The American economy is related to, and functions inescapably around, two basic factors: natural resources and labor. These two factors must be measured periodically without duplication to serve as a basis for metering the amount of money in the American economy. There must be sufficient money in the economy to allow it to function, but not enough to allow speculation. Too much or too little money can be seriously damaging. The balance is critical, and its need has spawned the MEL formula.

In measuring these values, effort must be exerted to tally only American natural resources originating in American soil, plus American labor. To become lax with this criterion would lead to our financing foreign economies while our economy would yawn and nap. This is a supporting factor for not tallying product value. By simply totaling the value of the yield of American soil, we very neatly and automatically eliminate all foreign products in our issuance of money. Even if parts of our country are mixed with parts of another country, the measure of natural resources from our soil will isolate the value attributable to America. Of course, only American citizens, and probably voting citizens, will be considered in determining the value of labor. A value and credit must be allowed for teen age labor. Our youth must learn to work.

Thomas Edison, America’s great inventor, summed up this information in 1921. He said:

"Now, as to paper money, so called, every one knows that paper money is the money of civilized people. The higher you go in civilization the less actual money you see. It is all bills and checks. What are bills and checks? Mere promises and orders. What are they based on? Principally on two sources - human energy and the productive earth. Humanity and the soil - these are the only real bases of money.

"Don’t allow [the bankers] to confuse you with the cry of ‘paper money’. The danger of paper money is precisely the danger of gold - if you get too much it is no good. They say we have all the gold in the world now. Well, what good does it do us? When America gets all the chips in a game the game stops. We would be better off if we had less gold. Indeed, we are trying to get rid of our gold to start something going. But the trade machine is at present jammed. Too much paper money operates the same way. There is just one rule for money, and that is, to have enough to carry all the legitimate trade that is waiting to move. Too little or too much are both bad. But enough to move trade, enough to prevent stagnation on the one hand and not enough to permit speculation on the other hand, is the proper ratio."

Concerning interest, he said, "... That is the terrible thing about interest. In all our great bond issues the interest is always greater than the principle. ... Under our present system of doing business we simply add 120 to 150 percent to the stated cost."

Speaking for debt free money, Edison is quoted, "But here is the point: If our nation can issue a dollar bond it can issue a dollar bill. The element that makes the bond good makes the bill good, also. The difference between the bond and the bill is that the bond lets the money brokers collect twice the amount of the bond and an additional 20 percent, whereas the currency pays nobody but those who directly contribute to the [projects] in some useful way.

"... There is a difference [between currency and bonds], but it is neither the likeness nor the difference that will determine the matter; the attack will be directed against thinking of bonds and currency together and comparing them. If people ever get to thinking of bonds and bills at the same time, the game is up [for the bankers]."

Thomas Edison, just quoted, was much more than just an inventor. As an inventor, he was, of course, a thinker. But he also had a shop of his own where he employed people to build his inventions. He also was a close friend of Henry Ford, Sr., inventor of the Ford automobile and the assembly line. So, Edison must have been well aware of the various aspects of the American economy. He also was in agreement with Ford on the creation of money, debt free, by the government. This fact was alluded to in the above quote regarding interest.

In summary, it makes sound sense to base the amount of money in the economy on the grand total of the value of the materials coming from our American soil plus the labor value of our American citizens. People will spend their earned labor money on products. The added value of American soil in the product will place that much more money in the economy to enable further use of American soil.

These two ingredients, humanity and the soil, are the only two basics needed for determining the supply of money in the economy. To understand how this fact was deduced, see "MEL Formula Derivation" in the book, Money Is Unreal, where these items are explored in detail.

[Documentation for the Edison and Ford quotes.]

Incidentally, water is included in the classification of soil, for that is where it comes from and runs down, if not initially, at least eventually. It is on the soil that we confront water power. In this book, soil is usually called natural resources, a term with better clarity.

The imaginary services sector actually uses an American natural resource: The creativity of the human mind, the most powerful force in the solar system. However, service is synonymous with employer. Therefore, to avoid repetition, the services sector is covered and explained under labor.

This author, Forest Glen Durland, holds to the philosophy that all American citizens deserve the "unalienable" right to work for survival. In our contemporary society and economy of many interwoven avenues of activity, this survival must be in the form of compensation, which in turn means money. Stated more briefly: Each American citizen deserves to have his-her labor value present at all times in the economy in the form of money. That is probably only possible with a DFMS, a Debt Free Monetary System.

Sawing a board, growing food, writing a useful computer program and healing the sick are real labor (and services). Furniture, boxes of food and computer software are real products that are a result of real labor. Real labor and real natural resources, but not products, can be represented by imaginary money to grease the economachine to enable it to run more efficiently. Beware!: Excessive management and middle men can instigate imaginary blue sky services and spur taxes by upsetting the balance between real labor and its representative, imaginary money.

Each side, labor and products, must have something to trade. Labor has wages and products have themselves. Labor trades its wages for products. This trading concept is important for the economy to function. For if products had the money, labor would have nothing to trade, and the economy would come to a screeching halt. Because of the shortage of money in our present economy, the trading facet has been severely retarded in favor of the banklords.

In addition, if we count product value, we will count labor as many as nine times for each product. This repetition would surely throw our balance of money way off. Money must follow labor.

Government things and government workers are usually imaginary, in the monetary sense. For example, an aircraft carrier costs billions of dollars to build, is very real, and is necessary for our nation’s security. Notwithstanding, that aircraft carrier exists for an imaginary reason.

For our purposes here, therefore, that aircraft carrier is unreal. It exists only in our mind. War must never be viewed as productive (as it apparently is by the billionaire banklords that own and control the Fed, and very possibly influence Pentagon and CIA activity.)

Even though they are real people, politicians occupy an imaginary role in government and we must consider their wages, perks and bennies as automatic taxes out of the hip pockets of America. Politicians must NEVER be counted as productive labor. Politician's wages, perks and bennies are NOT economically productive and are therefore not productive. (EACH Congress person is currently receiving about $140,000 in cash each year as wages, plus EACH is entitled to about $1,000,000 in perks and bennies. That figures out at about $200 per hour for each. For that kind of money, Congress should dump the Fed quickly and efficiently.) Perhaps it will help to interpret this situation if we people figure that anyone we hire to do our work for us must be paid out of our purses and hip pockets. We hire the politicians and we must pay them. That means federal taxes. There is no free lunch there, folks. Free work can neither be created nor destroyed. If it is imagined into reality, it must be paid out of existence.

Freebie government programs such as welfare are probably imaginary and non-productive, and must be considered as automatic taxes out of America's hip pocket. Reasonable public works projects such as bridges and highways can be considered as real and productive, since they will contribute positively to the economy.

All bills before Congress MUST be considered in terms of benefits to ALL the states, because ALL the people in ALL the states must pay for them in federal taxes if they are not productive and dump excess money into the economy. It must be made unlawful to buy Congressional votes, such as promising to pass Joe's imaginary bill if Joe will vote for Mary's imaginary bill. Each bill must be weighed on its own merits. The imaginary land of never never pork land must be removed from the land of imaginary money.

In summary, it makes sound sense to base the amount of money in the economy on the labor and services value of the people plus the value of natural resources coming from our good, American earth. People will spend their earned labor money on products. The added value of our soil in the products will place that much more money in the economy to enable further use of our soil. These values must never be transferred.

This process, finally deduced, will work. It will provide us with a meter stick to place sufficient money in the economy to allow the economy to function, but will inhibit speculation and blue sky operations by restricting too abundant a supply of money. Summarily, we have the MEL formula:

E: The total of natural resources taken from the American earth is tallied.

L: Employees will be assigned value determined by employer records, verified by income tax returns. (This will give us a record to start. With the abolishment of the income tax, adjustment will be necessary.)

L: Employers with businesses handling real products will be assigned minimum value, since their value is in their products that contain labor value.

L: Service employers are assigned net worth as labor. Their product value is the same as their work value.

E & L: Corporation owners are business employers and are assigned minimum. The natural resources and labor of the corporation are tallied, but all other corporate maze is disregarded as insignificant.

L: Government workers are treated as employees in our American ideal.

E: Government income is tallied, extinguished and subtracted.

It shall be assumed as a given that each citizen of working age in America has the right to earn money. For this to happen, that money must be available in the economy.

Two ingredients, humanity and the soil, are the only two basics needed for determining the supply of money in the economy. To ascertain that metering value, we can tally the quarterly value of the work week of the citizens of working age, along with the contribution of America’s piece of real estate, as the most accurate and sensible basis. The addition of the value of natural resources used in products is important to furnish sufficient money to get those natural resources converted to products. Farmers need money to get their crops grown. Money must be considered as moving with labor, not products. Labor value total should place sufficient money in the economy to enable labor’s products to be purchased. It is the productive value of the actual citizen capable of working that is vital. We must always remember that only labor can make things happen, regardless of the amount of automation involved

Labor existed long before money was ever invented, and money must never replace labor. Labor must always remain foremost and predominate over money. Labor is the reason money was invented. The purpose of money is to transfer the value of labor and its related services and products about in the economy.

If the higher wage is not placed into the economy, no money to purchase the higher wage product will exist in the economy.

The natural resource called service will be omitted from the tally because the natural resource value of service is synonymous with service employer value. So all that is needed is the net of the service employer.

Never drop the labor value of an individual below a minimum value. The minimum is important here, for even though they may be less than worthless scum, they still have their inalienable right to choose to be that way, and therefore deserve to have their value in money in the economy.

It is imperative that the foreign element be excluded from American natural resources, services and labor when calculating the basis for the amount of money in the DOMESTIC American economy to avoid financing a foreign economy. If only the labor and services of American citizens plus only American soil is considered, this plan will very neatly exclude foreign imports in our calculations. This rule should force foreign as well as private American money to finance foreign trade, at least their share.

For government contribution, we find ourselves back to the original guidelines: Humanity and the soil.

All names must be computerized and alphabetized to avoid double billing.

With all public schools and libraries financed, the nasty tax burden on homes and businesses would be very neatly removed. This would be a welcome and wise move. This area will be an excellent place to start spending money into the economy, especially if more money is needed. This concept does involve an interpretation of the U.S. Consitution that must be addressed: The federal government is not privileged to deal with public education and schools.

When the money supply exceeds the natural resources (excluding products), labor and human services total, a federal tax MUST automatically be levied to reduce the money supply. The balance is critical. A sales tax is fastest and catches tax dodgers. An income tax catches big, fat cats. Both taxes together will probably be most fair and effective. The tax receipts MUST be converted back to the nothing from whence they came. Federal politicians must NEVER spend tax receipts. To do so would dangerously threaten the critical balance between real people and imaginary money.

(In an effort to abolish all income tax to conform with the U.S. Constitution, another means of extacting excess money from the economy by the federal government must be devised.)

There is a difference between representation and measuring for amount of money in circulation. Products can be represented by value and traded for money, but products cannot be used for measuring the amount of money in the economy. To do so would duplicate the labor count as many as nine times per product. Natural resources become products when mined, etc.

Money is imaginary and must exist ONLY to represent the real value of real labor (including services) and the natural resources touched by that labor. No blue sky can be allowed here.

Humanity	Mel's Balance Sheet		Soil
LABOR includes production costs.1 (real)	$$$$$$ MONEY $$$$$$		NATURAL RESOURCES (real)
People trade labor for wages and save that value as money.	Money is Catalyst (unreal)		Money for natural resources was used to convert it to products. From then on, labor money moves it.
Everything goes through employer and is redistributed.
EMPLOYER
LABOR trades money for product.2 (Wages buy product.) Wages money is Use 1, the use you call yours. Money moves with labor for metering.	$$$$$$ MONEY $$$$$$ Wages (unreal)	PRODUCT (real)	PRODUCT on market. Carries unreal value of natural resources and labor, but not the unreal money. Money follows labor from this point on to avoid overheating the economy.3
LABOR owns product. Other wages needed for resale.4	PRODUCT (real)	$$$$$ MONEY $$$$$ Cycles back	Money is now Use 2 money, very invisible.
The Bottom Line
LABOR	$$$$$$ MONEY $$$$$$		NATURAL RESOURCES
HUMANITY	$$$$$$ MONEY $$$$$$		SOIL
BALANCE _________________

¹ Labor includes production costs. All costs other than natural resources are considered labor expense, at least for this discussion.

² Money stays with and moves with labor for metering. Labor becomes buyer. Money must stay with labor to enable them to trade for products. There is always a "gitter" and a "getter". If product value in money were with the product, labor would have nothing to trade. Labor trades money for product value.

³ It is very important to remember that money does not go with product. Value does, but money does not. This is imperative for proper metering of money by MEL.

Money is an unreal catalyst. Products are real but cannot move. Only labor is alive and real and can move. Only labor can make things happen. Earth is real but has no life as needed here.

⁴ Some person has paid for this product. If another person wants to buy it, that other person must use his-her own, earned money.

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