Make us rich without all the money
WOULD you lend a neighbour your lawnmower? What if another neighbour also wanted to borrow it next week? What if you didn’t have to pay to maintain it? It sits in a pool of lawnmowers, full of petrol and clean, for anyone to access, booked for free via the internet. The latest model machine is routinely maintained by a robot and is delivered to your house for free. Welcome to the resourcebased economy
The resource-based economy is an economic model first proposed by American futurist, Jacque Fresco, who passed away this year at the age of 101. A central premise of a resource-based economy, or RBE, is to use technology to produce an abundance of resources for all humans. The model states that at present we have enough material resources to provide a very high standard of living for all inhabitants of earth. But we are organising our resources incorrectly.
Today we have access to highly advanced technology. With computer processing estimated to double every 18 months, the trajectory of technological capability is only going one direction. Automation is already happening across multiple sectors. For example, in agriculture and food technology, satellite driven geo-positioning systems and sensors are being used to detect nutrients and water in soil. There are many new possibilities of automated machinery in irrigation, seeding and stock feeding to name just a few. If we have the technology, then what’s stopping us? Two things: people’s jobs and money. As a society we have a love/hate relationship with technology. While we love the information we have at our fingertips and the convenience, we are also keenly aware that machines are increasingly capable of replacing our jobs. No government or industry wants to be the one that pushes the button on the massive structural unemployment that would result in switching on the full capability of technology.
Using labour resources (also known as ‘people’) as the main way to produce other resources in the economy could be holding back technological advancement. The root cause of this issue is money. Human survival is intrinsically tied to the monetary system. You have to earn money to live. Whereas when we lived in caves, we just had to go and catch or gather the food we needed. The pursuit of money has become an essential reason to work.
Left to our own devices we humans will work on the things that interest us. The incentive to work would be completely different in a resource-based economy. Individuals would be freed up to work on solving the interesting technical challenges of how to use technology to overcome scarce resources.
But if you think about it, the monetary system was created by humans. Any human-made system can be replaced. The concept of phasing out currency may be a stretch for most people to understand. But what if all the goods and services you needed were provided free of charge? That is the second principle of a resource-based economy. There is no money, no system of exchange and all goods and services are simply accessed rather than purchased. The rise of the sharing economy is halfway there already.
The state of Tasmania provides a perfect example of how a resource-based economy could be realised. Tasmania has defined borders, it has natural resources and a lot of skilled and creative people live on the island. If anything, the energy challenge of 2015-2016 reinforced the state’s sense of urgency for self-sufficiency and the call for Tasmania first.
Many tree changers would agree with Jacque Fresco when he said of the resourcebased economy: “all resources become the common heritage of all of the inhabitants, not just a select few. The premise upon which this system is based is that the Earth is abundant with plentiful resources; our practice of rationing resources through monitory methods is irrelevant and counter-
productive to our survival.”
Jacque Fresco’s vision of a resource-based economy has a series of defined steps to implement. The first step would be to conduct a survey to find out what resources already exist in the state. That data would determine the carrying capacity of our island. How useful would it be to know how many people you can comfortably sustain on the island? Rather than setting a target of 650,000 with the aim to pay for an ageing population, why not set a target based on the known carrying capacity of the island? We should be using technology to produce, plan and allocate the resources we need to live abundant lives.
When historians look back on this year, the year of Jacque Fresco’s passing, will this be the era they say was the start of Tasmania conjuring the courage for economic and social transformation? Could Tasmania switch on the full capability of technology? Could Tasmania be defined as a state which acted for Tasmania first and set up its future in resource abundance?
Tasmania is a perfect example of how a resource-based economy could be realised. It has defined borders, natural resources and skilled and creative people