The Economy of a Timocracy: A Reward-based Currency System That Values Honor — inspired by Plato
This all started in part 1. In that I asked what the currency would be, if money was not valued? The basis of decisions comes from the objective belief that there can be rewards without haves and have-nots.
Politics
From that beginning we are in a timocratic state that has grown from the roots of a perfect democracy. We had to start with a perfect democracy to make laws of virtue to assure honor is always the means to ascension. That is because honor is an option, and is not perpetual. Dishonor can arise from it or anywhere else for almost any reason, rational or not. If our laws or constitution was drawn by a special or ‘elite’ group and not everyone, there is no guarantee that which is created would serve all. That constitution, made by a certain group and not the masses, could serve just the honorable, its makers, or any group or demographic they saw fit. That leaves the very real possibility of institutional bias, and with biased laws virtue disappears.
Imagine a person of honor in our timocracy who has attained valuable titles through his acts. In the future this once honorable becomes dishonorable for whatever reason. If the laws favored him, a man of honor, there is a good chance the vice he conducted, that was a product of his situation, is not even illegal, or even if it is, are those, like him, who biased laws favor have so many ways to avoid punishment that there is only justice if they punish themselves.
In a perfect democracy that is from all, for all, the lawmaking organically goes the virtuous route of supporting the masses, and that is why it was used to initiate our timocracy. Would you be fine with being poor if you did not have to be? Of course you wouldn’t. With our perfect democracy at our constitution’s formation, it was said that if there was poverty some of us would absolutely have to be poor regardless of virtue, and are you okay with this person being you? In a pure democracy where we all have equal say whatever our relative strengths or weaknesses, no one would want to be poor. Therefore, our and any perfect democracy would banish poverty from the law abiding populace. This is only one example.
Would a group of politically equal people support or be adverse to greed, if there was a finite pool of resources? It would be explained that from a finite pool of resources, if greed is welcome, the majority of you are guaranteed to get exponentially less of those resources, then if there was no greed. While on the other hand, only a select few of you could benefit from greed at the cost of everyone else getting less. To the exception, not necessarily the exceptional, that is viewed as a challenge worth taking. For a lot of us that is a threat, for a variety of reasons. And others do not have the personality to negatively affect others regardless of their aptitude. That one specific exception would be the one in favor of greed. In a pure democracy today or anytime the majority of people would be adverse to it. When democracy is perfect, the decisions favor the many, or the mean.
Trade
With the body of laws formed by our perfect democracy, this timocracy is a state where the many rule. From those laws, our lives and economy are ones of a timocracy, where honor is what is valued not money.
As a refresher from Part 1, acts small and large would bring titles, with some being more valued than others. A present day example of this would be the Nobel Prize. That title would carry tremendous value and define you along those lines. Wealth would not be valued only honor. Whether it be having a ton of YouTube subscribers, winning an Olympic race, or creating a new medicine, those honorable acts would be what is valued and rewarded. But the question arose in Part 1, what would be the means of trade, or currency, for such a state where acts are valued and not money?
The answer to that derives from it being possible to have rewards without the societal problem of haves and have-nots. Even in our timocratic state a citizen might be quietly jealous of someone else’s achievements. Jealousy, on its own, is not virtuous, but neither is it an act anyone can see. It is not the rewarded person’s fault you are jealous, only your own, because whatever he has gotten, it was through virtuous, honorable acts, creations, accomplishments, etc. That feeling of jealousy is not a real state of having-not and can not be solved because we will always be human and carry certain human emotions. But, those types of feelings of insufficiency or jealousy, while unavoidable, are exponentially decreased because poverty is already illegal, and would be further so if virtuous participants in society were immune to having not.
Once again our constitution was made by the masses, for the masses in the realm of a perfect democracy to initiate our timocratic economy. As described before, greed and poverty are against the law. But success is not illegal. Being rewarded is not illegal. Poverty is illegal. To make that law a reality all citizens must have a firm foundation in which they can exist in relative comfort i.e. not struggling with the necessities of life. How is that foundation financed? That foundation largely consists of items, or means to get those items. Rewards also can be physical objects, and titles. Those items, whether they be clothes, food, or a house are created by someone or something. Whoever did that work producing those things were doing something honorable worth a reward as well. People need to be paid or consistently rewarded to produce all that is needed or wanted. Since it is 2022, and the technology is there, a point system linked to a national ID/account would be the currency for our timocracy.
After the base standard of living in which participating, law-abiding citizens is defined, you would acquire points based on the honor of your work, and acts. Those points, once registered, would be yours to use however you saw fit. These points do not collect interest, there is no bank account to save them, there is only your national account where all your points are housed. As stated by Plato:
The accumulation of gold in the treasury of private individuals is the ruin of timocracy… And then one, seeing another grow rich, seeks to rival him, and thus the great mass of the citizens become lovers of money… And so they grow richer and richer, and the more they think of making a fortune the less they think of virtue; for when riches and virtue are placed together in the scales of the balance, the one always rises as the other falls
This structure accomplishes the non-negotiable necessity of providing motivation for work, without the pitfalls of finance. Points can not be traded. They are yours to use as you like. Also, since everyone’s standard of living is assured and there is no credit, upon death only a limited amount of your unspent points would be re-distributed to those concerned. With no traditional credit there would still be payment plans, but no interest. Therefore if over a certain period of time you do not keep on your payments, you would be resituated as needed given you are virtuous, with any penalties that are applicable if you are not. Those with the most will be the ones who have achieved the most and are honorable. The wealthy in points or goods will not be those who’ve had it passed down to them.
gold… is the ruin of timocracy; they invent illegal modes of expenditure; for what do they or their wives care about the law?
Was also said by Plato from the same section in Book 8 of The Republic that the previous quote came from. To keep aligned with honor being what is valued, the trading of goods would be extremely limited. Goods have value. So giving a friend your surplus goods creates the illusion that he/she is of a level of honor he or she does not possess. Also since goods have value, just like gold, they will be desired to get as much as or more than doing work for national points, which are our currency. The virtuous does not need payment in order to help someone or provide friendship. Goods can be withheld, and interest can be charged upon them. All this detracts from the system that is made to reward the honor of virtuous acts, and to keep honor at the forefront of what society values. The trade of goods shall have to be formally requested and will be allowed to be gifted, rarely, on a need basis. Times of gifting will be allowed for certain holidays, but with those days the gifting will have defined limits.
In the end some will have gotten more rewards than others, and there will be a drive in many to get even more, which is great. That motivation keeps humanity improving, which is the ultimate goal of any system. While at the same time casting away the possibility of struggle for good citizens, and making wealth gaps impossible because there is no financial capability to grow more points. Points in your national account give all the convenience of cash, without the vice the pursuit of money brings. That which is valued coming from honor, would produce a society that reflects a system driven by virtue instead of greed. A state is a reflection of its people.
Such is the good and true City or State, and the good and true man is of the same pattern; and if this is right every other is wrong; and the evil is one which affects not only the ordering of the State, but also the regulation of the individual soul,..
