America2wo:

a new economic model

Imagine what it would be like if America suddenly had Eight Million Square miles of new land to homestead. Imagine a world were everyone has access to a good living. Imagine a world where food, clean water, clean energy and ultra-strong new materials are not only available in abundance, but at a cost easily affordable by anyone. Imagine a world where these vital products are produced by intelligent machines, controlled from home, but operating in remote fields, on lakes and rivers, or at sea. Imagine these products being used directly in the community, creating new, well-paying jobs, both blue and white collar. Imagine a world where a global network of people and their robots are linked together, sharing information and reacting to each others' problems at the speed of light. We have imagined such a world and created the technology to make it a reality. The America2wo Project will make Eight Million Square Miles of sovereign U.S. Territory available for virtual homesteading.

Every now and then a great people must do great things. It is, again, our time to achieve a monumental goal; the eradication of hunger, and all the misery that goes with it. Hunger, poverty and hopelessness are not insurmountable; just one more mountain to climb; one more river to cross, just like the Transcontinental Railroad, just like Panama Canal; just like the Marshall Plan; just like the Apollo Project. We can do this; We will do this. People are better than they know, and much better than they think they are. We are Americans. We have done such things before and it is time to do it again.

To anyone with eyes to see and ears to hear, the old economic models are winding down. That is because they were meant for a world that doesn't exist anymore; a limited world, a zero-sum world. More and more we see conflicts over limited resources. This need not be the case. We have a choice. We can choose a Malthusian future of hunger, suffering and oppression, or we can choose a Jeffersonian future of free people controlling their own economic destiny in harmony with Nature and their fellow citizens. All we need to do is focus our efforts on our unlimited resources.

For too long unrestrained greed has consumed resources and lives with equal callousness. What began as a means for people to co-ordinate capital for larger projects than any individual could afford, and share risk, has turned into a feudal state with all the appearance of an aristocracy, with the exception of 'noblesse oblige'. It is an archaic institution that has not only outlived its usefulness, it has become a threat to all we hold dear. Free Enterprise is a laissez-faire economic system where businesses compete by offering the best prices, or products. That is what America is all about. What we have now is NOT free enterprise. A person has the right to enjoy the fruits of their labors, but cheating, stealing and swindling is not labor, and changing the rules to make it legal doesn't change the moral bankruptcy of that philosophy. At this moment we have a noisy group of people claiming they have 'rights'; the right to infringe on my rights; the right to my life and my economic future; the right to consume the earth, water and sky itself for their personal gain. They tell you to not let government run your life for one simple reason; so they can. Remember, in the United States, the government IS us. So what they are really saying is let THEM run your life. That is not democracy. It is feudalism reborn; a poker game where the wealthy buy every pot and everyone else is forced to play. Unfortunately, it was the only game in town- until now. We plan to bring back Free Enterprise.

Here's a question. Who promotes fossil fuels? People who OWN fossil fuels. They like it because they are limited in supply and they set the price. Why is renewable energy always put off to 'the future'? Because no one can own the sun and wind. For all their, so called, love of America they would rather fund terrorists than create work and security for their countrymen or, literally, destroy the Earth, just to keep making ever more money, no matter who gets hurt. All economies consist of land, labor and capital. For too long, only capital has had any rights. Land and labor have become consumables; expendable. This is a disgrace and must stop.

Freedom from Want is the beginning of all Freedom: That which is given can be taken away. This may sound like the start of a conservative tirade against a welfare state, but it is the opposite. As the system works now, your job is not yours. It is something given to you. You keep it as long as it benefits the person that gave it to you. They can take it back any time they want; no matter how hard you work; no matter how long you had the job. If you can be replaced by someone cheaper, you are replaced. So, is the job really yours in the first place? Welfare, unemployment insurance, unions, are all institutions created to counter the deleterious effects of unrestrained business. America always had social 'safety nets'. It is the essence of who we are. It is why our democracy is stable. In America failure is not a death sentence. Everyone has a right to a second chance. In the past that safety net was the lands to the West. Employers behaved when they knew their workers could leave at any time to find land of their own in the West. It was not coincidence that social unrest, strikes and unions began at the same time described as 'the closing of the West'. Without some kind of 'safety net', the world described by Charles Dickens, a world of starving orphans and work houses, would still be the life most of us would know. I consider myself an intelligent and creative person, but I am not from an aristocratic lineage. In the old days I would have had no 'need' for an education and so I would not have been given one. Social class would have meant more than ability. That is the world the framers of our democracy sought to change, and yet we set it aside each time we punch a clock, or vote our wallet instead of our conscience. What would they think of us.

When you work for yourself and make something people need, and make it well, and make it at a fair price, then, and only then, do you have true freedom.

Our plan is simple. We have developed an open architecture robotic system that can be owned by individuals. They can either be purchased as complete machines, purchased as kits, or as plans for home assembly. These robots are then operated, from the owner's home, in the Exclusive Economic Zone, or on any open land where the owner can gain access. The robots then produce food, or potable water, or building materials, or fuel, or energy, 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. These products can be used directly in the community or sold on the open market. Each robot recovers its cost of construction during its first year of operation. Each robot is a complete, self-contained factory and you are the president and chairman-of-the-board.

All that we will ever need, well into the foreseeable future is already at hand, if we will only see how to use it. The Earth receives more energy from the Sun in an hour than all the known petroleum reserves many times over. We use this renewable, virtually free, energy to make hydrocarbon fuels that our cars, trucks and power plants can use without modification. It is not an efficient process, but must it be so? How efficient is a tree? That depends upon how you define efficiency. A tree uses energy, carbon and water to make something useful. Nothing is wasted. In Nature, one organisms waste is another's food. The Dragons do much the same thing. They use free energy in the form of wind to process water and carbon into useful products. Because of this, thousands can operate without causing any environmental damage. Besides fuels, they can also grow food, make seawater drinkable, or form strong, sustainable, materials. We can raise fresh fruits, vegetables and seafood 12 months a year, and not contaminate land or water with pesticides or petroleum-based fertilizers.

What makes this really work is that it is a 'human scale' endeavor.

We will be selling the actual technology to individuals in order to start hundreds of small, community based businesses. But in addition, the products can be used where they are made, by those that produce them. What is made by the Dragons can be sold directly into the local economy. Many existing economic development programs can be used to set up average people as small scale industrialists.

Imagine this. All costs considered, the Dragons make fuel for a very low cost. This can be sold into the usual energy markets, but what if, instead, it is sold retail. If it were sold locally you still make 100% of the profit you would have made selling to an energy company, but imagine what inexpensive fuel would do for local business. Electricity could be sold profitably for less than half what it does now. Industries would flock to the local area, industries that pay real wages and benefits and taxes to the local community. Yet these industries would not be like their ancestors. They would be clean, quiet and modern in every way. Imagine, suburban sprawl and traffic replaced by vibrant, prosperous communities.

The heart of this design is a robot. It is completely autonomous and is powered by wind and solar energy. It is programmed to seek out sun, wind, water and nutrients, then gather and store them. These are used to provide nutrients, water, light and warmth to a greenhouse mounted inside the robot. This greenhouse is able to grow crops 365 days a year regardless of the climate.

Next is the greenhouse itself. It is a semi-closed loop that uses multiple life forms to create a miniaturized ecosystem that is configured to grow food, or treat water, or make biofuels, or make building materials. The robot's Artificial Intelligence manages the greenhouse and delivers crops every day.

The only 'wastes' produced by the robots is oxygen and nutrient-rich organic 'tea' that is a wonderful, safe, restorative to the surrounding land.

Properly managed and operated, each robot produces as much food annually as 2 acres of good farmland.

The owners can use them to provide food and fuel for their own families, or operated several robots and be a mobile farm. Since they cost no more than a modest car, that is quite achievable by just about anyone.

Imagine poverty and despair replaced with comfort, security, and hope for the future. Is that not the American Dream?

This community would also be clean beyond any contemporary standards. Abundant water, clean nutritious food and other necessities of life would all be available at modest cost. Hard working, average people building a future for themselves is a worthwhile dream. But...

This is not just a dream. It is becoming reality now... as this picture shows.

I invite you to share in our dream. The best dreams are always the ones that are shared. Our future doesn't lie in trying to recreate a 'good old days' that wasn't really that good... if it existed at all. Our future lies in embracing the new, the innovative, the progressive. The essence of America has always been the belief that our best days are yet to come. Let's make that belief a tangible fact.

Thank you for your time.

Rudolph Behrens, president

610-454-0647