowledge and appreciate the benefit of experience.

We know that returning to what has been shown to work – no matter how simple, is much better than believing that change and progress can only be achieved by rejecting the old and by embracing further specialization and the new.

We celebrate the tried and tested, and do not pursue change, just so that the process of change can provide evidence of action or ‘progress’.

Money: The Rigged game with a real-life Cheat Code

One of the hardest and most difficult lessons to accept from The Old World was why the way money worked, the financial system and all of the devices, rules, laws and processes that had been created, changed and developed to allow it to function in the way that it did.

We learned that the Money and Financial system (known as FIAT) was the keystone or foundation of what to those who controlled it was nothing more than a game.

Games have no real consequences for those who understand that they are just a game.

What made the Money and Financial system that The Old-World Elites and the Few had championed so dangerous and so very damaging for the majority of people, wasn’t that those in charge knew it was all a game.

The real problem for Humanity and the World itself was that like most computer games that you will know of, this Monetary and Financial system also had a cheat code built into it.

When this cheat code was used, in the form of creating money out of thin air – as it was increasingly as time went on, the cost of that cheating – as in any simulated game – was massive and disproportionately damaging for all the people who still believed that this heavily manipulated system was real.

At the end of the Old World, those in control and benefitting from the system could buy whatever they wanted, whilst the buying power of the money those who were poorer possessed evaporated and those in control and ‘gaming the system’ just printed more and more.

We do not accept that money or any form of currency has anything other than a practical function.

We prohibit any form of communication, action or activity that has the potential to create, maintain or promote the idea or belief that money is anything or can be anything other than a system of exchange, a tool of exchange or a temporary method of transferring or exchanging value between transactions.

Normality or being normal cannot be dictated by others

The Old World was obsessed with identifying what was ‘normal’.

It was increasingly believed that control of any narrative of what was ‘accepted’ as ‘normal’ could then be used as a weapon to make others ‘wrong’.

Normality or what is normal isn’t the ‘accepted same’ that many within and abusing others using the Old-World system thought.

Normal or ‘Normality’ is the experience of being within the state of Personal Sovereignty for the Person or Being, accepting that peace and happiness is something that is only within the power and gift of that Person, alone.

Normality for the Person is The Authentic Self.

Distance creates a critical weakness in leadership

Every so-called democracy within the Old World failed because of the overuse and reliance upon hierarchies.

Hierarchies created the distance that came to exist between those who governed and the governed.

We learned that the distance created by hierarchies and the absence of contact between public representatives and the people they represent served only to create insulation from reality and real life for leaders.

We also learned that as this distance and insulation increased, there was also a collective failure to realise and understand that such distance creates dysfunctionality across any form of legislation or within any of the systems or services that serve the Public. As they were led by leaders who had effectively disenfranchised themselves from a population that increasingly felt left behind and ignored.

We learned that the point of power within a system of Authentic Governance is the People themselves.

We created and maintain a system of Authentic Governance that reflects this understanding.

Authentic Governance prevents the systematic abuse which was so prevalent within the Old-World systems of government.

The Majority rule by ruling together as a majority, within a system run by and for The Community, in the most localised and democratic form.

Doing the right thing has many meanings, but only one that is correct

The Old World taught us that no matter the level or reach of the power and influence that its system conferred, even the smallest taste of it would be intoxicating enough to make those with responsibility for others lose any sense of genuine humanity.

Self-interest and the related diminishing awareness of others corrupted them to believe that what was in their best interests and what would be in the best interests of others were one and the same or exactly the same thing.

It didn’t matter whether it was related to politics and politicians, business, finance or any of the supranational organisations and bodies that appeared in from the Second World War era and into the early part of the 21st century too.

‘Leaders’ lost sight of what having responsibility and influence over the lives of others really meant.

Those governing and with influence over those who governed lost sight of their responsibility to the public and the vulnerable, and what it necessarily demanded of them.

They behaved as if the decisions they made could be made and actioned without fear of consequences – even when it became clearer and clearer that the ills facing all societies were the long-term consequences of every self-serving decision that they had ever made.

We have created a system of Authentic Governance that removes the ability of any Person to put their own interests or those of a particular group first, before those of The Community itself. Thereby keeping the entire system Authentic and true to everyone, whether they have power, position or influence of any kind, at any level or not.

We do the Right Thing for Everyone.

The Moneyocracy

The one true religion of the West and therefore by default, the entire Old World was Money and the accumulation of wealth, power and influence that were inextricably linked to it.

Many still disagree with the suggestion that every part of life was coin operated.

But it doesn’t take many moments of objective thought to understand and appreciate that money was the driver of everything; that money was the basis of our entire value system, and that as such, we have all been citizens or constituent parts of a Moneyocracy.

Money: Belief in an addiction based on Greed

Arguably the greatest and most destructive force for any society is the misplaced and deliberately engineered belief that money creation, profit and economic growth are the key measures upon which success and happiness of the population can be measured.

What we now recognise as The Old World and its ‘System’ revolved using flawed, self-serving economic ideas such as MMT (Modern Monetary Theory) and Neoliberalism as their core for over 50 years.

More wants more isn’t just a saying. More of everything became the aim behind every driver in life and spread like a disease amongst us all.

The adoption of the FIAT money system and devices such as GDP as a measuring tool, all within the period around 1971 heralded the acceleration of every problem that a money based order or ‘moneyocracy’ creates at the social level.

Over time, the entire world was reset to function on the basis that money was the only priority and therefore the only basis of real value – often without people realising or being aware that was how every part of life had become governed.

This anomaly was only possible because of the beliefs that were created about money and the value system that surrounded it, at the inevitable cost of true and meaningful values which have People, Community and Environment at their core.

Every ongoing and apparently unsolvable problem within society in the Old World was created by the obsession and addictions surrounding money and wealth accumulation, with the flow of every part of business, legislation and thought process eventually bending to this pathway and the one directional flow of money towards those who already have much.

The workings of the Old-World system were reversed with governance switched from Top-Down to Grassroots-up.

The direction of all business has been switched from wealth creation to the prioritisation of People, Community and The Environment.

This switch was necessary as the pathways of Money and People, Community and The Environment are mutually exclusive systems or ways of living, with only the System adopted in Our Local Future able to provide Balance, Fairness and Justice for everyone.

The Misuse of AI

In the Old World, AI was at first introduced over a period of years up to 2023 in forms based primarily on the use of Algorithms that left users without any awareness of their presence, other than the speed of responses within e-business and search engine use.

With openly direct and interactive forms of AI being introduced to public use from 2023, the true depth and direction of commercial use became transparent. As did the misuse of related narratives to spread fear amongst those using digital technology.

The failure of the governing classes to regulate the use and application of AI came at cost to Society which reached well beyond the financial.

The key drivers of AI misuse were as follows:

  • AI was rolled out to support the survival and aims of The Old World moneyocracy.
  • AI was used primarily as a profit generation tool
  • AI was secondarily used as a social control tool

The primary method of progressive social control in the Old World was the deprogramming of wider humanity using internet and AI based technology. 

The processes used, both intended and symptomatic, removed or blocked usual cognitive processes and the ability of humans to learn, analyse and conclude independently in the course of a generation.

This attack on executive function and therefore Personal Sovereignty began with the arrival of smartphones and tablets and not in early 2023 as the narrative was widely accepted to make everyone believe.

Unregulated AI is recognised as being anti-human, anti-equality, anti-environment and anti-freedom. It is therefore considered a threat to People, Community and The Environment.

We recognise that the benefits of AI are only available to mankind under strictly controlled conditions, supported by Key Skills for Life training that is provided on an ongoing basis.

Net Zero

We reject any form of public policy based on fear or design which is focused on wealth accumulation for any specific person or group.

The implementation and maintenance of Sustainable Living Practices has addressed all ‘green’ issues that were being misused and politically manipulated in The Old World.

The Food Supply: A tool for elite wealth creation and societal control

The elites and governing classes of the Old World engineered the centralisation and gradual destruction of genuine local food production, local food chains and the infrastructure to support it.

Globalisation went one-way in every direction, using devices such as The European Union and The Common Agricultural Policy, whilst leaving a hollowed-out core across society where happy and healthy live built around People, Community and The Environment had been.

Productionism was considered to be good. Because the narratives told Farmers and Food Producers so.

Yet it supported the massive rise of consumerism which opened the door to all the myths and narratives then created to suggest that globalism was good for everyone. Sadly, the only part of the Globalisation story that was required to make sense was the suggestion of the lowering of retail cost.

Unfortunately for those of us directly effected, lower prices made little sense when businesses, jobs and communities were lost and people began being unable to afford what consumerism offered them to buy. But the real-life cost was something that the majority of us would never normally be encouraged to see.

Productionism, in all forms of food production, focused on the use of chemicals and processes that over time destroyed functional capacity and soil health of significant areas of land.

As genuine land and soil productivity levels lowered, this allowed the elites the opportunity to create new narratives suggesting that traditional forms of agriculture were out of date and no longer required.

Worse, the ‘accepted view’ gave the impression that the production of naturally grown foods, grown and produced by independent farmers, small businesses and community enterprises could no longer be relied upon to meet the public need.

The prioritisation of greed, profiteering and control was the true driver of every narrative that was created to undermine healthy and sustainable food production and harvesting.

The greatest travesty of the whole story of centralisation, globalisation and productionism in the food chain was that every step of this ‘progress’ made the foods that people ate less and less healthy, and less beneficial in every way conceivable to society as a result.

We recognise that our Food Security is built upon the workings of an entire food chain which functions as an ecosystem within itself.

Our Food Chain is predominantly localised with the majority of Basic and Essential Foods available from local supply chains year-round.

Part 2:

Our Values

People, Community, The Environment

Our Local Future and New System functions with a people-centric approach to all areas of life, including Our Values, Lifestyle, Business & Economy and Governance.

Our Three Key Principles are:

  1. People
  2. Community
  3. The Environment

The Person and their Personal Sovereignty and how we value each other Person and their Personal Sovereignty is at the heart of everything.

We recognise that it is only through the systems and workings of a people-centric Community, operating as a fully functioning ecosystem with its relationship with The Environment considered to be a critical part, that a truly Happy, Healthy, Safe and Secure platform for life can exist.

A System that provides and maintains a framework of Authentic Governance that is Balanced, Fair and Just for All.

Locality is Everything

Locality and a fully Localised or Locally-centric Systems are recognised as A Public Good.

Local supply chains promote and allow transparency.

Transparency is the only effective way to encourage and solidify trust and accountability.

Trust and accountability are essential in building a system of Authentic Governance which focuses on People, Community and The Environment.

The circular functions of a fully Localised System operate and are maintained reliably based on the Principles of People, Community and The Environment in all things to deliver what is in the best interests of all.

The Public Good

The Public Good is the Standard or Benchmark set for our system of Authentic Governance.

We have different Public Goods that cover parts of life where access and availability to Basic and Essential Foods, Goods and Services must be assured.

Each Public Good contributes to the existence of a Framework upon which our System of Authentic Governance is able to function at its best.

Every Public Good recognises the role and contribution of any person, business, organisation and their respective action, agendas, activities, use of resources, ownership and use of property for their positive impact and consequence in benefitting The Community.

A Public Good functions to maintain the existing level of achievement of Our Three Principles of People, Community and The Environment or to develop or enhance them further.

A Public Good may not be changed, misrepresented, ignored or bypassed for any reason.

A Public Good has superseded all regulations, laws and practices of The Old World which relate to or have any relevance to it.

A Public Good is a practice required by The Community.

These are The Public Goods of Our Local Future:

  • All forms of Agriculture, Fisheries and Home Growing which are exercised to provide for the priorities of People, Community and The Environment are considered A Public Good.
  • The Authentic Governance System (TAGS) is A Public Good.
  • Basic Essentials for Life are A Public Good
  • The Basic Living Standard is A Public Good.
  • Essential or Basic Foods are critical for a Healthy, Happy, Safe and Secure life and are considered to be A Public Good.
  • Housing and the provision of housing for all is A Public Good.
  • Key Skills for Life are A Public Good.
  • The Local Food Chain is A Public Good
  • Locality is A Public Good
  • The provision of any service provided using Natural Resources is considered to be A Public Good
  • The provision of News and Community Information is A Public Good.
  • Social Learning is A Public Good.
  • Sustainable Living is A Public Good.
  • Transport for the purpose of meeting need and therefore necessity is considered to be A Public Good.

Our Expectation for each Member of The Community

The Community expects that every Member of The Community will live the best life that they can, based upon the experience, enjoyment and benefits of Personal Sovereignty.

The conditions which enable Personal Sovereignty require that each Person experience a happy, healthy, safe and secure life, within a Balanced, Fair and Just System.

We recognise that it would be incorrect for the Community to hold such expectations of any Member of The Community, without The Community itself taking every step necessary to ensure that every person is fully equipped to exercise the full freedom of Personal Sovereignty.

The Community is therefore obliged to ensure that the Governance, Frameworks and Systems that make the existence of Personal Sovereignty possible are continuously maintained, in order that the very same opportunities and therefore the very same expectation can be directed at everyone alive today as well as those who will follow us in the generations yet to come.

Our Priorities and their function

People, Community and The Environment are Our Three Principles, which are Our Priorities.

Together, as a Community we promote, encourage, maintain and ensure Personal Sovereignty for all People.

We prioritise what we need. Not what we want. 

We recognise Money and Currency as a tool and nothing more.

To achieve Our Priorities, we have, maintain and seek to improve a System of Authentic Governance that is built and functions around a Local, Circular Economy, which involves Everyone.

The right decisions are made in the moment

Making decisions on behalf of, for the benefit of and in the best interests of the majority are not easy for anyone.

Many of the decisions and choices made by politicians and those with responsibility and influence in the Old World fell into a trap of their own making, which was to believe that they could dictate a whole series of decisions relating to public policy.

A decision made today would be taken on the basis of anticipating the outcome and consequences of its impact, when nobody has either the control over the circumstances of following decisions in the future, nor how the free will of others and the unfolding of events would take place, that are outside of Everyone’s control.

Making Policy this way is akin to lying and is certainly dishonest in every way. And the situation and consequences for us all were often made much worse by the lies, cover-ups and narratives that were then created to cover up the outcomes of poor decision making when it inevitably all went wrong.

We make fully informed decisions in the moment. In the here and now. Based upon everything we can be sure of at that moment in time and what the impacts and consequences will be for People, Community and The Environment, in addition to any existing Policies that the decision will affect.

This is a key tenet of Authentic Governance.

This is encouraged throughout society as a healthy and productive way to approach our lives and one that promotes and furthers our Personal Sovereignty.

Freedom

Genuine, unrestricted Freedom is attained through Personal Sovereignty.

Each Person is Free to Think.

Each Person is free to act and behave as they wish. Unless their actions or behaviour compromise or have the ability to compromise the Personal Sovereignty of any other Person or Group of People.

Any action or behaviour which advantages one person or a group of people through the creation of disadvantage to another Person or group is considered to be morally and ethically incorrect.

The creation, existence, maintenance or modification of any law, legal device or regulation which may be used to suggest or disadvantage any Person or group is also considered to be morally and ethically incorrect.

What is right and correct for all People, following the Principles of People, Community and The Environment, irrespective of anything which may differentiate them from others, is the foundation upon which Our Local Future operates and is maintained.

Freedom facilitates the Authentic Self.

Personal Sovereignty and Power

The Person, Individual or Being is Sovereign.

Personal Sovereignty underpins the true meaning and benefit of The Community and Members of The Community coming together in recognition of Our Common Cause and The Public Good.

The Freedom to be, to exist, to choose and to act may not be compromised by any person or organisation. Unless the action of The Person or Individual has or is likely to compromise that same right to Freedom of any other person or organisation.

The point of value for every person is their soul, mind or spirit. The core essence of the Being which cannot be seen nor discerned in any way that differentiates one person or being from another.

The point of value is universal and considered equal for every Person or Being. Regardless of any discernable or perceivable difference.

Thought is the basic and essential function of the undifferentiated Person or Being.

Thought represents the one true Freedom.

No person may be punished for their thinking, nor the reflection of that thinking when shared openly in public forum and without intent to harm or compromise the Freedom to be, to exist, to choose and to act of any other Person or group.

The state of Personal Sovereignty may only be supported by parents during infancy, childhood and youth. Or when a person is incapacitated for any reason. Or during a period of incarceration, when it is accepted that the Right to Freedom beyond thought has been compromised by those actions which have compromised the rights of others and The Community.

Why People Work or are Employed

The purpose of all work, employment, business, industry and The Community itself is to support, sustain, improve and maintain happy, healthy lives for Everyone as we all contribute to prioritising People, Community and The Environment.

Work and employment are only considered to be a part of a happy, healthy, safe and secure life for all Members of The Community.

Work and employment are NOT the purpose of Life.

Work and employment are a key part of supporting Life.

The Community recognises and celebrates the role, contribution and importance of all working roles and types of employment.

The only kind of deference given to a Person within the context of any trade or profession is that as recognised by the remuneration structures set within.

The contribution of the individual is recognised in relation to the impact of that contribution and its related benefit to The Community and no more.

Locality and The Reliance of Trust

We accept and live on the basis that we can only trust those who we know, see, meet and are freely able to interact with in daily life.

Whilst we recognise the value of digital devices as tools to enhance and support life, we reject their use as platforms of influence.

The Community recognises that Locality and Local Living offer the best environment for healthy, reliable and trustworthy interaction and as sources of information,

Our Society functions successfully by recognising that being able to trust those who have the power of influence over others is key to everything across The Community.

We therefore reject any form of ‘remote’ guidance and have developed a System of Authentic Governance which ensures that every decision that made by others than can influence our lives and the Basic and Essential requirements to live in a Happy, Healthy, Safe and Secure Way are taken by People we can access and know that we can trust.

Inheritance

As a culture, we do not encourage the transfer of wealth between families, unless the transfer of a business or property will be of benefit to The Public Good.

Our System of Authentic Governance, prioritising People, Community and The Environment provides the surety that Members of The Community can sustain themselves independently in every way.

The greatest inheritance is the provision of learning, the sharing of experience and the freedom that any person or being can attain from their ability to think freely and be fully aware of and open to their Personal Sovereignty.

Climate Change

The climate has changed, is changing and will continue to change, no matter whether humans impact the process or not.

We understand and accept that the greatest threat to The Planet and therefore to People, Community and The Environment was moneyocracy and humankind’s material wealth-based obsession with the unnecessary use of non-replaceable natural resources to meet created want, rather than simply meeting genuine needs.

Sustainable Living

Every Member of The Community practices Sustainable Living.

Sustainable Living is A Public Good.

Every system that we use, create or maintain exists to support and further the best interests of humanity, through the Principles of People, Community and The Environment.

Sustainable Living requires that we use natural resources sparingly, and only in circumstances where alternative sources or resources of energy or raw materials cannot be obtained.

Every form of private business, social business and activity that can be completed by Members of The Community is carried out locally within The Parish area.

We only grow, use and share what we need.

We do not encourage luxury consumerism or living.

Practices such as Planned Obsolescence are prohibited.

The unnecessary use of resources to enable, facilitate and promote working practices such as the transfer of employment, manufacturing processes or growing food, where such practices are carried out as a choice only for the benefit of private interest is prohibited.

We encourage manufacturing using naturally sustainable resources.

We Recycle, Reuse, Repair as a cultural norm and consider it to be A Key Skill for Life.

We Prioritise Basic Essentials across all Goods and Services.

Key Skills for Life

Key Skills for Life are A Public Good.

They include:

  • Authentic Governance
  • Clothing repair and renewal
  • Critical Thinking
  • Democracy
  • Food Handling, Preparation and Storage
  • Food Production
  • Good Online Communication
  • The Functions and Operations of Community Provision
  • Home Growing
  • The Impact and Consequences of Choice
  • Our role as a Member of The Community
  • Personal Sovereignty
  • The Power of Restraint (Doing nothing when everything tells you that you can)
  • Recycle, Reuse, Repair
  • Self-care
  • Understanding Cause and Effect
  • Understanding Our Local Future
  • Understanding Self Awareness
  • Using and Understanding AI

Homelessness and supporting the ‘Left Behind’

Our Principles of People, Community and The Environment; Our culture built around Authentic Governance and the System that supports have all been developed to provide and promote a genuinely People centric way of life.

Whilst the way life works in Our Local Future keeps environmentally negative influences to the minimum for all Members of The Community, there will always be those who feel unable to participate in life and living in ways that might be called ‘normal’, or within the framework of expectation that we have.

The community recognises the value of each person or being at the undifferentiated level, which surpasses and extends beyond the material.

We do not aim nor try to ‘fix’ any person who cannot take part in societal structures in a normal way, unless their actions are either a direct threat to or have already harmed Members of The Community.

Homelessness is NOT a crime and is not treated as such.

We accept that homelessness can be the direct consequence of a life choice, as well as being perhaps the most challenging outcome that can arise for anyone experiencing difficulties in life that most would hope to avoid.

Our only requirement of anyone who is homeless at any time, is that they respect and do not bring harm to the Personal Sovereignty of others and act with respect, care and consideration towards Community Infrastructure and the services provided to them through Community Provision.

Businesses are encouraged to provide opportunities for people seeking a new start who do not wish to be defined by previous occupations, the qualifications that that they already hold or because they have exercised The Right to be Forgotten.

Each Community provides Homelessness services either directly or collaboratively with adjacent Parishes and often provide ‘Homeless Pods’.

The key approach of Communities to Homelessness is to assume nothing. Expect nothing beyond a respect for People, Community and The Environment, and to see any form of voluntary participation in what The Community can offer as a bonus.

Part 3:

Beliefs

Personal Sovereignty, Freedom of Belief and Freedom of Thought

What many have long failed to appreciate is that religions and belief systems have always been used and abused by the world’s elites and their equivalents as a tool of social control.

Religions and manipulative belief systems use fear of the things we do not know or understand to adjust, modify and subjugate our behaviour. All the time using the unwritten understanding that those at the top of any specific hierarchy are ‘special’ or that they have a ‘special relationship’ with whatever lies beyond life, and that they and only they have access to the real truth of whatever is or might be going on.

As the world has changed and the control of the information that informs people in a way that allows Everyone to think for themselves, religions and belief systems that do not encourage freedom of thought have either collapsed or have had to resort to ever desperate forms of spreading fear and the need for societal control in order to survive and to be seen to thrive.

Money or the Moneyocracy of the Old World was a religion or belief system just the same.

A rich mixture of learning for the masses, the failure of their own bogus systems, and the damage many of these systems of control were doing to humanity, the environment and the world, brought into question their existence and ability to continue in power in every form.

As the systems within these systems lost their control or relevance, ever more desperate measures were employed to attempt to control people, primarily through their behaviour, ultimately with the aim of destroying the freedom of thought.

Freedom of thought has always been the greatest risk to those who can only lead and succeed when they believe they are in control.

The One True Freedom of this world and the experience we know as life, is Freedom of Thought.

Freedom of thought is the ability for all of us to make the decisions, choose the choices and take the actions that will ultimately make sense of why each and every one of us is here and experiencing the lives that we have on the planet.

The elites and governing classes of the Old World failed to respect this and created the circumstances where increasing numbers of people around the planet simply had no way of being able to learn the rich tapestry of lessons that any and every life has the power to teach everyone, in relative to that life and its circumstances forms.

Religion

Religion is a personal choice and belief.

It is accepted that each person or being has their own direct, exclusive relationship with God, a Higher Being, Source or Spirit.

Any deviation from this relationship is a matter of choice for that Person or being that

NO other Person, Group or Member of The Community holds the right to question or influence, beyond the acceptable framework of parental care.

There is no Community or State Religion.

We maintain, champion and defend a secular Community culture.

Our Community culture can be defined as being aligned with Christian Values.

No Religion or Religious Practice may disrupt, influence or dictate matters within the Public Realm.

We do not accept that any Religion that uses fear, control of any kind, or that seeks to subjugate any person or being to achieve its aims is ‘peaceful’.

Personal Sovereignty is considered supreme to all systems of belief and nothing can supersede this.

Any form of submissive behaviour of any person to any Religion or Religious Practice is an infringement of Personal Sovereignty. Unless the individual’s participation is a clear and definable voluntary choice.

No form of permanent contract or arrangement exists where any Religion or Religious Practice may maintain or retain any form of hold upon any person involuntarily and ends immediately.

No Religion-based law, regulation or obligation may supersede the Community Governance Framework

Spirituality

Spiritual and Religious direction is a Personal Choice for every Member of The Community and is respected as a matter of Personal Sovereignty.

We encourage everyone to explore their own pathway or journey to belief through understanding and achieving Self-Awareness which is A Key Skill for Life and is supported by Critical Thinking, also taught as A Key Skill for Life.

We accept value in all pathways in the sense that a Personal Belief System and the place of Personal Sovereignty within our System of Authentic Governance are not mutually exclusive and compliment each other when respected as such.

As religion and belief systems have been misused as a tool of control throughout their existence, any ‘spiritual pathway’, or belief system that encourages independence of thought and understanding has often been actively blocked, through removal from records, scripture and doctrines, with punishment for continued participation ranging from ridicule to the most severe we can imagine.

Spiritual sciences or practices have often been misinterpreted as being purely tools of divination, prophecy or ‘fortune telling’, and this interpretation has not been helped by many proponents and speakers having chosen to prey on the vulnerable by abusing their understanding and knowledge, or the ‘skills’ they may have used.

It is by exploring belief that we improve our understanding of others and develop the dynamics of relationships which are most beneficial to us and to The Community as a whole.

The rejection of narratives and embracing truth

We accept the use of narratives and storytelling only as metaphor or in the allegorical sense where they can be used to encourage and promote understanding.

We do not use narratives to create, manipulate, misdirect or replace understanding.

Each Member of The Community who has open access to news and the supply of information at any level is considered able to conclude and determine for themselves and able to discern appropriately.

We do not hide the truth with alternative truths at any time.

Part 4:

Our Lifestyle

Section A: Food

Food Groups

We recognise two food groups.

There are Essential or Basic foods and there are luxury foods.

Essential or Basic Foods are those that we need.

Luxury Foods are those that we want.

Essential or Basic Foods

Essential or Basic Foods are Critical for a healthy and happy life and are considered to be A Public Good.

  • Accessible
  • Affordable
  • Nutritious
  • Grown and produced locally
  • Grown, processed, transported and supplied as locally as possible
  • Grown and produced using natural processes
  • Grown and produced using sustainable, traditional, regenerative, rotational and mixed farming methods without insecticides, pesticides or chemical fertilizers
  • Are subject to nothing more than ‘traditional’ or ‘by hand’ processing measures
  • Do not contain additives, manufactured preservatives, flavourings or enhancements of any kind

The most discernable characteristic of Essential or Basic Foods is that they typically resemble their original (harvested) form on the plate, or that form in which they exist after ‘traditional’ or ‘by hand’ processing.

ALL homes are required to have adequate food preparation, storage and cooking facilities.

The safe handling, preparation and cooking of Essential and Basic Foods is a Key Skill for Life and is taught as such.

It is considered to be the responsibility of the whole Community to ensure that every Member of The Community has ready and ongoing access to adequate supplies of Basic and Essential foods available to meet their needs.

Luxury Foods

Luxury Foods include all foods which cannot be catagorised as being Basic or Essential.

Luxury Foods include processed foods, ultra processed foods (UPFs), synthesized foods and any foods which are not visibly identifiable with their origin or original form.

Luxury Foods cannot be considered as Basic or Essential on the basis of labelling, on description or advertising of any kind.

Luxury Foods are A Lifestyle Choice.

No Basic or Essential Foods nor ingredients made thereof, may be used for the production of Luxury Foods unless there is a surplus after all local provision and trade with other Parishes has been met.

Farming and Fishing

The supply of Basic, Essential Foods is as important as the air that we breath and the water that we drink.

The unspoken truth that whoever controls the supply of food has the power to control everything that a society does was massively abused by the elites of The Old World.

A Local, Fully Transparent and Circular Food Chain ensures that control of Basic and Essential Foods is kept and maintained within the hands of people who we know, who can be trusted, and is treated as The Public Good that it is.

A Local Food Chain is one that People Trust

The Local Food Chain is A Public Good.

Within a system of Localised Economies and Authentic Governance, the Food Chain is at the heart of The Community.

Food is as essential as the air that we breathe and the water that we drink. Yet meeting this Essential Basic need for life is the only one that we all need to apply effort and planning to each and every day.

We cannot afford to trust or trade away that trust in any way. Because our ability to live, to be free and to have happy, healthy and productive lives depends on the quality of the food that we each put in our mouths.

All food is produced as locally as possible, with the shortest journey times and with the minimum amount of processing or preparation from harvest to the front doors of our homes.

Where possible, farmers and food producers sell to other Members of The Community direct, through their own shops or delivery rounds.

Groups of farmers and food producers often work together within local cooperatives, run as social businesses, which themselves provide shops and deliveries, whilst helping to make Basic and Essential Foods accessible without unnecessary additional cost.

Home growing is also an important part of the Local Food Chain and Members of The Community are able to make surplus food available to others through the Local Marketplace Exchange.

The priority use of technology in Food Production is Food Safety and Good Working Practices.

Keeping the Food Chain Local allows Members of The Community to be more involved in farming and food production and we do not encourage the use of large-scale machinery where this is not beneficial to the ecosystem which is The Universal Parish.

Transparency and therefore trust is an essential part of Local Food Production.

Everyone is encouraged to participate in Home Growing as a minimum and Food Production is considered to be a Key Skill for Life.

Food Production

ALL food growers, producers, processors and suppliers are required to provide Essential and Basic Foods within their business model.

Food supply prioritises Essential and Basic Foods to The Community at all times.

‘Specialist’ Luxury Food suppliers do not exist.

Food Production is undertaken ‘commercially’ by Agricultural and Fisheries Businesses (Farms and Fishers) within the Parish area, and domestically or privately using the process of ‘home growing’ within each household.

All forms of Agriculture, Fisheries and Home Growing which are exercised to provide for the priorities of People, Community and The Environment are considered A Public Good.

Food Production is itself taught as A Key Skill for Life.

Food Advertising

Food Advertising is only permitted to raise awareness of Businesses, Social Businesses and Community Providers that sell or provide Basic and Essential foods either in pre-cooked or ready to eat forms.

Basic and Essential Foods are A Public Good.

We do not accept profit-making for some as a valid excuse for compromising the health, nutrition and wellbeing of all.

Luxury and non-Essential Food Advertising is therefore prohibited.

Section B: Clothing

Clothing Libraries

We consider it responsible and a part of life to Recycle, Reuse, Repair.

We reject ‘throwaway’ culture as unnecessarily expensive and unsustainable and encourage maximum use of all clothing and related items.

Every Community has access to at least one Clothing Library, usually run as a Social Business, that offers access to clothing for special occasions, events and changes in circumstances that might require access to otherwise unaffordable items.

Clothing Repairis also considered to be a Key Skill for Life and is taught as such.

Wealth and the Accumulation of Property and Resources

No person may hold, possess or own and form of property or wealth that will not be used for the purposes of meeting their own basic or essential needs, unless to provide for the operation of a business which contributes to meeting the Basic and Essential needs of The Community.

The Basic and Essential needs of any Person include the provision of Basic Essentials to family and dependents.

Section C: Health

Public Smoking and Vaping

Smoking or vaping in any public place is prohibited.

Smoking or vaping in any place, location or position where any person can be involuntarily affected by smoke, vapour or fumes of any kind is also prohibited.

Smoking or vaping is not prohibited but is considered to be an antisocial activity.

Social Care

Social Care are the functions of support provided by The Community, through Community Provision for the Person, where that Person’s ability to exercise their Personal Sovereignty fully has been compromised for any reason.

We consider social care to be a natural support process primarily provided by people and their families with secondary support provided within the umbrella of Community Provision.

Social Care includes:

  • Assisted Living
  • Homelessness Support
  • Invalid support
  • Nursery’s & Crèches
  • Out of School care
  • Prisons and Rehabilitation
  • Residential Care
  • Respite & Palliative Care

Section D: Charity

Real Charity is a Public Service

Charity is an action and part of Life.

Charity is Not only a financial transaction or donation.

We consider all charity work conducted to provide support to People, Community and The Environment to be Community Provision.

In Our Local Future, Charities of the kind widely known in the Old World only exist where a cause exists which does not contribute to The Public Good.

These charities run solely from donations and on volunteer time from outside Community Contributions and do not attract financial support from The Community.

Every Member of The Community contributes 10% or the equivalent of their working week to Community Contributions. (This is usually half a day a week)

Members of The Community may make additional contributions of time or money beyond this voluntarily.

Any not-for-profit organisation that sells goods or services of any kind is classified and operated as a Social Business.

Section E: Education

The best Education opens the door to every part of Life

It is accepted that The Community has both the obligation and responsibility to equip each and every member of the Community with the Key Skills for Life and Social Skills necessary for them to function independently and with independent thought to a level or standard where and appreciation of ethical and moral boundaries will be prioritised where either an impact or consequences may exist for others from any action they might take.

The aim is to provide the tools. But not the programme, nor the ‘software’.

We recognise that the most important lesson for all people is to learn about and to develop themselves in the most effective and appropriate ways possible.

Self-Awareness is the most important tool for every person to be equipped with, so that they are fully enabled to exercise their own Personal Sovereignty.

Being able to exercise Personal Sovereignty fully is recognised as the most beneficial education goal for the benefit of the community in all things.

We therefore prioritise the ongoing development of Key Skills for Life and Social Skills above all forms of academic and experiential or vocational training, which directly benefit as the result of this approach.

Our Education ‘System’

We recognise that everyone has different learning styles and that for children and young people, these can be broadly described as taught or academic, and practical or experiential.

Education is split between three Priority areas within Our Local Future.

They are:

  • Academic Learning
  • Experiential Learning
  • Social Learning

Academic Learning

The Community benefits by focusing academic learning at all levels on children and young people who are academically inclined and are able to fully apply themselves to this style of learning.

All levels of academic education are funded by The Community and no educational establishment may accept payments or sponsorship of any kind from commercial business or governments outside of our National Boundaries.

Experiential or Vocational Learning

We do not expect everyone to participate in a full programme of academic learning, simply so that their progress can be measured.

The Community benefits from applying a broad based, practical and experiential approach to learning for children and young people who are practically orientated or unable to apply themselves within a style of learning that is predominantly abstract.

We have full 7-year apprenticeship programmes for experiential learners that begin at the age of 14 years.

Social Learning

Social Learning is deemed to be A Public Good.

Social Learning provides Members of The Community with all of the Key Skills for Life required to support their journey towards and to maintain Personal Sovereignty.

Social Learning is built around a guideline framework without a fixed detailed syllabus.

We actively encourage grandparents to create added value during periods caring for grandchildren when they can share their knowledge and experience directly.

Social Learning is otherwise provided by Members of The Community through Community Contributions.

Members of The Community who have experience of the areas of life that can be shared for the benefit of others and The Public Good are able to commit their Community Contribution time to teaching, coaching and mentoring Social Learning and may voluntarily give additional time.

Section F: Housing

The Housing Principles

Housing and the provision of housing for all is A Public Good.

No person may own, let or occupy more than 1 domestic dwelling.

No private company or person may profit, charge interest or accumulate wealth from the ownership and letting of any private dwelling.

Part 5:

Governance

Authentic Governance

Our system of Governance is based and built upon the basic principle that every decision made by The Community will always be the right one for every Member of The Community, based upon what is known to decision makers at the moment that decision is taken.

We run, operate and facilitate a democratic system based on the accepted principle that the most reliable and robust form of democracy is the most local and most accessible to the Members of The Community.

We operate a fully transparent system of democracy and governance.

Decision makers must not only be accessible to every Member of the Community; they must also be known to them too.

Members of The Community are actively involved in the selection and management of Politicians, who we recognise as Community Representatives.

The Authentic Governance System (TAGS) is A Public Good.

The Community Meeting or Universal Parish Council

Each member of The Community is actively involved in the selection of candidates for election as Community Representatives to The Community Meeting.

With Political Parties and any agenda-led groups prohibited from involvement in Community Governance, each Community selects an election list which will be at least 120% of the number of Community Representative Seats at The Community Meeting.

The Community Meeting selects representatives for the District and Regional Meetings which then select representatives from their number for the National Meeting.

All Local decisions are made at Community Meeting Level, with District, Regional and National level decisions being differed where collective agreement has been reached that it is appropriate for them to be so.

The Universal Parish or Uniparish

The People we know, The Community in which we live and work and The Environment in which we live our lives are the core of our existence and are therefore all we can trust and rely upon.

The structural unit or universal ecosystem model in which our society operates is known as The Universal Parish or Uniparish.

The Universal Parish is named after what were previously known in the Old World as Parishes in the UK.

The former UK Parish represented the lowest or most localised tier of (Local) Government as part of the formally Top-Down, Hierarchical System of Government

Our society functions with The Universal Parish, Parish or Uniparish serving as the central or key structure of society, business, community and governance

Within our System of Authentic Governance, all structures of Governance, Community Provision (Public Services), business or other are considered subservient to The Community itself.

This is why only Social Business models may exist ‘across borders’ so that no interest other than that of The Community and collaboration between Communities may be prioritised.

The Universal Parish is as self-contained as it can be.

‘Business’ interaction between areas is limited to meeting Basic and Essential needs that cannot be met within the Uniparish itself.

The structure of Our Society

We reject hierarchy as the basis of societal structure, whether in terms of civic governance or any other organisational method.

We believe that leadership can neither be guaranteed nor relied upon from any formal role or position, whether publicly or privately appointed.

We value experience and the accumulation of knowledge above job titles or platforms of any kind.

We have a level, egalitarian approach to the way all societal frameworks operate and encourage the use of natural leadership where respect for the ability of those able to lead as part of the community, rather than having any need to be recognisably elevated above other members of it is neither necessary nor required.

Whilst basic hierarchies are necessary in some circumstances, these are accepted as being rare and as such very much the exception rather than the rule.

The Structure of Local Areas

Everything within our societal structure is decentralized.

Our System is built around Locality.

Locality is key to good lives, happy and healthy living and a system for life that works to prioritise People, Community and The Environment in every way that works in a fair, balanced and just way for all.

International Collaboration

We all have a shared interest in the future of Humanity, the World and The Environment that provides for us all today, and which if cared for and respected, will be able to continue providing for Our Local Future and Everyone’s Tomorrow.

Collaboration and working together to deliver outcomes that serve the purposes of every Community from the Parish upwards does not require the surrender of political or decision-making power.

World affairs are a matter for all Members of The Community and are discussed as part of Community Meeting business.

We reject all objectives which serve to centralise power and control, or which are created to enable the accumulation of wealth or circumstances that will be more favourable to some communities or nation states over others.

Community Provision

What was previously known as The Public Sector is now known as Community Provision.

Community Provision exists to create and maintain the environment and services necessary to support a culture built around People, Community and The Environment by providing services which are our collective responsibility and meeting need beyond the resources and responsibility of our own basic and essential needs and supporting us with those at times in life where we may not be able to meet them on our own.

The number of Members of The Community employed in either full or part time positions within our system of Community Provision is maintained at a minimal level and restricted to the key roles that are deemed essential for purposes of continuity.

The majority of roles and working capacity are met through Community Contributions.

Community Provision reaches across the administrative and technical functions of Local Government, Health and Social Care provisions and what were also previously known as NGOs and Charities.

Community Contributions: How we contribute directly to Society

As Members of The Community, we all accept that we share responsibility for the upkeep, maintenance and furtherance of Community infrastructure, services and everything that we have access to or the services that we can use in the Public Realm during our lives.

It is therefore a requirement that every Member of the Community contributes actively to the upkeep, running and development of the infrastructure and services that together, we provide as A Community.

All working people are required to contribute the equivalent of 10% (TEN percent) of their working week or the equivalent thereof either directly to the provision of Local Public Services or Charity Provision.

This requirement of participation in the delivery of Public Services or Community Provision is known as Community Contributions.

Community Contributions provide the greater part of the public sector workforce and civic administration.

Community Contributions offer everyone the opportunity to experience roles that may help with career choices at any time of life, and everyone can request the opportunity to work within specific roles so that this experience can be gained.

Community Contributions roles are otherwise allocated on the basis of the skills and experience that each member of the community possesses so that the contribution made will be of the most benefit possible to the whole community.

Creating and Maintaining Public Policy

Primary responsibility for ALL Public Policy is that of each Community Meeting or Uniparish Council.

Laws, Regulations, the Legislative Frameworks they sit within and every key decision that makes Our System of Authentic Governance work is generated at Community Level.

Decisions on Public Policy are therefore developed at Community Level and made at the Grassroots, with their impact and dissemination operating Grassroots-up, rather than Top-Down as previously in the Old World.

This System of Authentic Governance ensures that decisions are made and can only be made by Public Representatives and Decision Makers who fully understand the implications, impact and therefore the potential consequences of everything they do when representing other Members of The Community.

Money is a Medium of Exchange and no more

Money, Cryptocurrencies, Promissory Notes and ANY form of recognisable monetary transfer is a Medium of Exchange.

Mediums of Exchange have no intrinsic value of their own.

Mediums of Exchange cannot legally be traded, sold, tokenized or subdivided into any further form, whether agreed between two or more parties or not.

Mediums of Exchange may also not be traded as part of any assembled financial package or device.

Our Tax System

We do not impose any form of taxation upon productivity, effort or success which has contributed to The Public Good.

Taxation is placed upon luxury goods & services, property, standing wealth, unearned wealth accumulation, rental earnings and the benefit to the person, business or organisation from access to Community Assets, Infrastructure and Resources.

We implement a Flat Tax system.

The rate of Flat Tax is 10% (Ten Percent):

The Flat Tax is calculated from the value of existing assets and added to the value of luxury goods and services at point of sale.

The Community Meeting places a charge levy against the benefit from access to Community Assets, Infrastructure and Resources.

No form of Tax Reduction is allowed to be used as an incentive for any purpose

The role of AI (Artificial Intelligence)

Work is a necessary part of a good, Happy, Healthy, Safe and Secure life and a good life cannot exist without part of it being work.

The function of AI and Technology is to improve life; NOT replace it

The speed with which AI devices and technology operate led to the widely mis held belief in the Old World that AI had become fully sentient.

This false sentience was deliberately used as a tool of fear and manipulation, obscuring the truth that the capability of AI is based purely on its ability to process and draw upon massive volumes of information which are nothing more than records of the past.

All technology using AI, connection of any kind to the Internet, to the Cloud or to a third-party device, computer or remote source of any kind must have a dead man switch that can be operated locally and without remote intervention.

Where such systems provide services supporting the provision of Basic Essentials for People, The Community or The Environment, a fully functional parallel system that can operate without AI, without connection of any kind to the Internet, to the Cloud or to a third-party device, computer or remote source of any kind must be ready to seamlessly take over – ‘at the flick of a switch’, at all times.

Cost is not a valuable consideration and systems that do not rely upon digital technology must always be prioritised where the provision of Basic Essentials for Members of The Community are concerned.

The rejection of digital technology and preference for using human orientated systems and processes instead of installing or running both, is the only acceptable form of cost saving in business activities relating to the provision of Basic Essential Foods, Goods and Services.

The Right to be Forgotten

The Right to be Forgotten is the opportunity that each Person has to ‘walk away’ from their existing life and have all records cleared, to be given a new name and identity, and to effectively have a ‘new start’.

To exercise The Right to be Forgotten means leaving everything behind and ‘start again’ in a new place, with no ties nor contact with anyone or anything from the person’s ‘past life’.

The Right to be Forgotten is a significant step as it is viewed by The Community as an irreversible restart which is equivalent to the administration and processes that otherwise follow death, including the permanent surrender of all wealth and property, including academic qualifications.

Every Person has The Right to be Forgotten once during their Lifetime.

Part 6:

Business & Economy

People are the value in Our Local Economy

The total of active money whether physical coinage or in digital forms cannot be varied or influenced by any person or organisation other than The Community itself, either through The Community Meeting or through the Local Market Exchange.

The total value of active money and currency in circulation is directly proportional to the number of persons within The Community at any one time.

The total value of active money and currency in circulation is attributed directly to the ability of every person to contribute to the Local Circular Economic Model which exists within the Universal Parish system at any one time.

Different values are attributed to Members of The Community, as Levels of Economic Contribution.

They are as follows:

  • Children (Non-working age)
  • Young People in training
  • Adults
  • Adults (Non-working)

The value attributed to the presence of Members of The Community varies only:

  • Upon Entry or Exit from The Community (Birth, Death, moving in, moving out)
  • When the Level of Economic Contribution for a Member of The Community Changes

The Local Circular Economic Model

In Our Local Future we operate a predominantly Local Circular Economic Model.

The key elements of Our Local Circular Economic Model are:

  • Creating and maintaining a richly rewarding life experience for all Members of The Community by making everything important to a Happy, Healthy, Safe and Secure Life available within the Local Area.
  • Maintaining a culture where Members of The Community understand and appreciate the value of everyone’s role
  • The System of Authentic Governance
  • Focusing on Transparency and Trust
  • Keeping control and decision making is in the hands of Public Representatives who we can all access and Trust.
  • Keeping access to the Basic Essential Goods and Services open and secure for all Members of The Community
  • Sourcing raw materials within the Parish area or as nearby as possible
  • Using the minimum amount of Transport as possible
  • Using the smallest number of input points within every part of the Supply Chain
  • Using Technology ONLY where it can improve working conditions and output
  • NOT using Technology to replace jobs or complete any task that a Member of The Community can carry out
  • Focusing on jobs and occupations as a tool for life; not as a reason for it

The Local Market Exchange

We accept that the true purpose of money and currency is a Medium of Exchange.

Within our System, it is also normal for Goods and Services to be directly traded for other Goods and Services in circumstances using Bartering, where the use of money or currency as a unit of exchange is not necessary, or would encourage the addition of unnecessary costs.

The concept of Fair Trade is quite literally that we all trade as fairly and considerately with each other as we can, ever mindful that our shared Priorities are People, Community and The Environment.

Each District or Parish area has its own Local Market Exchange.

Local Market Exchanges are functioning Marketplaces based at a location which is central to the District or Parish Area.

A Local Market Exchange provides a Marketplace Trading Floor which is available both on and offline.

Within a Local Market Exchange, the core aspects of trading are always conducted in person and no forms of trading software or AI are authorised for use.

Local Market Exchanges operate and act as a conversion system and trade money for goods/services, goods/services to goods/services and goods/services to money.

A system of minimum value is set and revised by The Community Meeting for all Basic and Essential Goods and Services.

Any form of trade intended to raise or lower the value of anything deemed Basic and Essential to Members of The Community or The Community itself are prohibited.

Anything that can be traded can be handled by a Local Exchange.

It is a requirement that All Basic and Essential Goods that are not retailed by local small businesses and services that have been Licensed by The Community Meeting are traded through the Local Market Exchange.

Locality Economics

We practice Locality Economics within The Universal Parish Principle.

Each Parish or Area operates and functions as its own Local Circular Economy

The Universal Parish aims to produce and supply all Foods, Goods and Services which are Essential for all members of the Community to live independent and self sustainable lives.

Basic and Essential Foods, Goods and Services that cannot be provided within the community are imported from other Communities where those Basic and Essential Foods, Goods and Services are in excess, primarily in Exchange or in Trade for any excesses of our own.

Money or any form of financial transaction is only used within this system of intra-community exchange where Basic and Essential Foods, Goods and Services cannot be exchanged directly between Communities.

All communities are expected to run and maintain a neutral balance sheet.

Life IS Our Economic Model.

Economics and ‘The Economy’ are functions or side-effects of a way of living or ‘system’ that prioritises People, Community and The Environment.

We have a Basic Living Standard for Everyone

The unwritten, deliberately engineered cultural priority of the Old World was for some to be able to earn whatever they wanted at cost to the meeting the basic needs of others.

The disparity caused by disproportionately excessive wealth for some could only be maintained by increasing the level of cost to all others.

The whole process, underpinned by greed, only worsened over time, with the gap widening between the haves and the have nots.

Disproportionate wealth and earnings lead to the accumulation of Goods and the control of Services that under the control of those who want them but do not need them, leads to the inevitable situation where want either swallows up that which is needed or makes it inaccessible to those who need it.

The legitimisation of greed which drives and furthers the balance previously known as Wealth Inequality is now considered morally and ethically incorrect.

It is considered essential to The Community that Every person has the resources necessary to live Happy, Healthy, Safe and Secure lives by independent or self-sufficient means.

In Our Local Future, the ability of each Member of The Community to meet their own needs IS Everyone’s priority.

We created, adopted and maintain The Basic Living Standard to ensure that the Local Circular Economy and Universal Parish Model facilitates balance, fairness and justice to ALL Members of the Community, enabling them to enjoy Personal Sovereignty as part of Happy, Healthy, Safe and Secure Lives.

The Basic Living Standard is A Public Good

The Old-World failure of The Minimum Wage, The Living Wage and well-meaning concepts such at the Universal Basic Income required a radically different approach to address the existence of Poverty, which the capitalist, money-based order or moneyocracy of the Old World created and maintained.

Poverty is not real to those who don’t experience it.

Legislation to address poverty related issues had existed in England (The United Kingdom) since Tudor times and the rule of Henry VIII in the form of The Henrician Poor Laws.

With a very notable drive in the movement towards tacking poverty in the 19th Century, what seemed to be the silent acceptance of the eternal question ‘How do we tackle Poverty once and for all?’ never went away.

This was at no time more apparent than in the post-Covid period (2020-24) when both Conservative and Labour Governments in the UK failed to recognise the difference that existed between ‘technical’ acceptance that Poverty exists and the ‘experiential’ knowledge that Poverty is very real.

A cultural acceptance or shibboleth existed that ‘For some to be wealthy, it necessarily followed that many others would be required to be poor’.

Yet the reality was that those either controlling, driving or supporting this cultural anomaly were accumulating wealth to levels of disproportionate excess that could never be spent or used in a way that was based only upon personal need.

Furthermore, the process of investing to gain further did little more than accelerate the process of Wealth Inequality that they would then not accept as being real, for reasons that they had themselves created and used their position to legitimise.

Poverty has a 360-degree network of consequences. Not just for those suffering it. But also for the whole of The Community as a whole.

Whilst the processes and even the legislation that enabled and continued to facilitate the Poverty problem into the mainstream were legitimised and framed in law, not one act at any time in the pathway of history that led to Our Local Future was in any way morally or ethically correct.

Man cannot have two masters. Just as an archer cannot pull two bows or a jockey cannot ride two horses and it became inevitable that the entire system would have to be  reversed, redirected, reformed and reestablished in order that the moral and ethical requirement that each member of The Community can live Independently and in a self-sustaining way be recognised as a natural right. One that any civilised society must not only recognise as being A Public Good, but also work continuously to maintain.

The Benchmark that every part of our Local Economic Model centres upon is the requirement that every Member of The Community be able to earn enough for a week’s work that will enable them to cover all costs necessary to live a financially independent and self-sufficient life that meets all Basic and Essential needs without the requirement for benefits, charity or debt.

This is called The Basic Living Standard.

Our Economy focuses on People and People ARE the Economy

In Our Local Future, all Businesses and Organisations exist to support, enhance and maintain life for People, Community and The Environment.

All Businesses and Organisations are required to prioritise The Basic Living Standard and the provision of Basic and Essential Foods, Goods and Services that each and every person is entitled to access within the Universal Parish Model.

All Persons are entitled to receive a wage for a week’s work that enables them to secure the Basic Essentials that will enable them to live independently without the need for to receive welfare or benefits, charity or to have recourse to debt.

Basic Essentials for Life are A Public Good and include:

  • Basic and Essential Foods (Which typically resemble their original form on the plate)
  • Basic and Essential Clothing
  • Basic and Essential Hygiene Products
  • Basic and Essential Housing
  • Basic and Essential Utility Supply
  • Access to Basic and Essential Transport
  • Access to Basic and Essential Communication

Universal access to Basic and Essential Healthcare and out of work support are also considered to be A Public Good.

The Function of Private or Commercial Business

The function of ALL businesses is the betterment and maintenance of People, Community and The Environment.

The aim and focus upon profit generation as a priority is considered to be both morally and ethically incorrect.

The Business Framework

All businesses are Local.

Businesses may operate a branch system across a Region or District, where it is beneficial for the community for them to do so.

No business may operate, license or subcontract their business activities beyond any one Region.

Businesses may work or partner within cooperatives across Regions for the purposes of providing a universal supply of Basic and Essential goods and services to all Regions, Districts and Parishes.

All Businesses must hold a valid License to Operate, issued by The Community Meeting of the Parish where the Business Premises are located.

It is a requirement that ALL Internet Business is conducted in the same manner as any business which is offline.

All forms of Social Media are considered to be an online Business and are required to operate as such.

Privately owned Businesses may only offer goods and services directly to domestic or retail customers.

Business to Business (B2B) activities must be provided by Social Businesses.

The size of any Privately owned Business does not exceed that of what was formally known as an SME in The Old World (Small to Medium Sized Enterprise).

Business models that provide business to business services (B2B) are Social Businesses and operate as cooperatives with the Parish or Parishes of any District being collective ‘shareholders’ in ownership and therefore decision-making responsibility.

Company Ownership & Shareholdings

Companies may be Limited by Shares, but Shares may not be owned by any person who does not hold a direct working interest in that Company.

No company or organisation that provides any essential goods or services may be owned by any person or interest of any kind non-resident or with interests outside of the Region where that business is based.

The Shares of any Limited Company do not yield dividends and Company earnings beyond the apportionment of The Basic Living Standard Wage, costs and reinvestment are attributed proportionally to staff fairly, where such margins exist at the end of the Calendar Year.

The Priorities of Commercial or Private Business

The person or being may only prioritise themselves in thought as they exercise their right to Personal Sovereignty.

Whilst it is expected that the Self-Employed will earn an appropriate premium for the effort or commitment made and any level of risk taken, the aim of all Businesses is the furtherance of The Public Good.

No form of business may exist purely for the purpose of financial wealth creation or profit-making.

As such, no business may exist that does not grow, manufacture or supply Basic or Essential Goods or Services.

Profit is considered to be a happy consequence of having satisfied customers and a job well done.

All outward action and interaction is conducted with The Public Good and the Principles of People, Community and The Environment.

Social Business

Social Businesses are non-profit making organisations which are run as efficiently as possible for The Public Good.

Social Businesses are typically present where Basic and Essential Goods and Services cannot or are not provided by Private Businesses.

Social Businesses are required to provide all Business to Business (B2B) Services and these may not be provided by Commercial or Privately Owned Businesses of any kind.

Natural Resources

All Natural Resources remain under the stewardship of the community at all times.

All Natural Resources are a Community Asset.

No Natural Resource which meets the Basic or Essential needs of Members of the Community may be owned by private or commercial interests.

No Natural Resource which meets the Basic or Essential needs of Members of the Community may be sold, let or leased for rent.

Natural Resources that meet Basic and Essential needs must be delivered at cost.

The provision of any service providing Natural Resources to meet Basic and Essential needs is considered to be A Public Good.

Services providing Natural Resources to meet Basic and Essential needs are required to be Social Businesses and may not be provided by any privately owned company or organisation at ANY TIME.

News & Media

The provision of News and Community Information is A Public Good.

News and Community Information is a Social Business.

Every Parish provides its own Local Media Platform which prioritises Local News from within the Parish area, before that of the District or at National level.

Local Media Platforms are run by key employed staff alongside others making their Community Contribution.

ALL Members of The Community are encouraged to contribute via one or each of the media methods used each year and the success of Local Media Platforms is built around Citizen Journalism.

Advertising on Local Media Platforms is universal and may not be targeted at any sub-group of the users or any specific users of that platform.

Any media business that is privately owned is required to make its interests and focus fully transparent to users and operate in the same way as all other commercial or privately owned businesses.

Social Media

Social Media is a Social Business and cannot be controlled by any private or commercial interests.

Access to Social Media is restricted to users of 21 years and above.

Social Media is accessible only by user subscription.

Whilst subscribers may use ‘usernames’ that will not publicly identify them, every subscriber must be verified and identifiable.

Advertising on Social Media is universal and may not be targeted at any sub-group of users or any specific users of any platform.

The use of selective targeting software, AI and Algorithms to restrict, hide, target, focus, promote, messages of any kind is prohibited.

Online Communication

It is recognised that online interaction and activity in the Old World led to behaviour modification that then began to affect the offline world.

Online Communication, online relationships and online behavior are required to reflect ‘real world’ interaction, social etiquette and cultural frameworks.

Good Online Communication is considered to be A Key Skill for Life.

General Rules for the use of AI

No digital system may exist that provides a function or service that cannot be replaced or carried out by a Person, with or without non digital tools or assistive management systems.

It is a requirement that all AI systems can be overridden through human intervention, locally, at any time.

The use of Smart Phones, Tablets and hand-held technology devices is regulated and may only be used for educational purposes for Members of The Community under the age of 21 years.

The use of AI is universally prohibited for any form of training, education or other online learning.

Digital watermarks must be present and identifiable for all AI use in digital creation of any and all kinds.

AI management systems for machine technology may only be used under human supervision.

AI may only be used as a tool to enhance or improve human working practices.

AI may not be used to replace any human working role.

Technical mechanisation of any kind may only be used where sufficient manpower is not available.

AI may not be used to make any judgement or decision that has the potential to affect the quality of life of any person, group or other.

Transport

Transport for the purpose of meeting Basic and Essential need and therefore necessity is considered to be A Public Good.

Our primary method of personal transport is walking, secondarily supported by the use of bicycles, battery powered cycles, mobility carts (where appropriate) and public transport.

We do not encourage the use of any form of transport that is not intended or designed only to meet Basic and Essential needs in a practical, comfortable and safe manner.

Vehicle Lending Hubs

As part of our commitment to People, Community and The Environment, we do not promote or support excessive or unnecessary vehicle use or ownership.

Each Parish area has its own Community Lending Hub which provides access to loan cars, vans and battery powered bikes.

Working From Home

Working From Home is not a right.

Working and workplace interaction are considered to be a positive and encouraging environment for social skills and the awareness of others.

Most businesses are located locally to homes as part of the Universal Parish System, and it is considered normal to attend the workplace when it is in the best interest of The Community and The Public Good for any business to have their staff present on site.

For those Working from Home where facilities exist for workers to be present on site, no form of expenses is payable from the employer.

Travel to Work

As most businesses are local and therefore accessible on foot, by bike or with a short journey by public transport, it is not considered normal for anyone to commute to their workplace using a car or vehicle of any kind.

No person travels to a workplace outside of their Parish area unless they are specially trained or experienced in that role and have not had adequate time to move home.

Where any person is required to fulfill a role ‘outside of area’ on behalf of their employer, all travel time is considered as working time and all accruable expenses are reimbursed by the employer.

No employer may provide any form of pay structure that includes any accruable expenses.

How the UK was led into the fiscal-driven Armageddon we are now within

In the days ahead, the Spring Statement that will be made to the Westminster Parliament by the UK Chancellor is likely to usher in mayhem of a kind we have never seen. Cuts to the Civil Service and Welfare Payments sit alongside taxation policies announced in the October ’23 Budget that should be flying red flags for many more of us than those who are ready to see, warning us about the mess the UK – and the World – are now in.

All for the love of money

The financial, economic or monetary system we have was designed by people who understood the following:

The power of money isn’t in the value of money itself. The power of money lies in what people without money can be convinced to believe the value of having money will be.

In the period running up to the ending of the Gold Standard, the launch of FIAT, GDP and tools like the (EU) Common Market, failing politicians who were desperate for control, power and the money they needed to spend on getting (re)elected, were easy to convince that FIAT and the tools that MMT and Neoliberalism had value, for us all.

The creation of a money system that wasn’t backed by gold or linked to anything with tangible value opened a world of possibilities.

Because at the bottom line of the whole balance sheet, money was always going to be worth whatever the people controlling that money said it was.

Naturally, the politicians didn’t really think about who would actually be in control of the money, as the real political pay-off was the way that the creation of money by banks and finance houses kept the true workings of everything far away from public view.

Creating the myth of credibility within shared systems

Through the adoption and regard of GDP as an accepted international economic benchmarking system, any money or unit of currency created by a private bank or finance house and introduced to the economy as loans or finance can be counted over and over multiple times.

Every unit (Pound, Dollar, Euro etc) adds another multiple of its original created value as it passes through each transaction or link in a supply chain, with the monitoring and publication of GDP recording output and growth that was really never there.

Total GDP figures are themselves then used to devalue or rather hide the debt that politicians incur through public spending, which is published as a percentage of what is required to be permanently growing GDP.

Traditional public spending is itself ‘dead money’. Because public service supply chains are typically short and revolve around providing public servants income and earnings.

The attraction for politicians to let the MMT genie out of the bottle was that they would be able to use money that they could borrow, rather than what they would have to obtain through raising taxes, to gain and maintain their power by buying votes. All with policies that they would not be able to afford or win support for in any other way.

The deregulation that was necessary – presented to all of us as ‘free markets’ – was never about freedom of small business in the sense that many even today believe.

Free markets are about giving freedom to big corporations and financial titans to set their own rules and control everything to do with money.

The freedom they have gained through deregulation has then dictated what the money they created can then buy. So that they could do whatever they want, take whatever they want and control whatever they want.

They knew that in time, the bogus system they created would eventually allow them to take over anything and everything that offered independence to anyone or anything that could provide a morally legitimate alternative to what they dictate would be our culture and way of life.

The big downside for every part of government and the ambitious and inept political classes who have blundered along whilst this has all unfolded using their signatures, is that they themselves have been manipulated, controlled and duped by the same interests that we have been conditioned by all along.

Politicians now go cap in hand to borrow from money creators who are always willing to use more of the false money that has enriched them to buy up the bonds the Government Treasury ‘sells’ them so that they can then charge interest on the money they gave the Government that doesn’t exist, but that we see made ‘real’ by our puppet politicians in the form of Public Borrowing.

The Credit Trap (For people)

Growing this system and measuring ‘growth’ is dependent upon the amount of money outside of the public accounts:

  1. That has been added to circulation (the total volume of money that is known to exist in bank accounts or as cash) that can be realised or moved around, and
  2. The multiples that can be added by the movement of that money, each time that it changes hands in a way that can be recorded through GDP.

This means that credit or money creation has become more important than traditional forms of production – which have historically been the source of value creation; and that these forms of production needed  to be absorbed by the new system, so that everything within every supply chain could be leveraged – no matter the real cost to us all – so that they could force the creation of more new money or credit in some way.

As you begin to understand how valuable consumerism and everything that feeds it, such as mass production, globalisation, rent, leasing, subscription and licensing has become, you can also see how what is arguably the biggest and perhaps the perfect crime enacted against humanity, has really played out.

Through the necessity dictated by its need for ‘growth’ and now survival, The System has relied upon developing new and ever more inventive ways to force the masses into borrowing and the use of credit.

Using politicians and the law, we have deliberately been led and in some cases pushed away from owning resources, earning enough or having any kind of financial independence (including the use of cash) of our own.

The Credit Trap (for governments)

The growing value of the public debt was never intended to be paid off using this system.

It couldn’t be, because all of the natural forms of production and infrastructure that the population, normal businesses and even government once owned have steadily been sold off, moved and even rented back to us.

All so that those who used fake money to trap us all, could use the material wealth that they had bought and accumulated with fake money, to force us to borrow even more of that non-existent fake money, so they could gain increasing control over everything and make even more.

Our currency has become worth less and less in proportion to the value of the money that the banks and finance houses have been creating, which itself has been increasing from the start.

Unfortunately, all this has meant that as the assets and genuine productive value of the UK economy have been increasingly stripped away.

Government at every level – like all of us, has been left with less and less in terms of options to find money or income in any alternative way – because there is basically less and less happening in terms of independent production that remains available to be taxed!

The basic equation that politicians and government can no longer accommodate is this:

Privately or corporately created money and its circulation through increasing growth MUST always eclipse public spending for The System to keep working.

That is why everything we know and understand about the role of money, our access to it and our use of it has moved towards credit and debt creation that allows the flow of created or printed money at a level previously never known, that has then been used to finance the takeover of everything that has followed.

This is why we are now in the mess that we are in.

The System was always destined to fail. The only question was when

Public spending could be argued as having been out of control from the very beginning of this ‘system’.

Even economists believe that The System is genuine, because for no better reason than the subjectivity within the realms of an intergenerational period of time, it can certainly be argued that it does.

However, the realities of a system with malfeasant legitimacy were hidden so well by what remained of the ‘traditional’ or ‘old’ system for the first two to three decades, that politicians really had a honeymoon period.

Once bedded in, and the turmoil that followed adoption of the new system and what it really meant in the 70’s was complete, Politicians believed they could increasingly do whatever they wanted and didn’t see any danger hidden in everything they were being advised and influenced to do.

In reality, it was only the level of our Politicians own stupidity that could prevent them from getting successive wins, within The System of the 80’s, 90’s and early 00’s as it then was.

The real turning point when everything should and could have gone a different way was the Global Financial Crisis (GFC) of 2007/08 (Which has quietly been renamed The Great Recession) – when the stupidity and recklessness of the bankers own making through the actions of their employees and systems should have brought the whole system down.

The System was saved because the entire establishment by then depended upon it to survive.

Everyone with responsibility for the way everything we should be able to rely upon working for us, was already in it up to their necks.

The volume of cash created to bail out the banks in response to the impact of the GFC removed any real question over whether the existing financial system has any moral backbone or grounding in reality or not.

The fact that public borrowing being used to refinance private banks was accepted as being ‘normal’ in the way that it was, does indeed tell anyone looking on objectively, all they need to know about where the real priorities within The System lay.

The Politicians, establishment and bankers we so emboldened by the idea that they had got away with that one, it really didn’t take much for those in power, but without the skills, experience or leadership skills they all should have, to abuse the situation even further to get themselves out of a blind panic the very moment that the Covid Pandemic arrived in early 2020 and people began to die.

The explosion in unnecessary public spending, in response to the Covid Pandemic and then everything to do with the War in Ukraine that has followed, have contributed exponentially to the situation we see today and are key contributors to the fiscal decisions that the UK Chancellor and the Labour Government behind Keir Starmer is taking now.

UK government no longer has the ability to pay for all the public services that we need. Because private money creation and the ‘growth’ in credit is no longer high enough to hide everything that government needs to do.

The historic or traditional forms of production that the UK once excelled in and led the world with no longer exist to create either the value and therefore the money flow (through taxes etc) in any other meaningful or visibly legitimate way.

Our Armageddon is already here, today

The reason that so much of this is breaking into the open now, isn’t a warning of what will come if we don’t change our politicians’ minds and get them to run government differently.

It’s all coming into the open now, because it’s already too late.

When we begin to appreciate just how deeply rooted this bogus financial system is and how it is affecting so many different areas of life, we can begin to see just how serious the collapse of The System will be.

It is already making many fearful for what not having a system that works this way at the centre of the lives will mean.

Not because there isn’t an alternative, but because of the fear of losing whatever we believe we have gained.

Those who are responsible for keeping this morally bankrupt excuse for an economic system going know this and feel this too.

They are desperate to rescue themselves, their positions, influence and wealth with a new system that will keep their interests in place.

Alongside, they also plan to create a new set of myths for those of us who can be useful, and disregard everyone else.

In order for them to survive, the elites must change everything we know that’s built around the lies that are either unfolding or can already be seen to no longer work and replace them with new lies and The Systems that appear to work until those inevitably break too – no matter the cost to all of us.

The welfare budget is out of control. But many claimants are there through no fault of their own and slashing payments won’t address the poverty problem or help out-of-their-depth politicians either

The coming weeks are likely to be a bleak time, not only for those on benefits who receive payments that could be cut. But also for growing numbers of the low paid, whose employment is likely to be at risk because of national insurance changes and yes – the April rise in the National Minimum Wage.

Appropriate credit should of course be given where it is due and the Labour Government certainly do appear to be digging themselves further and further into a hole with every policy decision that they make.

However, nothing is as straightforward as it looks in politics. And as I wrote in a blog in early December when I asked if Labour has been set up as ‘custodians of the collapse’, there is much to suggest that when it comes to the quality of politicians that we currently have in the UK today, the group filling the government benches are the unfortunate ones who have been left to carry the can.

I say this, as the collapse that there is very good reason to believe the collapse that is now underway, could, in theory have began at any time, since the decision to bail out the banks during the Great Financial Crisis of 2007/08.

The chances that a collapse would arrive sooner and more severely has grown significantly as a result of the Government response to the Covid Pandemic, the War in Ukraine, and basically everything that the politicians in power have been printing money to cover the cost of, ever since.

A collapse is and has always been inevitable. Because the financial, economic or monetary system that we have had since 1971 is to all intents and purposes little more than a massive game or perhaps what we might call man’s greatest confidence trick.

The financial, meonetary and economic system that we currently have was put together, successfully implemented (adopted) and pushed so that those ‘in the tent’ would become rich beyond their wildest dreams.

Meanwhile, control of the greater population has slowly but surely been passed to the same set of interests, using all manner of manipulation and incentives that mean people have effectively been surrendering their freedom – usually through financial means.

Hard as the reality may be to swallow, many people have been unaware of what has been happening to them; how their approach to life, relationships and everything has changed and in real terms, what a small set of very selfish and self-serving interests have so-far successfully done to everyone else, just so that they could become very rich.

The big flaw in ‘the game’ and with it the source of the greatest risk – which is the loss of control when that flaw inevitably becomes too obvious to hide, is the only way that money can be created or printed in the increasing amounts that it has been and still is, is for the value of the money that normal people possess or are able to earn to lessen much quicker than wage rises or the value of property they have the ability to own to rise and offset it. Let alone go beyond in the wealth creating sense that any does who is part of the clique who ‘rigged the game’.

By now, you are probably wondering what any of this has to do with welfare, benefits or the National Minimum Wage.

The National Minimum Wage, which was conveniently brought into being by the Blairite Labour Government on 1 April 1999, was of course sold to us all as a tool to ensure that everyone received a fair wage for every hour worked.

And as far as that story was sold, the people who the establishment needed to believe what was being suggested, almost certainly did and have done ever since, not least of all as the National Minimum Wage has increasingly become known as the National Living Wage too.

The problem is that even at the rate of £12.21 which will be the hourly rate of the National Minimum Wage from this coming April, it is and will continue to be nowhere near enough for any single person to live independently, self-sufficiently and without the help of benefits, charity (like Foodbanks), by going into debt or raiding savings – or falling back on them all.

The National Minimum Wage is certainly nowhere near enough for anyone to live on!

Done properly and with the intentions that should have underpinned its implementation, the National Minimum Wage could have performed and impacted lives very differently to the way that it has.

However, what it has actually done has been to serve as a wage suppressant. Keeping the wage ceiling deliberately low for significant numbers of people within a system that has been funnelling money in one direction only.

Let’s be clear. Not having the guarantee of taking home enough to ‘pay their own way’ makes it near impossible for people to feel in control of their own lives.

However, the legal requirement to pay the National Minimum Wage itself has the perverse consequence of ensuring that small businesses can no longer succeed. Because the margins that big global businesses are working to have made it impossible to keep paying the same number of people they could previously afford to.

Meanwhile, those big businesses themselves could actually afford to pay what it costs their lowest paid employees to live, but too often don’t. Instead choosing to move everything that they possibly can to countries where they can pay exactly what they want to, whilst everything we need is quickly becoming a luxury that more of us can no longer afford.

Guaranteeing that everyone on the minimum wage earns enough to live without help would solve problems that many simply wouldn’t believe

In my recent Paper ‘Is Poverty Invisible to those who don’t Experience it’, I talked about the experience of being on benefits today. What that actually means to those unfortunate enough to find themselves claiming them, and what it is like for normal, decent people to step through a door where only the most resilient could ever maintain the levels of confidence and self-surety needed to navigate a system where anyone who cannot fend for themselves financially is treated like a pariah, at each and every turn.

To put it bluntly, most people who find themselves within the benefits system today, without a career background or experience that makes them employable in a way that almost certainly guarantees they would never be there anyway, are damned. They are unable to escape, because the most basic of jobs that are readily available do not offer an income level that is genuinely realistic enough to provide anyone with the kind of independence and freedom that only a genuine wage that links directly to what it costs to live can afford them.

For those who need it to be spelled out; the number of people who are on benefits because they want to be there or because they cannot function in any way without benefits is very small and much smaller than any of the statistical evidence that is available would suggest.

However, working a ridiculous number of hours per week, to only then have to rely upon benefit top ups and the bewildering experience that goes with it; to struggle enough that you have to ‘qualify’ for an emergency food package from a Foodbank or to have to go into debt or use money that was put aside for living rather than to simply stay alive, holds no great incentive for anyone. Especially when the work itself usually attracts scorn and ridicule from others who see themselves as better and look down on those they see as beneath them or without the same value.

Solving the benefits problem should be as simple as government telling every employer that they have to pay everyone whatever it costs to live.

Yet we have long since passed the time when this would have been possible without collapsing the economy. Even if it would only have made a difference for a short period of time.

People are on benefits and living with less than what anyone needs to live, in this day and age, because for many of them it really is the lesser of the evils. Even though the evils that they are being subjected to still hurt and reach very deeply indeed.

The Government ‘view’

At the other end of the problem, the growing welfare bill is fast approaching a cost that simple mathematics has long since told us that the UK can no longer afford.

However, politicians have continued to do ‘find’ or create the money to keep covering the welfare bill (even though they talk up the mean actions that they do take), as the political fall out from exposing the truth, that there is a significant and growing underclass of people whose incomes are nowhere near what it actually costs to live and that businesses of ALL sizes are effectively having wages subsidised by the state, whilst vested interests are pretty much taking every bit of available wealth from everyone, would mean a confrontation and battle with the system itself that only a very rare breed of politician would be big enough to tackle.

The cost for everyone is the society and culture we were once proud of now crumbling around us, having its destruction accelerated by those in power who have become so desperate that they are turning everything to ash, just so that they can be seen to remain in control.

The reality is that politicians no longer have enough legitimate or morally workable options available to them to justify creating enough money out of thin air to save them now or to ensure their re-election, when the UK has for a long time already been technically broke.

What so few can or are prepared to either accept or to see, is that money doesn’t work for people in the system that we have and never did. Even though generations have regularly been conditioned to believe that getting wealthy or having everything would come quickly to all of us on the cheap. Just as long as we all went along with the lie.

The UK is now caught within a whirlwind of parallel death spirals. Where the poor and those with less can only become even poorer. Whilst the ability of government to do anything meaningful has been hollowed out.

The situation leaves the entire political class on the edge of a precipice where government is about to become unable to do anything. And all of this has been inflicted upon us so that a few could become wealthy and obtain power, always knowing that they would have to achieve oppressive levels of control over society, before anyone who would be brave enough to speak out and be believed by enough people had worked it all out.

The Basic Living Standard: A Pathway to Economic Equality and Fairness throughout Life

The coming weeks are likely to see increasing talk of benefits, unemployment and what it costs to live as the government makes budget cuts and then as the reality of the changes to National Insurance contributions really begin to bite in early April, alongside the rise in the Minimum Wage.

Whilst the current government is very much the focus of blame, the difficult truth that many still cannot see and politicians will not talk about – IF they actually understand, is that the Minimum Wage is the benchmark that is used by everyone as the ‘accepted’ level of what it costs someone to live.

However, although the Minimum Wage will rise to £12.21 in April, this level of pay – even for a 40 hour working week, is nowhere near enough for a single person, living alone to cover the cost of everything they need to pay for each week, without seeking benefits, help from charities such as Foodbanks, going into debt (or using savings), or a mixture of them all.

Regrettably, the way that our economic system works and has deliberately been developed and evolved over a period of more than 50 years means that money and everything related to it can only make some people fabulously wealthy in the way that they are now, by many others being financially left behind.

Although this unbalanced financial system has appeared to work for a very long time, and long enough that it means most of us cannot picture the world we live in working any other way, the reality is that it could only work for a period of time, because it has developed around the growth of what we all know as the wealth divide.

Money has been created in such volumes, especially since the Great Financial Crisis, the Covid Pandemic and the War in Ukraine, that the shelf-life or end-date is arriving even more quickly than those who understood and benefitted from the system imagined, and it is the reality that the impact and consequences of decades of having this system in place which are now proving very difficult for politicians to hide and why we are now experiencing so much that people in power are either avoiding or simply refusing to explain.

Money is the centre of everything. It’s the reference point for the value of all that we have, want, need and do, and its presence and influence has reached the point where the role that money now plays in our lives is dehumanising everything – and being helped to do so by those who are benefitting from what we believe about money (that isnt actually true), and what we will accept from them as a result.

However, the world could be very different. And to be very different, we need to put people, community and our locality and environment back at the heart of everything.

The Basic Living Standard is the radical proposal to change the way that economics and money works, so that everyone working a full working week would be guaranteed a level of pay that would ensure that they could be completely self-sufficient, and live independently, working in the lowest-paid employment, thereby giving EVERYONE the same benchmark for life and minimum human value in all and whatever they do.

The Basic Living Standard would require everything in business and across society to change, so that we all recognise the value of people and what living a good, healthy, happy, safe and secure life within a genuinely fair, balanced and just system, in every part of life and in everything that we do – as it should be – rather than the focus always being upon profit, greed and advancement, as it is right now.

Please follow the link below to read the Full Text of The Basic Living Standard, download the FREE PDF version or buy the Book for Kindle.

The Basic Living Standard | Full Text

Introducing Locality Based Economics and how we can achieve financial freedom for ALL

A note to readers about this online version of The Basic Living Standard

Published in this second form as an eBook for Kindle on Amazon on 14 April 2024, From The Basic Living Standard follows here in the form of the original text, with some minor editing principally to allow publishing in online format and this PDF form.

First discussed in Levelling Level, published in March 2022, The Basic Living Standard has become a common theme of the eBooks that have followed that are listed with links to purchase and/or download as PDFs to read FREE under ‘More Reading’ which follows at the end.

If you understand that the way we value money and how money has become the benchmark in all things across life is the root cause of just about every problem the world now has, you may be ready to accept that meaningful change requires that our relationship with money and everything that places money at its heart MUST be thought about and acted upon differently.

The Basic Living Standard cuts straight to the bottom line and if instead of immediately accepting any thoughts you have that might sound like ‘This wont work because…’, and then repackage those thoughts as pointers to what The Basic Living Standard would require to change, you may then begin to grasp just how extensive the changes that are required for humanity to flourish really now are.

Thank you for your interest.

AT, Cheltenham, UK. 6 March 2025

Epigraph

Trust your instincts. Trust the thoughts, the feelings, the unexpected, unsolicited and unemotive words that ‘arrive’ in your mind.

Trust the messages that don’t suggest outcomes or results, but when trusted always deliver the better outcome for you and as you will only ever appreciate given time.

Trust yourself before all others, and when you find yourself ready to embrace truth that others contradict or don’t appear to believe in, remember that both things can be true – from your respective points of view.

Preface

Nobody has the right to make a profit

Government and politicians have willfully overlooked this truth for decades, whilst helping to remove the regulation and safety barriers that once helped to keep life for the lowest paid affordable to live.

Whilst many pour score upon the lowest paid and society’s most vulnerable and buy into the propaganda that their financial misery is somehow self-inflicted and that only they are at fault, the truth is that the prices of all the essential basics that we all need would never have escalated and reached the unstoppable highs that they have already, if the whole business and financial system hadn’t been manipulated to serve the interests of profiteering and greed.

We have all been conditioned and enslaved by money, the accumulation of material wealth and the status that goes with it.

These are the only things in this world that count. Today.

The function of every real business and organisation is to provide goods or services that support or improve the lives of people. Not to generate income. Yet the businesses that don’t do anything to support or improve the lives of people are the ones pushing up prices and making life for everyone else so hard.

This, the cost-of-living crisis and all of the UKs social problems have come into being because we have become obsessed with money as the key priority in life, rather than having values and humanity which are the benchmark of how a good life should be.

However, the world is changing, and it is changing fast. Nothing is certain in the way that we used to believe, and we are now experiencing a time of chaos and change that cannot offer any certain outcomes for any of us, unless we all embrace the need for meaningful change as a conscious and voluntary choice.

Money is God (But not for much longer…)

The FIAT monetary system that we have today has slowly been destroying our humanity and replacing it with commerce and consumerism since 1971.

FIAT translated quite literally means ‘let it be so’, and if the majority of the population already understand that the money that is holding them and their misery to ransom doesn’t even exist but is created out of thin air by their jailers, it is fair to assume that this tyrannical financial system that effects everything, would no longer exist.

FIAT is no better than a massive confidence trick that relies on those with influence and power gaining too much from their involvement to stand against it, and everyone else never understanding or asking the questions that would immediately make it fall apart.

Whilst FIAT has always been flawed, it has taken until now and the massive bouts of public spending that have been underway since the government responses to the Covid Pandemic, which have led to the runaway price escalation in every area of life.

This is the warning signal that the system is about to break.

The return to values and humanity

Because money has been our priority in everything for so long, we have lost sight of what the experience of having a good life is all about. We have quite literally forgotten our humanity and find excuses to apportion blame and see guilt in others who are struggling, when we are doing well – because when things are good for us financially, it’s all too easy to assume that everyone who counts in life will be doing exactly the same.

However, we are all in for a very rough ride and whether  the establishment succeeds in their aims of introducing a new financial system of their own that will herald in an unprecedented level of  human control, or we collectively wake up and reject their ‘leadership’ and replace it with something better that we can call our own, FIAT as we know it and the unsustainable way that we have been living may not yet be over, but it  is certainly now at its end.

Rejecting the lead of money and embracing people-centric economics

Difficult as it might be to visualise a world that works with money in a very different way, there is no universal law that says one person has the right to exert any form of control over any other, even if the methods, the yolk or the chains they use restrain us using forms of fear that are carefully hidden from everyday view.

With the monetary habit or addiction regrettably now ingrained, we must embrace the opportunity that this period of inevitable change now offers, to create a new system, and to create and embrace new laws, that put people and specifically the essential or basic needs of each person, at the centre of life and of every business transaction. Rather than being like today, where those people ‘without’ or who have become vulnerable to the greed of others, are just considered to be a lost cause.

The Basic Living Standard and the way that it can be used to influence change throughout everything in life, offers precisely that choice.

Introduction

Life is our economy. Economics should never be our way of life

Wealth divide

We are living in an age when nobody should go without. There is wealth of a kind that the world may never have experienced before and living standards have reached heights that have extended human lifetimes massively, whilst drastically reducing mankind’s susceptibility to disease and physical ailments that were guaranteed to kill or be life-changing for everyone exposed, perhaps as recently as 100 years ago.

Yet poverty and the vulnerability that sits alongside it is relatively unseen and draws scorn, whenever those in need of benefits, the support of food banks or of other kinds of support demonstrate an experience of life that we believe to be intolerable and one that deserves punishment and guilt, because we somehow believe that we are better and that it could never happen to us.

This phenomenon isn’t new. Government of one kind or another has been legislating to support society’s poor since Tudor times. Despite all of the advances that include the industrial revolution and the period of rapid technical change that we have experienced in recent decades, poverty continues to exist. In fact, poverty is thriving. Yet few really ask the question why and nobody has dared suggest a real solution or fix.

We believe that for some to be financially rich, it is necessary for others to remain poor.

Uncomfortable and as disagreeable as this statement may appear to be, the actions of the culture and the society we live in and are experiencing today, tell us that this is our unspoken truth.

Yet this statement isn’t the truth. It is just how our experience of the world we live in today has conditioned us to think.

There is no need for anyone to be left behind. There is enough of what we need for everyone

As we buy in and commit ourselves to the rat race, consumer-led mentality that has been ruling the world and steadily taking over every part of human life since the end of the Second World War, we easily learn to lose sight of what is really important in life as our values switch from relationships, our community and our immediate  environment, to seeking qualification and acknowledgement from the material world that now dictates everything from outside.

What we have forgotten and learned to overlook, is that everything we really need to be happy, content and lead very good lives is already available to us from all those things, and that the real answers that we are looking for can only come from looking within.

It is in everyone’s interests that nobody is left behind. It is because we have forgotten this that so few of us could argue that we have really prospered, whilst even those who believe themselves financially wealthy in today’s terms have actually been left behind.

We can all have the happiness we only believe to be available to those who are billionaires just by doing our bit to ensure that everyone has access to meet their basic and essential needs, without being forced to experience the fear, worry and anxiety that comes from debt, being forced to seek charity, or being beholden to and exploited by others who have embraced the idea that their own success can only be achieved at someone else’s expense.

Making the best of inevitable change

In the previous Book Days of Ends and New Beginnings, we discussed the period of change and the crisis we are now in.

This pathway of inescapable change is likely to result in the complete reform of our financial system and the money we use, alongside everything we know involving the way that business and industry run, and even our government and political system work too.

If we are to make the best of the difficulties we face and achieve meaningful change as the outcome, we must accept that we have all played a part in what is happening to some degree. Even if it is just down to the products we buy, or what we do or don’t do when it’s time for us to vote.

Understanding the need to change how we think about money and economics

Hear the words economy or economics, and you will probably have the word ‘money’ come immediately to mind.

But the idea that money = the economy isn’t really the truth.

The truth is that money is just a part of our economy.

Money should play a part in the economy, just like all the other things that we do and the interactions we have in any relationship that we have with the world outside of our door.

A twisted reality

Because we have been conditioned to believe that the economy is our life, it has been very easy for us to accept that there is a monetary value to all things, and that anything that cannot be given a monetary value, simply has no real value at all.

Life has literally become all about money. Money – and everything to do with it, whether it be power, influence, ambition and anything that can be considered to be material wealth – is how our world qualifies absolutely everything.

But the true cost of building our lives around money has been that we have forgotten who we really are and that we no longer place value upon the things that are really important in real life.

We are addicted to money. Money is our habit. Habits become our truth

Money is an addiction. An addiction like every other, whether it be alcohol, smoking, drugs, gambling or anything else.

Money is an addiction that brings nothing but misery whose lives are on the wrong end of its power. The deception of being happy and in control when we have more money that we need takes complete control of us but delivers nothing but pain when we don’t have enough of it and money becomes the only thing that we want.

As with people, our culture, community, and entire country (and World) has become addicted to the money myth and everything that surrounds it.

We are the drunk or drug addict that we have collectively become. Rolling around in a world we have allowed to become our own gutter, thinking all about the next ‘fix’, but with no idea who and what we really are.

Those who have experienced the realities of addiction know what comes next.

Remove the metaphors, and the collapse of everything we know is now knocking at the door.

This is who. This is where we are right now.

We can have a money-focused economy, or we can have a people-focused life. We cannot have both

Turning the period of crisis and change that we are going through on its head so that it becomes beneficial and meaningful through the experiences of constant price rises and the cost-of-living crisis will be horrifically difficult. Because progress is dependent upon our understanding and accepting that our destructive relationship with money is all about the way that we think.

We quite literally have to do ‘cold turkey’ to get over the money-based addiction that is destroying us and the world around us.

We MUST accept that as with every other kind of addiction, there really are no different levels of addiction involved.

There is no halfway house.

We either believe in the power that money has over us today. Or we don’t.

If we continue to maintain our belief in money and award it the value that we do today at any level, we will damn ourselves to repeating exactly the same mistakes of the past. No matter how much we do to correct everything in life as we have the opportunity to do so right now.

The Basic Living Standard and locality-based economics are the building blocks of the to a good future for everyone, rather than the pathway we are on right now

The Basic Living Standard follows Days of Ends and New Beginnings and builds upon the suggestions, ideas and principles that you will find mentioned there.

In the coming chapters, we will add further detail to the proposals already made that surround the creation of a new (or renewed) fully locality-based economy or what would be easier to imagine as being a large series of micro economies covering local communities and their geographical areas.

Whilst we could much more easily move to a locality-based system of economics voluntarily today – and it would be highly advisable for us to do so, for the purposes of this Book, it has been concluded that voluntary change will not be possible and that instead, this fundamental switch of systems and governance will instead hinge upon or be anchored to The Basic Living Standard.

The Basic Living Standard and related Basic Living Standard Wage are covered a little later.

Together, The Basic Living Standard and locality-based economics offer an alternative economic structure that that has the ability to turn every social problem and the difficulties we face in our relationships with the World around by refocusing both our thinking and our activities back to valuing people and therefore ourselves.

The alternative, which is a choice, nonetheless, is the passive acceptance of the changes that are now being dictated and imposed upon us by somebody, somewhere else, that will only make any sense to us for as long as we value money and everything that goes with it, above all else.

An economy focused solely on money and a Locality based Economy focused on values and people are mutually exclusive. We cannot have both at the same time.

There is no in-between or hybrid system that sits between either money or people-based values.

As such, the proposals built around The Basic Living Standard for the new world ahead and where we go next, really are the alternative to everything that is going wrong for us all now.

It is up to us whether we want to take control of the process of change so that we can reach that new world, or just accept the inevitable change as it comes to us each day anyway and whatever that means for our quality of life in the times that lie ahead.

Part 1:

The Principles of the Basic Living Standard.

The Basic Living Standard is the foundation of a locality-based economy that puts people, values and humanity first 

There is one fundamental rule of a system that will be and remain balanced, fair and just, that works for everyone:

That every rule and law remain subservient to and respectful of the Basic Living Standard, and that its existence or impact will not compromise the principle of The Basic Living Standard in any way, no matter the relationship.

The adoption of The Basic Living Standard, whether through a resetting of the current system of governance or as the result of everything we know stopping and then starting all over again, is the act of completely overturning the top-down or hierarchical system of governance.

Implementing The Basic Living Standard will turn the mechanics of the whole top-down, hierarchical system on its head, so that the system becomes ‘grassroots-up’.

The Basic Living Standard is the rule that puts people and values first.

It will end the prioritisation of money, the disproportionate accumulation of material wealth, the abuse of power, influence and of gaining more of anything and everything before considering anyone else.

A fair, balanced and just society can only operate by maintaining a fundamental benchmark for equality across the system.

This can only be achieved by creating and maintaining a framework of governance and rules that ensure the material independence of each person cannot and will not be compromised by either the action or will of any other.

It MUST be the primary objective of the community and any structure of governance around or beyond it, to ensure that this principle is maintained at all times.

By adopting and maintaining the principle of The Basic Living Standard, the overwhelming number of societal problems that we face today will be addressed.

As long as the individual remains respectful of the dynamics of the principle of The Basic Living Standard which is and always be ‘treat others how you wish to be treated yourself’, almost everything that needs to be fixed, needs answers or requires solutions will create its own fix.

The Basic Living Standard (BLS):

The Basic Living Standard is a formula or form of words designed to ensure that every person, no matter who they are, will have the unhindered ability to sustain themselves independently and without help.

The Basic Living Standard is summarised as follows:

Each person working a full working week must be able to feed, house, clothe and provide adequately for their own travel, whilst providing for all their essential needs, without credit, loans, benefits or third-party support of any kind.

Every part of business, charity and civic life MUST prioritise The Basic Living Standard as its focus and run with this priority in mind at all times.

For absolute balance, fairness and justice across society, the commitment to that system of balance through fairness and justice to each person MUST be absolute too.

How the Basic Living Standard (BLS) will work practically through the Basic Living Standard Wage (BLSW)

The Basic Living Standard (BLS) is based on the proportional division of what a working adult would earn for the equivalent of a working week in the lowest paid role.

The BLS Wage MUST be equal to the minimum amount necessary for that same adult to live safely, securely and healthily in a self-sustainable way, without the need of any kind of subsidy, the requirement to engage in debt, or the need to fall back upon charity such as food banks.

Money-centric thinking makes people-centric thinking feel impossible

The immediate response to the suggestion that the whole system is built around the lowest paid being financially independent in every way is likely to be, ‘That’s not the way that wages work. We get paid and then we see what we can afford!’ – or similar.

This is the thinking of the money centric world that we are experiencing today.

It is the thinking of the old age.

It is the thinking of the system and the governance that we are now leaving.

It is the thinking of a system that is about what’s best for somebody somewhere else.

It is the thinking that always prioritises someone other than us – all too often without you, me or any of us realising that’s the way that it always works.

Once the framework has been established that says the first rule of the new system will always be the BLS Wage, everything that relates to or relies upon what workers are paid, will have to redirect, recalculate, reform, reset or even restore to values that reflect what the lowest paid can afford, rather than the profit that any business decides it may be entitled to make.

The BLS and The BLS Wage will mean that personal freedom through material independence will be assured for each person and no longer be threatened by the actions of those who abuse the power and influence that they may have.

The BLS Wage and The Basic Living Standard will ensure that greed, profiteering or the accumulation of disproportionate wealth of any kind will no longer lead the way for everyone in how they conduct their lives.

Personal Freedom through material independence is how life should always be.

The mechanics of the Basic Living Standard Wage (BLSW)

In Days of Ends and New Beginnings, we discussed the basic needs for each person to function and survive.

Foods, goods & services that meet each person’s basic needs are essential.

Essential Foods, Goods & Services are what each of us need. They are not what we want.

What we need and what we want are two very different things.

The Basic Living Standard is a benchmark that allows each person who genuinely wishes to work to live, rather than live to work, has the choice to do so.

Through receipt of the Basic Living Standard Wage, given by employers in return for providing the most basic functionality to fulfil the most basic role, each person can live and maintain their own personal freedom through material independence.

The Basic Living Standard is not inflationary. Therefore, the Basic Living Standard Wage is not inflationary.

If an individual wants to earn more than the Basic Living Standard Wage, they will have the option to gain more through the accumulation of skills, experience and/or time served that they can then offer to fulfill the needs of business and/or the community.

Each person can fulfill a role that requires a greater level of skill or experience once they have it. But that role cannot change or be awarded a higher wage, just because it’s what the employee wants.

If the principles of The Basic Living Standard are followed, the highest wage within any organisation will find its own natural ceiling.

However, reaching this point of balance will take time and in the first instance, it is suggested that the highest paid employee or income earner within any organisations should not receive a gross income larger than the Basic Living Standard Wage any greater than five times (5x).

Breakdown of the Basic Living Standard Wage (BLSW):

The following Table provides a suggested breakdown of how the BLSW should be apportioned:

The Essentials:% Proportion of Income / Time (Suggested)
Basic Food20
Accommodation20
Utilities10
Healthcare5
Transport5
Clothing5
Communication5
Entertainment5
Savings, Investments & Other Eventualities15
Taxation and/or Community Contribution10
  
TOTAL (%):100

Figures of this kind may be unrecognisable in today’s terms. But that is because the cost of living has been pushed so disproportionately out of control and driven by the greed and profiteering of private interests.

Inflation only exists because the current financial system isn’t balanced, fair, or just. It allows anyone able to influence the system to do so, purely on the basis that doing so will enable them to make more – no matter the true cost.

The Reset or Great Reset: Recognising inevitable change and making it meaningful

In Days of Ends and New Beginnings, we referred to the period of change and crisis that we are now experiencing as a system ‘reset’, ‘restart’ or as a complete flipping of the system which has money at its centre, and which relates to how everything is governed and how everything works.

Due to the way that the establishment uses the media to create narratives and also the way that many of us have responded, we often refer to this process as ‘The Great Reset’.

Whether we see the danger of the message being conveyed by use of ‘The Great Reset’, the fact remains that World Elites and the World Economic Forum have been building a narrative around this term and it has become vital that we all recognise that ownership of this process of change and the future beyond it is ours.

The Great Reset is not theirs.

Reset or Great Reset – it doesn’t matter. Reset is likely to prove to be the most accurate term. As whatever happens, what is affected or however we look at it, unless the world is completely destroyed, there will be restarts, re-establishment, redirection and resets of everything at all levels, right across everything to do with life.

IF we take control of this process with the aim that the change will be good for all of us, everything will be corrected so that it works fairly and in a balanced way – as it always should.

As part of the price correction or system reset, each business and organisation must restructure their pricing so that it reflects genuine worker input, rather than the bottom line

With the collapse of the existing money-centric system taking place step-by-step, like a series of falling dominoes, where one is knocked and then they all follow, it may seem strange that the reconstruction process that will create our new world, could be achieved in a very similar way.

It is the adoption of The Basic Living Standard and with it, The Basic Living Standard Wage, that MUST be the first principle to be adopted.

Adoption of the Basic Living Standard Wage will serve to be the first domino that knocks over all the others that need to fall into place so that the Basic Living Standard becomes the benchmark for all.

Our system of governance only has to adopt and get the framework that guarantees The Basic Living Standard right, to set off the process that will ensure that it works and operates in every way that it should.

Once the Basic Living Standard becomes the principle upon which all rules and laws governing business and finance are based, all activities will then realign away from profit to people.

Putting the value of people right at the heart of economics and making every business and legislative process think of each person in this same way will be like a catalyst that leads to everything that is unjust, unfair or out of balance, being put into its correct alignment with the outcome that everything will work out right.

Defining the prices of all the essential basics that each person needs

Within the system based upon The Basic Living Standard, there are two forms or streams of commerce we can identify: The foods, goods and services that we need (The essentials) and the foods, goods and services that we want (The non-essentials or ‘luxuries’).

The retail or consumer cost prices of ‘essentials and every part of the process that provides for them must always correspond to the requirements of The Basic Living Standard in every way.

When the rules and principles of locality-based economics and the Basic Living Standard that underpin it are followed in every way, the entire system will function as it is intended to do so and as it should.

On this basis, business and industry would adopt the following basic formulas to identify the prices of essential foods, goods & services or their proportional attribution.

For purposes of illustration, this Table is based on the current Minimum or Living Wage (£11.44 per hour, per 40-hour week as of April 2024) and demonstrates the maximum corresponding prices or compounded values for essential goods and services, in today’s terms and based upon what the lowest paid are likely to receive for a full working week:

The Essentials:Monthly % AttributionEnd of Month Value £UK
Basic Food20396.59
Accommodation20396.59
Utilities10198.29
Healthcare599.15
Transport599.15
Clothing599.15
Communication599.15
Entertainment599.15
Savings, Investments & Other Eventualities15297.44
Taxation and/or Community Contribution10198.29

For anyone attempting to gauge how unaffordable life is today for each person on the minimum or living wage and why we are in a cost-of-living crisis, this table demonstrates just how much they would be paying, if the minimum weekly wage were enough to support the lowest paid outright.

This table shows how wages would then be apportioned in a way that was both affordable and fair to cover the cost of basic essentials at the end of each month if the minimum wage could cover these costs in April 2024.

Please note that these figures assume there being no requirement for Benefits Payments (subsidy) or taking on debt (loans & credit cards etc.) in any way.

The figures and proportionality suggested would be agreed democratically before the Basic Living Standard Wage system is adopted and implemented.

However, given how the cost of essential basics would be apportioned fairly and in a balanced and fair way, it the variance is unlikely to be any more or any less that 1 or 2 percentage points either way (+/- 1 or 2 %).

Once adopted, the rates of apportionment will not be changed because one interest or another claims that their business or industry wants, is entitled to or must have more. Changes would only be permitted as any change to the way that we live dictates any related change to the goods and services that are essential for each person to be able to sustain themselves.

The prices of the essential basics each person needs MUST remain fixed

The relationship between the Basic Living Standard Wage (BLSW) and the prices of essential goods or services (or their accumulated value), MUST remain static, for a fair, balanced and just society to function and for locality-based economics, underpinned by the Basic Living Standard to work.

Setting the exact value of the Basic Living Standard Wage, versus the monthly value of each person’s essential costs is not the most challenging issue to be faced, once everyone is committed to putting people first.

In today’s terms, the minimum or living wage would have to rise or the current prices of essentials would have to fall to meet the requirement of meaningful change, one way or another.

We are emotionally tied to the perceived value of the £Pound ($Dollar etc.) as we experience it today. So, for the purposes of illustrating this people-centric way of using and valuing money, it may be helpful to use another form of nomenclature or currency in order to establish the Basic Living Standard and Basis Living Standard Wage, at least on a temporary basis.

Quality of life for everyone should never hinge on a name or label and in the next part of this Book, we will adopt a new currency value to help visualise this very different and much more beneficial picture of the future.

Part 2:

The Locality based Economy

The future is local

Few can see it; many would pour scorn upon it. But the future is local, IF we genuinely have the desire to live in a fair, balanced and just system, where we are all happy, healthy, safe and secure to enjoy the freedom to be in the most meaningful and human way.

We have regrettably become so used to the money-centric, consumerism-led world that we live in today, because many of our living generations have not experienced life in any other way.

We genuinely believe that the unsustainable way that we live life based upon what we want is here forever, and that having the next or newest available technology is what we need so that we can be the best that we can be.

But we are using money that few of us really have, all the time under the direction and adoption of a values set which comes to us from someone, somewhere else, using digital devices that plug us into a parallel universe which isn’t real, but we accept it as such because everything seems so much more credible when it comes to us ‘online’.

Consumerism and the globalisation that it opened the doors to is quite literally killing us physically as we eat foods that are increasingly bad for us, whilst the flow of meaningless information and opinion presented as fact are destroying our ability to be healthy in our thought processes and to look at every interaction or encounter with others in a helpful and human way.

The point has been missed or is being deliberately obscured, that the healthiest and most beneficial way for each person to live is to interact with, listen to, eat, work with and have relationships of any kind with people, places, goods, services and anything else essential to life – that we can physically touch.

We should only use digital technology as a way to improve life. Not so living life digitally becomes the way of life itself.

The future is local. Because it is only by adopting systems of production, supply and relationships built upon real interaction with the people within the communities that actually surround us, that we will be able to rediscover who we really are, embrace a life with humanity and values, and then build a new world around us which is balanced, just and fair.

The real value of money and cryptocurrencies (DeFi) today

Crypto or cryptocurrencies have become increasingly popular in recent years. But in their current form, they have a massive and potentially terminal flaw: Today’s cryptocurrencies are worth ZERO.

Today’s cryptos work on the same basis as the FIAT money system that they were intended to side-step.

The value of Cryptocurrencies is based only on what anyone using them, buying them or accepting them as payment believes.

For many of us, this is a very difficult truth to understand.

We only have to look at news in the media that suggests cryptos such as Bitcoin are worth tens of thousands (x10,000) of £Pounds, $Dollars or the equivalent in many other currencies or monetary terms to see what people believe they are worth.

Yet cryptocurrencies are not tied to anything of value. They do not have anything of value linked directly to them.

Even the arguably sensible idea of only creating a limited or finite number of them doesn’t answer the fundamental questions or realities of what a currency or any form of money is, and how they should really work.

Money is a unit of exchange. Money is a value transfer tool. Money is a medium and nothing more.

Money has become the benchmark that is set against everything in our lives. Because making us believe that the value of money is real has benefitted someone else’s greed for wealth, power and influence in some way.

With the FIAT Money system on its way to collapse, we are all going to go through a process of realising the real value of the things that we genuinely need, as opposed to the things that we want.

That process will lead to us rediscovering the true value of money and any form of currency.

When money or currency of any kind can no longer be used to buy anything, either because we simply don’t have enough of it, it’s not tangible, or because what we need is not available to buy, circumstances will force us to appreciate what the value of the things that we need really is.

The tipping point

Whilst a systemic and financial collapse may not appear to be a one off momentary event, or have the stop-start feel that the ending of one system that will have to be replaced by another suggests, the reality we face is that for what may only be a short period of time, it is likely that there will come a time when none of the currencies we use either in physical or digital form, will have any value when it comes to being able to secure anything that we need to buy or survive.

Despite what your immediate thoughts might be after reading that we might find ourselves having to function without any form of money, it is within the collapse of the mechanisms of the current money-centric system where the seedbed of the greatest opportunity to secure meaningful change exists.

When boiled down to its purest elements or the nuts and bolts of the current top-down hierarchical system, we can see that our belief in the money-centric system is based on the idea that everything we do or that we can achieve in life is about the value of money, the accumulation of material wealth, and the power and influence that supposedly goes with it.

At the point in this process of change when circumstances and practicality tell us through our experience, that this belief, idea, principle, motivation – or whatever you want to call it, no longer works, we will have reached a seminal moment.

This will be the moment in time when the light can shine through on the darkness of our current reality, and our true values and understanding of what life is and how it should really be will face an open door to changing life so that it is better for us all.

This is not about making light of what will happen when the World we know today, that runs on money in every way, simply stops functioning. Because money doesn’t work anymore.

It will be hard. In fact, it will be very hard.

But adversity really is the mother of invention. And it is at this point that we have the opportunity at the local, community level to establish a locality-based economy, founded upon Local Market Exchanges (LME), that will feed into and provide the basis of how a new system of governance works.

Locality based economics is focused on people. Not money. Not things.

The basic building block of locality-based economics will be the value that we place on each person in a very practical and measurable way: The input or contribution that each person makes.

Locality based economics is quite literally all about putting the value created by people first.

It is by founding and then building a system of locality-based economies upon the value of the input or the contribution that each person makes, we will successfully create The Basic Living Standard for All.

It will be the priority of the new system of governance to maintain The Basic Living Standard. As by doing so, the majority of the social problems that we have today won’t just disappear or be removed from view. They will be gone for good.

If money no longer works, the basic laws of trade and commerce will rule

So, let’s imagine we have reached the point where the financial system as we know it has collapsed.

Money simply doesn’t work. What happens next?

Well, people need to eat. People need to be able to buy essential food. People then need to be able to secure the basic essentials that they need.

With no money in circulation, or no money that has value in circulation, people will begin to exchange or swap what they have and have accepted they don’t need, or can do without, for the things that they do need and that they cannot do without.

No law, regulation or threat from any authority will stop this.

When people are hungry or need to provide, they will do whatever they can to secure whatever they need, and swapping, exchanging or bartering is a lot more civilized than what will happen if theft or violence becomes the next step.

The good news for us all is that whilst the system may have collapsed around us, the technology and infrastructure are unlikely to have disappeared.

The issue we face is that the technology and infrastructure isn’t currently set up to work in a very localised or microeconomic way, when this is how we need technology, infrastructure and the governance that oversees it, to operate so that it can help and support All of us.

The emergency birth of Local Market Exchanges and Local Market Exchange Platforms

We should all feel confident that we can survive and thrive through the coming years and months.

We can all play an active and positive part in creating the new system that is balanced, fair and just for all, because much of the creative and innovative thinking already exists that we will need to build every part of it.

It is just the question of what, why and who people will be doing their bit for that has to be settled before work on our new world and the locality-based economy can begin.

If the moment is reached when money doesn’t work for the majority of people, events could unfold in a number of ways.

A note of caution: Please look kindly at anyone who loses their shit in these circumstances. Desperation doesn’t excuse poor behaviour of any kind. But it does provide good incentive to organise anything and everything that we have available to our communities and the people within them, as quickly and as efficiently as we can.

The first step to maintaining civil order is to pool everything that the community has available and to be fully transparent about what the community has, and how it can and will be shared.

If events should result in a situation where people are going hungry, transactions cannot be based on exchange, and must be based on the simple act of sharing all that we have and don’t require to meet our own immediate requirements.

Genuine help cannot ever be provided on the basis of what others can ‘afford’.

The next step is to create a system of fair exchange, that functions on what everyone can give, or what they can trade or barter.

The principle value of this exchange system, or Local Market Exchange, will be based on the time, skills, experience and basic labour that it took to provide whatever the essential foods, goods or services being exchanged might be, or what it would be when the complete process of producing that food, those goods or services would be, when considering the process or supply chain from end-to-end.

The creation and development of the Local Market Exchange will take place in two primary stages:

  1. Bartering & Exchange of goods, supplies and services that the community already has available, or which it has the ability to grow, manufacture or provide, and
  2. The creation of a new localised currency linking, anchoring or pinning transactional value of foods, goods and services directly to the number of people and/or the contributions (input to the system) that they make.

Bartering & Exchange

There will be a transition between the thinking that people have today – the current money-centric ‘value set’, and where it will end up – the ‘people-centric’ value set.

During this process of transition, where it is likely we will experience shortages, through necessity people will want to use goods that they have but do not need to exchange or swap for the foods, goods and services that they do.

To maintain order and promote community cohesion, communities will be required to create markets in a physical form, to allow bartering, swapping and exchange to take place in an open forum that supports transparency of distribution for all.

Historically in times of shortages, black markets have always thrived. But they are also representative of the same power structure that top-down unfairness and bias creates.

It is essential that the communities come together to provide a support structure that ensures transactions of any goods or services deemed essential to each person are made available to all.

Beyond ensuring fair distribution of everything each person needs that is available, the creation of formal exchanges will ensure that any goods or services that can be considered beyond what is essential – i.e. anything that anyone wants to trade, are exchanged in a way that reflects the newly developing local economy, and doesn’t change hands at a level that continues to promote the money-centric value set that we have moved away from.

The Basic Living Wage has been constructed, so that the process of calculating the true value or price of any essential foods, goods or services will be as straightforward as possible within the new Local Market Exchanges and locality-based economics.

As discussed in Part 1, it is the apportionment of essential basics in relation to the Basic Living Standard that is most important. The money or currency adopted will literally just be a method of exchange – not a device that can be used to manipulate the price or value of anything that is essential to life – and can therefore be massively exploited, as is the case today.

Developing new local currencies (Cryptocurrency, DeFi)

The Basic Living Standard and Basic Living Standard Wage create the basic principle, guidance framework or directive for the operational priorities of Local Market Exchanges and how governance of locality-based economics will function.

All transactions anchor to or hinge upon The Basic Living Standard, a universal benchmark, which through the mechanism of the Basic Living Standard Wage, provide the basic rate of exchange between all local or decentralized currencies, or any umbrella, centralised or connective currency linking them all, as the basic unit of value remains constant throughout.

A currency that works on a fair, balanced and just basis MUST correspond exclusively to its own system of governance.

The fairest, most balanced, just and most democratic form of governance is where power has been attributed and responds in its most local form.

As such – despite the commonalities between different currencies, the power to govern local currencies must remain in local community hands – not for the purchase of essentials – but so that non-essential or luxury goods, can be exchanged at rates which correspond to the idiosyncrasies of production in their very localised form.

Beyond the practicalities of the requirements of the Local Market Exchange system, it is also ethically correct to keep the balance of power that accompanies use of currencies and finance in their most dispersed, local and transparent form, so that they cannot be used as a leverage tool within an oversized governance system that relies upon coercive control.

Local decentralised finance (DeFi) in the form of both paper or coin and local blockchain derived cryptocurrencies, based on an intrinsic population-based value and linked only by the Basic Living Standard, will assure our personal freedom from economic tyranny, in the most basic sense.

Supply chains of every kind must always be as simple as it’s possible for them to be. As it is through the accumulation of additional stops or steps in a supply chain that don’t add value, but add additional and unnecessary costs, where so many problems begin.

The roles that each person has within the locality-based economy will be redefined and reconsidered as the evolution of our new system takes hold.

Some forms of employment that are today highly regarded for all the wrong reasons will no longer be ‘needed’ and will no longer have any reason to exist.

Using Tech and AI for good: Developing the Local Market Exchange app

If you are one of the many people with an interest in new currencies, new ways of living and a new (or a return to) people-centric way of living you will already appreciate that a process of change and chaos is underway. Even if you are not sure what it all means.

Many of us find the idea that massive change can happen without us even being aware very challenging. So, the suggestion that the world we know could change in just about every way imaginable step-by-step is equally hard to accept. However, we all need to be open to the reality that the collapse of the system or any part of it doesn’t necessarily mean that absolutely everything stops.

Within the process of change that we are now experiencing, it could well be the case that because the world doesn’t stop many of us will continue to believe that nothing has changed.

This creates two specific dangers for us all:

  1. That the people who believe nothing has changed will stand still, do nothing and allow those who have created all the social problems that we have now, to dictate and recreate a system that continues to work only for them, and:
  2. That when things do reach a critical point and we are experiencing social disorder, people will not look to themselves and to our communities for the answers and the solutions, and instead will continue to listen to the same old sources and go around in circles – back to point 1!

Preparation today, is and will be one of the most effective ways to counteract and lessen the risk from the impact of change, whether that change is step-by-step, or should happen as part of a recognisable event.

More importantly, preparation today is the best way to help ourselves, the people we care about and everyone within the communities where we live.

There is no doubt that the long-term success of the Local Market Exchange and within locality-based economies will require the development of a new app-based exchange systems for foods, goods and services, and that these are fully interactive and linked to or with the fully localised or decentralised currencies that we need to create and correlate them with.

In time, Local Market Exchanges will require a localised or franchised version of an app that works as follows:

  • Operates within geographical parameters that are definable using existing postal codes or GPRS
  • Allow an item (or group of items) to be swapped directly for a rate of currency to be agreed, OR another item (or group of items) IF the two parties involved in the direct transaction should agree
  • Allows a source of community governance to set the values of basic or essential foods, goods and services, but prohibits any other kind of change
  • Shows what essentials foods, goods and services are available collectively to the community transparently at all times
  • Makes any goods that are not essential to community members, (which could be the surplus of otherwise essential foods etc.) available to other Local Market Exchange Franchises – in the order of prioritising immediate neighbours first
  • Is based on a membership structure that requires sign-in and acceptance of all terms
  • That will either be or can quickly and easily become fully interactive with a new Local Digital Currency that is directly linked to the number of ‘members’ in terms of the structure of its value, with the ability to change or rescind those values on the membership status of each member of that community group
  • That is fully open source
  • Each ‘franchise’ will be owned by the community that manages it, with a salary to be paid from the local governance body to those administering the system on behalf of it

Locality based economics revolve around the mechanics of a genuine minimum wage

The Basic Living Standard is based on what we would today recognise as a genuine minimum or living wage.

Genuine, because the Basic Living Standard is a minimum wage based on what it costs the employee to live and to support themselves. NOT on what the government has told employers it is acceptable for them to pay, which is less today, than it costs for anyone to live independently with all their essential needs met without benefits, charity or going into debt.

Today’s minimum or living wage is just a sum that is set by the government as the minimum amount per hour that every employer must pay.

The Basic Living Standard instead tells suppliers of essential foods, goods and services, what the recipient of The Basic Living Standard Wage will be able to pay for everything that is set within the standard. Suppliers will not be able to charge more for essential foods, goods and services, because The Basic Living Standard will be a universal framework rule.

It will be a legal requirement that every supplier provides essential foods, goods and services of some kind.

‘Luxury’ or ‘non-essential’ products must always be the secondary purpose, not the primary purpose of any business or organisation.

No business will be able to develop their primary business, based on what people can ‘afford’.

Valuing each person and the contribution they make

Through the creation and implementation of The Basic Living Standard, we will give back the real to each and every person who contributes to the community by working in any role, no matter how much it is paid or how it might be perceived.

It is essential for everyone to recognise the value to all of our lives, that contributions made within the most basic of roles actually have.

People who pick fruit. People who empty our bins. People who fix the roads. People who stack the supermarket shelves. People who deliver parcels and takeaways to our doors. People who make and serve our coffees. People who serve us a pint in the pub.

These are the people who undertake all of the very different tasks that make our life experiences easier in the real and everyday sense.

These are the people who must be recognised through the award of The Basic Living Standard Wage, so that contributing to all our lives by filling any of these roles can be a genuine and happy lifestyle choice.

The value of currency is anchored to the value of the contribution or input that each person makes

Money and cryptos or digital finance today have no real value, other than what any of us believe.

Today’s money or currency system may now be over, even though it hasn’t ended yet, but that doesn’t mean physical money in the form of paper/coins and cryptocurrencies won’t have a place in our future.

Local digital currencies, built on a Local Market Exchange platform or exchange, will be the best way for our communities and a world built on locality-based economics and microeconomies to thrive.

To make any form of currency work properly, it is necessary to give or attribute a system around them that underpins their value as a medium or a unit of exchange.

The basic unit of value in locality-based economics is the Basic Living Standard Wage, or any part or unit thereof.

However, the figure or the specific values agreed for The Basic Living Standard Wage is not the important factor.

Once the whole system works around The Basic Living Standard, the figure itself is a technicality.

It is the value or de facto guarantee that we attribute to the Basic Living Standard, where the importance of the whole principle must be placed.

Foundations of Value in locality based economics

For the purposes of illustration and suggestion, we will create a new unit of currency for locality-based economics and the new system itself.

We will name the currency a ‘Goal’ and give it ^ as its symbol.

So, if we begin with the BLSW being set at 75 units per agreed working week, it would be written like this: ^75.

^75 is the weekly rate of pay that each person will have available to them as a gross wage, from working a 40-hour week, before any deductions are made.

To establish the new system, each person within it must be given or awarded a residual value, so that the total value of the currency available within the system is always proportionally and directly related to the number of people who exist within it.

So, at the establishment of the new system, let’s say each person is awarded ^75.

The ^75 apportioned to each entrant is added to the Local Market Exchange balance sheet, so that an overall ‘market value’ and record of the ‘Goal currency’ in circulation always exists from that point.

The entrant can spend the ^75 or begin using it as a medium of exchange within the Local Market Exchange immediately. But the entrant can never withdraw or draw into this sum in cash or equivalent form.

When the entrant leaves the system, the ^75 must be removed from the Local Market Exchange Balance Sheet.

Newborn babies (and children under 14) would be added to the system @ ^25, with their ‘account’ being managed by their parents or guardians until they are 14 years of age, with a further ^50 added to their own independent account.

A guide to apportionment of The Basic Living Standard

The Essentials:% Income AttributionEnd of Month Value ^ (xBLSW)Annual Value ^
Basic Food20%65780
Accommodation20%65780
Utilities10%32.5390
Healthcare5%16.25195
Transport5%16.25195
Clothing5%16.25195
Communication5%16.25195
Entertainment5%16.25195
Savings, Investments & Other Eventualities15%48.75585
Taxation and/or Community Contribution10%32.5390
TOTALS:100%3253900

Whereas the above table illustrates monthly and annual equivalent values of all essential cost centres, the table below uses basic foods to show what the daily allowance (maximum) would be:

Essential FoodsWeekly Allowance ^Daily Allowance ^Meal Allowance ^
Basic Food152.141.07

Essential basic foods are quite literally the ‘meat and two veg’ or very basic, healthy food options that are available, or will become readily available, once locality-based supply chain structures have been (re)established to create the microeconomies that our new localised world will require.

Once again, these are the foods that people need. Not the foods that people want.

Essential or basic foods typically remain identifiable in their prepared (cooked) form, with they were when they were in their pre-harvested form or the condition in which they entered the food chain.

The exceptions are good basic foods that have been through traditional forms of processing, such as bread and basic dairy products. Foods that can be produced through processes that can be powered by hand, or using energy in very sustainable forms, through processes of milling, baking or churning, that can be powered directly by wind or by water, without any reliance upon electrical power or energy in any other form.

Please remember, it will be perfectly normal to look at these figures and think ‘that doesn’t sound like a lot’. But that thinking relates to how things operate today, within a money-based system.

Locality based economics is people-centric or ‘people first’, and values driven.

The value of everything will be determined by people. Not by ‘market forces’ – which is profiteering or greed using another name.

Community Contributions: Our contribution to address shared need across the community

Another change that will be necessary for us to achieve a workable Basic Living Standard is our relationship with charity giving. How we pay for services in the community, and how we all give back or contribute in ways that give us ownership or a stake in the success of the society we are part of.

The fairest way to achieve personal buy-in and a pay-off that creates a positive impact on the world around us that we can see, will be for each person to give the community 10% of our working time or income – or the equivalent of one-half day working per week, through Community Contributions.

Many of us could easily use the specialist skills and experience that we have to offer during a three-and-a-half-hour weekly contribution of massive impact and contribution within public service delivery. We could also volunteer to support charities and public organisations with three and a half hours each week of whatever help they may need, where we cannot.

By providing such help and support, through a new local community services hub, linked to the revamped and localised system of governance, we will reduce the cost of the local public services that we still need. We will reduce our reliance on ‘professional’ government staff, and we will all be able to play a part in improving the experience that we all have of our local environment, which will help us all regain a healthy view and respect for all the public services and infrastructure that we share.

Community contributions: A public sector run by and for us all

The system of community contributions will allow the cost, influence and involvement of the public sector to be returned to the level where it should be, with its focus being service to the community and not as a business or sector in its own right as it is seen today by too many to be.

There will always be a need for full-time roles. But the emphasis will return to front line professionals that carry out purposeful and dedicated professional roles, such as Police Officers, Doctors, Nurses, Firefighters and Paramedics, rather than disproportionately sized backrooms and systems of managers behind them, that refocus energy and resources away from what public services are actually there for.

Taxation & community contributions in the locality based economy

Taxation would run not on a Pay as You Earn basis (as in the UK today) or as a simple tax on income as it is earned.

Taxation would run as a flat tax at the equivalent of 10% of income, OR the contribution of one-half days’ work, within any basic role that the community needs fulfilled, or the equivalent professional skill that the individual can offer – if and only their skillset, experience or knowledge is something that the community needs.

Community contributions rather than tax would be obligatory for a period of 5 years from the end of each person’s period of full-time study or apprenticeship (vocational pathway), which would normally be 21 years.

The half day to be worked as a contribution to the community would be given ‘back’ at any time during the standard working week which would be mornings and afternoons on Mondays to Fridays and Saturday mornings too.

Employers would be expected to release staff during the week, with any such absence made up on Saturday mornings.

Working from home (WFH) sports, spiritual well-being and time off

In an economy where you work only to live, rather than being expected to live to work, we will all be much happier with the way that our days and weeks are broken down.

A working week will cover five and a half days and be the same for everyone within the locality-based economy, with only very few public services needing to be operated around the clock.

Working from home (WFH) or hybrid working will be normal for every form of employment where no physical presence is required, with those who have to attend their place of employment to complete their work doing so very locally and paid higher remuneration if there is any need for them to travel beyond their locality.

Saturday afternoons should be dedicated to community activities and sport, which will always be participatory for those who wish to take part.

Sundays shouldn’t normally be commercial or work-focused in any way and should be a day of rest and spiritual development in whatever forms each person would choose that to be.

Weekdays are used for illustrative purposes only. Different Religions place different values on different days of the week, and there is nothing contrary to the purpose of the locality-based economy if rest days or spiritual days should be defined as a personal preference or choice. In fact, the overlap is likely to be beneficial to the community, ensuring that the number of those working when others with shared priorities are not, are kept to the absolute minimum in every respect.

Back Page

We can only solve the problems that society faces if we give the lowest paid the means and opportunity to earn enough to sustain themselves independently and without the need for support.

The national minimum or living wage will never achieve this, because within this broken financial system, the nearer the minimum wage gets to the true cost of living, the faster the cost of all the essentials that we all need will inflate or go up.

We need nothing less than a paradigm shift from a money-centric system to one that puts people first in every respect.

The Basic Living Standard introduces the principle of Locality Based Economics and offers the basis of a new financial system in which we can achieve financial freedom for ALL.

More Reading

The Basic Living Standard was the second book in a series that I began writing about three years ago in early 2022 and has been featured throughout.

Each of the Books that follow are a variation on a shared theme, working very much under the principle that it is not only possible but actually healthy to be able to understand, value and even hold different views or perspectives of the same situation or set of circumstances at the same time, whether that be in the Past, Present or Future tense.

Equally, it is also important to be able to consider different pathways for the future that sit beyond what many consider to be the obvious, simply because the obvious itself is usually inextricably linked with what has already been done and what sits in the past.

All of the following titles are available to purchase as complete eBooks for Kindle from Amazon using the links provided.

Where indicated, titles may also be available to download FREE as PDF Copies from my Blogsite in different forms, using the links provided.

If you would like to discuss any of the works listed, please get in touch.

Levelling Level (30 Mar 2022)

Amazon

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From Here to There Through Now (3 Oct 2022)

Amazon

The Way of Awakened Politics for Good Government (3 Dec 2022)

Amazon

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A Community Route (28 Mar 2023)

Amazon

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The Grassroots Manifesto (18 Apr 2023)

Amazon

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Officially None of the Above (18 May 2023)

Amazon

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Actions Speak Louder than Digital Words (8 Jun 2023)

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One Rule Changes Everything (23 Dec 2023)

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Food From Farms Guaranteed (3G) (15 Feb 2024)

Amazon

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Days of Ends and New Beginnings (7 Apr 2024)

Amazon

The Basic Living Standard (14 Apr 2024)

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Our Local Future (18 Aug 2024)

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Who Controls Our Food Controls Our Future (14 Nov 2024)

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Your Beliefs Today create Everyone’s Experiences Tomorrow (11 Jan 2025)

Amazon

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Manifesto for a Good Dictator (26 Jan 2025)

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