These alternatives are free market in orientation, at a level that would be impractical in today's rigid economic environments. Indeed, the knowledge use systems which equilibrium corporations make possible, could be considered a form of libertarianism for time based services product. Production and consumption of services, land and building components would be locally held, so as to preserve a time value to resource value link for low income levels that is often not available in general equilibrium conditions. Decentralized offerings such as these would provide hope for libertarian "leanings" at the margins, given a present day reality where more citizens are now concerned that their set of values is not simply tolerated, but that it prevails.
Even though the equilibrium corporation would encourage unique (community) characteristics, it would include a broad set of economic patterns as a common "backbone", in each decentralized setting. Think differences in cultural outlook depending on community, versus a unified spectrum approach in terms of economic formation and knowledge use preservation. And while this corporate structure is a response to what has become political/macroeconomic gridlock, it would also simplify the ways in which individuals assist one another as they go through the course of their lives.
What might the common economic "backbone" consist of? Supply and demand for services and asset formation, would become internalized. Citizens would break free of their present (limited) consumer roles, by becoming time based service providers, for starters. Another important aspect is a combined public/private framework in a single setting. Time based functions are coordinated and prioritized as a starting point for organizational capacity, whether "public" or "private" in nature.
One reason this matters, is that fiscal transmission processes are overly complex in today's public and private enterprise, for they have not accounted for what are crucial differences in revenue origination. Since time value is a fixed component in relation to other forms of resource capacity, budget priorities can be readily skewed. A prime example are the legal requirements of pension and entitlement obligations, which have made too many claims on presently existing "prime" time value, in relation to its actual supply in the marketplace.
Consequently, equilibrium corporations would record and maintain the distinctions between resource use and availability which is time related, versus those which are not. By doing so, it is possible to determine what is occasionally available for infrastructure building and maintenance capacity, versus what is generally available on a regular basis. This allows a smoother transmission to take place between services based activity, and the physical constructs which serve as environments for time based coordination. Most important, it becomes possible to measure the time based content of services capacity. The fact this form of product is practically "dark matter" in general equilibrium conditions, makes it difficult to recognize the actual services shortfalls that exist in services - particularly in regions which already experience limited economic complexity.
Since today's time based services marketplace exists in a secondary capacity, no one really knows what is optimal, in terms of mutual assistance as opposed to what one would prefer to do for oneself. One reason knowledge use readily defaults to captured wealth settings, is that reversion to the mean does not naturally occur (via monetary representation) for asymmetrically compensated time based product.
As a result, too much applied time value potential is lost to a non economic status - if and when this form of potential is even recognized in a consumer based culture. While no equilibrium cannot create a reversion to the mean for time based product in relation to general equilibrium (constant time value, random resource value), alternative equilibrium can do so, when time value is utilized as a unit of measure in relation to itself.
Some core functions are also monetary in nature. While I've emphasized a connection between the equilibrium corporation and "time backed" money in a number of posts, there's actually a better way to describe this function, as a suitable point of reference: time linked money. How so? Time backed money is somewhat misleading, in that it implies additions to what are present monetary values for time aggregates in general equilibrium conditions. I don't propose more claims on existing capacity, because 1) already existing time value claims exist in a mature equilibrium construct, and 2) new growth would not make further claims on existing value, and 3) new growth is possible, via making time value equivalent to a raw (starting point) commodity good for further "processing". One could say the equilibrium corporation processes time value.
Granted, there are definite time links with monetary representation in general equilibrium, and regular readers know that I associate nominal income as the intersection between time value (as it is already accounted for) and other forms of resource capacity. This vital intersection is the most stable point in our economic realities. However, it has proven increasingly difficult to account for time value as the wealth contributor it actually is. Hence the equilibrium corporation would provide a stabilizing function for aggregate time value at the margins, through recording its relation to other existing resource capacity as a regular function.
Time linked money would provide means to standardize time value in relation to local resource capacity. Part of the process includes internal asset and service formation, as reliable supplements alongside a monetary base for local time value. Processes such as this are particularly needed for lower income levels, since monetary representation for these groups tends to distort general equilibrium conditions. For instance, a recent Adam Smith Institute post noted what occurs, when money (instead of other support means), becomes the primary component of support for lower income levels. Governments have attempted to provide benefits in lieu of income support for low income levels, via welfare states. However, the external augmentation of time based services, only further undermines their price mechanisms.
There's another important aspect of time linked money, which is also responsible for its potential to generate a higher growth trajectory: mutually backed employment generates new wealth which is not debt dependent in any way. Even though today's wealth has its origins in tradable sectors, economies have gradually became structured so that economic access often requires further debt creation, before more wealth generation is possible. However, the debt as wealth generation process has become too efficient, in that debt generation is mostly extended to high value skill sets and resource utilization. As a result, lower income levels have gradually lost their ability to either produce or consume, given how crucial elements of the marketplace are now defined.
By now some readers probably suspect that I don't find credit restoration to lower income levels to be an apt solution. Especially given their present lack of representation, for either time value or useful and encouraging environment definition for living and working needs. This is why time value needs a chance to serve as a new source of wealth generation. And credit institutions need not remain at the front of the line with their irrational and people defying dictates, for every form of wealth creation imaginable.
Equilibrium corporations would be more than willing to supply new means for wealth creation, in the form of human capital. Among the defining characteristics of this new growth capacity, would be its incremental nature, as groups begin to reimburse one another, simply for their mutual agreement to assist one another. Prototypical units of time and knowledge based service would no longer bear the burdens of harsh judgement, as now occurs when knowledge and time are asymmetrically compensated.
Incremental ownership also provides a nudge factor for individuals to hold fast to basic protections, even as they are encouraged to take greater risks in their own lives. Having basic asset structures as a fallback position, is one of the best means to protect one's health from spiraling downward, when in fact risks turn out to be too much for the circumstance at hand.
And last, but certainly not least, the equilibrium corporation would provide - finally - a free market for the time value which matters most to all of us. Only remember the worth of free markets, according to Milton Friedman:
What most people really object to when they object to a free market, is that it is so hard for them to shape it to their own will. The market gives people what the people want instead of what other people think they ought to want. At the bottom of many criticisms of the market economy is really lack of belief in freedom itself.
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