Energy Accounting And The Energy Credit Economy

Rather than abolish the use of currency or have a ration-based economy that we see in Cuba and societies based off of Marxist-Leninist economic plans, Technocracy is based on a system called energy accounting. This system is based on thermodynamic interpretations of economics and the idea that all human economic activity requires energy. The currency of a technocratic society would not be money as we currently know it today, and would be a form of credit that represents the energy cost to create an item and available resources. Every citizen would be given energy credits and could then use energy credits to purchase what they want, and this would make the economy sustainable.

Because energy credits can be designed to expire and only a set number of them would exist within a given timeframe, this would safeguard against wealth inequality or abuse of wealth in ways we see in the modern world such as bribery of politicians, hoarding of wealth, or entire populations being deprived of resources in favor of a small elite. It would also remove poverty from anyone in the system, because energy credits would be given as a universal income similar to a UBI.

With profit and most of our typical economic incentives removed from the system, energy credits could be used by the vast majority of people to obtain their needs. Implementation of energy credits also makes the issue of private property irrelevant, because without money to be gained or lost, the technocracy can simply allow the means of production such as factories or markets to give the people their necessities. With money gone, the technocracy could distribute resources such as homes more efficiently, since landlordism and home ownership become redundant without a financial basis on which to benefit from them. Even the war machine we have in America now is purposeless without profits for the ruling class that uses news to push for war and foreign interventions across the world.

It should be noted however that the use of the word “Currency” for energy credits under a technocracy is a tricky one because of the nuances that come with the idea of currency and money. A good technocracy would put various rules and regulations on energy credits to prevent them from being exploited for the unfair personal gain of a single person or in ways that harm the technocracy, its citizens, or the environment.

It should also be noted that the transition from current systems of money to energy credits would solve a large amount of issues, there will always be a few opportunists who seek to abuse any system and profit off of the expense of others. Without safeguards, a person could possibly be extorted or blackmailed for their energy credits or somehow coerced for them the same way that they could be for money. A person could also attempt to fraudulently gain energy credits or counterfeit them in some way. These issues do not necessarily disprove energy credits or are even unique to energy credits (As these same issues apply to the money we use now) they are things that a technocracy would likely end up dealing with at some point. A good technocracy would have a department to watch for abusive behavior and be two steps ahead of any person who tries to abuse such a system.\