CPAs should apply the talents god gave us to make the world a better place for our children.

There is no intrinsic reason that everything in the economy has to be quantified in money anyways. Like so many other things, perhaps, money is a lesson we must unlearn. It has certain disadvantages, lets face it. It is a very lossy storage battery, and has severe losses at certain points of exchange... you might say, money is illiquid.

What is still lacking as far as I can see, are software algorithms for multi-party barter. For example, imagine a website called "BarterGod.com" 

1. user submits precise specifications for what you need ( at first, simple goods and services, transportation, and intellectual property such as software and entertainment.  Later, housing, utilities, food, , thru entertainment etc. etc.) 

2. user submits precise specifications and descriptions of your capabilities, locations, available hours to schedule, etc.

BarterGod would read your capabilities and performance history from the database, and the capabilities of others, and compose multiparty offers or collaboration contracts. The contract would be boiled down to lists and instructions of places to go, and tasks for each party to do.

BarterGod would figure out what is possible, what the schedule is, how far away you're located, and calculate scenarios and proposals to members, to organize the labor. There is nothing but labor in the universe. There is no capital, entrepreneur, or adam smith. There are no natural resources or land or minerals. We have never paid money to a rock, or a forest, we have paid it to people.  These are materials that originate outside BarterGod but he regards them the same as barter inputs-- they are just another "resource", to be included in scenarios.

Some parties will reject some offers, which will feel like too much work for not enough of what they said they want. BarterGod will relentlessly compute new offers, sometimes as simply as finding another similar worker to fill in for your rejection. You could always scratch some stuff off your wish-list, and BarterGod will start pitching offers to you, having shorter tasks lists.

If you don't do your task, some other member will be mad when they don't get their stuff, and you will be busted and you won't get any stuff either. Bartergod would figure out you owe the tribe some tasks, and would get on your case. Maybe there would be multidimensional tribes. Maybe some tribes would form collective resource offerings, and other tribes would form collectives on the demand side, to simplify collaboration generation.

This will happen any day now. This year maybe. bwaha ha! That's why we should all work hard to keep our income below $20,000 per year. It will be terrific evidence of fair market value. Nobody should be allowed to join BarterGod.com if their income in any of the past 3 years was above the poverty level, because they would be driving up everybody's taxes.

Governments will say "You valued your groceries income for 2002 at $3,000 but we know that groceries in the supermarket cost $52,000 for a family of 4." Members will argue "Look, here's a list of every hour of every bum who worked on those damned groceries. And look what a bunch of bums, their labor is only worth $6/hour. Some of them didn't even show up. Besides, I never received all these groceries." Economists will argue, "Those supermarket groceries cost $52,000 because they came from a completely different system of production that's less efficient" And they would be right.

(see also July2000 post on this topic http://www.gldialtone.com/bartergod.htm)

* Todd F. Boyle CPA http://www.GLDialtone.com/
* tboyle@rosehill.net Kirkland WA (425) 827-3107
* XML accounting, web ledgers, BSPs, ASPs, whatever it takes