[Note: This article was originally published on 11/4/97 as "Alternative Currency System." It was extensively revised on 10/2/98. It has now been further revised. I now propose a "free software," "open source," "multi-currency" system, as explained below.]

Introduction
Firstly, this article aims to give an indication of what kind of economic education might be necessary for WBE to succeed.

Secondly, it attempts to answer some of the objections people might have to the ideas behind the project.

Thirdly, it provides some suggestions on how to operate in ways that will improve the chances of success.

Please send further objections and suggestions for improving or extending the article to Frederick Mann.

Ending Economic Slavery
A major element of the MoneyPower Breakthrough will be to provide the means whereby, individual by individual, economic slavery can be ended.

At this point in time, the vast majority of humans have been brainwashed into believing that they are subject to "political masters," that some of the noises and scribbles emanating from the mouths and keyboards of these supposed "masters" constitute "the law" (so-called), and that the "subjects" (euphemism for slaves) have to obey the "masters," file all kinds of reports to the "masters," and pay all kinds of "taxes" to the "masters."

Many humans, to a greater or lesser extent, live the lives of economic slaves. Interestingly, there was a time when even the "black-robed high priests" masquerading as the so-called "US Supreme Court" did not regard the individual as an economic slave:

"The individual may stand upon his constitutional rights as a citizen. He is entitled to carry on his private business in his own way. His power to contract is unlimited. He owes no such duty [to submit his books and papers for an examination] to the State, since he receives nothing therefrom, beyond the protection of his life and property. His rights are such as existed by the law of the land [Common Law] long antecedent to the organization of the State, and can only be taken from him by due process of law, and in accordance with the Constitution. Among his rights are a refusal to incriminate himself, and the immunity of himself and his property from arrest or seizure except under a warrant of the law. He owes nothing to the public so long as he does not trespass upon their rights."

Hale vs. Henkel, 201 U.S. 43 at 47 (1905)

In addition to providing money/currency units and transaction systems to enable individuals and companies to transact and trade as sovereign individuals and entities, WBE will have to provide the education necessary for individuals to free themselves from thinking and behaving as economic slaves.

I'm fully aware of the fact that the "political masters" employ millions of armed agents with guns to enforce their pretended "laws." A major part of the education will have to deal with teaching people the knowledge, methods, and skills to avoid maltreatment by armed political agents. Currently, in many parts of the world, it is possible to organize your life, business, and affairs so as to minimize the risk of maltreatment by armed political agents. One of the functions of WBE could be to provide support services in this respect.

Objection #1
Most people dissatisfied with current political and economic systems believe that these systems have to be changed or reformed in order for the masses to enjoy greater freedom and wealth. You seem to advocate a radically different approach which I think will be not only incomprehensible to most people, but also impractical even if they understood it.

Answer: Imagine a prisoner in a jail cell, serving a life sentence with no possibility of parole. Because the door is locked and the window barred, it's difficult for the prisoner to escape. And, should he somehow escape, the armed guards will catch him and put him back in his cell. The prisoner might think, "To gain my freedom I need to change or reform the penal system."

A second approach might be for the prisoner to learn everything he can about the nature and the workings of the door to his cell, its lock and key, the bars by the window, the guards, any "loopholes" in their systems, etc. Based on what he learns, the prisoner may be able to escape and successfully elude future capture.

This second approach is the kind of strategy I propose for WBE. The economic prisoner (to whatever extent) is restrained by "economic bars" such as coercively imposed currency and banking monopolies, "licensing laws," "reporting laws," "tax laws," etc. and the armed agents who attempt to enforce them.

I propose WBE as a kind of "escape system" that enables people to escape from their "economic prisons." I contend that most "economically imprisoned" people are restrained more by their conceptions of and beliefs about "the economic bars" than the actual "economic bars" themselves. We'll have to develop the means to help people clear out any "economic bars" in their heads which they may suffer from.

On the other hand, it may be possible to come up with a WBE system that is relatively easy, convenient, and practical to use so that people don't have to understand very much about the underlying nature of the system they're using. (Similarly, most people use "dollars" without understanding very much about the "dollar system.")

Objection #2
The Riegel you propose is fundamentally different from the dollar in that the Riegel is money without the store-of-value function, while the dollar is currency with a store-of-value function. Not only does this mean that most people will not be able to easily understand the Riegel, it also means that a secondary currency system will be necessary, because people need transportable currency (in the forms of coins, notes, checks, credit cards, etc.). It will be too confusing for most people.

Answer: Many people drive their cars with little understanding of how the automatic transmission and the computerized carburetor systems work. Similarly, most people will be able to use the Riegel (and associated currencies) without having to understand very much about how the systems work. They should be able to use the system by pressing the right "buttons" and "pedals" to perform the transactions they want.

WBE could, but doesn't have to, provide secondary currency systems. They can be provided by others in the marketplace. There are already millions of people in America who use both barter currency and national currencies. To use WBE in tandem with currencies, they won't have to understand significantly more than they already understand. The same applies to people in Europe who are more used to working with a multitude of currencies.

Objection #3
What you propose is immoral and illegal. We all know that for orderly society to exist, there must be a system of laws to prevent people from harming themselves and each other. There must be a government to enforce these laws. And taxes must be paid to finance the government. Furthermore, only the government should stipulate what constitutes legal tender.

Answer: And so goes the brainwashing... To fully answer the above would require a book -- or several books! Many of the answers can be found in '#FFP05: Harry Browne's Freedom Principles' and the links from there.

By operating out of jurisdictions such as Antigua, with no government reporting requirements nor taxation, it should be possible for WBE to become a highly effective "escape system" operating in "legally accurate" (Clintonesque) ways!

Objection #4
Governments can't afford to have anything like WBE succeed on a large scale. They will stop WBE as soon as they see it as a threat to their power to control their citizens and live off the taxes they pay.

Answer: Ettienne de la Boetie wrote in '#TL06 - Discourse On Voluntary Servitude':

"He who thus domineers over you has only two eyes, only two hands, only one body, no more than is possessed by the least man among the infinite numbers dwelling in your cities; he has indeed nothing more than the power that you confer upon him to destroy you. Where has he acquired enough eyes to spy upon you, if you do not provide them yourselves? How can he have so many arms to beat you with, if he does not borrow them from you? The feet that trample down your cities, where does he get them if they are not your own? How does he have any power over you except through you? How would he dare assail you if he had no cooperation from you? What could he do to you if you yourselves did not connive with the thief who plunders you, if you were not accomplices of the murderer who kills you, if you were not traitors to yourselves? You sow your crops in order that he may ravage them, you install and furnish your homes to give him goods to pillage; you rear your daughters that he may gratify his lust; you bring up your children in order that he may confer upon them the greatest "privilege" he knows - to be led into his battles, to be delivered to butchery, to be made the servants of his greed and the instruments of his vengeance; you yield your bodies unto hard labor in order that he may indulge in his delights and wallow in his filthy pleasures; you weaken yourselves in order to make him the stronger and the mightier to hold you in check."

One of the keys to the success of WBE is to serve as an instrument that enables the masses to withdraw from their tyrants the support that sustains the latter. The ability to transact anonymously, privately, and securely via Internet makes this feasible.

I believe that WBE can be created in such a manner that it would be as difficult to stop as the Internet itself. For an understanding of why this can be done, refer to the article 'The Internet and The End of Monetary Sovereignty' by Bill A. Frezza.

Objection #5
The idea that you can form a team of people to create a system such as WBE is a pipedream. Most people will not be able to understand the nature of Riegel's basic system with money that does not have the store-of-value function. Neither Riegel nor any of his disciples have been able to implement any of his ideas in a viable way during the more than 60 years his ideas have been bandied about.

For many people, "money" is an emotionally charged subject. The most likely result of any attempt to form a team to create a system such as WBE will be petty and bitter in-fighting, quickly deteriorating into personal attacks. You'll never be able to put together a team of people who among them have the necessary qualifications to create WBE and launch it successfully, who also agree on the set of elements that constitute WBE, such as the nature of the monetary unit, demurrage, default insurance, whether there should be interest or not, whether WBE should also create a secondary system to provide currency (money with the store-of-value function), etc.

Answer: This is probably the greatest challenge we face. If this challenge can be met, one of the factors leading to success might be that every participant in the project becomes aware of "bicameral stage 2" arguing -- focusing on proving self "right" and others "wrong," rather than focusing on producing desirable results -- see: Wake Up America! - Chapter Five.

It may help to have one or more mediators or peacekeepers on the WBE list. Whenever anyone notices any "bicameral stage 2" arguing, they call a timeout on that particular discussion thread, and a mediator/peacekeeper intervenes and persuades the "combatants" to rise above "I'm right; you're wrong" arguing. (Mark Lindsay has volunteered to act as "peacekeeper" on the list.)

People who repeatedly descend to "bicameral stage 2" arguing may have to be removed from the WBE list and the project. I envisage that over a period, maybe several months, a core group will emerge who agree on the important issues. In order to develop a core group of around 10 people, it may be necessary to have several hundred subscribers to the WBE list!

The issues of "power" and "leadership" are also important. Unfortunately, these subjects are also emotionally charged for many. By "power" I mean the ability to perform work (or produce desirable results).

In order for a project like WBE to succeed, someone has to take the initiative and assume the role of "leader." By "leader" I mean the individual who assumes responsibility for the overall direction and success of the WBE project. I don't think I'm qualified to play the role of "leader." In general, I prefer to be a "strong influence behind the scenes." So we need to find a leader with the personal power to make WBE a success.

I emphasize that by "power" here I mean non-coercive power. Some people equate "power" with "force of a violent nature." When Acton said, "Power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely," he was probably thinking in terms of "violent force." Stewart Emery rebutted Acton with, "Weakness corrupts and absolute weakness corrupts absolutely" -- see Wake Up America!.

In the kind of team I'm trying to establish for WBE, certain dynamics of power are important. The leader has to have power to get things done. He also needs to have power to deal with internal disruptions. The WBE list should operate according to a set of rules that provide the leader with at least some of the power he needs.

The overall power of the team to get the job done will probably correlate closely with the personal power of the leader.

Because the leader can't do everything himself (or herself), certain tasks have to be delegated. There could be a number of project teams each developing specific aspects of WBE. Each project could have a project leader. The overall leader delegates power to project leaders.

The overall leader needs to handle power wisely, so do the project leaders, and everyone else. The key is for everyone to operate in ways that increase the power of everyone else -- sometimes called "synergistic power."

Most likely, there will be people who occasionally (or even habitually) abuse the power granted to them. One of the most damaging ways to abuse power is to undermine the power of the overall leader.

Sometimes someone will embark upon a "power play" such that the overall leader has only two practical choices: (1) Exit the WBE project; (2) Strip away the power of the abuser or remove him or her from the WBE project. Such "power plays" and their destructive outcomes could destroy the entire WBE project.

An excellent book on this subject is Claude M. Steiner's The Other Side of Power: How to Become Powerful Without Becoming Power-Hungry. The best book on power I've come across is The 48 Laws of Power by Robert Greene and Joost Elffers.

Maybe we'll need a "power monitor" with the task of carefully observing individual behavior, with the purpose of making suggestions where necessary to maximize the power of all concerned. (Mark Lindsay has volunteered to be a "power monitor" on the list.)

Objection #6
It may cost hundreds of thousands to develop and implement WBE. Where are you going to get the money?

Answer: At this stage I have no idea how much it'll cost to develop and implement WBE. It may even cost more than a million!

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