Me:  As I have repeatedly stated here for years I am using the concept of grace in its natural philosophical and ethical sense and NOT in the context of a religious belief. Applying aspects of grace like abundance, the free unmerited gift and/or choosing to act in the height of rationality in perplexing and seeming unresolvable circumstances gifting is precisely what is called for in the looming ecological crisis we face. Instead of being unconscious of the monopolistic present paradigm of Debt, i.e. cost, Only, the policies of monetary gifting like a 50% discount at retail sale and also at the point of note signing could double everyone’s potential purchasing power by cutting every good and service’s costs in half would not only end any possibility of inflation, but beneficially integrate price DE-flation into profit making systems, and finally enable a bottom up green consumer good reduction process of carbon in the atmosphere. In other words a $60k Tesla auto becomes $30k and then $15k at note signing. A $300k home with solar technology becomes $150k and then $75k.

Better than endlessly ruminating over the problems of the economy or trying to find some abstract data or theoretical point, no?

GH:  Forgive me for stating the obvious: unless the discount is applied to “green” goods only your proposal has no particular effect on the pattern of demand and therefore does not address the ecological issue. If you make the discount discriminatory that is equivalent to taxing different goods at different rates which is what is required. Many ills in the economy result from the maldistribution of real resources. They are not necessarily addressed by reform of the monetary system. We can deal with the ecological crisis or fail to deal with it (sadly, the more likely) whether or not we change the monetary system. I respect your enthusiasm Craig but not your attempt to trace all problems to a single source. If only the world were that simple.

Me: Gerald,

The discount applies to ALL goods and services (with a few obvious exceptions like the price of hard core pornography, tobacco products and alcohol whose sales will benefit nonetheless by virtue of the policies of a universal dividend and 50% discount/rebate more than doubling everyone’s purchasing power. Both of the discounts at retail sale and at the point of note signing will also apply for ALL big ticket items like autos and homes and any obviously green products like electric vehicles, solar panels etc.

Doubling purchasing power does not necessarily equate with a doubling of economic/resource throughput, but the ability to reduce atmospheric carbon by virtually eliminating the tremendous outputs of such by the internal combustion engine, by coal fired power plants and our dependence on petroleum is the perfect synergizing complement to the fiscal programs also necessary to win the climate change problem.

“Many ills in the economy result from the maldistribution of real resources. They are not necessarily addressed by reform of the monetary system.”

Of course, but they don’t nearly effect the positive changes and enable the rational choices that the new monetary paradigm does.

Paradigm changes are deep simplicities, reforms are shallow palliatives that exist entirely within the present paradigm. And mega-paradigm changes are immediate, continuous and universal in their effects. You tell me which of the above we most need.