Monetary and Economic Model

Gradido – Natural Economy of Life  

E-book (english and german), free download: 

http://gradido.net/book

Summary

Gradido – Natural Economy of Life is a monetary and economic model patterned on nature. It provides a basic income for every person, an ample national budget for every country and an additional Equalisation and Environment Fund for decontaminating the environment. The self-regulating system keeps the money supply, and hence prices, stable. The gentle equalisation of the hitherto poor countries and the industrialised nations promotes peace.

How it works

To distinguish it from the conventional currencies (dollar, pound, euro etc.), we call our currency »gradido«. The name derives from »gratitude«, »dignity« and »donation«., Let’s begin with the most important decision criterion of the Natural Economy of Life, by which we measure all our thinking, talking and acting – the threefold good.

The threefold good

1.     The good of every single participant - win-win.

2.     The good of the community – family, community, country, humanity…

3.     The good of the big scheme of things – nature, environment, mother earth, universe…

The natural law of growth and decay

The threefold good is, so to speak, the ethical foundation of our monetary and economic model. For it to work we have to develop it in harmony with natural laws. The most important law for us is the cycle of life, the cycle of growth and decay. It is integrated into our model in the form of creation of money and perishability.

The threefold creation of money 

To get a sustainable world, we have to change the rules of money creation. In the Natural Economy of Life, money is no more created from debt (like in the current monetary system) but a positive money is created by every citizen. The threefold creation of money is derived from the threefold good.

The community, represented by the government, creates three amounts of 1,000 gradidos for each citizen every month to be used for the following purposes:

1.     Basic income, either unconditional or active,

2.     Government income, including health and social services,

3.     Equalisation and Environment Fund (EEF) to protect and decontaminate the environment. 

Basic income

 The model supports the two options of an unconditional basic income, which is paid out »just like that«, or an active basic income.

The active basic income follows from unconditional participation in the community: everybody has the right to work for the community for up to 50 hours a month in accordance with their inclinations and skills. The community remunerates this work with 20 gradidos an hour up to a maximum of 1,000 gradidos monthly. Because of the manifold beneficial effects of unconditional participation, we prefer the active basic income, particularly as the money thus created is covered by services and full employment is automatically achieved.

Government income

 The second amount of 1,000 gradidos is sufficient for a generous national budget, including health and social services, on the scale which currently exists in the Federal Republic of Germany. Taxes, social insurances or similar levies are therefore not required: gross and net income are the same. A huge reduction of bureaucracy is possible. Illegal work no longer exists by definition.

Equalisation and Environment Fund (EEF)

 The third amount of 1,000 gradidos constitutes an additional fund of the same amount as the national budget. The Equalisation and Environment Fund serves to eliminate economic and ecological contamination, primarily to remedy as far as humanly possible the disastrous environmental damage humans have caused over more than the last hundred years. It is the largest environmental fund in the history of humanity. Protection and decontamination of the environment will become the most lucrative sectors of the economy. 

Self-regulating system stabilises the money supply

 The cycle of growth and decay is already integrated into the gradido. The threefold creation of money is subject to decay of 50% a year. Only 50 gradidos still remain from 100 after one year. After the pattern of nature the gradido is thus a self-regulating system, which keeps the money supply per person constant. The money supply cannot be manipulated. 

Creation of money without debt

 The creation of money follows the pattern of nature without debts having to be incurred. The gradido only provides for credit balances. Loans are still possible. They are agreements between lender and borrower. As only existing money may be lent, the money supply is not altered by loans. Although interest is not forbidden, it has no chance on the market.

Common good currency

 As  you see, each part of the money created is spent on a contribution to the community. The gradido is thus a currency for the common good. The call for an economy of the common good is getting louder and louder. Besides the gradido, there are already several projects in this direction but so far they have not considered the monetary system. But an economy of the common good cannot work in the old monetary system. With the gradido every sector of the economy will become an economy of the common good all by itself.