Work in the current capitalist system is not done unless there is funding for it. In the private sector, a business, even a micro-business, must show some sort of profit to its owners. In the public sector, funding is often a matter of performing exhausting political maneuvers over many years.

Yet money is only an accounting entity, one that remunerates workers for their work; in it's most essential form. It is used to pay for the value of work; it is this value which is then accrued in the financial systems.

Why don't we allow villages in the developing world to have their own bank? A bank which would support it's own village currency.

The village currency must only exist in digital form, or on the village accounting ledger. In the final analysis, a bank in simply an accounting ledger, and can be implemented on a PC, or on a simple ledger book by a village accountant.

Work that is performed within the village for other village members, or for the community at large, must be paid for in village funds. These funds are accounted for in the village bank, in a traditional debit and credit demand deposit account system. Since capitalization is in village funds, not in the external currency, be it the national currency or a global one like the Euro or the Dollar, the control over the capitalization of the individual accounts falls under the domain of the village itself.

In the simplest instance, each villager him/herself can capitalize their own accounts by performing work for another village member, family or to the community at large. That is to say, that the value of the work performed is itself the work-capital to be posted as a credit to the worker, and a debit to the beneficiary of the work. A debit is in effect taking from the community; a credit is giving to the community.

So if a person takes more than he/she gives, a negative balance shows up in his/her account on the village bank. A negative balance must be covered by a loan or must be paid for by actual work within the village system. A loan must be granted to the recipient of the work if he/she does not have sufficient village money to pay for the work.

It is in granting loans that the village bank system allows for one additional degree of economic freedom over that of our current global system. If an individual or a family performs work for the community at large, the community can grant a loan to itself, thereby allowing village funds to be credited to the individual or his/her family account, and charged against the village global account. This community capitalization allows for people without any village capital to obtain such, by performing community work. A loan may also be granted in the case of an exchange of goods for services within the village.

If an individual or family grants the use of a good to another member or family within the community, or to the community itself, a credit for the value of the good in terms of the village currency can be granted to the giver with a debit posted to the giver, since the work is covered by collateral transferred to the giver in advance of the work performed.

This is in effect a three-way barter, where the funds generated from barter become capitalized in the village currency, and can then be used to purchase additional goods or services from other community members or families, who are not necessarily parties to the original barter transaction.

With a village bank, we can free the entire world to perform work for themselves, in work that is within their capacity to perform. Granted, much of what is needed in a village can not be obtained from work within the village, or from goods already found within it. It is for this reason that we must plan all NGO development activities in terms of village and global currency accounting entities. Note that the only way to have work accounted for is to go through the village bank, be it a PC or a traditional paper ledger book.

External currency can not be used for intra-village work, unless agreed upon by the parties involved. In the same way, village currency can not be converted to external currency unless it is done so at the village bank. This is the village currency nexus.

A village can be a virtual community linked together by the Internet, or it may be an actual village or town, or even a city. The same concept can be applied to communities of other kinds, such as religious groups, political parties and other affinity groups.

This is the true work of the future, the creation of cybernetic networks that support financial independence in the developing world. May the Lord Supreme grant us the strength and persistence to see the dawn of this day.
Atlanta 
March 15, 2001