Chapter 3.17 – Summary

Excerpt from the book »Gradido – Natural Economy of Life«

Now that we have the single elements together, it is easy to assemble everything into one whole. The single components have been described in detail. The next chapter is entirely devoted to the beneficial effects. That is why a brief summary follows at this point.

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

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. While reading this book it should have become clear to you, dear reader, that 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. 

Understanding it is child’s play

The entire model is described in essence in this summary. It is so simple that even children can easily understand it with an appropriate explanation. The Natural Economy of Life has many life-saving benefits over the old monetary and economic systems although these may not be recognised at first glance. In the next chapter you will therefore learn the 100 most important advantages of the Natural Economy of Life. Let yourself be inspired!

Advantage 20 – No problem with provision of essential goods as might occur with the unconditional basic income

Excerpt from the book »Gradido – Natural Economy of Life«

»The difficulty lies not so much in developing new ideas

 as in escaping from old ones.«

– John Maynard Keynes

British economist, politician and mathematician

As already mentioned, there are legitimate doubts about the concept of an unconditional basic income. One doubt concerns the feasibility of financing it. This problem does not exist with the gradido because the money is created from the basic income.

It is a different matter with the question as to whether all the goods society needs can be produced when everybody receives an unconditional basic income. Production of goods should be largely assured in a rich industrialised nation such as Germany. But what about in poor continents such as Africa? If everybody there received an unconditional basic income equivalent to €1,000 a month, would sufficient people still work to assure a supply of essential goods? We don’t know.

The active basic income makes this question superfluous. It offers everyone the right to unconditional participation in the community. Every person has the right to earn their basic income. If they make use of their right, they have to do something for the community. In every functioning family business it is quite normal for the family members to lend a hand. Do children who grow up in such family businesses appear unhappier than others? On the contrary, they develop a sense of responsibility and self-confidence in their early years.

What works in a family business also makes sense in a larger community. The tasks involved provide fields of work for everybody to develop their potential. Everybody has their area of responsibility and everybody is important.

A large amount of work needed to maintain the supplying of a country with goods and services – ranging from public transport and growing food to the school and health systems – can be assured by means of unconditional participation in connection with the active basic income.

And what about jobs that require full-time employment? For these we additionally have the creation of the second and third amounts of money – the national income and the Equalisation and Environment Fund. A doctor, a teacher or a bus driver could, for example, work 50 hours a month on the basis of the basic income with the rest being financed from the national income.  

Advantage 91 – The good of the community

Excerpt from the book »Gradido – Natural Economy of Life« 

»I let go the desire for the general good

and the good spreads as generally as grass.«

– Laotse

Chinese philosopher

Not only the good of the individual is served with the active basic income. As it is generated through service to the community, it enhances the general good at the same time. That is one of the typical win-win situations that frequently arise all by themselves in the gradido system.

The creation of the second amount of money is explicitly intended for the good of the community – the national income that is automatically created by each citizen. This is used to finance all the things a nation’s government is responsible for. The good of the state naturally also benefits the individual since, after all, the state is the community of all citizens.

The common good is integrated into the Natural Economy of Life as a matter of course. There are no more conflicts between the good of the individual and the good of the community, in which a decision has to be made for one of them. We can let go of the desire for the general good as the threefold good spreads automatically by itself.

Advantage 95 – Only possible together, no ego-trip

Excerpt from the book »Gradido – Natural Economy of Life«

»The only school of genuine moral sentiment

 is society between equals.«

– Harriet Taylor Mill

English author

The Natural Economy of Life cannot be misused for propaganda purposes. It has to reach people’s hearts and minds in order to spread. It has no enemy stereotypes and no idols. We are all equal and there are no leaders and followers, so ego-trips do not work here. We either succeed together or not at all.

In my youth I already felt the impulse to concern myself with this topic. At the beginning I did not know at all what I was studying. It was simply an inner pressure to enquire, question, seek alternatives, try out models and make calculations. I was repeatedly tormented by the question as to why there is so much poverty in the world when everything exists in abundance.

At first it was hard for me to interest other people in this subject. It was not until I started to send out the Joytopia story over the internet that I got a positive response. In 2001 my partner Margret Baier and I founded the Joytopia Academy (today Gradido Academy) to initiate a research project on the Natural Economy of Life. It was supposed to be a free network of free people and it still exists as such today.

We soon became aware that a great gift had been given to us, connected with the clear assignment to pass it on. We can only pass on this knowledge to people who want to accept it. Dear reader, it is up to you to decide if it makes sense for you or not. If it makes sense for you you will likewise pass on the information. And when the time is ripe this gift will reach the whole of humanity.