Re: MONETARY: Discussing the unjust monopoly

["Dan Parker" <danparker@socialcredit.com>]

---- Original Message -----
From: PBottissr@aol.com
To: monetaryreform@cog.kent.edu
Sent: Saturday, October 12, 2002 7:18 PM
Subject: Re: MONETARY: Discussing the unjust monopoly


There is such a proposal that taxes the creation and the movement of money.
It is found on the URL  A TAX FOR THE TWENTY FIRST CENTURY

This is is similar to a Green Party proposal to tax 'bads'
instead of 'goods'.

There might be a concern that such a policy would tend
against transactions that might benefit the economy and
encourage hoarding.  As Robert Klinck points out in his
excellent article on Finance and the Environment, it is silly
for us to live at lesser standard of living than the environment
can sustain.

http://www.socialcredit.com/subpages_index/environment.htm

Silvio Gesell and others have proposed a demurrage, or
a negative interest rate, on money to encourage it to be spent.
I'm not sure, but I think it was Francis Bacon that said
money is like muck, and not good unless spread.

If we think of taxes as resistance in an electrical current,
or as friction in a cybernetic system, then encoding the true
costs, including environmental, into a product or service might
be a better way to go.  Some transactions have a high
impact on the environment, some do not.  Why treat all
transactions the same?

The improved feedback system that would be needed in
conjunction with a transaction tax system (GDP would
tend to crater, as it should) might have the information
needed that transacting as a whole need not be
discouraged.

Regards

Dan Parker