"I am now convinced that the simplest approach will prove to be the most effective - the solution to poverty is to abolish it directly by a now widely discussed measure: the guaranteed income."

from Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. 1967 Book
"Where Do We Go From Here: Chaos or Community?"
 

The ECOVAproject proposes a monetary alternative to create worldwide social, economic and ecological security. This alternative is based on the value conversion of our basic or prosumers economy [*1] and the ecological capital into legal debt-free money. This article explains the method.

The first step is to create a legal framework allowing the production of EcovaMoney. Now let’s just assume that there is an agreement to introduce EcovaMoney on the global level. Then an EcovaBank could be established to create this debt-free money.

1.    The input of interest-free and debt-free EcovaMoney to finance the global social security system, the EcovaCoupons system and other basic income systems.

As a direct consequence of this input, it will be possible to abolish the taxes by which social security systems are financed, and to reduce wage costs while raising the lower incomes and stabilizing the other incomes.

And what’s really essential is that this input of debt-free money will diminish the need to generate debt money. EcovaMoney will be a substitute for debt money to finance this new global social security system.

Nevertheless, the amount of EcovaMoney input might somewhat exceed the amount of debt money it will replace, because the ECOVAproject is devoted to create a really appropriate social security for all and not just for 20% of the world population [*3], like it is now. But it is very important to understand that this extra input will generate a corresponding extra amount of services, activities and jobs in the social, educational and care sectors and in the eco-industry (see: EcovaCoupons!)

2.    The investment of debt-free EcovaMoney in appropriate developments as proposed in the Ecovaproject program.

This will reduce the need to invest debt money in these proposed activities. As a result, new jobs and new sustainable economic activity will be created with debt-free money.

Besides, a return of benefits of these investments to the EcovaFund will already reduce the need to create new EcovaMoney.

*2. Because this ECOVAproject program implies an enormous alternative investment and financial encouragement in developing a sustainable global economy, it could be linked to an impactful ecotax system that will strongly discourage environmental pollution and polluting production. It is obvious that ecotaxes in the long run will become rare because the ECOVAproject validation system will be a permanent incentive for non-pollution.

"Two conditions are indispensable if we are to ensure that the guaranteed income operates as a consistently progressive measure. First, it must be pegged to the median income of society, not the lowest levels of income. To guarantee an income at the floor would simply perpetuate welfare standards and freeze into the society poverty conditions. Second, the guaranteed income must be dynamic; it must automatically increase as the total social income grows. Were it permitted to remain static under growth conditions, the recipients would suffer a relative decline. If periodic reviews disclose that the whole national income has risen, then the guaranteed income would have to be adjusted upward by the same percentage. Without these safeguards a creeping retrogression would occur, nullifying the gains of security and stability."
from 'Where Do We Go From Here: Chaos or Community?', 1967,  Dr. Martin Luther King

As a matter of fact, the ECOVAproject principles could be introduced at many different levels in society and even in privately run communities. We’re also convinced that it would be just a great tool to enhance development and prosperity in communities all over the world and to create a true free market and ‘voluntary-based open cooperative society’ (1).

Introducing the ECOVAproject will allow to completely eliminate tax on labour. It will be a crucial step in recognizing prosumers rights and really valuing the core economy (2). We consider this as a part of a more general process of appropriate monetary and banking reform, with a strong reorientation towards the real economy, compatible with the planetary ecological capacity, a further automation of the production process and a transition to high tech self-sufficient communities. This more general context is now the ECOVAproject's main research focus, inspiring us to develop models with a flexibility allowing integration in many specific situations.

(last updated on March 19, 2009)

1.    ‘voluntary-based open cooperative society’: I borrowed this concept from Terry Manning, from a mail in which he expressed his appreciation for the Ecovaproject website and e-book.

2.    ‘core economy’: that’s how Edgar S. Cahn, creator of Time Banking, is calling the non-monetized economy. http://coreeconomy.com/