What we do each day is attempt to create value. Value is defined here as an improvement: actions that increase the meaning or usefulness of a system, commodity, or resource. Value can also be discovered and increased in relationships, art, education, and personal development. Value can be collectively and objectively agreed upon as in a monetary appropriation, but ultimately resides in the subjective needs and desires of the individual.
For example, each morning we rise and tend to our needs and the needs of others. Typically we agree to perform certain tasks in exchange for a monetary denomination that we than can exchange for the things we need to sustain us (food, shelter, transportation, education, and in many cases love and intimacy). The motive behind this exchange often has more to do with accumulating the dollars than the original intention of creating value. We may have drifted away from the creation of intrinsic value, and shifted into an unconscious fear of not having enough dollars to provide our needs years from now. How did that happen? What of value are we still creating?
It has been discussed commonly over the last decade that our economy has shifted from a manufacturing (one of creation of goods) base, to a more service (providing convenience, organization, and expediency) economy. Most of what we need to sustain ourselves is created somewhere else, in another state, region or country.
One thought he has been mulling about in conjunction with locally produced products and services, as well as reducing the sense of “limitlessness” that we have grown accustomed to in the last few decades, is a way that we can once again begin to create value. However, the only stipulation in his thinking is that this value has to be completely created and utilized without the additional printing of more dollars (debt). That’s right……creating something without using dollars and being compensated fairly without using dollars. Just think of a day, week, or month where we do nothing but create value. Not dollars in our bank account, but rather actually create things that are perceived to have instant value, like a loaf of bread.
Suppose we create a local database of individuals. These individuals simply e-mail in their profession, and three skills they possess. The database is available to all on the internet. Services are exchanged, or bartered for (a very old but resilient concept), and as homes are painted and vegetable produce exchanged, as cars are fixed and homes are weatherized, as wood is split and stacked, and art is completed and books are written, and fitness is instructed and conflicts are resolved, as engineering is designed, and counseling provided, as bread is baked and plays are staged, no dollars are printed at the Treasury in Washington or exchanged. We will instantly begin to increase the value of our country and systematically reduce our debt.
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