In the technolized world a productivity increase is often the result of replacing one or more human workers with a machine. In the natural, non technolized world, productivity increases when people find productive work. Which productivity is superior is strictly a matter of viewpoint. In both cases the unemployed and under employed are likely to become a burden to the employed, whether through taxes or other thefts of production. I have heard some talk of the need for micro banks to assist the unemployed to become self employed in poor nations. While self employment is anathema to the corporate mindset, corporations are in a good position to gobble up little family operated businesses after they reach some point of profitability. The family business takes its capital gain and invests in some new endeavor. The natural world will be far better off if typical corporate banking is shut out by making it non competitive and illegal. What is needed for the natural world is non profit, community credit unions, modeled on Islamic banking practices. In fact, it is a biblical and Christian system as well. One that has been hidden from Christians by biblical ignorance and corporate dominance in banking. The technolized world would be far ahead if it adopted these principles leading to full employment, reduced crime and perhaps, honest politics. In an economy where large numbers of people earn only a few dollars per day, a fifty dollar bankroll is nearly impossible to obtain. This is roughly analogous to a Western minimum wage worker trying to obtain a $50,000 start up loan for a new business. The evidence in micro banking shows a very low incidence of default. Credit is precious when money and paid work is scarce. My vision is perhaps overly simple, but workable. Let us say we make a $100 loan to a fisherman. He has the use of the entire amount for one full year. No payments, no interest. The full amount comes due in one year. If he has been successful enough to repay on schedule, he qualifies to renew the loan for another year. If he repays the loan with a five per cent dividend, he qualifies for an expansion loan, double the original amount. If he repays with a ten per cent dividend, he qualifies for an expansion loan three times the initial amount, whether he takes it or not. He has created future credit. With every five percent increase in the dividend paid, the line of credit is extended by its original amount. This frees the borrower from proving his profitability and credit worthiness by invading his privacy. He can either repay the loan with dividends or he cannot. In the event of some misfortune that precludes the repayment of the original loan, the person who defaults must supply an explanation to the elected credit union board. The board considers the reasons given and can authorize a new loan of an equal amount or simply extend the original loan for another year. Every default is considered on a case by case basis. If the loan is not repaid in two years, the borrower can receive no more funds for seven years from this particular credit union. There should be two competing credit unions in each locality. It is not necessary for any credit union to operate from a building. The business is simple enough to be run from a home. The activities of each credit union are reported on a regular basis to a regional oversight board to prevent theft and fraud by local administrators. Elected board members are not paid. The chief administrator is paid commensurate with the time required for his or her services. This keeps operational costs so low that dividends not only cover them but allow for expansion in only a few years. Initial capitalization of such credit unions comes from charity. Needed expansions over the early years can be financed the same way. The great incentive for the borrower is to repay on the due date with dividends that will increase his or her credit line. The self interest is one with the community interest. Usury banking, or interest on debt is made illegal, so commercial banks cannot buy up the credit unions. Loan sharks are prosecuted and punished. It is legal loan sharking in the technolized nations that slows economic growth and parasitically feeds upon the foolish, including government. Commercial banks are social parasites and always have been. The big sharks gobble up the small and the entire scam grows more costly for everyone trying to get ahead. Micro credit works in the natural world because the people who live in the natural world are not committed to a lifestyle based on waste and consumerism. The technolized societies that are based upon waste and over consumption will soon need all the help they can get from the natural world. Charitable investments today will pay off handsomely in ten years or less, both for those who give, and for those who receive. It is a win - win proposition. We look at rising levels of carbon dioxide in our atmosphere and note a greenhouse effect. What does a rational person do with a greenhouse? She fills it with plants, edible plants to feed herself and a few neighbors. But then, growing plants is the dominion of global agribusiness. The one that cuts down rain forests to grow grass for beef, so Americans can suffer obesity because they have forgotten what a garden fresh fruit or vegetable tastes like. The most empowering thing a human being can do is to produce the food they require. If not all of it, then most of it. If not most of it, then some of it. It's like exercise. Make food production a personal habit and we need not go to war for oil or any other political objective. But no we say, food is a problem for the natural world. We have technology. No problem! I say look again. Americans are disempowered by a near total dependency on corporate profits. All their politics and leadership trumpet the fact to the world. In the technolized world, clean water for drinking has become such a problem, there is a huge industry in bottled water. Who thinks this is a sign of a healthy society? The technology is there to process water to drinking standards everywhere in the world, but only for those willing to pay. Instead of countertop and whole house water purification, Americans invest billions in the industries that sell them the processed product in plastic, throw away bottles. Of course we can't give our full support to worthy charities. We are busy squandering our birthright, inheritance, and economic resources on convenience. Every community on this planet needs to secure and insure a clean water supply before decentralized agriculture can be implemented. Water is the most critical resource we have, in spite of its ready availability. It is entirely undervalued. Will we understand this only as a result of global disasters or will we see the water that cleanses our bodies (inside and out) and homes, is also the fuel of the New Age and more valuable than oil or natural gas? How is it when some people only want more, others must go entirely without? The answer is the profit god. If it doesn't make a clear and immediate profit for someone, it can wait. What say we cleanse the earth of its profiteers? We need not raise a hand against them. We need only withdraw our immoral economic support. Together we can transform greedonomics into humanomics. It only requires a personal desire and commitment. |
