 Just what is an economy? Is it the whole of our system of commerce? Is it the combined productivity of the nation? The answer is bigger than that. And the economy, our economy, is the heart of the American dream. It is our day-to-day decisions on what we do as sovereign citizens to live in these United States and to prosper from what we decide to commit to our commercial purposes. Our economy is what we do, not what non-citizen businesses do. In our constitutional agreement, we set two specific economy management duties upon our congressional representatives. The first is to coin money and regulate the value of it. The second is to monitor and manage interstate commerce. You should note that neither of these has anything to do with managing the economy. The first deals with managing the value of money. The knowledge that government cannot regulate its value was not available to the College of Finance existing in 1776. The closest we come is managing the supply of money so that its value to our commerce is assured. Interstate commerce was again managed to our purpose, assuring that it does not favor some citizens at the expense of others. Government is to provide us, we the people, with two economic services. The first is to assure that our money has value. The second is to assure that citizens in the several states are equally protected in their commercial transactions. We have greater knowledge today concerning the operation of an economy, and it is not found in the modern study of economics, the science of the operation of an economy. Our economy is not some independent operating entity any more than government is a sovereign independent from people. Our economy is just the collection of what we the people do to secure the benefits of freedom and prosperity to ourselves. The performance of our economy, and I stress that it is ours, is through what we choose to commit to productive efforts and in the value we recognize in what we gain from our efforts. It is a simple cyclic performance. On the operating side, the economy receives our committed time and effort and uses these up in producing and delivering the goods and services that we get to receive. Likewise, our performance efforts receive these goods and services. We, to gain what we value, commit our time and effort to commercial enterprises. Money is the value marker. It is the means for our transfer to the economy to gain the goods and services it produces for us, and it is the means for our economy to pay people for contributing their time and effort to economic operation. That's it. Like government itself, we, as sovereign citizens, are the real party in interest. Our economy only does what we do as our part in assuring that we receive what we value in goods and services. What comes to us and what we commit are the only real performance measures for our economy. What is this service that our government is supposed to provide? Is there some measurable difference between success and failure in providing it? By our constitution, it is to assure the value of the money we use, and it is to service our performance cycle with our structured economy. Our government is how we manage our economy, assuring that we receive good value from what it produces, and assuring that our commitment of time and effort is effective in its efforts. Our government can provide management to regulate our economy for our purpose of wealth and prosperity. Government is to regulate the economy, not sovereign citizens. Government regulation is to minimize any waste of citizen resources consumed in our economy. It is to maximize the value of goods and services that we receive from our economic operations. To put this in more concrete terms, it is to assure that the food offered to us is safe for our consumption and serves our human needs and wants for food. It is to assure that the medical services we are offered are valuable in meeting our medical needs. It is assuring that any offered entertainments are delivered in an environment where we are safe as citizens. It is assuring that roads, bridges, and public pathways are available to serve our needs and wants. It is to assure that the money we earn through committing our time and effort is valuable for gaining goods and services that our economy provides. Inflation of money marks the failure of government to maintain the value of money for our use. Success in government will be measured as an increase in the value of what we gain in goods and services from what we earn. So, is it all about us? Yes. The economy that does not serve us serves nobody. The government that supports inflation is not serving us. The government that causes inflation is violating its purpose for existing. Our performance tool is elimination of waste, managing our economy so that it does not require our time and effort without contributing to what we receive. It is managing our economy so that it produces what we value and what we earn can purchase it. For type 1 waste, we have economic demands upon the time and efforts of people that are consumed without contributing to economic performance. In this, we have a new economic rule that economy outputs have value only as citizens value them. If people do not value some good or service enough to pay for it, then it has no value. We also have to address invisible services, services that should not be directly received, but have value when we do not have to concern ourselves with receiving them. This would be such as potable water when we turn the tap or light when we flip the switch. The more we have to concern ourselves with receiving this value, the less value we receive. If we drive a car and have to dodge potholes, then the public road is a problem rather than a service. It is most valuable when our roads are safe to drive on. These are highly valued services. Type 2 waste is when services are not provided. When the benefit is just not there, delivery of public dollars in foreign aid is an example of type 2 waste. Value delivered to non-citizens. There is no way to even authorize such behaviors without going directly to people and having them by overwhelming support justify that it has value to we the people. A potential for charity as a valued service would be to have the need published and government provide for delivery of private donations. Then it would be people with their personal value decisions that would determine the amount of aid being provided on the purposes to be served. This is the difference between a sovereign government that acts on what leaders decide and a representative government that supports its sovereign citizens. Government waste is when the efforts of people are consumed by government without appropriate services. As in the time and effort required of people in preparing their own tax returns, it is currently in the vicinity of a billion man hours annually and citizens get nothing for the expenditure. Waste is when people have to register to get the benefit of public programs. How is it that our leaders do not know who they are required to represent? Is it any wonder that we do not have effective representation? Who do they think they're representing? Waste is when you cannot practice a profession without joining some private organization or paying a fee to test whether you meet government standards. Waste is when you cannot buy or sell your own property without engaging private experts to deal with your government on your behalf. Waste is when the government mandates safety equipment for your car for which you must pay just in case you crash it into a tree. This is government cost instead of service. We have many opportunities to gather and direct our leadership. I am reminded of a Florida situation where government demanded vehicle inspection for Florida residents, but not for the huge tourist industry. It was the people who had to demand an end to the interference of well-meaning political leaders who would burden the citizens they were to represent. The pollution-based and safety-based regulation of Florida citizens did not provide a valued service when others could ignore its strictures. Should the leaders have created value, some service to assure Florida vehicles were safe? It never seemed to occur to the leadership that they might actually serve the public. Government is how we manage our economy, and it is not supposed to be part of the economy. Money does not have a natural value to anyone. It has value only as it is useful to citizens. It has value as it is earned and as it is spent. The purpose of government regulation of money is to assure that people have value in what they commit to economic pursuits and corresponding value in what they receive. People are the purpose of money. Our value is in our satisfaction of our needs and wants for the productive results that our economy produces. The time and effort that we expend on productive activities and what we get for spending it are the only true measures of economic performance. Where the economy is not serving us, it is serving nobody. I once came on a suggestion that we have two money systems, a dollar for inside the United States and a different dollar for a foreign exchange. The values would be the same, but the cash inside and outside the borders have to be converted in order to be legal tender. The government would not otherwise honor foreign U.S. money inside the nation, nor honor internal dollars presented outside our borders. Illegal trade would be halted almost immediately as the monetary conversion would require government involvement. Earnings by illegal aliens would be paid in internal dollars. But would have no value if transferred to foreign lands without government acceptance. It would kill any foreign illegal drug trade almost immediately. There would be no way to get large amounts of spendable money to foreigners without government involvement in the conversion. Proper money management is assuring the value for the benefit of citizens and it is possible. When we address managing money, it is managing the supply of money to assure that it keeps its value to people. We are the purpose for having an economy. We, through our decisions to commit our time and effort to productive pursuits, are the ultimate source of economic value. Even precious metals have no value unless we value them. How much farmland can we buy with an hour of our labor? This is the sort of measure that tells us how good our economy is serving us. How much is the average labor hour we commit worth in gold and silver? It is the amount of these earth-based commodities that is going down, then time and effort is worth less to us. Our government is to manage our economy for our purposes, not for the benefit of the economy. It is to represent us, the sovereign citizen, whose authority creates and empowers government. We are the only party in interest. Our general prosperity is one of the things that can bring us together to agree on what our leaders are mandated to do.