"home, farm, place"

Some Thoughts on Starting a Local Exchange Trading System (LETS) for the Talossan Republic

2009-09-11T19:48:00.000-07:00

For those new to the concept, Wikipedia defines a LETS as a local, non-profit exchange network in which goods and services can be traded without the need for printed currency. In some places, e.g. Toronto, the scheme has been called the Local Employment and Trading System.

It is further identified as having five main criteria:

Cost of service — from the community for the community
Consent — there is no compulsion to trade
Disclosure — information about balances is available to all members
Equivalence to the national currency
No interest charged to accounts, loans, etc.

I think that most of these are easily achievable.

Points one, two and five are really more statements of philosophy than actual criteria and are enforceable in a straight forward manner.

Point three, the disclosure requirement, will take some significant public record keeping. I think it would have to be a “sign and countersign” procedure, where the seller would report the transaction to a central, civil service-style agency, much like our Secretary of State. Then the central authority would have to confirm the sale with the buyer and record the public change in the accounts. In order to assure privacy, the nature of the transaction would not be reported or recorded. As the economy and use of stars grow organizations and other entities could have accounts as well.

Maybe in future a more automated solution could be found.

Point four should be easy. I would suggest as a starting point that each citizen at the time of program inception be given 50 LETS credits (to be called whatever the public desires, but for ease of writing, I’ll call it a “star”). Each star will be fixed at $5US. Some may argue for a floating value, i.e. the star would be whatever the market will support, but I would argue that it should be fixed for at least a year to give the public some pricing guidance.

Citizens newly created thereafter would receive whatever amount would be determined by law.
After the rules, reporting system and currency structure are complete, then we must create an online marketplace, with one area for buyers and another for sellers and we must strive to populate it with real offers as soon as possible.

More money would be infused into the system by the government posting request for proposals (RFP) bids and work for hire on the marketplace, payable in stars, instead of asking for volunteers and by paying a nominal salary, in stars, to its officers. As well, the government could force the initial flow of credit by instituting taxes and fees, (for things like registering for candidacy, renting space on a publically owned server or having a link to your personal website placed on a public web site), payable in stars. The government would be given a one-time fund of say 1000 stars to use as it sees fit to stimulate the nascent economy.

Just some thoughts. If the government declines to take it up, it could be a purely private venture.

Six Points with Subsidiary Positions on a Personal History with, and Future Direction of the Republic of Talossa by a Once and Future Citizen

2009-08-18T17:53:00.000-07:00

(reprinted from the Witt for historical purposes)

Though I may not have the level of standing individually required by some current citizens to make the following comments, I hope they none the less are received in the spirit they are offered.

I offer the following points for consideration in contemplating the future of the Republic.

You should stop worrying about and promoting the idea of territoriality. It seems so odd to me, and to be an instance of ongoing cognitive dissonance strive to attract more and more new citizens and to continue to link yourself to ANY territory, much less to half of a Midwestern American city that few if any of the current citizens have ever visited. The insistence on “claiming” the east side of Milwaukee may be seen as “quirky” but I would argue is obscure at best and may be off putting for newcomers. It really should be historical vestige of the Republic and not a key point of understanding, kind of like scientology’s Xenu or the war declaration process in the U.S. Constitution. (Forgive me my snark). Rather, I would recommend becoming a “culture nation”. That is, instead of claiming to be a small nation actually carved out of the American Midwest (an impossibility), choose to be a “culture nation;” a group of people organized by voluntary association under a government structure around a common culture for the propagation of that culture and mutual benefit, without need to make claim to something as “19th century” as land. To inspire new people to step forward, you must aspire and represent yourselves to be something more than East Milwaukee during an age in humanity’s history when national borders matter less than information, culture and social networking.
Politics and language creation cannot be the only “activities” in this culture nation; there must be far more to do than run for office, refine the constitution, and construct an artificial language. What should those things be? That’s the point. If you have to define what the activities will be, then it isn’t much of a culture. A true living culture is defined through its ongoing creation by its members. Think of the Facebook “nation” when it began. While there are some ground rules and some basic self-defining activities that the user is forced to take part in, the real “soul” of the platform has been created by the users, through groups, causes, apps, and interlocking webs of friends and colleagues. It is the self reinforcing, user-driven social network aspect that drives the vitality of Facebook and similar online communities. In fact, Facebook itself or similar could be a bridge by the Republic until a more proprietary platform is deemed necessary and developed. It is in this direction that I believe the Republic’s “first best destiny” can be found. Instead of an online community of narrowly defined possibilities, every citizen could have their own “residence” in the form of their profile page, and if they wanted to start a club, foundation, think tank, business, church, society, or whatever civil institution they desired, then such places as gather.com or Facebook.com certainly offer the facilities to do just that through groups, causes, fan pages, etc. And when announcements, declarations, public debates or open discussions need to take place, there is always the Witt, which will maintain its vitality if only because of its privileged position as the official place of government.
The Republic must break the chains of its history. As I have alluded to, the thick and somewhat tortured history can be a distraction from the passion, proficiency, and appeal displayed by the Republic when you are an outsider looking in. In brief, stop worrying about the kingdom (new and old), Ben and that entire mess. For an organization so small, the future must be so much more important than the past. If someone wants to partner up for a language conference or project? Fine. Want to refer to the past in your history section? Great. Bill yourself as the first truly successful online revolution? Super. Ongoing “treaty” negotiations, arguments over Ben’s legacy or what he is doing now, or discussions over who is more Talossan? All of that should be right out. To be sure, not by some sort of legal prohibition (that would be silly and anti-democratic), but I certainly wouldn’t make it an extensive part of the national identity or even main point on the web site(s). For example, in your active glossary of important terms for new people, why would you refer to a political party that existed for one year a decade ago? Did I not know better my first response to seeing that would be; has nothing of import happened since then?
Be friendly, and use peer pressure, not legal directive, to reign in those who find pleasure or power, or the pleasure of power, in attacking the newest members. Remember that conflict management, not competitive conflict, is the mark of a true leader and that for ethical adults there are no excuses for the behavior they exhibit. Every action is a choice that speaks of who we are. Our choices are our values, and our values are our character. Our collective character is the life blood of the nation. Leaders must at times be unpopular; be willing to stand up and take a tomato or two to the face. But they should only do so if they doing it for the right reason and not merely for the sake of confrontation or power politics.
A radical idea: Own Yourself. Finally, one of the great problems of the Republic is that you do not own your own name. While I do believe that there is a legal argument to be made that as a generic word for “house, farm or place” from an established language of the world, “Talossa” cannot be trademarked, I can understand not wanting to push such an issue, at least until such time as you have an attorney in the government willing to work pro bono to carry forward the work of a legal challenge. The solution I believe is to drop an “s”. While others may hold the trademark for “Talossa” I am willing to bet that “Republic of Talosa,” is wide open. You could even build a little mystique or esprit d’ corps with such a move, branding the second “s” as a royal “s” and that loosing said letter is a visible symbol of shedding the last remaining linkages to that former style and personage of government. Of course the real upshot is that by doing so you could now market and brand yourself much more aggressively, perhaps even creating a minor cash flow, at least enough to pay for the web sites. Not that I am encouraging you to give up talossa.com and related websites, but they would suddenly begin to point to republicoftalosa.com and related sites. There is nothing like truly owning yourself to cement the notion that you are once and for all free of the influence and the shadow of an unfortunate period in your history.

Talossan Culture: Does it Always Have to be About Talossa?

2009-08-18T07:15:00.000-07:00

A really healthy national culture is not solely focused on those things that only feature an explicitly nationalistic theme. That certainly is part of any culture, but just a part. A culture should have both John Phillip Sousa, Elvis and Arron Copeland.

The Republic encompasses citizens who are musicians, artists, writers, researchers and more. The life of the Republic would be greatly enhanced if in addition to featuring creations of the “green and red” variety, we also shared our creations in the other spheres of our life and had a place, or multiple places where such could be shared.

The other “culture nation” in which I live, the North American region of Appalachia, has a VERY distinct and rich culture. And while some of it seems to be just about the Appalachia experience there are thousands of artists, though heavily influenced by the culture, who produce works that are about the region and like all other artists works about their life experiences in general, thereby greatly enhancing our culture, broadly defined.

For example, one of my favorite Appalachian musicians certainly writes songs about the Appalachian experience:

But also writes pieces that may be influced by his culture but not necessarily about it:

So, do you have a recording of your music? A copy of a written work? A video? Whatever you do, share it with all of Talossa; it will not only improve our cultural life, but make the Republic more attractive to new citizens.