The benefits of change

What we gain by a Just Money system

Changing the money system keeps the money in circulation in the general economy, allowing us to create a thriving democracy, to improve the health of individuals and communities, and to establish a clean, livable, and sustainable world.

Economic Benefits: Just money is better for business and the economy

• A level playing field
• A safer and more stable marketplace
• More money in the real economy
• Less debt
• Lower taxes

Social Benefits: Just money helps People and communities to be healthier and happier

• Enhanced public investment
• An effective democratic republic
• Justice and full equality under the law
• Better lives and work-life balance – more happiness
• The commons is defended
• Less wealth inequality
• More individual choice & Liberty is secure

Environmental Benefits: Just Money is better for the environment

• A healthy and clean world
• Resource and species preservation
• Long-term survival with a thriving diversity of life

Just Money Economic Benefits

Better and more profitable business, happier employees

• A level playing field
• A safer and more stable marketplace
• More money in the real economy
• Less debt
• Lower taxes

When the marketplace is fairer, safer and more stable, when there is more money moving around in diverse ways in the economy, and when government can afford to help businesses convert to cradle to grave zero waste production (as much as technology allows), THEN businesses can be more innovative, more profitable, AND better for the owners, employees, and their communities.

A level playing field

With a reduction in the power of a privileged few to manipulate and control the marketplace, monopolies can be reduced, small businesses can thrive, investors can invest closer to home, and consumers and businesses will have more choice and greater freedom.

A safer and more stable market with consistent reliable money

Markets function best when the money has a reliable and consistent value. Just Money provides that steady value. A steady-value money does not privilege or disadvantage anyone. It allows a freedom in the marketplace that is currently constrained by systemic inflation that profits a few and disadvantages most. Steady-value money eliminates an element of gaming the rise and fall of money’s value, a game that sucks talent and energy away from the Main Street economy, and disadvantages small business and communities.

Less hidden risk

In our old system, banks can risk your money without your knowledge or consent. In a Just Money system, your deposits will be in a trust account. You are the only one who can decide what to do with this money. In this deposit-transaction account it will be 100% safe, but it will not earn you interest. If you want to earn money with your surplus money, you will have to take it out of a 100% safe transaction account, take a risk, invest it, and earn your dividends. You will choose the level of risk, guarantee, and return that you want.

Stability and the elimination of bank runs

Just Money eliminates economy-wide booms and busts. Carriages, cassettes and coal power will still be subject to the true business cycle and will still go out of business as technology improves. But the entire economy will not suffer again because the banking system has been foolish in their money creation. Businesses will be able to plan better. Freed from having to make contingency plans for economy-wide boom and bust cycles, they will save money.

Bank runs are not possible under a Just Money system because banks actually have all their depositors transaction account money in a trust account, either on hand or at the central bank. (A trust account is what lawyers use for their client’s money, or what a school uses for money donated only for new buildings or scholarships). Only theft or fraud will compromise the ability of a bank to transfer or produce a customer’s deposit money on demand. The banking industry can set up a separate private insurance system for fraud or bankruptcy similar to the Securities Protection Insurance Corporation (SPIC).

Stable employment, income, or livelihood

Under a Just Money system, people are no longer forced into unemployment by the requirement of the money system for 3–5 percent unemployment, nor by economy-wide downturns. The steady-value money supply provides a less volatile economy. Plus, as long as there are publicly desirable projects that can be done and there are people and materials to do them, the government can fund them; lack of money is not a barrier.  

More innovation and entrepreneurship

In our current system, only a small number of people have the wealth to make substantial investments. Historically, most tend to invest in proven technologies. As the money system reduces the transfer of wealth from the many to the few, more people will have money to invest in new technologies and small businesses.  

There will be more money for higher risk investments. There will be more money for non-standard, risky, private enterprise. In our old system, bankers and institutional investors have become less and less willing to share or take risks. Our economy is losing its ability to foster the outliers that can prove to be the groundbreaking new technologies.

In our new money system, we can put a floor under basic support for everyone, making it possible for more of our entrepreneurs to have a shot at success. When more people have more money, there are more people to invest in new ideas. Many of our greatest innovations began in garages. One must have a garage and a little cushion of cash to make this work.

More money in the general economy

The new money system pushes more of the new money supply into the general economy. Money is distributed in more diverse ways, and into more people’s hands. Just Money reduces the financialization of the U.S. economy. Instead of an economy that is largely about manipulating money to make money, in which almost 30 percent of all the profits go to the financial sector, there is broader circulation of the money supply.¹³ Less goes directly into financial speculation, where it often stays. More moves around in the Main Street marketplace. With no excessive interest charges, businesses survival rates increase and personal bankruptcies decline. Production and productivity increase.

This change improves circulation; it is not redistribution.

Plenty of loans and capital available

Some businesses fear that there will no longer be enough money to borrow when they need it. There will be plenty. Most of the available loans will no longer go into the financial sector for gaming. The government will no longer borrow, freeing up enormous amounts of capital for private lending, borrowing, and managing. And, when there is a larger middle class, more people have money to set aside for investment. We can also choose to increase loans that are distributed through the Small Business Administration, and other funds for business development prioritized by communities.

With the forced-growth imperative of the old system gone, and more money in the hands of ordinary people, a more favorable climate is created for local investment. It becomes more viable for people to invest where they live and create more resilient communities.

An expanded and more diversified capital pool can focus on the ability to succeed, rather than solely on the ability to repay. The quality of your talent and the need for your enterprise can be taken into account, rather than focusing on your collateral and short-term profit potential.

Increasing equity investment

With the elimination of debt money creation, there will be an increase in equity-stock investment rather than debt-bond investing, making our economy safer and less volatile.

In the case of smaller fluctuations brought on by financial market speculation, the government is in a position to protect the working economy from the fallout. Rather than being forced to bail out a bank or big business, they can be allowed to fail without jeopardizing the entire financial sector and economy. Also it can be hoped that once it ceases to be artificially propped up by the government, the investment sector will begin to behave more prudently.

More customers

With a broader, more equitable, and diverse distribution of the money supply, there are more customers for more kinds of businesses. As the systemic wealth transfer machine stops, we can eliminate dire poverty, increase the size of the middle class, and eliminate having a handful of people with more wealth than half the population. With many more quality customers, clients, and consumers, there will be more probability of success for all business ventures.

More competition

With more capital available to a greater variety of businesses, Congress can dare to implement our anti-trust laws. This increases competition. Increased competition pushes our businesses to self-regulate, improve, innovate, and to prosper.

More long-range planning and investing

With our new debt and interest-free money, we can invest more in long-range plans and in emerging technologies that usually need government support in their infancy.

Less debt for all

When the money supply isn’t created by debt, there will be less debt. The level of debt can drop down to levels that support healthy business, healthy government, and healthy life styles; we no longer need to exponentially and continuously increase debt to dangerous and burdensome levels, just to get money into circulation.

Private individual and business debt can be reduced. When the structure of the money system is not forcing people to be in constant debt, getting out of debt and living debt free becomes a viable choice instead of an impossible dream. We can eliminate usury – when lenders insist on terms that are sure to ruin borrowers. All of our major religions have an injunction against usury because it is morally wrong. And it leads to an economic life that is self-devouring.

We can reduce and eventually eliminate most public debt. Once the government is the sole creator of money for the country’s economy, the need for new government borrowing is almost eliminated. Existing government debt can be paid off as it matures over time, resulting in a fully solvent government. The government could still issue bonds to pull money from the economy as an inflation control should other approaches be inadequate. However, government debt will be an exception, not the rule.

We can pay off, or eliminate any interest on existing student loans, which would be a quick boon to the borrowers burdened with this debt, and create a boom in the economy. We could also reimburse the people who were able to repay their student loans, which would stimulate consumer spending and the economy, and satisfy demands for fairness.

Lower taxes

Changing how money is created gives us the ability to lower taxation at all levels, Federal, State, and Local. We will eventually eliminate any need for tax dollars to pay interest on government debt, reducing the need for continuously increasing taxes. We will eliminate the need to raise taxes to keep up with constant inflation, as we do today. And, as new money is used to pay for some federal government programs, taxes will not need to be collected to pay for them. We can lower income taxes for low and middle income families. We could choose to reduce or eliminate payroll taxes – especially for low income workers.

However, we will not want to eliminate taxes entirely. A healthy and moral society needs a balance between personal and public spending. Individuals choose how to spend their money and WE need to take actions and spend money together to benefit the general welfare. Taxes play an important role in a healthy balance of “I-Me-Mine” and “WE” spending. Through taxation, individuals and businesses pay a fair share to government for spending on the common wealth – the infrastructure that is the foundation of a healthy place to live and work. This infrastructure includes the costs to maintain a functioning representative government.

Just Money Social Benefits

Healthier and happier people and communities

• Enhanced public investment
• An effective democratic republic
• Justice and full equality under the law
• Better lives and work-life balance – more happiness
• The commons is defended
• Less wealth inequality
• Liberty is secure

Enhanced public investment

Without interest on public debt taking an enormous bite out of public funds, and without our money carrying a costly interest burden, we can invest in creating a solid foundation for a prosperous nation – healthcare, education, transportation, clean water and air, communication systems, etc.

We can fulfill the promise of our Constitution:A truly democratic republic

We will have government of, by, and for the People. We can fulfill the goals of our Constitution. We the People of the United States can change our money system in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity.

Under Just Money our society is made more democratic by the fact that the power to create money is under public democratic control and no longer a monopoly of banking interests using debt to create money. Our elected representatives will be able to focus constructively on the real needs of the broader society. Transparent and diversified decision-making about how much new money to create, and how best to introduce this new money into the economy makes it easier for us to cope with change as the world becomes more connected.

More diversified decision-making

When we remove the privileged power of the money-creators, we can engage a broader participation in our public decision-making. This will result in better decisions. Better decisions lead to a better future. The best decisions are made by a diverse group of informed and independent thinkers, using issue-based problem-solving. We can include everyone’s perspective in public decision-making. We will stop giving the opinions of the rich greater weight.

In our Declaration of Independence, we said,

“WE hold these Truths to be self-evident, that all Men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of happiness – That to secure these Rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just Powers from the Consent of the Governed…”

If Life is a right, then basic life support (food, shelter, healthcare) must be for everyone. And, we can pay for it and have a booming economy.

If Liberty is a right, then everyone must have an equal opportunity to participate in the economy and in making public-decisions. With Just Money this is possible.

If the Pursuit of Happiness is a right, then we cannot exploit the many to enrich the few. We will still have people who do very well – perhaps even more people as more quality customers are created for their businesses.

We can live up to these ideals with a change in our money system to Just Money.

Establish equal Justice

Justice treats everyone the same under the law. Justice does not allow a few to exploit or control the many. Changing the money system will not alone eliminate injustice. But without a change in the money system, establishing Justice as our Constitution requires is impossible. Changing to a money system with a level playing field – a system that does not transfer wealth from the many to the few – will establish the economic conditions that support establishing social justice.

Fairness and domestic tranquility

Imagine our nation when everyone has good nutrition, healthcare, education, a guaranteed basic income, and plenty of job opportunities. Think of the stress this will relieve. We know that children who grow up in healthy, happy, loving homes with their basic needs met grow into productive, happy, healthy adults who contribute to society. It is also true that people who can trust that their basic needs will be fulfilled are happier and healthier. There will still be stress, because that’s life; but, the system no longer creates additional and unnecessary stress. The money system itself is no longer taking from the poor and the productive and giving to the wealthy. The relentless transfer of money to the top of the pyramid through the debt-based money creation process is gone, leaving the people, businesses, and the government free to create a more equitable society and to provide support to those who have been crushed by the old system, or by the vicissitudes of life.

Yes, there will still be people who choose very simple lives and coast on their basic income – some lazy, some creative, some caring, some selfish. Who cares! If they want anything extra, they will have to do some additional work and have successful careers, just as they do now. And yes, there will still be trust-fund babies who live well off their inherited interest and dividends. So what? Many will still search for meaningful and purposeful lives and ways to make the world a better place.

A balance of work, leisure, and time for friends and family

We are moving into the robotic age. There will be fewer jobs in proportion to the number of people who need a job to support living. In our current system, that will mean that we have more and more unemployed and without life support, while a few people benefit from no longer needing human employees and can extract exorbitant profits. Our current money system already shifts wealth from the many to the few. The robotic age will put this transfer in hyperdrive and the resulting death and despair and violence may bring the ultimate collapse of civilization.

In a Just Money system, the robotic age isn’t a bad prospect. With a change in the money system to Just Money, we can take advantage of the need for fewer work hours and support people in creating a balance in their lives. People can choose fulfilling work that best uses their gifts, and have more time to spend in leisure and with family and friends. The leisure and personal growth industries will boom.

We defend the commons

When we remove the power of a few to push our military into defending specific financial and business interests, we can have effective and efficient military spending. We can shift our defense spending more toward prevention, the best form of offense, to the military’s own priorities for real defense, and to disaster relief assistance – which is increasingly necessary as global warming increases climate caused disasters.

We can spend to improve intercultural communication, negotiation, conflict resolution skills. We can promote intercultural exchanges for improving understanding. And when we get good at it, we can teach the practices to the world. That would be our best defense of the commons, and it would be a monumental legacy to life on the planet.

Less wealth inequality

Our new money system significantly reduces inequality. It does not make everyone equal in wealth, but it circulates wealth around more broadly. Equality is not about making everyone equal in income or abilities. We are human and we’re all different. Equality under the law does not make everyone equal, but it gives everyone an equal opportunity to work hard and succeed. With government creating the money supply instead of the private bankers, we can spend on establishing a minimum living standard for everyone. We can assure that everyone has food, a roof over their head, healthcare, and the education to achieve their potential.

This foundation of basic living support does not block industrious people with outstanding ideas from being well-rewarded – it will make it more likely. It means no one faces what anyone would find to be insurmountable obstacles. We establish a baseline of life support for everyone, so that long-living is not just for the rich, and slow-dying for the poor. This will significantly improve the quality of life for everyone in our communities; we are all tarnished by neighbors who go hungry and homeless encampments on our city streets.

Providing a nationwide foundation of health and opportunity is NOT socialism. It is creating better consumers for a vibrant competitive, privately-owned economy.

The changes that can accompany a Just Money will keep more money in the pockets of citizens-customers; people will have more money to spend and set aside for investing for retirement. Our society will be more stable and equitable, and we can all be happier.

More freedom of choice & the Blessings of Liberty secured

More choice

In a Just Money system, you will choose the level of financial risk that you want to take. You will not be forced to take risks by the system.

A gift to our posterity

We can leave the world a better and more peaceful place for all who come in the future. Our choices and liberty expands when we are on a level playing field and when everyone has their basic needs met. We can make decisions in our own, our family, and our community’s best interests – free from the coercion of powerful interests.

Just Money Environmental Benefits

Just Money is better for the environment

• A healthy and clean world
• Resource and species preservation
• Long-term survival with a thriving diversity of life

We can pay for prevention, rehabilitation, and preservation

There are many great ideas about how to prevent further global warming, how to clean up, how to rehabilitate our ecosystems, and how to preserve habitats for all life on earth. For example, in summer 2018, the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, in Zurich, calculated that “forest restoration is the best climate change solution available today.” We must add 3.8 million square miles of forestland, by planting at least one trillion trees as fast as we can around the world. Their research found that we have the land to spare. We have to prioritize and pay for it. Change our money system and we can.

Eliminate waste that reduces profits and pollutes communities

We can invest in sustainable energy and provide the money to convert all industrial

practices from polluting to clean. This will preserve our nonrenewable resources for usage in the future. Safe industry is only more costly upfront; it saves money for businesses in the long run – and saves the general public and posterity from paying the true costs of pollution down the road. We can stop privatizing profits and socializing risks. We can help businesses move from toxic to renewable and sustainable, as we invest in developing the technologies that make this possible. They just need money to implement!

Preserve nonrenewable resources and all earth species

The driving force that demanded constant growth at the expense of the environment will be eliminated. With the creation of new money under the power of a public body, environmental crises fueled by the old system can be rationally addressed, and processes can be implemented to heal and protect the only planet we have. And, the economy and businesses will prosper!

With Just Money,

we can survive and thrive!

Thank you for reading this page. Please share then visit our take action page and help us spread the word. We can pay for a better world for yourself, your family and future generations. It’s time for Just Money now.