Introduction.
WE ARE MISSING THE POINT OF ECONOMICS & FINANCE

Are we going to do the same tired routine of fixing and rebuilding a financial system that keeps going through endless cycles of growth, recession, depression, bubbles, crashes and frauds, etc.? There are proposals to bail out the banks, builders and homeowners, make loans to the car companies, create more jobs, cut taxes, raise taxes, rebuild infrastructure, re-regulate the financial companies and give another taxpayer rebate. AND, NO ONE can say for sure if or when any of it is going to work. We don’t know what will work because we don’t: recognize basic facts; understand basic definitions; know how to appropriately measure economic activity; stand and act from the highest ideals.

We are in a new paradigm. We need to look from a different perspective on the entire issue. And as is true with all paradigm shifts, things that are unsolvable, unrecognized, unconnected and contradictory are suddenly simpler and capable of resolution. Climate change, extremes of wealth and poverty, working just to pay the bills no matter how unsatisfying the job, “saving money is good for the consumer, but might not be good for the economy”, jobs for everyone and free trade are some examples.

The Industrial Revolution began the rapid development of machines that can do what human beings can not do: concentrate large amounts of power, produce great quantities of an item, and pieces that are identical from one to the next. Another thing it is doing is to produce machines to do what human beings can do: wash clothes, do math calculations, assemble parts and perform repetitive functions.

The purpose of these machines is to increase the standard of living and to enable people to spend less time doing it. However, the standard of living is being reduced almost everywhere, now. Also the time that people spend working is not going down in many places, but in fact is rising. If we are not going to reduce the time that we all spend working, why did we bother to invent these machines?

In his book “Critical Path” Buckminster Fuller states: “…60% of all the jobs in the U.S.A. are not producing any real wealth - i.e., real life support”. If this is true, then it is quite clear that simply “putting people back to work” is not a truly feasible strategy.

In the United States we: get training; to do a job; to make money; to buy health insurance; to pay for health care. What we really want, and can actually provide if we so choose, is to simply have health care available when needed. The complex, wasteful and dehumanizing monetary systems that we currently use are not the only ways with which we can manage the economy. Monetary systems provide a “medium of exchange” that has become largely detached from the production, distribution & consumption of goods and services. Making money with money is an example of this detachment. A Direct-Access economic management system is now technically possible and desirable.

We have a financial and economic crisis in large part because we don’t understand the actual problem. The actual problem in this new paradigm is: How do we produce and make available to every human being the highest standard of life support, in the shortest time?

We are in the midst of an unprecedented opportunity for human beings and this planet. The technical hard part is complete. The single fact that we are sending people and machines into space is proof of that. The stage we are now in is a matter of education and choice, both individually and collectively.

First Principle.
THE CONDITION ON PLANET EARTH IS ABUNDANCE

The belief in either scarcity or abundance determines how financial, legal, political and military systems are set up or even exist at all. Scarcity and Abundance are foundational/contextual ideas. They each give rise to a distinct system of thought and a number of rules, characteristics and measures which only make sense within their own system. Only one of them can be the condition in which we exist. All current systems are based on the premise that the condition is scarcity. “There is not enough for everyone, therefore I am going to earn a living for myself and my family. I am going to be loyal to my country and my country’s allies. The rest of you are on your own. There is nothing I or we can do about it, that’s just the way it is.”

Looking at the pre-existing condition, before human beings lift a finger, we can see that nature (the universe) is extraordinarily abundant. In “Critical Path”, Buckminster Fuller states: ”The quantity of physical, cosmic energy wealth as radiation (sunlight) arriving aboard planet Earth each minute is greater than all the energy used annually by all humanity”. Oxygen for breathing has been available without effort for all human history. Plants produce plenty of seeds to expand their numbers and provide nourishment for animals and people. Human beings then observe and develop the technology of nature to produce more of certain desired results.

Right around the year 1900, there were 2 or 300 people who were the richest, most powerful people on the planet: kings, queens and heads of international businesses. Not one of them could: flip a switch to get clean, safe light; travel 3, 4, 500 miles in a single day in a vehicle sitting at their residence; speak instantaneously with their top generals and governors; fly to a place where they wanted to vacation; see events happening live in other parts of the world; process data rapidly; access large amounts of all the information known to man, from their desktop. Now, only 109 years later, electricity, automobiles, telephones, airplanes, televisions, computers and the internet are everyday features to a growing portion of all humanity.

As Bucky Fuller pointed out, know-how, the ability to do more with less, made this possible and in a shorter and shorter period of time for each successive item. The rate of growth of know-how is much greater than population growth. That is why the average standard of living for human beings keeps on increasing.

Since at least the 1950’s studies have been done that have compared the number of people on the planet with the amount of food produced. All of these studies have shown that we produce enough food to feed every single one of us. In the U.S. there is the Pez Museum, the Museum of Spam, the Barbed Wire Museum, the Museum of Trash and a registry where one can name a star after someone as a gift. A group of people in The Netherlands spent 8 weeks setting up 4.3 million dominos in order to break 8 world records when knocking them down. If all of these exist, then clearly the Condition is Abundance.

Applying the rules of scarcity in a condition of abundance actually causes scarcity for many people in the midst of abundance for others and undesirable side effects for everyone like pollution of the air, land and seas. There are lots of no longer financially viable, partially processed materials, that we ignorantly call trash, and then bury in landfills. Population has grown to the point where these merely undesirable side effects are now catastrophic side effects. The recognition of the True Condition (ABUNDANCE) will ease the task of making changes that will continue to result in increasing our standard of living despite population growth.

Second Principle.
FINANCE IS NOT ECONOMICS

Webster’s defines economics as “a social science concerned chiefly with description and analysis of the production, distribution and consumption of goods and services”. Contrary to popular belief, none of these take money. Nature has never demanded money for sunshine, oxygen, crude oil, water, growing plants or ANYTHING else that humans use in our economy. Nature DOES require that we observe it’s laws, and these laws don’t change. For example, plants need a certain amount of sunlight, moisture, nutrients, space, etc., and airplanes require a specific amount of lift for each ton of cargo. There is constant and recurrent upset in financial matters because it is not science and the rules are changed and violated continuously. Humans have tried slavery, feudalism, communism, socialism and capitalism. None of them have or can work long term. They are all out of sync with nature and therefore obsolete.

The economy is composed ONLY of technology. The resources of the economy are Materials, Energy, Time, Labor and Know-how. The purpose of the economy is to support life and do it to an ever increasing standard (standard of living). Buckminster Fuller looked at life support from seven aspects: Food, Shelter, Health care, Education, Communication, Transportation and Recreation. The only APPROPRIATE measure of the economy is “the sustainable increase in standard of living for ALL human beings”. Instead what we currently measure is how much money is made in various separate financial systems and what the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) is in these systems. GDP includes making money with money and life taking activities. We have a space age, fact based, super abundant economy being managed by camel caravan, opinion, fear and confidence based ad hoc monetary systems.

Money/finance is used to manage the economy, gain access to goods and services and to make it easier to trade unequal things, for example, artwork made by one person for a car made by 1000 people. Money is also used for “winning”. It is used for control. Once most everyone is convinced “it takes money to live”, those who control the money control people, on both the societal and the interpersonal level. Some monetary wealth teachers and authors explicitly state that the golden rule of money is: He who controls the gold, rules”.

If the sun stopped shining or seeds stopped sprouting, the economy could not continue. Life itself would end. The reverse is not true. If money suddenly disappeared from the entire world, the economy could go on as before. There is a very revealing example that we can look at. The United States started a war with Iraq in 2003. There was no money to do it so it has never been in the budget. But this is a perfect proof that it doesn’t REALLY take money. It takes resources: Materials like bombs, guns, airplanes, tents and food; Energy like electricity, gasoline and nuclear power for ships; Time to move material and people around in order to accomplish the goal; Labor to develop all the weapons and strategies and carry them out; and Know-how to do all these things better than the enemy in order to win. Wars aren’t un-fought for lack of money, they are un-fought for lack of resources, period.

The idea that we can’t “afford” (don’t have the money) to feed everyone or provide shelter or health care is simply nonsensical when we look in this way, at facts. There are many people and organizations that are genuinely and actively working to bring about a higher standard of living for more people. These efforts will become far more successful when the clear difference between money and economics is recognized. It has been well said that: “We don’t ask for too much in life, but far too little”. Some people have fear of “spreading the wealth”. The opportunity we have before us is to “unleash the wealth”. This opportunity is truly about EVERYONE benefiting.

Third Principle.
YOU AND I AND EVERYONE HAVE EQUAL VALUE

The Declaration of Independence of the United States asserts: “We hold these truths to be self evident, that all men are created equal….”. Equal in what ways? Our understanding of the word equal has expanded since these words were written. We now understand that it means that slavery is not acceptable. We understand that equal includes women and all races, creeds and colors.

Perhaps it is time to accept that ALL human beings have equal VALUE. Perhaps it is time to accept that all human beings have equal value in all ways and in every aspect of life. This means that every human being has equal claim to all the resources and the highest quality of life support available on the planet. This is the way that Nature has set up the world. Oxygen for breathing, sunlight for energy, warmth and light, water for refreshment and for cleansing and plants that grow in the same way and produce food for everyone equally is the normal and natural way. Education is one way that we actually, already demonstrate the equal value of everyone. We give everyone, equally, an education to specific standards. AND, we have found that this is so valuable to society as a whole, that we not only give it we also require that everyone receive a minimum amount of it. This is a perfect model to duplicate for all the other aspects of life support and sustenance.

Some will say that “competition” and “survival of the fittest” are inherent attributes that make this idea of equality impossible. Actually, simply redirecting these tendencies will work quite well. Lets compete with previous generations and with the “me” and the “us” of yesterday to see how much better “I” and “we” can be and produce TODAY. Can’t we see that when we don’t value others that they don’t like it and that they eventually make trouble, sometimes big trouble, terrifying trouble?

If the Universe, as vast as it is, has seen fit to have you exist, you must be valid, you must have value. Whether I see it or not, you must have value. Whether you see it or not, you must have value. The same must be true about me.

It is common to think that the bigger the group, the less I matter. That is one way of looking at it. The other way, that the bigger the group the more people I interact with and the more influence I have is far more satisfying and expresses self-respect. I matter, I make a difference, I am important, and so do You matter, so do You make a difference, so are You important. Buckminster Fuller and Mother Theresa both said it, one way or another, and lived it. Are we?

It’s very stimulating to relate to each other as winners and losers (the ecstasy of victory, the agony of defeat). There is another experience available to everyone and that is the profoundly fulfilling experience one has when genuinely caring for ALL one’s brothers and sisters. It is the experience of what it is to truly be a Humane Being.

Millions among us are intuitively recognizing the value of each and all, and the great benefits that then result for each and all. This is both a call to fully accept and implement the idea, and an acknowledgement that this is what is happening all over the world. The sooner the better.

Fourth Principle.
WE’RE ALL IN THIS TOGETHER

There is now enough interaction among people on board the planet that the fact of our interdependence and our impact on one another is obvious. We trade more products and have more peoples and cultures involved in the process. We see happenings from most everywhere on television. We experience other people and places firsthand through increased travel. Improvements in life support and life quality spread more rapidly than ever before.

The current multiple crises occurring all around our world, like climate change, financial breakdowns and corruption, food and water shortages and military buildups and their inevitable wars have consequences for all of us, also. Who among us is immune to pandemics, rising sea levels, polluted air, contaminated food or restricted freedom of movement because of security threats?

Bucky Fuller’s commitment was to developing an economic management system in which every human was better off, every human would have a higher standard of living. How could millionaires and billionaires have a higher standard of living? How about the freedom of reduced security for home, autos, businesses and loved ones? If I have all that I need, why would I even consider taking something from you or kidnapping your children and holding them for ransom?

Key to resolving all of these problems quickly and with great benefit for EVERYONE is to recognize that we are a single human family. We are a single species. We live on a relatively small planet. There is only one team. “All for one and one for all” is how teams achieve greatness. Every person has a different role and every role is important.

Why should I work for the benefit of everyone? Because when I do I have 6 ½ billion people on my team. All of you may not know it or accept it, but it’s a whole lot easier to relate with you when I know it and act accordingly. (Talk about stress relief!) Then I don’t have to placate, avoid or fight with you while I am going around caring only about my interests. I’m on your side!

It is said by some that greed and hunger for power are part of human nature, and that we will never be able to fully work together. That may or may not be accurate and is beside the point. What we have now are economic management systems (money, finance) that encourage greed and have power and control being exercised by a relative few. The systems are designed this way. Slavery was once designed into the system. Today there is no systemic slavery. We, the people of the world will not tolerate it. We are certainly capable of designing better economic management systems, in fact we have to because the financial systems are failing NOW. We may even surprise ourselves with how good we can make it and how wonderfully we can get along with each other. From cave dwelling to space traveling to democracy and human rights, that’s what we’ve been doing, one innovation after another.

PRINCIPLES INTO ACTIONS AND RESULTS

Get educated: Study “Critical Path” by Buckminster Fuller.
Study any of Buckminster Fuller’s work.
Participate with Buckminster Fuller Institute (bfi.org).
The Venus Project; Jacque Fresco; Resource based economy (thevenusproject.com).
“A Steady State Economy” by Herman Daly (theoildrum.com).
The U.S. Basic Income Guarantee Network (usbig.net) and the Basic Income Earth
Network (basicincome.org). The goal is actually Maximum income guarantee,
however the direction of these is right on.
“The Future of Money” by Bernard Lietaer (blietaer@earthlink.net).
Technocracy; Energy based economy (technocracyinc.org). This organization has done
remarkable work designing a Direct-Access economic management system.
More of my writings (BillionsofBillionaires.blogspot.com)

Educate others: Family, friends, co-workers, churches, politicians, economists, unions, service groups,
TV, radio, print and internet media:

1) THE CONDITION ON PLANET EARTH IS ABUNDANCE
2) FINANCE IS NOT ECONOMICS
3) YOU AND I AND EVERYONE HAVE EQUAL VALUE
4) WE’RE ALL IN THIS TOGETHER

Volunteer: There are hundreds, thousands of existing groups and programs available to any of us to
participate with.

Demand action of ourselves and businesses and politicians.

Start a project or organization that is consistent with the principle of: “Success for All”.

Do an action like also giving a directory of services to people asking for money at street corners.

Forward the attached: “Open Letter to Barack Obama and Joe Biden”. Have others do the same.

Get in touch with me to: A) cooperate in sharing this message widely, and: B) to further develop the design of, and conversion to, a Direct-Access economic management system.

William Daniels Copyright. Please distribute this freely for non-commercial purposes.
503-314-6902 I am available to speak, write on specific topics, etc.
wdinpdx@yahoo.com
1/20/09

OPEN LETTER TO BARACK OBAMA AND JOE BIDEN

Thank you for running and Congratulations on your election! As you stated in your acceptance speech, it is “our” victory. “Our” includes people around the world who supported your campaign with their interest, their enthusiasm and their money, if not their vote. One of those people called you a “president for the world”. No country and no leader in history has had the support of so many people spread around the world. What an opportunity! The question is: For what?

Foreign policy changes were an important and welcome part of your proposals. You have already articulated your intent to get out of Iraq, shift from oil to sustainable energy and practice diplomacy and engagement with friend and foe. All of these are important to “we the people”.

There has been talk that, for many issues, we need to “think big” and we need a “game changer”. The founding of the United States itself was such an event and opened up new possibilities for all of humanity. What new possibility is available to us today?

What if you make “the End of Hunger and Starvation Everywhere in the World” a cornerstone of US foreign policy? It is a realistic opportunity. It is a new possibility for U.S. leadership and full international cooperation. And it is mandatory that this happen in order to have a truly safe and prosperous world community.

Buckminster Fuller’s research proved that we have the food and the capacity to deliver it. In 1977 The Hunger Project was founded, to end hunger and starvation on earth by 1997.
It said that the only thing missing was the political will.

The United States has accomplished mankind’s greatest technical challenge, that of sending humans to the moon and back, safely. Feeding everyone is not much of a technical challenge. What this requires is that we reach into our selves and stand and act from the highest ideal of what it is to be human, just as our founders did. Are we up to it yet? Will you be the President that declares: “No more hunger and starvation, anywhere in the world.”? If not to us, if not to you, then to whom shall we look for leadership?

If you agree, copy this, sign it yourself, tell others & send to: http://my.barackobama.com/page/s/mypolicy

William Daniels Copyright. Please distribute this freely for non-commercial use.
503-314-6902
wdinpdx@yahoo.com
11/14/08

In Critical Path, pg. xviii, Bucky wrote: “Ninety-nine percent of humanity does not know that we have the option to “make it” economically on this planet and in the Universe. We do. It can only be accomplished, however, through a design science initiative and technological revolution”.
It seems that by these words, by his 28 books, his Chronofile, his lecturing and teaching, Bucky placed education before, or at least on par with accomplishment of specific tools.
Bucky also stated: “earning a living is obsolete” “60-70% of all jobs in America…not producing life support” and “earth has 4 billion billionaires who have yet to be informed of their good fortune”.
Since Critical Path was published in 1981 design science has produced and widely, not fully, distributed: digital technology, cell phones, personal computers and access to the internet. We have fully entered the Information Age. Specific technologies, however, have not and can not deliver on their full potential because they exist in a system or context that does not allow it. Financial systems are based on the belief in scarcity and then produce it when things become too abundant. Case in point: OPEC (The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries) restricts the supply of oil in order to keep the price up. Financial systems value scarcity most. That is why an old Bugatti automobile, easily outperformed by millions of more practical vehicles, is valued in millions, and the practical vehicles are valued only in thousands.
At present, we are well into an obvious failure of all financial systems on the planet. What began in the United States as a high foreclosure rate in subprime mortgages, has led to a general credit freeze, a bailout of the financial industry, a loan to keep the Big Three automakers from bankruptcy and is leading to a high foreclosure rate in Alt-A, Ninja and Commercial loans. A $50 Billion investment fraud has been uncovered. Financial breakdown has spreading to Iceland, Europe, Russia, China, India, etc. The less obvious failures of financial systems: 20 million deaths EACH year due to starvation; pollution of the air, land and seas; we build “labor saving devices” and then labor more than ever; working to “earn a living” and never getting to do what we love to do.
And while the financial systems self-destruct, the ability, the know-how to produce life support (the economy) continues to expand. And while the economic management systems (finance) breakdown, human beings suffer because life support is not fully distributed. All this because, as Bucky said: “We have a crisis of ignorance”.
I urge the Challenge jury, and each and every one of us, to consider the possibility that education and implementation projects that will support the shift of economic management systems from finance (based on scarcity) to systems based on the actual condition of abundance, is the most effective design science trimtab currently available, that can positively impact all humanity and the environment. This is something that each one of us can participate in.

William Daniels Copyright. Please distribute this freely for non-commercial purposes.
503-314-6902 I am available to speak, write on specific topics, etc.
wdinpdx@yahoo.com see: BillionsofBillionaires.blogspot.com; BFI.org; “Critical Path” by
3/6/09 R. Buckminster Fuller

Synergetics was Buckminster Fuller’s attempt to bridge science and the humanities. Fuller employed many forms of communication to teach synergetics. He was the author or subject of dozens of books and hundreds of essays. He was a tireless public speaker, lecturing before hundreds of thousands in over one hundred globe-circling tours. Less known than these means of communication, Buckminster Fuller also used puppetry to teach synergetics through a long association with his friend and professional puppeteer Bil Baird (August 15, 1904 – March 18, 1987). Baird and Fuller crossed paths several times, and are known to have collaborated in several ways.

[Article continues at synchronofile.com.]

Economics is always and only about life support. It starts with the pre-existing cosmic or natural materials, energy and processes of the universe and solar system and includes all human life support activities. The ingredients of the human developed part of the economic system are materials, time, labor, energy and know-how. These are relatively easy to come to grips with. It does not take any great smarts or lengthy education to understand the basics. It’s because the economic system has a simplicity about it. There is common sense to it. Placing seeds in the ground, in springtime and keeping them watered is one example. Mixing certain metal ores together and heating them to a specific melting temperature to make steel for car bodies is another.

On the other hand, all financial systems become ridiculously complex. The rules keep changing. They require lots of study and effort. They lead to things like: making money with money; credit scoring; insurance and reinsurance companies; hedge funds; derivatives; stock values and profits going up when people lose their jobs through increased efficiency, but those people lose rather than share in the benefits; and the contamination of the air, land and seas. Financial systems become arbitrary, increasingly dysfunctional and irrational. They produce situations wherein we can build lots of cars and homes for people who need transportation and shelter, then within a few years they get repo’d, or foreclosed and evicted. People who raise and teach children are not well compensated. It is common for people to do anything they can to “make money” and “pay the bills” and never find what they really love to do and are really good at. These are clear failures of the financial system. All the “economist’s” supercomputer analyses have not and will not solve these problems. It’s telling that we don’t know for sure if we’re in a recession until after the fact.

How is the economy doing? This is the ever-present question. The economy is a rich source of material for all of us, for politicians, analysts, scholars, writers, TV shows, and talks at the water cooler and the kitchen table. It’s a question that could only be asked after we’ve confused a financial system with economics. It’s a question that could only be asked in a condition where people serve the system instead of the system serving the people.

How are the people doing? Does Everyone have food, shelter and health care, and to the highest standard? Is education available freely, and to Anyone? Is world around communication technology available to All? Are there fewer restrictions on moving around the planet today than there were last year? Is Everyone getting all the recreation they desire? How are All living beings doing? How is the environment doing? These are the questions that economics actually and appropriately addresses. The answers are usually straightforward and obvious. They are easy to comprehend.

William Daniels...... Copyright. Please distribute this freely for non-commercial purposes.
503-314-6902...... I am available to speak, write on specific topics, etc.
wdinpdx@yahoo.com...... See: BillionsofBillionaires.blogspot.com; BFI.org; “Critical Path” by R. Buckminster Fuller
11/14/08

I hope that anyone interested in the Platonic solids will visit my website:

www.PlatonicSolids.info

I am a long-time follower of Fuller. I saw him speak in New York in the early eighties. Some of you may remember the educational product I created. It was a tensegrity model construction kit called FANTASTIX. They used to sell it in the BFI store among other places. I recently finished a computer-animated video about the Platonic solids. It is called Platonic Solid Rock. You can find it on YouTube. I created an informational website to go with the video. It has lots of great downloadable graphics like the spinning shapes in this posting. There are also lots of other educational and fun resources on the site. Check back from time to time for updates. I will soon be publishing a ninety-page book on the Platonic solids with beautiful color graphics. I hope you enjoy it!

People can and do change. Buckminster Fuller through his example showed us how to take the path less traveled. The essence to change is how to economically become self sufficient. His concept of PRECESSION, along with four other powerful concepts to empowerment, are outlined in this essay. References to source material are also provided for those who want to fully research and make their life and its action matter.

We are hosting a bloggers challenge to raise money for teacher-submitted projects in schools.

The projects have to do with sustainability, and include the following topics:

1. student research on recycling programs in Texas
2. indoor gardening programs in San Jose, CA
3. maintaining a student newspaper in Los Angeles, CA
   (Journalism has had a rough time in that city, and we need to help sustain different media voices)

4. support a course in sustainable development and conservation in Chicago, IL
5. Community Action on Global Challenges in Providence, RI
6. Modeling groundwater flow and aquifers in New York, NY
7. alternative energy projects in North Carolina

Visit the challenge page for more details on projects and to contribute.

- Ralph Hyre