Public Investment to Promote the General Welfare

["John Gelles" <johng@xxxxxxxxxx>]

    Victory over Want cannot be had without enormous
    investment to facilitate the production of food, water,
    job skills, jobs, homes, and everything else that is
    missing--everthing else whose absence defines "want".

    Nobody writing to the VOW list (or to PKT list)
    believes more in investment than I do.

    Investment can theoretically all by made by private
    firms and persons. But, under current economic
    practice, the private firm or person must make a
    profit on all but philanthropic investments.

    To make such profit, the consumer must be flush
    with cash (or good credit), so that the food, water,
    job skills, jobs, health care, homes, etc., furnished
    by the private sector, will be re-furnished by that
    sector, over and over again, under a profit system
    that works. Incidentally, that profit system must
    be "green" as well.

    The problem for the world's nations is that the
    fundamental source of ready cash most oftened
    used is interest paying debt (loans).

    What happens, because debt can sometimes
    grow too large to be repaid with interest, is that
    millions of people never become consumers with
    enough buying power to leave government out
    of this particular picture.

    The monetized buying power created by credit
    worthy consumers dries up enough, cyclicly, so
    as to cause want, poverty, unemployment,
    absence of profit, etc.

    One solution to this inadequate monetized demand
    is for government to make investments or otherwise
    inject demand into the production/purchasing cycle
    --as needed.

    Of course, an opposite problem can exist. This is
    when the things to buy are not there. And government-
    issue money is offered with no takers. This was the
    case in Russia when they quit their command
    economy.

    Public investment in a Russia with no momentum
    in the production of necessities was not enough--unless
    that investment resulted in facilities that produced for
    sale all that was needed.

    So I trust my ideas on taxless, debtless money are
    understood in their best sense. By spending money
    into circulation, no interest need be paid to rich people
    for the nation's right to be in business.

    With debtless, taxless money all financial problems
    are condensed to their simplest form:  the nation
    that models its money system after my ideas must
    avoid spending more money into circulation than
    will result in affordable prices. Savings in non-
    lendable depositories (mimicking a mattress)
    can be used to keep down price.

    In other words, money, for which there's too
    little stuff to buy, must be saved and not spent for
    as long as it takes production to catch up with
    demand.

    Such anti-inflation system as described above must
    also avoid deflation. So whenever supply exceeds
    monetized demand, government will release savings
    to be spent--or pay money directly to people like
    Alaska does with its oil profits.

    None of the above relies on the market's invisible
    hand. The system is based on knowledge that there
    is no invisible hand. Rather than an IH, the above
    system needs information from producers and
    consumers so that taxless debtless money can be
    used as needed. (Credit money would still be in
    use, created by commercial banks.)

    What of motivation?  Without the IH, can people
    be motivated to work, cooperate and compete?
            YES. Just use money--and they will respond.
    Money has a magic appeal--but it cannot be used
    effectively without a supporting information system.

    How to say some of the above (or a variation of
    it) in rapid reading appealing words, is the task of
    VOW.