Me:  The smartest thing we could do is actually consider that accounting is the integrative infrastructure upon and within which the entirety of commerce is embedded. As one of the requirements for a paradigm change is that it must fit seamlessly within virtually all of the structures of the area of human endeavor it applies to while simultaneously effecting a transformation of same…accounting fulfills that integrative requirement. As accounting’s rules (all costs must go into price) and tools (debits and credits) are digital all you would need to do is find the terminal ending point for the entire economic process (retail sale) which would also be the terminal summing point for all costs and so prices because its where production becomes consumption….and then implement a digital debit/credit monetary discount/rebate policy of high percentage (say 50%)…and you will have cut through all of the dynamic interactive complexities of the economy, doubled everyone’s potential purchasing power and so doubled the potential sales of any and every enterprise…..and implemented the new single concept that represented the new paradigm of Monetary Gifting.

This might insult the intellectual vanities of the genuinely erudite, but then paradigm changes are always as philosophically simple as they are permanently progressive and earth changing.

G:  I hear echoes of Bitcoin, blockchains, VATs, carbon tax rebate systems, and of course, more than a bit of Universal Income proposals, Craig.

For a world of citizens, at least in the US, but, given the portrayal of social democrats in Varofakis’ “Adults in the Room,” I’d better add Western Europe, who haven’t been able to absorb Modern Monetary Theory despite the Federal Reserve slyly demonstrating how it worked in 2008-2009 and beyond, and the ECB and BOE as well, this would be a huge leap in understanding without the infrastructure steps in education to get them “there.” After all, in our federal system of tax collections, federal, state, local, we couldn’t get our national act together on taxing online sales from Amazon, for example, decades after the IT Revolution – “don’t leave home without it” has rewritten a good part of the economic structure of our world.

I don’t want to throw a huge cistern of cold water on your presentation, though, since in Greece’s tribulations Yanis V. with the help of James Galbraith, was preparing a portion of such a system, to issue new electronic credit cards tied in to the Greek tax system when the ECB cut off the ATMs from Euro replenishment. There would be new “Greek” money in those citizen accounts, the bottom 40% or so, so they could pay at least some basic bills. A paving stone on the step to your financial Appian Way.

Me:  The key is starting a grass roots movement directed at the large constituencies of indebted students, the small to medium sized business community and the generally more grounded female half of the species showing them the obvious self interest of the policies I advocate, and forgetting about the futility of trying to convince ego involved academics and theorists.

Direct and Reciprocal Monetary Gifting is the new paradigm. Bitcoin, Blockchain, et all are mere reforms and in some instances are exactly opposite of what is required. Paradigms accomplish permanent progress via transformation, and even though that is anathema to researchers and scientific types….everything adapts to a genuine paradigm change….not the other way around.