The Eco-Initiative: A Zero-Cost Plan to Save the World

DELAND, Fla., Aug. 22, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- Public policy analyst, urban designer and 2020 United States Democratic Presidential candidate Michael E. Arth has proposed an "Eco-Initiative" in an open letter to the 55 countries of the African Union. According to the plan, the U.S. and other rich countries could use their economic strength to implement a money-financed fiscal program, which would allow a newly-created, pan-African currency (the eco) to be spent into existence at a measured rate, backed by a basket of Western currencies.  The plan would help the African Union realize its goals and support a positive-sum outcome for the entire planet. Some key points: 

1. Incentives, development, sustainable energy, solar panel manufacturing, and job creation, could double Africa's economy within a few years in an ecologically responsible manner. Nothing would have to be paid back.  The benefit to the rest of the world is to contribute substantially to the reduction of carbon emissions through alternative energy manufacturing and reducing birth rates to sustainable levels. 

2. Ordinarily, under fractional reserve banking, nearly all money is lent into existence by commercial banks. Instead, the eco would be spent into existence by the African Central Bank, overseen by the guarantors. To obtain the cooperation of the guarantors, currency controls would prevent inflation and capital flight.

3. Africa's population will increase to 4.3 billion in this century from 1.3 billion. Arth states, "This is an unsustainable prescription for disaster. Those who argue that a young, rapidly growing population is a human resource are not taking into consideration the environment, the economy, dwindling natural resources, de-speciation, or the realities of an increasingly automated world." Critical to their prosperity, developed countries have older, stable populations. Africa's median age is 20. In the U.S. and China, it is 36. In the European Union, 43. With direct incentives for family planning, employment, and educational benefits, Africa might be able to stabilize its population within 25 years. Without drastic measures, efforts to eliminate dire poverty or increase prosperity in Africa will be severely hampered.

4. Automation and a projected slowdown of the need for outsourced manufacturing is unlikely to create a boon for Africa's impoverished young like China. Rather, environmental issues in our Information Age require a paradigm shift in how to increase prosperity, health and education. The world's economy will have to be recalibrated to eliminate extreme poverty, reduce inequality, and solve the existential crisis related to climate change. Only by reining in population growth and implementing creative reforms like the Eco-Initiative will Africa's economy rise like China's. 

5. "Despite the rhetoric of nationalistic demagogues," Arth says, "we do not live in a zero-sum world. What is good for Africans is good for the rest of the world. It will take us working together to solve the vast array of problems besetting our species."

For more information or contact visit www.michaelearth.org. 

Media contact:
Shasta Solis
386-956-1554

SOURCE Michael E. Arth Presidential Campaign