There are a few “what if” questions I’ve been pondering for the last decade or so. That was when I first heard about bitcoin and the blockchain. However, at the time, I had devoted myself to not using money for a year so I didn’t really engage with it. But since I’ve started using money again, I’ve been practicing what I call ABC Squared Economics and I think that the blockchain could help make it a scalable application.
Basically, I have four different accounts at my bank. One is for the Artistry of my life, which I spend however I want in order to entertain my senses. I have an account for my Business activity. I have an account for my Citizenry, from which I pay rent and taxes. And I have an account for my Community through which I help friends in need and donate to charitable and environmental organizations.
Whenever I get paid, which is usually into my Artistry account, I transfer 10% to the Business and Community accounts, and I transfer 40% to my Citizenry account, based on the notion that housing should be no more than 30% of a person’s income and that 10% goes to my Citizenry. My question is, what if I could automate that so that whenever I get paid, that money would be channeled to those four different accounts and then be channeled further to support specific endeavors and initiatives? While the blockchain can be used to record transactions, can it be used to guide them?
For instance, regarding the Citizenry account… What if I don’t think that the trickle down economics used by the federal income tax is a good use of our energy? What if I would rather take 10% of everything I make and send 5% to the city I’m in, 3% to the county, and 1% to the state and federal governments? What if I could decide which government initiatives get funded with the money I send? Would that sort of transparency and personal empowerment better serve economic democracy?
The idea is that, since more than 90% of transactions are now digital, we should be better able to direct the flow of this light and information we now consider money and get it to work for us instead of continuing to enable others to use it against us. So as a multi-faceted artist, I want an economic infrastructure that allows me to automatically direct the currency I generate through multiple streams of income so that I can more efficiently balance my own economy, and by empowering others to do the same, we the people can take more responsibility for balancing the global economy.
The ABC Squared Economics theory is based on the notion that just as Nature is comprised of the four elements of water, air, earth, and fire, and homo sapiens have emotional, mental, physical, and spiritual bodies, so do we participate in society as Artists, Businesses, Citizens, and Community members. What if we could empower people to better engage with these aspects of our being and redevelop our economy to no longer merely serve growth, greed, and attainment, but to generate an economy of better flow, resilience, and quality of life?
