skydog

It is fairly imperative building like this must be built They are very strong for earthquake, tsunami, fire, hurricane, floods etc, Also they help people grow their food, keep energy costs very low, housing prices extremely low Skyscrapers could be a little shakey when it comes to things like earthquakes Governments in England may consider it bad for business to design such things, if I dont try to get around that with the idea of hurricane, earthquake proof etc, but other countries care more for the environment like bolivia that recently created new laws protecting "Pachamama" mother earth, and kick out corporations like mcdonalds.

Thanks mythmaker, Those are great ideas, I appreciate the contribution

Got some cool ideas So I am going to make it into a business Really my goal is to spread the idea But I dont have the money to even build it or have some for myself, plus some money to live which I want So the business is neccessary Plus people respect things more with the label "business" Also I will charge something like £1000 for it, although, if people really want it they can use some creativity to build it for much cheaper.

Is it good feng shui Does it calm people down Intuitively I get certain ideas But I am curious

ok

PYRAMID RESEARCH I read with great interest the report by Bovis describing his discovery of the mummifying power of the shape of the Great Pyramid. Having been experimenting and measuring bio-energy with the Neurophone and various other instruments described earlier, I began a series of intensive experiments on the shape of the Great Pyramid to see if I could discover its great secrets. I began by duplicating Bovis’ experiments with pyramids of various dimensions. Using Kirlian photography, GSR, voltage differential, and electrostatic fields, I was able to measure the differences of various pyramids and their effects on living organisms such as plants and people. The very first experiments were in the area of preserving hamburger meat, liver, eggs, and milk. The first experiments were very encouraging. It was strange to realize I had taken small pieces of cardboard and made a simple shape that could concentrate some sort of energy that would mummify food without any external power source. My controls all got so bad I had to throw them away. Bovis and Drbal had indicated in their reports that the energy was focused in the King’s Chamber level bout one third up from the base in the middle of the pyramid. My own research indicates that the energy is present throughout the pyramid. I was able to mummify food anywhere in the pyramid. By careful measurement, I was able to determine that the maximum concentration of effect was in the King’s Chamber, but there were effects in the other areas of the whole pyramid. Further research with various materials of construction revealed further clues as to the nature of the phenomenon we were investigating. A series of energy measuring machines will be described. Some of these machines measure the effects of the energy on other things, others are esoteric machines which are extremely sophisticated dowsing devices that rely on the human computer as a readout detector. I have tried various other geometric shapes other than the pyramid and have not had the results obtained with the exact shape of the Pyramid of Gizeh. Other geometric structures such as cones, icosahedrons, dodecahedrons, tetrahedrons, octahedrons, greater stellated dodecahedrons, etc. all have shape characteristics, but these other shapes do not have any effects demonstrated by the exact pyramid shape to be described. PYRAMID RESEARCH PROJECTS As a result of preliminary research, I began a series of serious research projects on the pyramid itself. The following is a list of pyramids in tabular form: The dimensions are based on the exact dimensions of the Pyramid of Gizeh. These are some of the dimensions of pyramids used in my experimental work. Based on the fact that the Pyramid of Gizeh is the only pyramid in the world that is ventilated, I have also experimented with pyramids with windows in the sides. The windows are holes up to 1/3 of the base length in diameter. The holes do not detract from the function and seem to actually aid the processes going on inside the structure. The pyramids were made of various materials including cardboard, wood, plaster, Plexiglas, steel, copper, aluminum, cement and combinations of the above materials. The materials used did not affect the results very much, however the size and orientation was of primary importance. I at first believed the pyramid to work best when it was aligned to true north, however, after very careful research, I discovered the best alignment to be magnetic north, contrary to the alignment of the Great Pyramid. This leads me to believe the Great Pyramid was built at a time when the earth’s field was aligned to the polar axis. It is not unusual for the poles to shift. At the time of the writing of this paper, the earth’s magnetic poles are shifting at a rate of 17 feet per month. In the duplication of Bovis’ experiments, many perishable food items were tried in the pyramids of various shapes and sizes, of different materials, and different orientations, and in different locations in the pyramid itself. The results of these experiments indicate that the best alignment is according to the magnetic axis. An experiment to determine the validity of this theory was performed by the use of an external permanent magnetic field. This is illustrated in Figure XVI below. Figure XVI Testing the effects of external magnetic fields on the pyramid The pyramid was a six inch base cardboard one. The magnets are 5 inch alnico, the fields are on the order of 300 Gauss. With the system described, I was able to get mummification of the foodstuffs with ANY alignment of the set, as long as the pyramid itself was aligned to the magnetic fields as shown. The tables regarding the various food experiments are given in my earlier paper, The Pyramid and Its Relationship to Biocosmic Energy. My contribution to the field in food mummification is in the discovery that the pyramid will preserve food in any part of the structure as well as in the King’s Chamber as reported by Bovis. Razor Blades In the duplication of Drbal’s razor blade sharpener, the following discoveries were made: Whereas Drbal theorized the crystal structure of the blade reformed, I believe the pyramid prevents a dulling effect due to contamination of the surface by skin oils and acids as well as the chemicals in shaving creams and soaps. I shaved over 200 times with the blade treated in the pyramid. I also shaved an equal number of times with another blade by rinsing my razor out in pure deionized distilled water after every shave. My razors normally go bad in three or four shaves. There may also be a sharpening effect of a sort by the action of energy discharge from the sharp edges of the blade. It is well known that any sharp object charged with any energy, whether magnetic, electromagnetic, or electric tends to concentrate and discharge from sharp surfaces and points when placed in a charged system. From this point on, the experiments to be described are entirely the results of my own discoveries in the field. Effects of Pyramid Energy on Living Organisms The effects on the pyramid were tested on plants and human subjects. Measurement of changes in the organism were made by means of Kirlian photography, GSR measurements of acupuncture points, Alpha wave detectors, and subjective responses. Kirlian Measurements The Kirlian photography set up is the same as illustrated in Figure IV below. Figure IV Kirlian photography set up The basic circuit of the oscillator is shown in Figure XVII below. Figure XVII High frequency high voltage oscillator for Kirlian photography The unit is a high frequency high voltage oscillator operating at 2 megahertz. The oscillator voltage is continuously adjustable from zero to one hundred kilovolts by varying the spark gap over a limited range. A timer is included in the primary line of the transformer to obtain precise exposures. In practice, the unit is adjusted in a dark room so there is no visible corona discharge from the object to be photographed. The only energy remaining is invisible ultra-violet light. Almost any film may be used with the system from Kodacolor to Polaroid. This unit is a valuable tool for the study of the energy fields around living things. Several hundred photographs were made of fingerprints and leaves before and after treatment with the pyramid. Photographs were taken in both color and black and white. The color photographs are particularly striking as they show changes in color as well as changes in brilliance and bioplasmic structure. Figures XVIII and XIX below, are typical examples of photographs obtained with this technique. Figure XVIII is composed of photographs of a man’s fingerprint before and after treatment with the pyramid. The voltage setting and timing of the print remain the same. The subject was placed in a simple 6 foot base vinyl plastic pyramid properly aligned to the magnetic poles. The treatment of the subject was for ONE MINUTE in the pyramid. The effect of the pyramid varies. It sometimes takes as long as half an hour in the unit to obtain similar results. The aura or band of energy around the finger is rounder and larger than the aura in the first photo. The fact that the energy content of the picture is larger and the shape is more rounded indicated an increase in aura without any loss of energy. A more dramatic effect was obtained with a geranium leaf as illustrated in Figure XIX. The leaf had been off the plant for half an hour when the first photo was taken. The energy field was almost completely gone as the leaf was dying. In the next photograph the aura has increased considerably showing the recovery from only five minutes treatment in a small six inch base pyramid made of cardboard, again properly aligned to the magnetic poles. The best results were obtained when the pyramids were set up outside the building. The reason for this will be described in the next section on theory. In the second photo, the leaf is filled to the brim, and many of the black spots are now filled with light. The Kirlian technique can be used to obtain an instant measure of the result of various energy techniques such as Yoga breathing, meditation, and the effects of foods such as natural vs. chemically grown, alcohol vs. Ginseng, ozone vs. oxygen, etc. GSR Effects Figure VIII below, is an example of a sensitive electronic bridge for measuring minute as well as gross changes in GSR or galvanic skin resistance in living organisms. The unit is extremely versatile as it can be balanced for measurement over a very wide range of input values. The unit may be coupled to a recording oscillograph, or other means for permanent records of results. The sensitivity can be adjusted to detect minute changes in resistance. The normal electrode arrangement for plants is by means of German Silver electrodes. The electrode arrangement is illustrated in Figure XX below. Figure XX Typical arrangement for measuring the effect of pyramid on GSR of plants The electrodes should be cleaned with emery paper before every use. The plant leaf should be free of dust. The electrodes may be held in place by means of alligator clips. The stand and flexible wire arrangement are necessary to prevent stress on the leaf. Liquid electrodes have been tried, but I prefer the arrangement illustrated. Small probe type electrodes have been tried with some gratifying results, but these have to be tested some more before these results are released. The theory of using the small electrodes is to trace the plant’s acupuncture points. The plants exhibit many differing characteristics of change, they appear to sleep at times, and are very active at other times. The main results are recognized as a very rapid change of resistance, a lowering, when a pyramid is placed over the plant. Clear plexiglass pyramids as well as opaque cardboard ones have been used in the experiments. The instantaneous changes occur under any type of pyramid. An attempt to correlate change in resistance with strength of energy is somewhat successful. There are no changes when the plant is sleeping. It is easy to tell when a plant is sleeping by the response of the meter. When the plant is responsive, there is a relaxation rate of change that is a continuous slow, sometimes fast change of resistance. Changes in the environment, another person coming into the room, a change in color of illumination, a loud noise, all affect the plant. Even the thoughts of the researcher have effects. At times, the plant appeared to be oscillating with the heartbeat of the investigator. At this time, when the signals are active, the plant will respond instantaneously to the effect of the pyramid. Controls were made by lowering a plexiglass cube over the plant. In the case of the equal volume cube, no changes were observed as they were with the pyramid. Human GSR Measurements The measurements on the body of a person are much more active than the ones measured with the plants. The electrodes and arrangements have been described earlier. The semiconductor effect, change of resistance with polarity of measurement from one side of the body to the other were measured, as well as basic changes in the normal resistance of the points in one direction. In all cases with both male and female subjects, very rapid changes in GSR between acupuncture points occurred in all subjects. Typical changes in less than five minutes of treatment were a balancing of the semiconductor effect, and a general lowering of resistance in the body. Resistances as great as 150,000 ohms changed in less than five minutes to 2500 ohms. The treatment pyramids were both the large 6 foot base and the small 6 inch base pyramids. Tests were made on all areas of the body and the results all correlated: the pyramid caused an apparent balancing of the QI or TCH’I flows in the meridians. The easiest points to measure are those on the head, and the semiconductor effect from hand to hand. The exact points were located by means of the unidirectional electrode placement. One electrode is placed on the earlobe, and the other is a small rounded test probe of the type used with multimeters. The probe is run in the area of the point to be found until a gross change in resistance is found. The exact spot is marked with a small washable marker pen. The same procedure is then duplicated on the opposite side of the body for the corresponding opposite point. At this time, two small electrodes are attached to the opposite points, and the points are measured from one to the other, changing the polarity of the electrodes and noting the resistance in both directions. The differential is then noted. With the electrodes attached, and the meter polarity adjusted to the polarity which gives the highest resistance, the pyramid is then lowered over the subject, or small pyramids are then placed over the points and adjusted to the magnetic poles. The greatest changes were again noticed when the experiment was performed outside a building. A very rapid decrease of resistance will be noted in the resistance of the point. A change of polarity will show that the other side is also decreasing, but not as fast. At some point, the resistance regardless of polarity will be the same or very close regardless of polarity. The over all resistance of both points is often decreased considerably. If the semiconductor effect is not observed on the first set of points, another meridian is chosen and measured until an unbalanced meridian is located. The voltage and current from the GSR bridge is negligible, and has no effect on the points as the electro acupuncture described by the Chinese. The balancing of semiconductor effect is observed after the subject is treated with the pyramid. It should be stressed that the purpose of the experiments described is not to treat the subject with acupuncture, but to measure the pyramid’s effect on the psychic energy points in the body. The same results of GSR change were also noted with other developments such as the pyramid matrix and the pyramid energy plate to be described later. Dielectric Constant of the Skin Changes in skin dielectric constants were also measured on test subjects. The test equipment is described in Figure VI. A few of the electrodes are illustrated in Figure XXI. Figure XXI The electrodes are three. Coaxial, dual capacitor and single capacitor. A constant pressure was applied to the head electrode arrangement by means of a constant tension band salvaged from an old pair of headphones. The coaxial electrode is useful for measuring change in resonance or dielectric constant in a limited precise area. The instrument used was a little more sophisticated. It was basically an oscillator consisting of the electrode arrangement as a frequency determining element. The output of the oscillator is fed into a discriminator which simply converts the frequency changes into voltage change. The voltage/frequency changes are then read directly on a zero centered volt meter. The dual electrode arrangement is used for measuring the change across the whole body. The single capacitor arrangement is coupled with a direct contact electrode and is used for tracing meridians over the skin surface. The Capacitor in this arrangement is usually a very small disc or a small ball. The dielectric or insulator used is 1/2 mil mylar tape placed over the surface of the capacitor. The capacitors are conducting silver epoxy. The electrode is made by turning a solid piece of acrylic stock in a lathe. The side view of the coaxial electrode is an example. The dark area is the sunken part of the block, the electrode area. The wires are inserted in holes drilled from the other side. The cavities are then filled with silver conducting epoxy. The surface is then sanded smooth when the epoxy has set. The electrode surface is polished with emery paper and the dielectric covering is then placed on the surface of the electrode unit. Alpha Rhythm Measurement Much work needs to be done to correlate the results of the experiment to be described. This experiment has been performed three times and needs to be done many more times to be conclusive. One day while trying out an alpha feedback machine, one person was having a very hard time turning on alpha. He would go through the various stages of relaxation and try as he may, he could not turn on alpha. While his eyes were closed, I placed a 2 foot base pyramid over his head. When the pyramid was lowered over his head, strong alpha came over the loudspeaker. When the pyramid was removed, the alpha turned off. When the test was repeated, the same results occurred. The experiment has been duplicated on three people with the same results. Subjective Reports Several hundred people have sat in the 6 foot base plastic pyramids. The tests were first run on friends who were asked to sit in the pyramid for half an hour and then asked to describe their feelings when they were in the structure. The subjects were given no indication of what to expect. In all cases, the subjects reported intense heat in the body and a tingling sensation in the hands. The pyramid was then ventilated with large holes in the as illustrated in Figure XXII below. Even with large holes in the sides, they still reported an intense feeling of heat. The description is similar to the Tibetan Tumo. A number of people decided they wanted pyramids of their own. My own body energy has increased since I began sleeping in the pyramid tent. An effect reported by many is a sense of time distortion. One subject sat in the pyramid for 4 hours and had the subjective impression that 1/2 hour had passed. It had been stated by alpha researchers that a person in the alpha state loses all sense of time and space. This correlates with observed alpha activity in the pyramid. Meditation Many of the subjects were interested in psychic phenomena and practice various forms of meditation. ALL subjects who practice meditation have reported a significant increase in the effects of meditation in the pyramid. This correlates with the theory that the Great Pyramid was built as a meditation chamber to develop psychic powers. Animals No extensive tests have been conducted on animals at this time. There are however, three cases of interest. A friend of mine placed his pet cat in a pyramid once a day for 1/2 hour. The cat liked the pyramid and began to sleep in it. When the test was begun, the cat had been a voracious meat eater. After 6 weeks, the cat stopped eating meat and starved rather than eat meat. Subsequent tests indicated that the cat had changed his diet and would only eat fruit and vegetables, cheese and nuts. The animal became a vegetarian! He ate raw vegetables and fruits of all descriptions; canteloupe, avocado, oranges, and watermelon. The same thing happened to another cat as well as my own poodle. Growth of Plants A series of tests were run on the effects of pyramid treatments on the growth rate of plants. The test plants were alfalfa sprouts. I had some familiarity with sprouts as I had grown over 2500 pounds of them in the confines of my office! The sprouts were treated three different ways: 1. treatment of feed water; 2. direct treatment of the plant in the pyramid; 3. treatment of the seed in the pyramid. In all cases, identical tests were made in an identical volume cubic box as a control structure. In all cases, the pyramid treated plants grew 2 to 3 times as fast as the controls, were more healthy and lasted longer after harvest. One California grape farmer used my system on his irrigation system and his grape yield was 2-1/2 times the average yield of his neighbors and the California average. Water Treatment The water may be treated in several ways. It may be placed in the pyramid in a container for a period of time depending on the size of the pyramid and the amount of water treated. I used a 2 foot base pyramid and treated a quart bottle for 1/2 hour. Another technique is to run water into a spiral coil placed in the pyramid and fashioned into a form of fountain. Direct Treatment of Sprouts The pyramid used was a one foot base unit made of clear plexiglass. Four inch holes were cut in the sides for full ventilation. The sprouts were grown entirely in the pyramid. The controls were grown entirely in a well ventilated equal volume cube. Treatment of Seeds The seeds were placed in pyramid for 8 hours. Results The water and plant treatments were best, the seed treatment was last. The pyramid grown sprouts lasted over a week without spoilage after harvesting. The controls on the other hand lasted 24 to 36 hours before spoilage. Dehydration Because of the dehydration or mummification of foods in the pyramid, I tried a number of experiments to see if the dehydration rate is accelerated in the pyramid. It is not. Normal dehydration occurs, the difference being that items placed in the pyramid do not decay while dehydrating. Sprouts grown in the pyramid and left without water 24 hours do not die and decay as the controls do. The controls developed odor and died. The sprouts in the pyramid dehydrated slightly but did not decay and resumed normal growth when watering was resumed. Short Term Effects On Foods, Change of Taste During my original tests on mummification of foods, I used to taste the foods being treated to make sure they were really good. Although there was no sign of decay, I wanted to see how the food tasted as it was undergoing the process of mummification. I was in for a great surprise! Not only did the foods taste good, they tasted better than they did before they were placed in the structure! I began experimenting in earnest, and discovered that the pyramid could have an effect on the taste of food even when the food was treated for a surprisingly short duration. I was so impressed by this new discovery that I began a series of double blind tests on the change of taste in foods. I used several dozen people, and the test was conducted as follows: The foods were all taken from the same source, that is the foods tested were the same food divided in half so the control would be the same as the treated sample except for the treatment. The samples were then placed in paper cups with numbers on the bottoms. The cups were then divided and recorded in a master file. The ones chosen for the pyramid were then treated for five minutes in the pyramid. The pyramid used for the tests was the 6 inch base ventilated. The cups of food were then all mixed at random so no one knew which food was which. Taste tests were conducted and 40 out of 48 people chose the foods treated in the pyramid as being more to their liking. I like hundred percent results, so I interviewed the ones who missed on some of the foods and learned they were either heavy smokers or drinkers. Subsequent interviews with a licensed wine taster confirmed my suspicions that people with certain eating and drinking habits cannot distinguish taste very well. The foods tested were of all types; sweet, sour, various alcohols, fruits, and tobaccos. Bitter and sour foods lose their bite, they become milder. Sweet foods become sweeter. Coffee loses its bitterness and tastes as if it were acid free. Fruits increase in their qualities. Acid tasting pineapple loses its acid taste and becomes as sweet as fresh ripe pineapple picked right out of the field. Tobacco loses its harshness: Mexican black tobacco loses its harshness and tastes like mild choice Virginia. The most dramatic effects occurred on pipe tobacco, unfiltered cigarettes, and cigars. One of my associates smokes a very harsh unfiltered brand and uses a crystal type filter cigarette holder. When his cigarettes were treated in the pyramid, he noticed he did not have to change his filter crystal so often. Instead of changing it between every pack, he now has to change it after every three or four packs. People who had whole cartons of their brands treated with the pyramid came back wanting their new cigarettes treated because they could not stand the harsh taste of their normal brand after smoking pyramid treated cigarettes. Bananas and other perishables keep longer if they are treated in the pyramid for half an hour after they are purchased. Controls all turned bad in a short time, and the fruits treated in the pyramids kept fresh up to twice as long as the controls. Cut flowers take longer to die if they are placed in pyramid treated water. Speaking of water, tests were run on the taste of regular city water treated in the pyramid. The water used to water the plants. All people who made the tests noticed the pyramid water tasted fresher and had less of a chemical or chlorine taste than the water which was untreated. Other Pyramid Configurations During the taste testing experiments, it was discovered that there was another phenomenon. This new discovery is extremely significant. I mentioned earlier that in any energy system, energy tends to discharge from sharp points. This new discovery is that the pyramid also has energy coming from all of its five points! A very fast test of this is to take a cup of coffee and divide it into two cups. Then set up a small, say 6 inch base pyramid and align it to the magnetic poles. Place one of the cups on the top of the pyramid for a minute or so and taste the difference! This test came about as a result of some unexplained phenomena. Some researchers tried the mummification experiments and their controls also mummified without decay. I soon discovered that the control was affected by energy radiation effects off the points of the pyramid. If the control is placed too close to the pyramid it is affected also! The results of these experiments led to the development of a new contribution to the subject. This new device is illustrated in Figure XXIII below. This new device I call the pyramid matrix or grid. The matrix has been made in small one inch base pyramids. These pyramids must be precision machined as a small error will affect results. The matrix I have developed is a unit measuring 3 x 5 inches and has fifteen small pyramids on it. Food placed on the top of the matrix is affected in the same way that food is affected in the big pyramid! The matrix has been used with success in all the previously described experiments. It is considerably more compact than the larger bulky pyramid. Pyramid Energy Plate As this item is of a highly proprietary nature, I cannot reveal the exact technique for its manufacture as patent applications are pending on it as well as the pyramid matrix. This new device is a result of these researches and is simply a small aluminum plate which has been electronically charged with “amplified” pyramid energy. This small 1/8 inch thick plate does everything the pyramid does and is very compact. It too has been tested in all the projects and creates the same effects as the large pyramid. It is not a primary pyramid structure and loses its charge after a while. Best estimates of loss are at 3 years. The pyramid experimental energy plate is a type of psychotronic device on the order of the Pavlita generators. Psychotronic Twirler Figure XXIV is a drawing of a PK device similar in nature to Pavlita’s devices. This device is laid out in a pattern so anyone can construct it. The solid lines are cut with scissors and the dotted lines are creased and folded. A little experimentation will result in the suspended unit on the bottom of the page. The device is suspended from a support by a very fine silk thread. It may be enclosed in a glass tube to eliminate the effects of air currents. The psychotronic twirler is basically two pyramids placed top to top … the proportions are the same as the Great Pyramid. The use of the device is as follows: The device is suspended and allowed to settle - so that it is not moving. In order to start rotation, stare at the device with an intense gaze and concentrate entirely on it and its movement. It will help to draw a zig zag figure on the surfaces of the pyramids to aid in the operation. Follow the zig zags with the eyes. After a bit of practice the device will spin and gain in velocity! Another way of operating the device is as follows: Operation of Twirler by TCH’I Stand erect with the arms extended in front of the body. While breathing deeply and rhythmically, open and close the hands rapidly many times; do this until the arms start to get tired. The longer it is done, the more intense the effects. When the arms are tired, hold the hands a few inches apart with the palms facing, and a strong flow of tingling energy will be felt. This is the same as TCH’I or TUMO and KUNDALINI. Hold the hands near the twirler and it will take off as the energy from the body energizes it. Return to The Great Pyramid and Its Secrets

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Guy builds houses out of trash http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UNYFlcV9R1w

Actually there are pyramids in crystal shapes

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any other replies I am either going to drain water that comes off the pyramid into stored water to purify and use or use it as a moat/pond, maybe both Many castles and esoteric buildings have moats

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We tend to think that simply giving people money makes them lazy. Yet a wealth of scientific research proves the contrary: free money helps. It is time for a radical reform of the welfare state. Why we should give free money to everyone Correspondent Progress Rutger Bregman The most efficient way to spend money on the homeless might be to give it to them. Image: Getty Images. London, May 2009.Read the Dutch version here / Lees de Nederlandse versie van dit artikel hier. A small experiment involving thirteen homeless men takes off. They are street veterans. Some of them have been sleeping on the cold tiles of The Square Mile, the financial center of the world, for more than forty years. Their presence is far from cheap. Police, legal services, healthcare: the thirteen cost taxpayers hundreds of thousands of pounds. Every year. That spring, a local charity takes a radical decision. The street veterans are to become the beneficiaries of an innovative social experiment. No more food stamps, food kitchen dinners or sporadic shelter stays for them. The men will get a drastic bailout, financed by taxpayers. They'll each receive 3,000 pounds, cash, with no strings attached. The men are free to decide what to spend it on; counseling services are completely optional. No requirements, no hard questions. The only question they have to answer is: What do you think is good for you? Gardening classes‘I didn’t have enormous expectations,’ an aid worker recalls. Yet the desires of the homeless men turned out to be quite modest. A phone, a passport, a dictionary - each participant had his own ideas about what would be best for him. None of the men wasted their money on alcohol, drugs or gambling. On the contrary, most of them were extremely frugal with the money they had received. On average, only 800 pounds had been spent at the end of the first year. Simon’s life was turned upside down by the money. Having been addicted to heroin for twenty years, he finally got clean and began with gardening classes. ‘For the first time in my life everything just clicked, it feels like now I can do something’, he says. ‘I’m thinking of going back home. I’ve got two kids.’ A year after the experiment had started, eleven out of thirteen had a roof above their heads. They accepted accommodation, enrolled in education, learnt how to cook, got treatment for drug use, visited their families and made plans for the future. ‘I loved the cold weather,’ one of them remembers. ‘Now I hate it.’ After decades of authorities’ fruitless pushing, pulling, fines and persecution, eleven notorious vagrants finally moved off the streets. The Joseph Rowntree Foundation did a study of this experiment. Costs? 50,000 pounds a year, including the wages of the aid workers. In addition to giving eleven individuals another shot at life, the project had saved money by a factor of at least 7. Even The Economist concluded: ‘The most efficient way to spend money on the homeless might be to give it to them.’ Santa existsWe tend to presume that the poor are unable to handle money. If they had any, people reason, they would probably spend it on fast food and cheap beer, not on fruit or education. This kind of reasoning nourishes the myriad social programs, administrative jungles, armies of program coordinators and legions of supervising staff that make up the modern welfare state. Since the start of the crisis, the number of initiatives battling fraud with benefits and subsidies has surged. People have to ‘work for their money,’ we like to think. In recent decades, social welfare has become geared toward a labor market that does not create enough jobs. The trend from 'welfare' to 'workfare' is international, with obligatory job applications, reintegration trajectories, mandatory participation in 'voluntary' work. The underlying message: Free money makes people lazy. Except that it doesn’t. Meet Bernard Omandi. For years he worked in a quarry, somewhere in the inhabitable West of Kenya. Bernard made $2 a day, until one morning, he received a remarkable text message. 'When I saw the message, I jumped up', he later recalled. And with good reason: $500 had just been deposited into his account. For Bernard, the sum amounted to almost a year’s salary. A couple of months later a New York Times reporter walkedRead the NYT article here.around his village. It was like everyone had won the jackpot - but no one had wasted the money. People were repairing their homes and starting small businesses. Bernard was making $6 to $9 a day driving around on his new Bajai Boxer, an Indian motor cycle which he used to provide transportation for local residents. ‘This puts the choice in the hands of the poor, and not me,' Michael Faye, co-founder of GiveDirectly, the coordinating organization, said. ‘The truth is, I don’t think I have a very good sense of what the poor need.’ When Google had a look at his data, the company immediately decided to donate $2.5 million. Bernard and his fellow villagers are not the only ones who got lucky. In 2008, the Ugandan government gave about $400 to almost 12,000 youths between the ages of 16 and 35. Just money – no questions asked. And guess what? The results were astounding. A mere four years later, the youths’ educational and entrepreneurial investments had caused their incomes to increase by almost 50%. Their chances of being employed had increased by 60%.The study: 'Experimental Evidence from Uganda'. Another Ugandan program awarded $150 to 1,800 poor women in the North of the country. Here, too, incomes went up significantly. The women who were supported by an aid worker were slightly better off, but later calculations proved that the program would have been even more effective had the aid workers’ salary simply been divided among the women as well.And the other study from Uganda. Studies from all over the world drive home the exact same point: free money helps. Proven correlations exist between free money and a decrease in crime, lower inequality, less malnutrition, lower infant mortality and teenage pregnancy rates, less truancy, better school completion rates, higher economic growth and emancipation rates. ‘The big reason poor people are poor is because they don’t have enough money’, economist Charles Kenny, a fellow at the Center for Global Development, dryly remarked last June. ‘It shouldn’t come as a huge surprise that giving them money is a great way to reduce that problem.’Read his article here. Free-money programs have flourished in the past decade In the 2010 work Just Give Money to the Poor, researchers from the Brooks World Poverty Institute, an independent institute based at the University of Manchester, give numerous examples of money being scattered successfully. In Namibia, malnourishment, crime and truancy fell 25 percent, 42 percent and nearly 40 percent respectively. In Malawi, school enrollment of girls and women rose 40 percent in conditional and unconditional settings. From Brazil to India and from Mexico to South Africa, free-money programs have flourished in the past decade. While the Millenium Development Goals did not even mention the programs, by now more than 110 million families in at least 45 countries benefit from them. Researchers sum up the programs’ advantages: (1) households make good use of the money, (2) poverty decreases, (3) long-term benefits in income, health, and tax income are remarkable, (4) there is no negative effect on labor supply – recipients do not work less, and (5) the programs save money.Here is a presentation of their findings.Why would we send well-paid foreigners in SUVs when we could just give cash? This would also diminish risk of corrupt officials taking their share. Free money stimulates the entire economy: consumption goes up, resulting in more jobs and higher incomes. ‘Poverty is fundamentally about a lack of cash. It's not about stupidity,’ author Joseph Hanlon remarks. ‘You can't pull yourself up by your bootstraps if you have no boots.’ An old ideaThe idea has been propagated by some of history’s greatest minds. Thomas More dreamt of it in his famous Utopia (1516). Countless economists and philosophers, many of them Nobel laureates, would follow suit. Proponents cannot be pinned down on the political spectrum: it appeals to both left- and right-wing thinkers. Even the founders of neoliberalism, Friedrich Hayek and Milton Friedman supported the idea. Article 25 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948) directly refers to it. The basic income. And not just for a few years, in developing countries only, or merely for the poor – but free money as a basic human right for everyone. The philosopher Philippe van Parijs has called it ‘the capitalist road to communism.’ A monthly allowance, enough to live off, without any outside control on whether you spend it well or whether you even deserve it. No jungle of extra charges, benefits, rebates - all of which cost tons to implement. At most with some extras for the elderly, unemployed and disabled. The basic income - it is an idea whose time has come. Mincome, CanadaIn an attic of a warehouse in Winnipeg, Canada, 1,800 boxes are accumulating dust. The boxes are filled with data – tables, graphs, reports, transcripts – from one of the most fascinating social experiments in postwar history: Mincome. Evelyn Forget, professor at the University of Manitoba, heard about the experiment in 2004. For five years, she courted the Canadian National Archive to get access to the material. When she was finally allowed to enter the attic in 2009, she could hardly believe her eyes: this archive stored a wealth of information on the application of Thomas More’s age-old ideal. One of the almost 1,000 interviews tucked away in boxes was with Hugh and Doreen Henderson. Thirty-five years earlier, when the experiment took off, he worked as a school janitor and she took care of their two kids. Life had not been easy for them. Doreen grew vegetables and they kept their own chickens in order to secure their daily food supply. From that moment, money was no longer a problem One day the doorbell rang. Two men wearing suits made an offer the Henderson family couldn’t refuse. ‘We filled out forms and they wanted to see our receipts’, Doreen remembers. From that moment, money was no longer a problem for the Henderson family. Hugh and Doreen Read more about their experience here. entered Mincome – the first large-scale social experiment in Canada and the biggest experiment implementing a basic income ever conducted. In March 1973 the governor of the province had decided to reserve $17 million for the project. The experiment was to take place in Dauphin, a small city with 13,000 inhabitants north of Winnipeg. The following spring researchers began to crowd the town to monitor the development of the pilot. Economists were keeping track of people’s working habits, sociologists looked into the experiment’s effects on family life and anthropologists engaged in close observation of people’s individual responses. The basic income regulations had to ensure no one would drop below the poverty line. In practice this meant that about a 1,000 families in Dauphin, covering 30% of the total population, received a monthly paycheck. For a family of five, the amount would come down to $18,000 a year today (figure corrected for inflation). No questions asked. Four years passed until a round of elections threw a spanner in the works. The newly elected conservative government didn’t like the costly experiment that was financed by the Canadian taxpayer for 75%. When it turned out that there was not even enough money to analyze the results, the initiators decided to pack the experiment away. In 1,800 boxes. The Dauphin population was bitterly disappointed. At its start in 1974, Mincome was seen as a pilot project that might eventually go national. But now it seemed to be destined for oblivion. ‘Government officials opposed to Mincome didn't want to spend more money to analyze the data and show what they already thought: that it didn't work,’ one of the researchers remembers. ‘And the people who were in favor of Mincome were worried because if the analysis was done and the data wasn't favorable then they would have just spent another million dollars on analysis and be even more embarrassed.’ When professor Forget first heard of Mincome, no one knew how the experiment had truly worked out. However, 1970 had also been the year Medicare, the national health insurance system, had been implemented. The Medicare archives provided Forget with a wealth of data allowing her to compare Dauphin to surrounding towns and other control groups. For three years, she analyzed and analyzed, consistently coming to the same conclusion: Mincome had been a great success. From experiment to law‘Politicians feared that people would stop working, and that they would have lots of children to increase their income,’ professor Forget says. You can find one of her lectures here.Yet the opposite happened: the average marital age went up while the birth rate went down. The Mincome cohort had better school completion records. The total amount of work hours decreased by only 13%. Breadwinners hardly cut down on their hours, women used the basic income for a couple of months of maternity leave and young people used it to do some extra studying. Forget’s most remarkable discovery is that hospital visits went down by 8,5%. This amounted to huge savings (in the United States it would be more than $200 billion a year now). After a couple of years, domestic violence rates and mental health also saw improvement. Mincome made the entire town healthier. The basic income continued to influence following generations, both in terms of income and health. Dauphin, the town with no poverty, was one of five North-American basic income experiments. Four U.S. projects preceded it. Today, few people know how close the US was in the sixties to implementing a solid social welfare system that could stand the comparison with that of most Western-European countries nowadays. In 1964, president Lyndon B. Johnson declared a ‘war on poverty.’ Democrats and Republicans were united in their ambition to fundamentally reform social security. But first more testing was needed. Several tens of millions were made available to test the effects of a basic income among 10,000 families in Pennsylvania, Indiana, North Carolina, Seattle and Denver. The pilots were the first large-scale social experiments differentiating between various test and control groups. The researchers were trying to find the answers to three questions. 1: Does a basic income make people work significantly less? 2: If so, will it make the program unaffordable? 3: And would it consequently become politically unattainable? The answers: no, no and yes. The decrease in working hours turned out to be limited. ‘The ‘laziness’ contention is just not supported by our findings’, the chief data analyst of the Denver experiment said. ‘There is not anywhere near the mass defection the prophets of doom predicted.’ On average, the decline in work hours amounted to 9 percent per household. Like in Dauphin, the majority of this drop was caused by young mothers and students in their twenties. ‘These declines in hours of paid work were undoubtedly compensated in part by other useful activities, such as search for better jobs or work in the home,’ an evaluative report of a Seattle project concluded. A mother who had never finished high school got a degree in psychology and went on to a career in research. Another woman took acting classes, while her husband started composing. ‘We’re now self-sufficient, income-earning artists’, they told the researchers. School results improved in all experiments: grades went up and dropout rates went down. Nutrition and health data were also positively affected – for example, the birth weight of newborn babies increased. For a while, it seemed like the basic income would fare well in Washington. WELFARE REFORM IS VOTED IN HOUSE, a NYT headline on April 17, 1970 read. An overwhelming majority had endorsed President Nixon’s proposal for a modest basic income. But once the proposal got to the Senate, doubts returned. ‘This bill represents the most extensive, expensive and expansive welfare legislation ever handled by the Committee on Finance,’ one of the senators said. Then came that fatal discovery: the number of divorces in Seattle had gone up by more than 50%. This percentage made the other, positive results seem utterly uninteresting. It gave rise to the fear that a basic income would make women much too independent. For months, the law proposal was sent back and forth between the Senate and the White House, eventually ending in the dustbin of history. Later analysis would show that the researchers had made a mistake – in reality the number of divorces had not changed. Futile, dangerous and perverse‘It Can Be Done! Conquering Poverty in the US by 1976’, James Tobin, who would go on to win a Nobel Prize, wrote in 1967. At that time, almost 80% of the American population was in favor of adopting a small basic income. Here is an interesting article about this episode of American history.Nevertheless, Ronald Reagan sneered years later: ‘In the sixties we waged a war on poverty, and poverty won.’ Almost 80% of the American population was in favor of adopting a small basic income Milestones of civilization are often first considered impossible utopias. Albert Hirschman, one of the great sociologists of the previous century, wrote that utopian dreams are usually rebutted on three grounds: futility (it is impossible), danger (the risks are too big) and perversity (its realization will result in the opposite: a dystopia). Yet Hirschmann also described how, once implemented, ideas previously considered utopian are quickly accepted as normal. Not so long ago, democracy was a grand utopian ideal. From the radical philosopher Plato to the conservative aristocrat Joseph de Maistre, most intellectuals considered the masses too stupid for democracy. They thought that the general will of the people would quickly degenerate into some general’s will instead. Apply this kind of reasoning to the basic income: it would be futile because we would not be able to afford it, dangerous because people would stop working, and perverse because we would only have to work harder to clean up the mess it creates. But wait a second. Futile? For the first time in history we are rich enough to finance a robust basic income. It would allow us to cut most of the benefits and supervision programs that the current social welfare system necessitates. Many tax rebates would be redundant. Further financing could come from (higher) taxing of capital, pollution and consumption. Eradicating poverty in the United States would cost $175 billion – a quarter of the country’s $700 billion military budget. A quick calculation. The country I live in, Holland, has 16.8 million inhabitants. Its poverty line is set at $1,300 a month. This would make for a reasonable basic income. Some simple math would set the cost on 193.5 billion euro annually, about 30% of our national GDP. That’s an astronomically high figure. But remember: the government already controls more than half of our GDP. It does not keep the Netherlands from being one of the richest, most competitive and happiest countries in the world. The basic income that Canada experimented with – free money as a right for the poor – would be much cheaper. Eradicating poverty in the United States would cost $175 billion, economist Matt Bruenig recently calculated – a quarter of the country’s $700 billion military budget. You can find his calculation here. Still, a system that only helps the poor confirms the divide with the well-to-do. ‘A policy for the poor is a poor policy,’ Richard Titmuss, the mastermind of the British welfare state, once wrote. A universal basic income, on the other hand, can count on broad support since everyone benefits. Dangerous? Indeed, we would work a little less. But that’s a good thing, with the potential of working wonders for our personal and family lives. A small group of artists and writers (‘all those whom society despises while they are alive and honors when they are dead’ – Bertrand Russell) may actually stop doing paid work. Nevertheless, there is plenty of evidence that the great majority of people, regardless of what grants they would receive, want to work. Unemployment makes us very unhappy. One of the perks of the basic income is that it stimulates the ‘working poor’ – who are, under the current system, more secure receiving welfare payments - to look for jobs. The basic income can only improve their situation; the grant would be unconditional. Minimum wage could be abolished, improving employment opportunities at the lower ends of the labor market. Age would no longer need to form an obstacle to finding and keeping employment (as older employees would not necessarily earn more) thereby boosting overall labor participation. The welfare state was built to provide security but degenerated in a system of shame Perverse? On the contrary, over the last decades our social security systems have degenerated into perverse systems of social control. Government officials spy on people receiving welfare to make sure they are not wasting their money. Inspectors spend their days coaching citizens to help them make sense of all the necessary paperwork. Thousands of government officials are kept busy keeping an eye on this fraud-sensitive bureaucracy. The welfare state was built to provide security but degenerated in a system of distrust and shame. Think differentIt has been said before. Our welfare state is out of date, based on a time in which men were the sole breadwinners and employees stayed with one company for their entire careers. Our pension system and unemployment protection programs are still centered around those lucky enough to have steady employment. Social security is based on the wrong premise that the economy creates enough jobs. Welfare programs have become pitfalls instead of trampolines. Never before has the time been so ripe to implement a universal and unconditional basic income. Our ageing societies are challenging us to keep the elderly economically active for as long as possible. An increasingly flexible labor market creates the need for more security. Globalization is eroding middle-class wages worldwide. Women’s emancipation will only be completed when a greater financial independence is possible for all. The deepening divide between the low- and highly educated means that the former are in need of extra support. The rise of robots and the increasing automatization of our economy could cost even those at the top of the ladder their jobs. Legend has it that while Henry Ford II was giving a tour around a new, fully automatic factory to union leader Walter Reuther in the 1960s, Ford joked: 'Walter, how are you going to get those robots to pay your union dues?' Reuther is said to have replied: 'Henry, how are you going to get them to buy your cars?' A world where wages no longer rise still needs consumers. In the last decades, middle-class purchasing power has been maintained through loans, loans and more loans. The Calvinistic reflex that you have to work for your money has turned into a license for inequality. No one is suggesting societies the world over should implement an expensive basic income system in one stroke. Each utopia needs to start small, with experiments that slowly turn our world upside down — like the one four years ago in the City of London.Switzerland may be the first country to introduce a basic income.One of the aid workers later recalled: 'It’s quite hard to just change overnight the way you’ve always approached this problem. These pilots give us the opportunity to talk differently, think differently, describe the problem differently.' That is how all progress begins.

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