The Aquarian Agrarian: energy

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Tuesday, February 9, 2021

How Committed is the Green Party to the Principle of Decentralization?

The purpose of this article is to determine on which policy topics the Green Party and its supporters are most committed to decentralization. Decentralization is one of the Green Party's Ten Key Values.
gp.org/four_pillars_ten_key_values

I put this article together after the party's last presidential nominee, Howie Hawkins, ran on a platform that called for increased centralization of the regulation of energy and transportation affairs into the hands of the national government.
This platform prompted me to ask, "If Hawkins is leading the party to support more centralization on energy and transportation, then on which other issues is the Green Party still whole-heartedly committed to decentralization?"

I have sorted thirty-one major topics in politics, into seven categories: Centralize More, Keep Centralized, Mostly Centralized, Promote a Mix (...), Mostly Decentralize, Keep Decentralized, and Decentralize More.

[Policy Topics Which Most of the Green Party Wants to] Centralize More
- State Department / diplomacy
(centralize through growing and properly funding, and demilitarize by transforming into a Department of Peace)
- Interstate regulation of commerce
- Energy, and provision of public utilities
(centralize, but eliminate influence of businesses, lobbyists, and monopolies)
- Transportation
(centralize, but streamline, and eliminate business & lobbyist influence)
- Campaign finance reform
(centralize, but streamline, and eliminate business & lobbyist influence)
- Labor Department
(centralize in order to create a jobs guarantee)
- Justice Department & the Attorney General, incl. courts

[...] Keep Centralized
- International trade, including tariffs
- Establishing uniform rule of naturalization of immigrants

Mostly Centralize
- Elections
(cooperative or corporative federalism; national government should supervise more)
- State public worker benefits
(increase national supervision of public sector employees' affairs, benefits, and bargaining)

Promote a Mix of Centralization and Decentralization, inc through Cooperative or Triple Federalism
- Military / Department of Defense / Pentagon / common defense
(centralize its administration, but reduce its use, and demilitarize it, while decentralizing public defense)
- Social Security / retirement
(centralize by growing S.S. into Social Security for All, i.e., a U.B.I. to every American, which would decentralize the distribution of U.S. Dollars)

- Agriculture
(cooperative or triple federalism, but eliminate business & lobbyist influence)
- Education
(cooperative or triple federalism, but eliminate business & lobbyist influence)
- Child welfare
(cooperative or triple federalism)

- Health
(cooperative or triple federalism, but eliminate business & lobbyist influence)
- Housing & Urban Development
(cooperative or triple federalism, but eliminate business & lobbyist influence)
- Taxation
(both states and federal government should have taxation power)

Mostly Decentralize
- Treasury
(keep Treasury Dept., but decentralize through a UBI)
- Veterans' Affairs
(decentralize, or abolish, or make unnecessary by putting its activities under Defense Dept. &/or H.H.S.)
- Native American affairs
(localize through increasing tribal autonomy)
- Patents / intellectual property
(keep administration centralized, but reduce durations)
- Gun control laws
- The internet
(centralize regulation as a public utility in order to foster a decentralized or polycentric creative / collaborative commons)

Keep Decentralized or Balanced
- Law enforcement and policing, prisons and jails

Decentralize More
- Interior Dept. / land management
(decentralize to the bioregions)
- E.P.A. / environment & ecology
(decentralize to the bioregions)
- Homeland Security
(decentralize, shrink, and abolish)
- Sanctuary cities and sanctuary states
- Mutual aid, direct action. and charity

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Written and published on February 9th, 2021

Edited, and Image Added, on February 10th, 2021

Sunday, June 14, 2020

Responses to the Illinois Green Party's 2020 Federal Candidate Questionnaire

The following article consists of my responses to the Illinois Green Party's Federal Candidate Questionnaire for 2020, which the party administers in order to vet applicants for the party's nomination for federal office.

I submitted my responses to this survey on June 14th, 2020, the same day that I became a member of the Illinois Green Party.

The portions in [brackets] indicate portions which I have added after submitting the survey, in order to make my position more clear. Those portions were added in the hour after sending the survey; the whole document was composed on June 14th, 2020, and no edits to the substance have been edited nor redacted.

The Green Party's response regarding my nomination, will determine whether I run as an independent, a Mutualist, a Green, or something else. Whatever my affiliation, voters will be able to write my name in the write-in space, beneath the names of my opponents, in the election for the U.S. House of Representatives from Illinois's 10th congressional district. That election will be held on Tuesday, November 3rd, 2020.

1Q: Name:

1A: Joseph W. Kopsick

2Q: Complete Address:

2A: 548 Archer Ave., #3, Waukegan, IL 60085

3Q: Phone and Email:

3A: jwkopsick@gmail.com, 608-417-9395

4Q: Office you wish to seek:

4A: U.S. House of Representatives, Illinois's 10th Congressional District

5Q: Are you a member of the ILGP?

5A: Yes [Became a member on June 14th, 2020]

6Q: Do you support each of the Ten Key Values—Ecological Wisdom, Social Justice, Grassroots Democracy, Nonviolence, Decentralization, Community-Based Economics, Feminism, Respect for Diversity, Personal and Global Responsibility, and Future Focus?

6A: Yes

7Q: Do you meet all of the legal qualifications for this office?

7A: Yes

8Q: What primary ballot (if any) did you pull in the last general primary?

8A: Democratic (for Yang)

9Q: Why do you wish to hold this office?

9A: I want to be a U.S. Representative because it will be impossible to teach our children how the government works, if it doesn’t work, and doesn’t work the way it was intended. That’s why voter education will be one of the most important priorities of my campaign, because voters cannot effectively participate in the political system until they understand how, and through which avenues, legislative change should be pursued, in order to be maximally effective. If elected, I will forge a new alliance in politics, by promoting ecologically sustainable policies which are also economically sustainable as well as constitutional. I believe this will be instrumental to developing the Green Party’s future outreach efforts to voters slightly to the right o[f the Green Party.]

10Q: Why do you feel you are qualified to run?

10A: I have previously run for the U.S. House three times, crafting a platform covering dozens of issues each of those times. Also, I have a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Wisconsin, with a major in political science. After graduating in 2009, I started the Aquarian Agrarian blog, and published my college essays. Since then, I have added about 500 articles, covering health insurance policy, constitutional law, ecologically sound taxation, and many other topics, knowledge of which will be of the utmost necessity to effectively promote constitutional green legislation.

11Q: What are the most important issues you feel need to be addressed?

11A: The three most important issues in my campaign are 1) make steps towards paying off the national debt; 2) achieve medical price relief, and 3) reform child trafficking laws to keep kids safe. An additional priority which is important to my campaign is to raise awareness of the economic systems of Georgism and Mutualism. Synthesizing these two schools of thought will be essential to achieving a balancing act between capitalism and socialism, and to making markets both free and fair at the same time. It will also help decrease conflict over economic issues and decrease competition over newly created wealth. We must have more cooperative ownership, and make it easier for propertyless people to acquire property, if the market system is to survive in any form. I believe that Geo-Mutualist reforms will help improve taxation, social services, land use, housing, and fiscal and monetary policy.

12Q: How many hours per week can you contribute to campaigning?

12A: 40 hours

13Q: Does your partner/family support your run for office?

13A: Yes

14Q: Will you agree not to accept contributions from corporations or corporate PACs?

14A: Yes

15Q: Will you agree to share your donor and volunteer information with the ILGP?

15A: Yes

16Q: Do you have, or will you open a campaign bank account and set up an online donation method?

16A: Yes, I will set up a new PayPal for that purpose as soon as possible.

17Q: Do you have, or will you have, a campaign manager? If you have one now, please provide name and contact information.

17A: Yes. Ethan Windmillsky, ethan.winnett@gmail.com, 224-500-2416

18Q: Do you have, or will you have, a campaign treasurer? If you have one now, please provide name and contact information.

18A: Yes. I am currently my own campaign committee treasurer. The name of the committee is Committee to Elect Joe Kopsick.

19Q: Do you have, or will you have, a campaign fundraiser? If you have one now, please provide name and contact information.

19A: No. I do not currently have a campaign fundraiser. I am currently self-funded. I hope to prove, that a successful campaign can be waged using only $5 of form printing and postage, plus the optional cost of pamphlets and business cards. Sameera Hussain (51^st) has already expressed interest in doing a joint event (such as a forum or a meet and greet) with myself and the 52^nd State Representative candidate. This event could easily include a fundraising component. I am open to having a campaign fundraiser in the future, but I will make it clear that politics should not be about money, and that a campaign can be operated on solely the costs of printing and filing forms. I will explain that while I accept funds, I discourage them, because I would rather have volunteers do things that are free (like send e-mails) than contribute financially. I believe this is the best way to set a good example and get money out of politics.

20Q: How would you describe your current base of support?

20A: I received 26 write-in votes in the 10^th District in 2016, and I have received at least 30-40 valid signatures in this current campaign cycle. I also have friends, family members, and co-workers (many of whom are familiar with my views and have read some of my political essays) whom are living in Lake Bluff, Lake Forest, Waukegan, Gurnee, Mundelein, Highwood, and other towns throughout the district. I believe that I would get the most support from young people, and disaffected and independent and first-time voters.

21Q: Please describe any volunteer experience you have with the Green Party.

21A: I’ve attended Lake County IL Green Party meetings with Ethan W, Aaron G, Arlene H, Latoya H, Adam B, David H, et al, since soon after the chapter’s founding in 2017. I’ve attended multiple anti-Trump events in Chicago, and seven pro- Black Lives Matter / George Floyd memorial events in the past three weeks. I also attended at least one or two Green Party meetings during my time in college in Madison. Additionally, I was a supporter of the Green Party during Ralph Nader’s 2000 presidential campaign; although I was only 13 at the time and could not vote, Nader’s campaign piqued my interest in politics, and I was inspired to create a political survey for my classmates which was based on an article from Time Magazine, which told them how much they agree with each candidate. I promoted Nader and Green policies during this time.

22Q: Please briefly describe any other relevant experience you have had, including employment, working on other political campaigns, or other volunteer efforts.

22A: I worked for Ben Manski’s Liberty Tree Foundation for the Democratic Revolution for one month in 2013 in Madison, Wisconsin; this work included raising awareness about independent business alliances, and the corruption of the Wisconsin Manufacturer’s Association [i.e., the Wisconsin Manufacturer's and Commerce], and promoting a general strike. I also volunteered for the Illinois Libertarian Party in 2018, for Kash Jackson’s campaign for governor; that work included researching and reporting the views of the candidate and his opponents, and gathering information about businesses and organizations which could be called upon to host the party’s events. After Jackson qualified for the four-person debate for governor, Aaron Goldberg and I hosted a debate at Warren-Newport Library in Gurnee; between Socialist Dan Fein and independent Jo 753, two of the other ten candidates in the 2018 gubernatorial race. I also co-hosted (with Aaron Goldberg, again) a local candidates’ forum in that same library several years ago, which featured a Democrat, a Green, a Libertarian, and an independent conservative, each vying for a different office in the north Chicago suburbs.

23Q: Have you previously run for and/or held a public elected office? If so, please describe.

23A: I ran for the U.S. House of Representatives three times; in 2012 (Wisconsin’s 2^nd), 2014 (Oregon’s 3^rd), and 2016 (Illinois’s 10^th). I received six votes as a write-in independent in 2012, dropped out in 2014 before the general election while running as an independent, and received 26 votes as a write-in independent in 2016.

24Q: Please provide any other general information you feel may be appropriate.

24A: My blog is available at www.aquarianagrarian.blogspot.com. The article from August 23^rd, 2019 contains my developing platform. I have also presented several times, on various political topics, at the Chicago chapter of the College of Complexes.

Please briefly describe your position on the following issues: 25Q: Campaign Finance and/or Election Reform?

25A: I have pledged not to accept corporate funds, and I do not plan to accept taxpayer funds in the event that I qualify for public matching funds. I would rather see congressional candidates lead by good example in such a fashion, than place limits on campaign donations, but I would support such limits as long as they take place through either a proper constitutional amendment or through a federal lawsuit overturning Citizens United. If elected, I will support legislation which limits the size and scope of the federal government, which I believe will make the federal government less vulnerable to being swayed by big-money donors.

26Q: Energy Policy?

26A: I would like to see local communities regulate energy policy, rather than the states or the federal government. But I would be willing to support nationalization of the energy sector as long as it takes place through a proper constitutional amendment (which would have to authorize Congress to legislate upon energy matters aside from energy patents and energy copyrights).

27Q: Climate Change and other Environmental Policy?

27A: I do believe that human activity is a major contributing cause to climate change and harsher winters and summers. I would like to see environmental policy legislated upon at a maximally local level. I believe that as long as the E.P.A. exists, it will be subject to abuse and influence-peddling (unless the president is personally a hardcore environmentalist). I plan to use the limited “bully pulpit” power of a congressman, to urge each of the 3,000+ counties in America to enact Land Value Taxation and establish Community Land Trusts. These policies will be essential to tying each county’s economic future to its ability to preserve and improve its ecology, and to guarding against the risk that the E.P.A. will continue to be in the hands of people who put profits before planet.

28Q: Economic Policy (including fiscal and monetary policy)?

28A: The market system cannot survive with so much oligopoly and corporate influence-peddling going on; we must increase both cooperative ownership and consumer power if the market system is to survive. Radical measures, beyond mere taxation, should be considered, to reduce the power of the oligarchy; these should include revoking the charters of corporations, and removing secretary of states’ powers to create new corporations and to limit liability. America’s economy needs more non-profits and cooperative enterprises; the dichotomy of “big businesses vs. small businesses” is outdated. I believe that reducing the military budget, and localizing health and Social Security (if necessary), will result in enough federal budget savings, that paying off the debt in 25 years will become a realistic possibility.

29Q: Crimes and Criminal Justice (including drug policy and gun violence)?

29A: My campaign will treat non-violent possession of drugs and weapons as the victimless crimes they are. I will raise awareness of the fact that those accused of victimless crimes have virtually no chance to defend themselves, because each their public defender, the prosecutor, the judge, and the police witness all work for the same agency, the state. I would support federal legislation to restore voting rights to felons who have served their time. For any issue possible, I will explain to voters which states have violated people’s rights most egregiously; for instance, Virginia and Kentucky honor felons’ voting rights the least, and New Jersey was the first state to start eroding at the right to resist unlawful arrest.

30Q: Health Care?

30A: I would like to see health care regulated as locally as possible, but I would support a Medicare for All or Medicare for All but Opt Out (or In) type proposal as long as there would be a constitutional amendment authorizing federal involvement in health care. Until then, the only health issues that should be regulated by the federal government should be medical patents and the health care of federal workers (esp. DoD, V.A., postal, Treasury, Patent Office). I believe that the best way to reduce medical prices – whether there would be a federal universal health care program or not – is to drastically reduce the “lifespans” of medical device patents and pharmaceutical patents (as well as reduce or eliminate taxes on such items which make them unnecessarily expensive). Pharmaceutical patents last 14 years; I will support legislation to shorten them. My plan to achieve what I term “medical price relief” is called E.M.P.A.T.H.I.C. (Eliminating Medical Patents to Achieve Human Immortality Cheaply).

31Q: Human Rights and Social Justice/Equal Rights and Opportunities?

31A: America is not the meritocracy it pretends to be, and it won’t be until the propertyless (whom are effectively permanent trespassers wherever they go) can acquire property more easily. All clubs which practice discrimination on the basis of race, should not be allowed to continue those policies, unless they forsake all taxpayer funds and taxpayer assistance. The public sector should absolutely not be allowed to discriminate on the basis of race, sex, orientation, and gender identity. I will raise awareness about the 9^th Amendment, explaining that it means that just because a right is not listed in the Constitution (such as the rights to work, marry, and travel), it doesn’t necessarily mean that that right doesn’t exist. The Bill of Rights and the Constitution should be a bill enumerating not only natural liberties but also human rights.

32Q: Immigration Policy?

32A: American citizens cannot be free until undocumented immigrants are afforded the same right to a fair trial as citizens are. [If an undocumented immigrant is not afforded due process just because he is not a citizen and is supposedly not entitled to the same rights, then he shouldn't be able to be prosecuted for exactly the same reasons.] That is why reforming immigration is essential to dismantling the class system; the most pernicious form of which is the domination of non-citizens by citizens. I will raise awareness of the fact that it was legal for undocumented immigrants to vote in Illinois from 1818 to 1830, and I will publish an article explaining how that decision can be overturned. I will support the right of undocumented immigrants to vote in any American election, provided that 1) they have no violent criminal history, and 2) they have not recently voted in any foreign election, or are not eligible to vote in their country of birth. I will raise awareness of the fact that the only area of immigration policy which Congress may regulate upon, is to create a uniform rule of naturalization. This will be essential to allowing state and local governments exercise authority on all immigration issues besides the rule of naturalization (which could potentially include settlement, social services, housing, education grants, etc.).

33Q: Civil Liberties, including Domestic Surveillance and Privacy, Police Violence
Foreign and Military Policy, including Globalization and Trade?

33A: America has ruined its reputation by spying on its allies and its own citizens. The National Security Agency and the Department of Homeland Security must be abolished. Only the constitutionally legitimate functions of the F.B.I., C.I.A., D.I.A., and America’s other defense and intelligence agencies, should be allowed to continue to exist; however, their authorities should be exercised by the Department of Defense, the Department of State, and/or the Department of Justice; not by an unconstitutional Department of Homeland Security. We must honor the 4^th Amendment by protecting our right to be safe and secure in our persons, homes, papers, and effects, unless upon the presentation of a specific warrant. I will sponsor or pen legislation which would end general warrants and restore sanity to the criminal justice system. The severity of the crime of which a person is accused, should never be used as an excuse to take away a person’s right to a fair trial. If you don’t fill out the forms correctly, call the judge for a warrant, and give the perp a fair trial, then you lose the perp. If you spy on the perp, torture the perp, or obtain information on the perp illegally, then you lose the perp. I would only support military involvement abroad in the event of an official congressional declaration of war. The War Powers Act should be repealed and the president’s war powers limited. [On the issues of globalization and trade, I will educate voters about alter-globalization, while promoting reforms which will make markets and trade free and fair at the same time.]

34Q: Education Policy?

34A: I would like to see education regulated on a maximally local level, but I would accept federal involvement in education as long as a constitutional amendment authorizes such a thing, and as long as sufficient efforts are made to protect students and educate them properly. My plan to reform education is called S.K.A. (the Safe Kids Act or Safe Kids Amendment); it would authorize federal involvement in schools only on the conditions that: 1) high school juniors and seniors have more access to trades; 2) all high schools accepting public funds split in two (with freshmen and sophomores together, separated from juniors and seniors); and 3) age of consent and marriage laws become uniform across states, to reduce child trafficking, as well as other reforms.

Please provide short answers, and any elaboration you think is needed, on these issues:

35Q: Equal Rights and Opportunities for All, Regardless of Racial or National Identity, Color, Sex, Religion, Sexual Orientation, Gender Identity or Expression?

35A: Yes

36Q: Legal Right to Choose Abortion?

36A: Yes

37Q: Maintaining federal funding for Planned Parenthood?

37A: Other. On abortion funding, I support letting states decide, until there is an amendment authorizing Congress to legislate on abortion. I think that as long as Planned Parenthood is federally funded, there will always be pro-life people trying to get control of the federal government in a way that allows them to make abortion access conditional, and pro-life people trying to get right-wing reforms passed as a condition for allowing abortion to be federally funded.

38Q: Repealing the Federal Death Penalty?

38A: Support.

39Q: Ending U.S. military intervention in the Middle East, Africa and the Ukraine?

39A: Support.

40Q: Ending U.S. Support for NATO, rapprochement with Russia and China; nuclear disarmament?

40A: Support.

41Q: Impeaching the president if he/she orders military actions in violation of international law?

41A: Support.

42Q: Reducing U.S. military spending and improving spending on education, health, social programs and modernizing our infrastructure?

42A: Other. I support reducing U.S. military spending. I would rather pay off the national debt with the savings from military cuts, but I would accept spending on education, health, and social programs as long as they are properly constitutionally authorized and can be accessed by everyone. I will support federal infrastructure projects as long as they benefit all parts of the country equally, rather than one area in particular (namely, the Bos-Wash corridor).

43Q: A “Green New Deal” or similar major federal initiative to support clean energy, sustainable transportation, and other strategies to combat global climate change?

43A: Other: I would rather see each community implement similar policies locally (land value taxation and Community Land Trusts), but this position is only necessary to guard against the risk that the federal E.P.A. could come under corrupt influence. I would support clean energy, environmental, and sustainable transportation reforms as long as they are properly authorized through constitutional methods. We cannot go on pretending that the E.P.A. “has teeth” when it doesn’t; if we want the environment to be regulated by the federal Congress, then we should change the Constitution so that it says that. During my campaign, while discussing environmental issues, I will spread awareness about the Democratic Party’s ongoing attempts to plagiarize Howie Hawkins’s Green New Deal.

44Q: A ban on fracking and new oil pipelines; eliminating fossil fuel subsidies?

44A: Support.

45Q: Phasing out of nuclear power?

45A: Support.

46Q: A moratorium on the introduction of new genetically modified organisms until their effects have been adequately studied and safe use demonstrated; informing consumers about GMOs in food products?

46A: Support. Also, I will increase awareness that consumers’ need to be fully informed, is absolutely essential to creating a system in which free choice can be exercised (i.e., a free market). I think this argument/strategy will be helpful in promoting antitrust-type measures, excusing federal involvement in consumer products for the sake of safety and health, and winning health-minded conservatives over to the side of the Green Party.

47Q: Legalization of cannabis and industrial hemp and immediate suspension of enforcement of federal cannabis laws in those states where cannabis has been legalized or decriminalized.

47A: Support.

48Q: Decriminalization of most drug offenses; treating drug abuse as a public health problem, not a criminal problem.

49A: Support.

50Q: Reforming the criminal justice system to focus on rehabilitation, restorative justice, education and teaching living and job skills, not punishment and “incapacitation”?

50A: Support.

51Q: Cancellation or retiring of student debt?

51A: Other. By any school receiving F.A.F.S.A. funds or any form of federal taxpayer support, yes.

52Q: Tuition-free higher education at public colleges and universities?

52A: Support.

53Q: “Improved Medicare for All” Single-Payer or Publicly Funded Universal Health Care System?

53A: Other. Support, as long as it’s administered on a local basis, or else administered on a federal basis with an amendment. Also, measures must be taken to make sure that the system does not become captured by corporate interests or a permanent political or bureaucratic class which could run it.

54Q: A Constitutional Amendment providing that corporations do not enjoy the same rights as people
and that money is not protected “speech”?

54A: Other. A constitutional amendment is the appropriate way to approach this issue. However, instead of a constitutional amendment, I believe that a more effective strategy would be to either: 1) overturn Citizens United through a lawsuit, without an amendment; or 2) to amend the 14^th Amendment in a manner which sufficiently differentiates the rights, responsibilities, and legal and economic status of corporations, individual persons, and government agencies. I believe that a smaller and more limited government, will be effectively less able to do the types of things that lobbyists want it to do.

55Q: Making the minimum wage a living wage ($15/hour or greater)

55A: Other. I would support a minimum wage increase as long as it’s implemented on a state or local level, or there’s a constitutional amendment; and as long as either 1) a basic income guarantee is also enacted; and/or 2) people earning below $30,000 per year can choose to opt out of federal income taxes completely.

Author's Note (Written June 15th, 2020):

I did not receive the nomination during the Illinois Green Party's June 15th teleconference, as there was not a great enough ratio of "Yes" votes to "No" votes to pass my nomination with a supermajority.

I will continue to run as an independent write-in candidate trying to establish a Mutualist Party in Illinois, unless I am nominated by another party (aside from the Libertarian Party and Green Party, both of which have rejected my nomination for the 2020 campaign cycle).

Written and Published on June 14th, 2020
Author's Note Added on June 15th, 2020

Saturday, December 1, 2018

Our Basic Needs Are Abundant, Not Scarce

In late November 2017, I posted a commentary to social media regarding what I regard as the most basic and primary set of human needs, whether they are scarce or abundant, and how we could access and afford them more easily. The post, originally titled “Everything Should Be Free”, follows:

The law of supply and demand dictates that if a good is abundant (i.e., more exists than people need), its price will fall towards zero/free.

To clarify, resources existing in a fixed amount, does not necessarily guarantee scarcity by that fact alone. Nor does scarcity only refer to shortages; shortages which are locally felt may be a symptom of inefficient distribution, unequal distribution. Scarcity is a condition in which a resource exists in a smaller amount than the amount demanded or needed.

We can verify that most things we need to survive are not scarce, by simply thinking about it. Which things do we need to survive, and which phenomena and technologies make them freer? Our most basic needs are air, water, food, shelter, clothing, and medicine. I have not addressed clothing here, nor the need for plumbing and sanitation; but I did not leave them out because they're any less important; they're no less important. Instead, I have chosen to comment on how to make energy and transportation more easily available to people.

AIR is free to breathe, but there will only truly be no price for clean air, when there is no more unnecessary air pollution, and when the costs of cleaning the air up (that is, cleaning up after ourselves) have gone down to zero. But it is possible.

WATER falls from the sky in abundance. We can collect it, but only when it's legal. Sometimes it's illegal for a good reason, like when altering rain flow affects our neighbors' property, or threatens wildlife in the area, or drastically changes the water table or causes flooding. But when collecting rainwater does not require creating an artificial lake, it can be done freely and safely. Through rooftop water filters and rain collection systems, we could make water much easier to afford and acquire.
There is also a product called LifeStraw, which converts contaminated water into free, safe, filtered, drinkable water. If this product were made easily and cheaply available to the third world, perhaps through charity or mutual aid, then struggling people would have a much easier time acquiring water, one of the most primary things we need to survive.

Enough FOOD is produced on the planet annually to feed 10 billion, while we have to feed only 7.5 billion. While the US throws away 40% of food, France requires groceries to donate unsold food to charity. Teach people how to grow food, and let them do it in cities. Watch “Extreme Couponing” and look up the mutual aid organization Food Not Bombs.

SHELTER could be easily made cheap, or even free, through liberalization of homesteading requirements, changing local building codes to keep up with modern safety innovations and allow experimental architectural techniques, and returning the vast swaths of land owned by the federal government back to the states and the people. This will make land more available, and in turn, more places to stay.
There are now 6 empty residences for each homeless American. Remove all government supports (including police protection) for absentee property ownership. Allow people to host homeless and needy people in their apartments without requiring them to pay rent, and allow renters and trailer and tiny house residents to claim state homestead tax credits (in states other than Wisconsin, the only state in which residents can do so).

MEDICINE is kept artificially scarce and artificially expensive through patents, taxes, insurance mandates, trade barriers (against foreign-made pharmaceuticals), deadly approval delays, and other unnecessary and often unconstitutional intrusions. Getting rid of these privileges and barriers could help reduce the prices of medical care, medications, and medical devices.

ENERGY is kept artificially expensive through patents, regional monopolies, preferential subsidies for one energy source or the other, and more. Letting the market choose renewable resources like solar, wind, hydroelectric, geothermal, and Alternating Current energy could save money, lives, and the planet.

TRANSPORTATION could be made cheaper by withdrawing all government and taxpayer supports from car dealerships, used car lots, and car graveyards. Vehicles in car graveyards, and aircraft sitting on government-owned lands, could be repaired and turned over to those who need them. The idea that car dealerships sit on cars, and have state-licensed private security guards and the police to protect them (sometimes at taxpayer expense) should indicate that price reductions are the only way to clear the market. The fact that supply and demand are not meeting, and causing markets to clear, ought to indicate that what's being sold simply isn't worth what they're asking for. Maybe it even indicates that there is not currently a free or fair market in transportation.

For more information:

- look up Citizens for Truth in School on Facebook,

- read my article "You Don't Need Money to Live" at http://aquarianagrarian.blogspot.com/2017/02/you-dont-need-money-to-live.html

and

- read my blog entry "Links on Homelessness and Moneylessness"
http://aquarianagrarian.blogspot.com/2018/05/links-on-homelessness-moneylessness.html

Originally Written in Late November 2017

Edited and Expanded on December 1^st, 2018

Published on December 1^st, 2018

Tuesday, October 4, 2016

States Could Experiment with Export and Resource Backed Currencies

Written on September 15^th, 2016

Edited and Expanded on October 4^th, 2016

Balancing government budgets, instituting Georgist taxation, and legalizing competing currencies, could potentiate new ways to back legal currencies.

Imagine that community land trusts flourish; that state and local governments had balanced budgets, based their revenue sources solely on user fees, voluntary contributions, and a Land Value Tax; and that they governments establish citizens' dividends and residents' dividends and permanent funds, funded by exports and fees on natural resources.

If each state were to produce its own official state currency, within its own boundaries, controlled by a state public bank, based on and backed by its chief export, it would provide a local alternative to the fiat paper dollar, and to gold and silver.

The three states whose chief export is gold - Utah, Nevada, and Massachusetts - would have only gold, silver, and paper dollars as their official legal currencies; unless they were to produce their own state currencies to compete with the $10 U.S. Golden Eagle, or legalize Bitcoin, or undertake some other measure. Perhaps two or all three of these states would adopt a single gold currency.

Four states - Illinois, Michigan, New Jersey, and Texas - export gasoline more than anything else. North Dakota exports crude oil the most; and Montana, West Virginia, and Pennsylvania claim coal as their biggest export. Unless these eight states were to join into a single currency backed by fuel and energy exports, we would likely see them adopt "Gas Dollars", "Crude Oil Dollars", and "Coal Dollars". Gallon tanks of gas might even become media of exchange.

Six states claim food products as their chief exports; they might join into a united currency - or currency composite - based on the average of the values of food exports across all six member states. Colorado and Nebraska would have a "Beef Dollar"; South Dakota and Virginia would have a "Soy Dollar"; Iowa would have a "Corn Dollar"; Maine would have a “Lobster Dollar”; and Idaho would have a “Potato Dollar”. Well-preserved potato, corn, and soy products - as well as beef jerky - might become media of exchange under such systems.

Eighteen states export vehicles more than any other good. Alabama, Maryland, and South Carolina would have a "Car Dollar"; while Michigan and Missouri would have a "Truck Dollar". States adopting an "Airplane Dollar" include Arkansas, Arizona, California, Connecticut, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Ohio, Oklahoma, North Carolina, and Washington State.

New Hampshire, New Mexico, Oregon, and Vermont would have an "Electronics Dollar", exporting electronic devices more than anything else. Delaware, Indiana, Tennessee might have a "Medicine Dollar", chiefly exporting medical goods.

Other states would take unique approaches to establishing their own currencies, having unique chief exports. We would likely see such things as the "Alaska Zinc Dollar", the “Minnesota Needle Dollar”, the “New York Diamond Dollar”, the “Rhode Island Metal Waste Dollar”, and the “Wyoming Soda Ash Dollar”. Finally, the District of Columbia - exporting arms and armaments - would adopt a “D.C. Arms Dollar”.

Of course, the downside to each state having its own currency backed by its chief export, would be that states would be largely incapable of avoiding promoting their own industries; and this would interfere with free trade. States and the federal government subsidize - and grant other favors and protections to domestic industries - too much as it is; and such currencies would only embolden government to put more taxpayer money into increasing exports.

The federal government would be obligated to get involved, given its role in ensuring regular, uninhibited, uninterrupted flow of interstate commerce in such goods. This is especially so, if states were to attempt to tax the same goods they back their currencies on, when those goods come from out of state.

Truth be told, if every state subsidized its own chief export in order to keep its state currency strong, then the states couldn't rightfully blame each other without being hypocrites. But on the other hand, the federal government doesn't hold states accountable for favoring themselves or for interfering with free trade, and that rationale ought to stop.

Another thing to consider is whether states should be encouraged to back their currencies on - instead of their chief exports - their chief natural resources (by whatever measure). This might ultimately prove to be better for the economy and for the environment, because when a state's chief natural resource is a mineral resource or an agricultural product - like wood, fiber, oil, coal, or gasoline - it might be less hazardous to the environment, and more popular among the voting populace, that the real value of the product lies in leaving it in the ground.

Sunday, April 20, 2014

Economic Policies for 2012 U.S. House Candidacy

The Federal Budget

Balance the budget as soon as possible by reducing military expenditures not essential to our self-defense, abolishing unconstitutional and unsustainable bureaucracies, and enacting balanced-budget legislation.

The Monetary System

Audit the Federal Reserve annually, permit the production of alternative and competing currencies by individual and private actors as well as local governments, and allow interest rates to be set by the market.

The Tax Code

Abolish the Internal Revenue Service, repeal all legislation permitting taxation by the federal government (with the exception of import duties and fees), urge the states to repeal their tax legislation, and urge local government to enact taxes on the creation of income disparity.

The Banking Industry

Support legislation to prohibit affiliation between insured depository institutions and investment banks or securities firms, and strengthen the effects of the Dodd-Frank Act by improving transparency in the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Government-Sponsored Enterprise

Promote the general welfare over special interests by ending all subsidization, bailouts, restructuring, chartering, and contracting of businesses by the federal government; and urge the governments of the states to do the same.

Consumer Protection

Abolish the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, and permit its re-establishment only under conditions of proper ratification of an amendment authorizing its existence and full congressional oversight.

Campaigns and Elections

Diminish the influence of special interests such as businesses, unions, PACs, and lobbyists on elections by restoring limited government which promotes the general welfare; and restore privity and competition to the electoral system through open-ballot reforms.

Domestic Capital

Facilitate an influx of foreign and domestic capital investment by reducing and abolishing tariffs (with the exception of importation duties and fees) and federal taxes on all forms of income and investment.

Interstate Commerce

Reduce the role of the Department of Commerce to permit federal intervention only when states enact tariffs; monopolies, monopsonies, or outright bans on the provision of goods or services; and end welfare and subsidies to large and small businesses alike.

Agriculture

Phase out and abolish the USDA, eventually eliminating $145 billion from the current annual federal budget. Urge the state and local governments; unions; charity, religious, non-governmental consumer-advocacy and consumer-safety organizations; and private enterprises to increase their provision of USDA-type services and benefits during the process of transition away from the current system of centralized federal regulation of the provision of agriculture, natural resources management, rural development, nutrition, and food safety services.

Transportation

Abolish the Department of Transportation, allow state and local governments to take up the administration of its functions, allow the privatization of Amtrak, and support the transition of the functions of the T.S.A. to private and local-government agencies.

Energy

Abolish the Department of Energy, allow state and local governments to take up the administration of its functions, and advocate for local governments to have the primary role in making decisions regarding exploration for energy sources.

Global Trade

End U.S. Membership in the W.T.O. and N.A.F.T.A., allow the reduction of tariffs on foreign goods and services independently of those agencies, and facilitate compromise between freedom and fairness of trade based on the subjective values of foreign sovereigns.

Written in January 2012

Originally published January 18th, 2012

Text originally appeared at http://dontvoteforjoe.wix.com/2012

For more entries on banking, the treasury, currency, inflation, and business, please visit:

http://www.aquarianagrarian.blogspot.com/2011/10/comparative-economics.html

http://www.aquarianagrarian.blogspot.com/2011/10/occupy-madison-flyer.html

http://www.aquarianagrarian.blogspot.com/2012/02/inflation-adjusted-minimum-wage-vs.html

http://www.aquarianagrarian.blogspot.com/2012/11/new-institutional-economics.html

http://www.aquarianagrarian.blogspot.com/2013/02/agorism-and-mutualism-summaries-and.html

http://www.aquarianagrarian.blogspot.com/2013/03/market-anarchism-economists-vs.html

http://www.aquarianagrarian.blogspot.com/2013/09/proposal-for-cooperative-party-of-oregon.html

http://www.aquarianagrarian.blogspot.com/2013/12/inflation-adjusted-minimum-wage-vs.html