The word "employ" actually means "to use" or "to use for a purpose" and that pretty well sums up what modern work has become. We are educated so that we can be used for some purpose. Sadly the common purpose we serve is to make our employers money. Our education system taught us to accept that it was right for others to use our lives to enrich their own.
With public capital, we would all be self-employed, using our lives for our own purpose. We would all be partners, wherever we work. With private capital, you need a lot of money upfront to create jobs. With public capital, it's the other way around. Jobs generate work, and work creates new money. If there is work to be done, there is always enough money to do it.
The money to pay workers wages would be generated by the workers themselves. Employers would not need to finance wages. Employers would simply record individual hours worked and the money for wages would be credited directly into the bank accounts of workers. Socially productive work itself would automatically create all of the money in the economy. Money would be born as new work is being done. Money would be extinguished as workers spend it on goods and services. Money would not recirculate. No one, anywhere in the economy, would require anyone else's money, to do anything.
If you work for an employer, the hours you work would be sent to the firm's payroll department. On pay day, the payroll clerk would contact the bank and the bank would deposit funds into the workers' accounts. The funds would be new money created by the workers while they were working. They would not be withdrawn from the employer's account, they would be totally new deposits. The bank would also record the payroll amount into a line-of-credit account set up for the employer. The line-of-credit account would be an accounting method, not a financing method. It would be interest-free and no one else's money would be at risk.
Sales of the employer's goods or services would be subtracted from the employer's line-of-credit account. Purchases (or more correctly, asset transfers) would be added to the employer's line-of-credit account. Workers' accounts would not be line-of-credit accounts. Workers must work first, then spend. Working creates new money and adds it to their accounts. Purchasing extinguishes money from their accounts.
Workers would still compete for job vacancies based upon their experience and ability. Employers would still expect productive workers. Workers who are unreliable or unable to meet productivity standards would still be fired.
If no jobs are available in a line of work that interests you, you would be free to start your own business venture. Your business ideas must be sound and you must register your business to get a business transaction number. Once you have a transaction number, a business line of public credit would be automatically available to you at your local bank. Once your business account is set up at the bank, you would be free to order equipment, materials and supplies without the need for any money upfront.
Business-to-business transactions would not be sales transactions. They would be asset transfers. No money would change hands. At the bank, the line-of-credit account of the "seller" would be credited with the value of the transfer, the line-of-credit account of the "buyer" would be debited with the transfer. That's all there is to it. The value of the assets themselves provides the security. All credit is created in the public domain. All assets and liabilities remain in the public domain. You could call the idea "public capitalism".
Workers may choose to specialize and have only one or two steady jobs, or they may prefer to have many different occasional jobs. Workers may choose to work in one location, or they may prefer to travel and work as necessary along the way. People with exceptional talents or skills will be free to develop their abilities as they see fit. They will no longer have to confine their potential within an established framework or enterprise. They will no longer have to submit to the authority of the establishment. They will be able to develop their ideas and creativity independently. All work will have dignity. All work will be compensated fairly. The limited time we have on this Earth is our most valuable treasure. No one should be able to devalue our time or decrease the value of our existence. Life is equally precious to us all.
Click here to see how pay rates would be determined.
