Panoply is an idea for a modern economic system with the following features:

Free market principles. Massively parallel decision making and pricing based on a market.
Basic income security through citizen's dividend. Enabling more equal opportunity and civility.
Taxation on use of nature (aka Land-Value tax, LVT). Encourages efficient use of the environment.
Hierarchical organization: Economic states can exist within economic states, enabling a diversity of economic experiments.
Supports a P2P world, encourages community building, nurturing trust, and long term thinking.
Encourages investment through small amount of inflation.
Resilient to future technological unemployment trends (structural unemployment, automation).

Panoply operates a free-market which is likely to be even more efficient than current mixed economies. At the same time, this proposed economy is more stable, humane, and resilient to automation. The word 'panoply' was chosen here for the double meaning: its both "A complete set of diverse components." and "Something that covers and protects."

Assumptions

Panoply builds on many of the traditional economic assumptions. In addition, we propose the following additional assumptions (which are symptom of our times). We believe that, at this point of history, we reached a condition where:

The job market for unpleasant hard labor is relatively shrinking with automation, robotics, globalization, and rise of public commons such as open source. On the other hand, the new job openings are targeted at creative labor, which are motivated by different incentives structures than in traditional thinking.

Nature is certainly sufficient for our needs and basic wants. However, nature is not indefinitely abundant for all our wants. As Gandhi said “The world has enough for everyone's need, but not enough for everyone's greed.”

How the system works

In Panoply, money from taxing the use of natural resources (Land-Value tax) goes mainly into an egalitarian periodically distributed basic income, a citizen's dividend. The rest may go to purely governmental operations and programs.

Correspondingly, natural resources (such as Land) are made available for purchase or rent. The citizen's dividend as income guarantee should be sufficient to cover basic needs and wants. Since money is fed into the system by the government, we get a ‘soft’ demurrage effect which encourages investments.

Panoply can be modular. Money is flowing both up and down in the institutional hierarchy since each level gets money from its mother institution equaling the sum of its total members. This modularity enables communities to subscribe to diverse economic parameters while still being part of a larger system. The diversity has several advantages.

Economic states are then free to choose the size of their public governments. Additionally, some economic states may choose to incorporate behavioral economics or, say, incentivize healthy behavior by higher taxes on unhealthy consumption, lower taxes on green energy, and so on. Modularity has the added advantage that Panoply can be implemented at relatively small scales.

Individuals or communities are then free to create complimentary currencies that directly reflect their values with respect to human resources. For instance, in a local community, people can subscribe to a time bank or a LETS system, or use Ripplepay with an effort-based currency. In that sense, you can think of Panoply as simply a natural resource economic management infrastructure that can exist in parallel with the current or alternative economies. Panoply resolves the tragedy of the commons in a mature way: P2P trust effectively limits the effects of free-loaders, instead of ruining the entire playing field.

FAQ

Q: What will motivate people to work if everyone has income security?

A: Lots of research has been done about the psychology of human motivation. It is helpful to separate work into three categories:

Work that is driven by passionate people: this includes everything from scientific research, mathematics, invention, development, art, medicine, education, public service, and so on. This category will actually benefit from income security. Albert Einstein did not labor to discover relativity for money. Scientists at the Manhattan project did not build the nuclear weapon for money. Nikola Tesla did not invent modern electricity and the AC motor for money. Alan Turing and John Von Neumann did not invent the modern computer for money. Soldiers and firefighters do not put their life on the line for money. Alexander Fleming put his discovery of Penicillin in the service of our health for free. The best teachers are the ones doing it for passion. And free open source software is the most advanced. Psychological research has shown that tying an extrinsic reward, such as money, to these types of activities makes people perform worse. People no longer do their best, but only what is sufficient to earn the reward. Imagine what kind of world we will have when everyone is free to do what they are passionate about?
Work that exists just to keep the current economic system surviving. This includes countless legal, bureaucratic, financial, marketing, governmental, and security activities that will be much less needed when the system changes.
Finally, there is proper labor: the type of work people generally try to avoid but nevertheless is needed. This type of work is being eliminated quickly by automation, and so this segment will continue to decrease as we advance in robotics, AI, 3D printing, and a host of other technologies. However for the near future, we may assume that there will be a small amount of need for such labor. Here’s how Panoply addresses this need:
1. DIY. With free access to information, we see a rise in Do-It-Yourself activities. DIY is generally more rewarding psychologically than purchasing a service.
2. People will work for credibility and trust. Any time a person wants to create a large project, they will need their peers to invest, and so people are motivated to demonstrate credibility and trust by doing the hard work.
3. People work for super-relativism - which panoply supports to a degree (because it's a free-market system). In fact, research shows that people care about local super-relativism - they want to show off to their social circle - rather than absolute wealth.
4. Individuals or communities are free to create complimentary currencies that directly reflect their values with respect to human resources. For instance, in a local community, people can subscribe to a time bank or a LETS system, or use Ripplepay with an effort-based currency. In that sense, you can think of Panoply as simply a natural resource management infrastructure that can exist in parallel with the current or alternative economies.

Q: How can we transition? A: Transition to Panoply can happen different forms such as:

Continuous Policy Tinkering: this regards Panoply as a vision or a 'theoretical limit' to help guide continuous policy tinkering and experiments.
Discontinuous Change: in the event of a financial collapse (Europe, US, etc), a regime change (such as the Arab spring), or a civic decision.
Private Experiments: this attempts implementation within the current economy. Perhaps as a cooperative platform, organization, or company.

A combination of Continuous Policy Tinkering and Private Experiments is likely to be the right way to move forward. “You never change things by fighting the existing reality. To change something, build a new model that makes the existing model obsolete.” —Buckminster Fuller

Q: Would current wealthy relinquish their incumbency?

A: Here's some of the reasons why many of the wealthy support this:

Advantages from Stability: As a Hedge, an insurance for risk, to self and children (and grandchildren ...) in case of unexpected loss of wealth. Panoply guarantees a stable, capable, and willing consumer market. And medical facilities will be more equipped to handle emergencies in case of a disaster. More personal security from theft and less threat of family members being kidnapped or inequality-caused violence.
Advantages from Abundance: everyone will benefit from the increased gift economy in the culture, with increased willingness of people to put their talents and efforts into the public domain through creative commons, open source, wikinomics, and so on. And in turn how this would accelerate cultural production. Less worry about children being emotionally manipulated for money.
Advantages from Spirit: from a psychological point of view, we see a large cost to financial affluence( and especially for the children). Crucially, compassion brings happiness. Creating a world that is fertile for compassion would increase everyone’s well being. "If you want others to be happy, practice compassion. If you want to be happy, practice compassion." - The Dalai Lama.

Also the disadvantages for the wealthy are not really bad:

Economic super-relativity will remain: Panoply supports economic super-relativity with much more stability and less corruption. Therefore the rightfully wealthy will continue to be (maybe even more so?).
Economic super-relativity means less and less. In an abundant society we live in now, if you are rich enough now to have a company build a customized new gadget for you, chances are the gadget will be affordable to the masses in a few years or months.

These arguments sway most wealthy people. Unless, of course, if the said wealthy person happens to be among the 1-2% of the population classified as psychopaths - which unfortunately is common in a patriarchal society since psychopaths are attracted to power.

Panoply

Contents

Assumptions

How the system works

FAQ

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