VOTE GREEN
Paid political advertisement
by John C. Turmel
The Green Party is a political coalition
of groups interested in world
peace, a conserver society and a clean
environment. I am one of a
number of Green Party members who are
in favor of funding such goals
through job-creation by the reimplementation
of the old work-bee
custom with paychecks issued in tradeable
tax credit notes.
Most of today's problems stem from a chronic
insufficiency of
funds. All orthodox established political
parties have their own
formulas for spreading this shortage around.
Fortunately, when
the United States had insufficient funds
to put all of its
able-bodied citizens to work, President
Abraham Lincoln came up
with an innovative way of financing public
projects.
In olden days, small towns financed major
constructions by
organizing work-bees (corvees in French
Canada) whereby citizens
could work on government projects to pay
their taxes. Lincoln
reasoned that anything people could use
to pay taxes with had a
trading value similar to money so he simply
expanded on the
work-bee idea by issuing tax-credit notes
in exchange for labor.
Lincoln called them Greenbacks and issued
them in convenient
denominations that were traded by those
who had earned them to
anyone who wished to use them to pay U.S.
taxes. The Greenbacks
successfully got people working! Unfortunately,
our governments
have not been as resourceful in dealing
with our funding
shortages.
Consider how most governments presently
finance their
expenditures. If, for example, a city
has expended the money
allocated for snow removal and is hit
with a major snowstorm,
Council calls an emergency session and
authorizes the issuance of
$1,000,000 in municipal bonds. The mayor
has them printed up and
pledges the $1,000,000 in bonds as collateral
for $1,000,000 in
dollar bills bearing an interest rate
of say 20%. Council pays
for the $1,000,000 job of snow removal
with the $1,000,000 in
dollar bills. The city's merchants, all
consumers accept the
dollar bills in exchange for their goods
and services. At the end
of the year, because the city must repay
$1,000,000 in principal
and $200,000 in interest, Council must
demand taxes amounting to
$1,200,000 in dollar bills from the citizens
who only received the
original $1,000,000 that was put into
circulation. Because of the
interest charges, the tax-payers find
themselves in the impossible
situation of having to repay a greater
amount of taxes than there
was issued into circulation. This results
in a chronic
insufficiency of money in circulation
to pay all of the taxes
demanded. This is going on at the federal,
provincial and
municipal levels of government.
A Green City Council using Greenbacks would
also authorize
the printing of $1,000,000 of Greenbacks
to pay for the $1,000,000
job of snow removal. The merchants and
their employees would love
to accept the $1,000,000 in Greenbacks
in exchange for the same
goods and services they would have delivered
for the $1,000,000 in
dollar bills when they realize that at
the end of the year,
Council would only have to demand the
return of $1,000,000 in
Greenbacks, saving them the $200,000 in
taxes to pay for the
interest they would have otherwise had
to pay under an orthodox
financing scheme. WITH MORE PEOPLE EMPLOYED,
THE TAXES NECESSARY
TO PAY FOR WELFARE AND UNEMPLOYMENT INSURANCE
WOULD HAVE TO BE BE
REDUCED. WITH MORE PEOPLE PAYING THEIR
SHARE, OUR TAXES WOULD
AGAIN HAVE TO BE REDUCED.
PUBLIC FUNDING:
------------------
Many areas of public funding could be
Greenback based. Government
employees could be paid with newly minted
Greenbacks as receipts for
their work.
ENVIRONMENT:
The Greenbacks could be used to hire a
major segment of the unemployed
workforce to clean up the environment,.
Acid rain could be prevented.
Parks and arenas could be built.
TRANSPORTATION:
The unemployed could be hired to build
roads with Greenbacks
as receipts for their work. Greenbacks
paid into circulation
would only need to be taxed out of circulation
to cover upkeep and
depreciation of the roads.
UTILITIES:
Builders of large public projects like
hydro-electric, solar
and wind power installations could be
hired with newly-minted
Greenbacks as receipts for their work.
People accepting those
Greenbacks could buy their power with
them.
HEALTH SERVICES:
Greenbacks could be used to fund a massive
injection of
manpower into expanding man's knowledge
of dangerous illnesses.
EDUCATION:
Builders of schools and day care centers
and the teachers
staffing them could be hired with Greenbacks
as receipts for their
work.
NATIONAL DEBT:
The national debt could be paid off with
Greenbacks and taxed
out of circulation at whatever rate would
be deemed comfortable.
Other nations who would accept our Greenbacks
would be able to
purchase Canadian goods and services with
them. That would result
in the considerable saving of $25,000,000,000
in interest payments
per year and would be the only way possible
to ever get the
national debt paid off.
WELFARE AND OLD-AGE PENSIONS:
The revenues that our government would
spend for debt service
could be diverted to servicing the needs
of our welfare
victims and pensioners. With Greenback
credit-lines, retirement
would truly become a golden age.
PRIVATE FINANCING:
------------------
Private entrepreneurs could borrow Greenbacks
in order to
create jobs and pay them back when the
goods and services have
been sold:
FARMING:
Farmers could be given open Greenback
credit-lines with which
to hire men to produce food. People accepting
those Greenbacks
could buy their food with them.
MANUFACTURING:
The producers of manufactured goods could
be given open
Greenback credit-lines with which to hire
men to manufacture
goods. People accepting those Greenbacks
could buy manufactured
goods with them.
HOUSING:
Contractors could be given open Greenback
credit-lines with
which to hire construction workers. People
accepting those
Greenbacks could pay for their housing
with them.
STUDENT LOANS:
Today, poor university students receive
interest free student
loans. Six months after they get out of
school, the debt starts
to grow with interest. Under a Green government
using Greenbacks,
all students would be given Greenback
credit lines all through
their years of study. The Greenbacks could
be returned once they
had gotten out of school and since there
would not be any interest
on Greenbacks borrowed, the debt does
not grow and it is easiest
to repay. Greenback credit lines would
guarantee all children at least
a minimum quality of life which would
be independent of the
financial means of their parents.
CRIME:
People getting out of penal institutions
would have job
opportunities available to prevent their
return to a life of crime.
IT WORKS:
This is also an idea that has been implemented
on a municipal scale in
the Comox Valley, B.C., by Mr. Michael
Linton, a Green member, and
electrical engineering graduate. His system
of greendollars is used to
facilitate economic trade in the Comox
valley. Mr. Linton is expanding
the Greendollar system into Vancouver
in September. The Greenback idea
is simply extending the Greendollar idea
to the National level. If
Abraham Lincoln could manage to get it
engineered on a national level
a century ago, then surely Green electrical
engineers armed with
computer technology can manage to get
it engineered on the national
level too.
The Greenback funding system is an idea
by which all the social and
environmental reforms proposed by the
Green Party can be funded. The
only real question is whether all of Canada
will be able to enjoy the
system or just the people in the Vancouver
area. With the added
advantage that the program is available
on a computer diskette, I, and
many other new Greens, are enthusiastic
and wish to promote it within
the party and as Green candidates in the
upcoming federal election.
The Greenback program on a computer diskette
will, in our candidates'
hands, act as a super intellectual high-tech
mechanism which will
merit special attention.
HERE'S HOW:
People using Greendollars in the Comox
Valley say:
"I feel that
I am valued in the community for the work that I
provide. I like the exposure of my small
children to this alternate
monetary system. They now check out if
goods are available for green
or federal dollars." Joy Dryburgh, a single
mother with three
children.
"I have used
the system for everything from paying rent to
furnishing a house." Charles Turner
"I joined the
system in December 1983. This restored in me the
realization that I do have the ability
to contribute to my community.
This is beyond dollar value."
"It's value lies
in its separation from the monetary system. We,
as a family, have found employment and
"purchased' goods and services
of a wide variety." Barbara Hopkinson,
B.A., M.A. Town planning,
University of Sheffield, UK.
I urge you to
join the Green Party of Canada by sending $5 to 24
Ryerson Ave., Toronto, Ontario. If you
wish to be kept up to date on
the implementation of the Greenback system,
send your name to the
Greenback Wing of the Green Party of Canada
at Box 16147, Ottawa.
John C. Turmel