(Reviewed on 11/28/2011: It is interesting to look back and realize that I hardly look back to this About page. I had to call this project something and satconomy is what I came up with three years ago. The ideals have not changed, but the personal commitment and effort, especially during periods of doubt, has been more than I thought would be required. It has been, and continues to be, an interesting journey. The project label means much less to me compared to the experience of learning new things and producing results in the form of guiding documents and working code.)
The term ‘satconomy’ was coined from the words sat and economy. Sat, in Sanskrit texts, may be defined as ‘being’ or ‘reality’. Satconomy is a subset of satyagraha, a term coined by M.K. Gandhi to denote the principle of nonviolent resistance. If the natural state of ‘being’ is nonviolence, then satconomy may be defined as the ideal of a nonviolent economy. Satconomy is a modern version of Gandhi’s trusteeship economics, implemented through the cultivation of diverse independent currency brands.
It is important to distinguish satconomy’s potential as a guiding principle for everyday economic conduct and NOT as an ultimate solution that denies or distorts present reality. Satconomy seeks to highlight cause and effects: entities that receive support from the market will thrive, and vice-versa. If sellers accept money from ruthless tyrants or drug dealers without asking where the money came from, the cumulative effect is for tyranny and drug dealing to continue without question. If a government refuses to accept tax payment in the form of currency brands issued by independent entities such as tribes or marginalized communities, then those entities have no self-determined economic standing in front of the government. That is, the effect of insisting on the use of standard currency brands is to promote the acquisition of the most popular symbols instead of encouraging a diversity of self-determined symbols. Each market participant’s acceptance or rejection of a transaction symbol has an effect on the persistence or cessation of the symbolized economic activity.
