Tag: Essential Services

Thank you for your support – Here’s the best way to get value from Levelling Level:

Before anything, a big thank you to everyone who has visited Levelling Level here (in its Blog form) or has already downloaded the Book.

Since I began to publish the Book broken down into blogs last Tuesday, the number of visits has been more than I had expected. I have really appreciated the likes received from some of you, that have reflected a lot of interest in pages such as Food: What we need and The Basic Living Standard. This has been rather heartening, bearing in mind that creating and then maintaining The Basic Living Standard is what Levelling Level is ultimately all about.

Clearly, many of the ideas and suggestions I have made in Levelling Level stand up on their own at first glance, to those of us who are already receptive in any relevant way to the need for change.

Yet I am acutely aware that the complexity of the problems that we all face together are such that we cannot and will not succeed in fixing them or implementing real solutions that will work, unless we take a very different approach to the one that has led us here. We must seek to address each and every problem in its own right, but also in relation to each and every other problem, one-by-one and one-and-all, as never before.

The fact that even people who have a vested interest in rejecting a Basic Living Standard do at least unconsciously appreciate how it would work was illustrated very well to me just yesterday, when I went out for an early morning walk. Bumping into a very successful business owner who I have got to know by passing the time of day, the subject of us not meeting over the past 6 weeks came up and I told him that I had been writing and publishing the Levelling Level Book.

Their rejection of the idea that everyone should have a fighting chance of success as a stepping off point, instead of so many of us having lives that revolve only around a lifetime of fighting to keep our heads above water (and in many cases failing, as the system has developed to so easily allow us to do) was palpable, just because they had experienced a very challenging start to life.

Once we had passed the accusation that I could only propose such things because of the privileged position that I now had, and that had been put to bed by referencing the back story that I have had, we very quickly moved into a number of suggestions that they were making – which are a natural follow through of where we really are all now heading – but which from their current perspective, they were adamant would never be practical or work.

As things still appear to be for many people today, they certainly appear to have a point. The intrinsic values crisscrossing society are all based on what we have or what we can get after all.

In fact, before starting only to touch the nuts and bolts of what Levelling Level is really about, I had already warned them that they might find what I was about to say controversial in some way. And that’s why I have written the whole proposal, suggestion or philosophy that is Levelling Level in the way that I have.

Levelling Level is about the present, immediate and longer-term future of my Country, The UK. But the principles and suggestions are relevant to wherever you live or may be.

Levelling Level is written as a book that journeys through how we got to where we are today. It covers the role that events such as Brexit, Covid and Ukraine have played as the catalysts of a massive change that has been in development over decades. It then discusses how we will have to change the way that we live and everything that we are used to in order to survive and manage through the challenges and difficulties that we will experience in many forms as events force everything we know to change.

Levelling Level reaches its conclusion discussing how we can harness the learning from the experience that this challenging time will provide us to mould a better way of living for ourselves, whilst ensuring that there is a genuine safety net in place to ensure that nobody is from that point ever left behind.

Through the lens of the very material and money-oriented world that still surrounds us, the numbers of people receptive to the change now required may be growing. But for the majority, that need for that change will not be accepted or real, until events have led them personally to experience the pain that lies ahead.

When that pain arrives, it is essential that we harness the power of an opportunity to change life for the better that can only come at that flashpoint or seminal moment. A point in time when everyone will know and accept that the way we have been living and treating each other is unsustainable and can no longer go on.

From this perspective alone, I will make a suggestion: That any of you who are already receptive to the level of change that events and circumstances will soon force us all to embrace, will benefit most from reading Levelling Level in its original book form.

Sharing Levelling Level has never been about making money or charging any fees. The Book for Kindle is modestly priced, and I will be happy to provide a PDF copy of the text by e-mail, Free Of Charge, in receipt to any legitimate request. (Please email levellinglevel@gmail.com )

To get the best value from reading Levelling Level in its blog form without charge, please visit the web version using PC/Mac/Laptop. Please use the index on the right of the page to navigate from top to bottom, what are the equivalent parts/pages/sections of the Levelling Level Book.

Levelling Level is linked on Twitter (@levellinglevel) and Facebook (@levellinglevel) and I would really appreciate your follows, likes, shares and your taking the time to ask questions or make comments that might be helpful to all of us in some way.

Thanks again for reading. I’m looking forward to hearing from you.

Best wishes,

Adam Tugwell

Sat in a Starbucks in Cheltenham, UK. Monday 11 April 2022

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Levelling Level | Digital Currency, Crypto, DeFi

Digital or crypto currencies will not survive in their current form.

Like the system that cryptocurrencies were created with the best intentions to try and override, it is simply the belief that people have, or the way that people think about cryptocurrencies today that appear to make them work.

The cryptocurrencies that you can buy or trade today may be worth a lot of money. But like the money they might replace, they have absolutely no value at all.

In reality, digital currencies that exist today are as flawed as the FIAT money system itself. They are based on no real value or tangible holding.

It is literally the belief of those who invest in or use the existing blockchain currencies that make them work.

The moment anything happens to shatter the belief in today’s versions of digital currency – as you can be certain that it will – these cryptocurrencies will return to their intrinsic value. That value is zero or nil.

The new ‘local’ way of living will allow the creation of new digital currencies based on real value that is defined by the community that runs it.

That value will be pinned or anchored to the value of input and output (labour, skills, experience) and the true value of the locally produced goods that people genuinely need to live.

We cannot and must not even try to return to a pyramid or hierarchical system that is skewed to allow prices at the foundation of our society to be dictated by actions at the top.

We could very easily and very quickly come to experience a fully functioning system of digital currencies that are locally linked. Currencies that become interchangeable and exchangeable with others, because of how the basic value of input and essential goods are defined.

Entertainment: What we need

As a basic standard, everyone should have access to a community sports hub within a short distance of home, where the widest range of different sports clubs should be available for that location.

Everyone should have unlimited access to free to view TV and Digital Radio.

Personal Communication: What we need

The basic standard for communication requirements would be to have unrestricted access to broadband quality internet provision. To have one (1x) computer or combined PC/TV device that can be used to complete personal administration, shop online, access job applications and free to view TV/News Services/Digital Radio/social media.

Healthcare: What we need

The basic standard for personal healthcare will be for any person to have access to a minimum of two different healthcare providers (either public run service and/or commercially provided under fixed per head premium), that everyone is required to pay their contribution towards at their source of income.

The basic standard for personal healthcare would necessitate that dentistry is provided in the same way as general healthcare.

What we really need

Likely to be the most controversial part of Levelling Level, the following list that covers the food, goods and services that we actually need, will look and sound alien to many reading the contents right now.

However, what we need and what we want or believe that we should have are two very different things.

This list outlines what we need as a basic standard for ourselves, and therefore what we should recognise as the benchmark level for anyone else to be able to provide for themselves without going into debt or without the requirement of support of any kind – when they are able to live and function with a normal life.

Public Transport

The rail network must be fully returned to public or community led operating companies, holding responsibility for all activities on the most localised basis possible.

Each local County level authority should become a bus operator, ensuring that service coverage is universally provided by a system that allows equal basic access to everyone, whether they live in a city, town or village location.

Parish and town councils (or their equivalent) should be supported to establish community bike and carpool hubs, providing access to those of us who have a legitimate requirement to access personal transport.

They must, on behalf of the local community, be able to set by-laws which govern their access and use.

Utilities: Electricity, Water, Gas

The entire utility infrastructure must be returned to public and preferably community hands. So that issues such as repairs and the impact that they have on other areas of life are managed in a far more thoughtful, responsive, localised and therefore intelligent way.

Essential Services to the Public

As discussed earlier, public services have become a political football and plaything for politicians, public sector workers and those with a financial interest in them alike.

Man cannot have two masters, just as you cannot put two saddles on the same horse. Services that are provided for the benefit of the public must have the benefit to the public as their primary aim and their overriding priority. As soon as private interests are involved, profit is the master, so public services must always be in public or community hands.

In order for everyone to have unfettered, affordable and reliable access to services that should be accessible in the same way for everyone, no matter where they live, it is essential that certain public services that are currently ‘owned’ and managed by ‘private’ and therefore ‘profit making’ interests are returned to public – or rather community hands.

The caveat is that legislation enabling unions to influence working practices at any level within public services of any kind must be rescinded.

Any responsibility for complaints relating to public sector employment practices not covered elsewhere by the Levelling Level proposal must be addressed by a third-party body, that cannot influence day-to-day operations and public service provision in any way.

Basic Entertainment

The need for basic entertainment for anyone can be met without the need for any paid-for streaming services, visits to the cinema, ticketed gigs or any other form of live entertainment that attracts heavy one-off gate fees.

The only recognisable need to maintain a basic standard in access to entertainment for anyone will be the provision of broadband quality internet services, along with the minimum amount of appropriate equipment to view and access it.

The Basic Standard: what everyone should have – and be able to afford to have

Change will define what we need, rather than everything being about what we want

The point we shouldn’t miss is that a Financial and Systemic collapse of the kind where everything we know changes, will result in everyone having to share what is available. Access will not be based on what anyone can or cannot afford.

The coming changes will necessitate not only restrictions on what we have available to eat and to use, but in some cases will remove access to them altogether.

The experience will enable everyone to understand the difference between what we need and what we want. It will define what each of us needs as being what each of us should be able to afford.

The collapse around us will precipitate changes, not only to what is available to us, but also what we should no longer think of as goods and services that ‘we need’ – and which we actually just ‘want’.

Rationing: A way of sharing the basics fairly, so there is enough for all

The days of unnecessary food production and manufacturing, prioritised only on the basis of repeat financial turnover and profit-making are done – even if that doesn’t appear to be the case right now.

As we experienced being the case in the early days and weeks after the first Covid Lockdown was called in March 2020, foods and goods such as flour, some vegetables, some fruits and toilet rolls are likely to be in short supply. The reality is that they will be the first of a growing and ultimately extensive list.

The rationing that will quickly become necessity, will also be a sign of things to come. Our industries, production and manufacturing will have to be redeveloped and reestablished to support UK self sufficiency in its most comprehensive and practical form.

Yes, rationing sounds horrible to anyone who has never been without or has never known what it is like to not be able to eat a meal, because the food that they need is something that they cannot afford.

Yet there are real people – possibly people that you or I pass in the street each and every day, who are already living what to you might see your own worst nightmare AND they are forced by the way that the system = works now to make the best of it. They literally have no choice but to accept it and do whatever the world requires of them to at least try and get by.

The silver lining of the situation that we all face, where the foods, goods and services that are essential to daily life will be rationed at least temporarily for all of us, is that it will provide us all with a real-life understanding of what we and therefore everyone needs as a basic standard in order to ‘just get by’.

This level, or the accumulation of the different basic foods, essential goods and services that an adult needs to be able to obtain in order to survive and maintain their exitance, is the benchmark level to which a basic full time or weekly wage should thereafter correspond and then be maintained, once the Great Correction is complete.

Essential Goods and Services

As I begin to write this chapter, I am chuckling at the thought of those who read this and will immediately conclude that I am advocating nothing less than a fully legitimised nanny state.

After all, if you are telling people what foods, goods and services are deemed essential to live, you are by the very act of doing so, telling them that they live frivolous lives, aren’t you?

Well, in some respects yes. But very few would be able to look you in the eye and not acknowledge that fact that we should always prioritise what everyone needs before what an individual wants if you were to put them on the spot and ask.

The point is not about bringing anyone down to a poorer person’s level. We would all like to have the best of everything that is readily available.

It is about creating a benchmark level for what our society accepts that it takes to live and function self-sufficiently in the most basic way(s) that are possible.

Be under no illusion that the Basic Living Standard and UBW are benchmarks for life that we would all very quickly want to have in place and available to us personally as a safety net, if and when we should for any reason find ourselves down on our luck.

A Universal Basic Wage (UBW)

To bring parity or income equality to all, isn’t to ensure that everyone is being paid the same to do the same job. It is to ensure that the lowest paid are able to function self-sufficiently, without any kind of additional support.

Attempting to define what the UBW would be in today’s terms is of course possible. But the rate that it would be, would be higher than any business leader or politician would be prepared to consider. Because they would see that wage being in terms of what the financial or price levels in the UK at the present time now are.

They would also assume that in order to accommodate such a change, they would then be forced to raise the prices of everything, so that their own margins and way of operating remain relative on par – and in real terms just the same.

This is why the price correction (rather than reset) that we have already discussed is an essential part of the mix. So that the way that we price and value goods and services – or rather the way we allow them to be priced and valued, is brought back to a correct level in monetary terms (where prices are no longer ludicrously inflated).

Once the price correction has been implemented and legislated for as it should be, we then have the technical and policy devices in place to ensure the regulatory measures exist that move the focus of all transactions away from the bottom line, to being about the quality of the experience that every transaction provides.

It is at this stage that the rate for UBW can be set, based proportionally against the cost of a Basic Living Standard, relative to true cost and the amount that must be earned by the lowest paid for the equivalent of a full working week.

The aim of the economy should always be to provide all of the goods and services that the people and businesses that operate within it need. Its aim should never be focused primarily on what people want, and it should certainly never be driven by the whims of just the selfish few.

To ensure that the UBW can not only exist, but then be maintained, it will be essential that certain goods and services have their pricing levels corrected and then maintained. These ‘essential’ goods and services should be provided and supplied by entire supply chains that operate within the exact same set of rules.

Suppliers of these essential goods should always have the option to provide the same offerings in a more ‘luxurious’ form, but this process itself should never come at the cost of the quality or experience of what they offer to end users in the essential form.

As envy or seeking to make others envious is a critical driver of the problems that we already face, no supplier should only be able to focus solely on the production or supply of luxurious goods or services, if indeed an essential form of those goods or services exists.

The provision of essential goods and services that are accessible to everyone must always come first.

The True Value of everything we buy or pay for

In the future, prices will reflect what they really cost to produce and get to you, with only an appropriate layer of profit added at the minimum number of stages of the supply chain that are necessary for any essential goods or service provision to reach you.

For instance, you buy a loaf of bread from the baker. The baker buys the flour from the miller. The miller buys the wheat from the farmer. That’s three necessary points in the supply chain that gets you a loaf of bread.

What we don’t then need is a broker buying the wheat from the farmer that he hasn’t even grown yet, and then selling it on to a grain merchant when it has actually been produced, with both of these two stages themselves adding unnecessary work and additional profit for themselves, all adding to the end cost for you.

This example is a very simplified view – and deliberately so.

Try to visualise just how many different interests have and are able to become involved with the process or supply chain providing goods and services, where global and even UK-wide supply chains are at work.

The prices of everything have been massively overinflated without any additional value being added to the end product.

This is one of the key reasons why we will return to supply chains that are as local as it is possible for them to be, and a system where only recognisable players – who are adding value to the end product – are actually involved.

The Correction of Prices

It is important to not get hung up on the terminologies being used.

Words have different meanings and different uses for different people, and in no industry or situation have so many esoteric terms been in use with the deliberate intent of suggesting that magicians are at work as there are today within the financial or banking trades.

Money behaves as it does today and the goods and services that we need and used are priced as they are, because it has been in somebody’s interest – usually making profit – for them to work in that way.

As we established earlier, a reset in its most literal form, will not help anyone as we go forward.

It would simply mean that we have the same players and influences sat at the top of a system where nothing works as well and in fact gets progressively worse for every level of the hierarchy, as you travel down.

The collapse of everything that is underway, will, through a chain of events, reach a place where we will all accept that the financial system that we have and the way that money is managed and used to control every part of life, cannot continue as it has.

The prices of everything that is essential to live and to survive will have to reflect its true cost to produce or provide, with the least number of separate interests in that system of supply – or the supply chain that is involved.

This inevitable process or correction of prices will result in what appears to be a devaluation of the Pound.

But as a process that compressively corrects the pricing of everything and takes it back to a level that reflects its true value, the value of everything that we own will remain exactly the same in relative terms.

It is just the case that the way we calculate costs, profitability and how we are taxed on what we have or possess from that point onwards that will no longer be the same.