PRESS RELEASE: Renew the Earth suggests a way to balance the unequal impacts of economics on humanity, by using Energy Currency for basic human needs
Albany, New York, October 2020 – Renew the Earth ( renew-the-earth.org ) suggests an Energy Currency Credit Card be given to every individual for use in acquiring their basic needs of food, shelter, education and healthcare.
Renew the Earth, an Albany, New York based non-profit organization has been developing a way to calculate what is necessary to sustain basic human life, named the Human Renewable Energy Measure. This calculation is valuable for many reasons. One thing it makes clear is how much human energy effort is needed to keep our economies running. Another is, that all our basic needs are the same in definition and quantity, worldwide. The Corona virus pandemic has made it clear how valuable people are in keeping economies functioning. And, that all people are essential to this effort, no matter what their job or activity or status.
So, how much is a life worth?
How much is money worth?
These are questions that must be addressed if we are to create more economically equal societies. Why is this important? Economic inequality encourages racism. More equal societies have less racism, among other beneficial things like fewer wars, less migration, less depression, fewer debilitating diseases. These societies are more empathetic, more inventive, more content, less fearful, more inclined to preserve nature, and use natural resources efficiently. In order to have a heathy economy we need to have a healthy and informed population. Each person from birth to birth must have food, shelter, education and healthcare. These needs are the same and measurable, no matter where people live on Earth. They are equivalent to the base value of a human life. They make survival possible. These are not the individual intellects and talents that make each of us unique. These are the basics that keep us alive, they are the same for every person, and they can be calculated in objective energy units. This is a good thing and only possible now because computers have the ability to systematize. A chart showing where each human need will be distributed world wide, how much of each need is necessary in each population and how frequently deliveries must be made, can be developed. It is essential that needs not be calculated in money values because money does not have a consistent value. Its value is subjective, controlled by the fluctuations of economies country to country, year to year, day to day.
Human energy needs are consistent and must be met every day, no matter what. Human energy survival units can be calculated objectively and are constant and predictable, person to person, world wide. Speculation, interest rates, stocks, inflation, are all impacts on the exchange value of money/currency/wants, and would impact the cost and distribution of basic needs, making it impossible for economically unequal societies to provide basic needs for their citizens. Instead, the result would be inflation of money value. Through a separate but parallel currency stream we call Energy Currency, basic needs would be calculated and distributed. This currency cannot be invested or gamed and does not create inflation because it is destroyed at the banks.
As Senator John Lewis once said, “Make it simple, make it sing.” A new economic balance can emerge from what we have learned during the pandemic. Energy currency providing basic human needs and traditional currency for speculation, profit and investment. The result will promote innovation throughout humanity, not just a small percentage. We are all capable of creative leaps, if we have time to think and are not compelled to make more and more money to cover basic needs. Our future on Earth depends on the most diverse expansion of thought possible. Is it possible, within our present economic functioning, to protect life? All life? Can we agree that whatever system sustains life has created ‘real value’? Our human impact has done and continues to do damage around the world. We are all aware of this. With out wanting to, we commit crimes against each other and Nature. Profit economics, functioning unrestrained, without being balanced by considerations like the health and survival of humanity and life in general, as we now see clearly, creates a life blind value system. We are compelled to compete with each other and make wasteful use of natural resources. Profit depends on constant growth. but constant growth is not possible on our finite Earth. This is the unsustainable structural/economic violence within which we are presently functioning.
Anything is possible, if it is necessary. Let’s imagine two currency streams, functioning side by side, serving different purposes and complimenting each other. One, Energy Currency, is for objective Human survival needs, food, shelter, education and healthcare. The other, Traditional Currency, continues its useful functions in speculation and financial reward and for purchases of wants like, cars, investments, vacation homes, savings, fancy clothes, cruises, fun stuff, etc. This traditional currency carries on the way it always has, but the Energy Currency or credit, mitigates its damaging aspects and begins to create balance by stabilizing human labor through guaranteeing their basic needs.
How does Energy Currency/credit work? This ‘social credit’ is not used like present traditional currency. It cannot be invested or saved and is destroyed when it gets to a bank, so it won’t create inflation. It can be issued to each person in the form of a card that can be used only for basic food, shelter, education and healthcare. The credit can be ‘cashed in’ by the recipient at a fair market value that is monitored so that it cannot be used for speculation. No one is to blame for the damage being done to people and nature, but we all have had to participate. We have been formed by our economic systems from birth and behave within its constricts. It is almost impossible to imagine another way of living. Economics even controls governments. The task for all of us is to think our way out of constant competition and money making into a different economic structure. Then, make it a reality. Economics that enhances the well being of everyone and all life, making it possible for us to enter our brightest future.
Are you interested in learning more about Renew the Earth and their concepts of Human Renewable Energy Measure and Energy Currency? Please check out their website at www.renew-the-earth.org. “These are open source ideas and we welcome your input,” says Susan Caumont, president; Renew the Earth.
About Renew the Earth: Renew the Earth has been working since 1970 to educate the public about renewable energies, sun, wind and biomass and sustainable practices. Over the past 10 years, our focus has shifted to the HREM, Human Renewable Energy Measure, and Energy Currency. We feel that general acceptance of renewables has been reached and the present roadblock is how economics functions for-profit and not for humanity and best practices. “Time is not money, time is life.”
Jeff Beller, economist and vice president of Renew the Earth.
Contact Information:Name: Jeff Beller
Address: Renew the Earth, 8 Robin Ann Lane, Westerlo, NY 12193
Phone: 518-797-3377
