Earth

Design Business Plan Bill Mollison - Permaculture Design Course Notes Notes 16b: 4:50- Re: Common-work (or palimpsest) system. You cannot run complex systems with one or two people. 9:50 You work out the land at its highest level of use/highest yield potential. 11:56 You work out how many livings you put into it (the land). You maximize livings how many livings are in that landscape design? Before you decide how many youve got, you must decide what sort of livings are available. You buy an agriculture department book - it will give you the return/acre for a crop or average yield then you see what the current market rate is for that yield. Which gives you a fair estimate of your income/acre. Your livings are worked out by the known return per acre of that particular crop. 15:18 You have a number of primary production livings. You then have a second set of livings; of those primary set of livings, what is process-able & what gain is made from processing? Etc 16:45 A third set of livings are service livings. So say you have 60 livings or 60 families how many services do those families need & how many livings are in those services? Ex: Energy system supply & maintenance, repair, transport system (lease vehicles for tax deduction purposes), fuel system/ alcohol production, insurance, accounting, banking, construction, education, entertainment, medical preventative & some general medical, marketing, trade etc. 24:20 - If you put your livings at primary, processing & service livings, we could fairly accurately score off the potential number of incomes from your acreage. Now break up the livings into sectors so that work is varied across the group. You now have a portfolio of occupations. For the first time - you have defined how you want to live. You are no longer caused to go to work by anybody - you now self-define your own occupations. You have the ability to organize some mobility within occupations - you can change occupations. 28:20 the first livings you establish are livings that enrich subsequent livings - a good example is either ducks or bees. These are necessitous livings. 29:20 There are livings that are area defined (ex: crops, livestock), livings which have no area or that thread through the system (ex: bee forage, flowers), livings which are not related to area or are off-site (service, processing).- 32:05 The idea is to maximize livings, not maximize personal wealth. You dont make wealth off a common- work model, what you make is a fair living which allows you to travel, eat well, live well, have lots of friends etc. 32:55 I found it in operation by a Quaker group in southern England near Kent they call it Commonwork. I call it palimpsest - is an ancient painting over a painting use the same canvas to paint a new picture so the same area has many pictures laying one on top of another. 33:43 The three problems of community: meetings these are the greatest toil, consensus the biggest time waster, love & affection no one can do this - its inhuman. All three problems are eliminated in the common- work model. No more than 3 people have any say in any one activity you form committees of interest. Consensus is out because no one has any say in how you make your living. So what you have is a set of small independent livings, which are individually owned for the period in which the people are doing them. 37:50 The contracted/hired designers design the land - it is a community plan. This can be altered at anytime.

41:15 It puts democracy back to the individual. Democracy is the individual right to operate within their area - in relation to a total responsibility to the community. 42:50 What it is is the right to make a living on land as distinct from ownership of land. It puts those two things clearly apart. The space for everyone to make a living is available there is no more unemployment. 46:10 What else we have to do to make this work deducting all costs associated with the living, setting it up, and the 12,000/yr that is the living, from every living you should have a net profit. Your prime costs, your capital cost & your wages deducted & materials deducted which gives you your net profit. Of the net profit 70% goes to the common-work fund as a capital fund for the development of livings. 20% goes back to capitalize the living itself. Notes Cont 7a 10% is tithed this money goes to community services, such as research & development, medical assistance, and assistance to the educational structure of the community. This becomes the common-work fund the 70% within 4-6 years will have paid off all the land, land development, machinery, with lots of money left for further development; the 20% continuously floats back into your own business; the 10% is more than enough to support all community services. 5:00 - (TBC) Notes 20a: Energy Systems Solar (salt water) ponds: a pond 16 Dia, 3 deep may supply the energy needs of a North American home. (Texan specialist). Northern territory administration, refer to permaculture 2 for more info. Bio-thermal (compost) Systems: bio-thermal institute. Bio-Gas systems: might be appropriate for very isolated homes. Wind power: is may not appropriate: it is high maintenance & therefore expensive. Small residential applications might be appropriate home made windmill. 40:45 - You need 2-3 dependable friends, together form an association. With a def aims in mind the aim should be that you are going to change the world. Draw up the rules of association from your local association rules - at your local business registry in your town. Registration of business names. Build into your rules of association - a basic ethic, which is earth care. I want you to have the rules put your own association name in them and to write an ethical statement into your rules, which binds yourselves. Write an ethical statement you can copy ours if you like: We will care for the earth, we will care for people, and we will get rid of things surplus to our needs. You dont register that association because it will not hold any real property, however you will keep a registry of members. So now what youve got is the rules of association, your own associations rules drawn up from them, and small book which has a registry of members which a secretary is shown & is current. Cost is the rules of association, legal cost = none.

Now you have an effective group an unincorporated association it is an entity in law and it sets a whole ethical base for all subsequent action. So we will look after the earth primarily, people (if you take care of the earth you are invariably taking care of people), and you will get rid of any surplus (surplus is an unused resource get it back into use!) because any unusable surplus is pollution, which would go against your first rule. If you want a priority, one is a trading entity or an income earning entity, and the other one is not. I would advise you to do it concurrently. Now for that you need to buy two companies or get your lawyer to draw up two companies might cost +/- $300 each unless you have a real friendly lawyer that has a few on the shelf he got cheap somewhere. Now you have an unregistered association, whos job it is to set up two companies, which you have your lawyer draw up for you and register - so you are now the proprietor of 2 companies. Some members of the association become directors of each company three each max four or more is a headache. Notes 20 b: Then instruct your lawyer clearly, that the companies are only to act as trustees. Both of these companies are now called corporate trustees. You should also buy a copy of your local company rules from the same place you got your association rules. You set them up as trustees only; you dont give them any other discretion. A trustee administers a trust. Therefore the trustees are governed by the trust, not the trust by the trustees. And the law sees to it that that is the case. As a company director of a trustee company, you are required by the law to administer conditions of the trust. And for income, they must have $5 capital its called the set law. From a friend who gives $5 to each institution to help set them up then disappears forever - they must be a disinterested party. But you must keep somewhere $5 open a bank account for it. So now in two files you keep the registration of your company, which must hang up on the wall somewhere and be identifiable, call them whatever you want. Each company must be registered & have a place from which it trades - and there its registration must be displayed. Now you draw up 2 trust deeds; one trust deed applies to this trust, and this is for the public good. Whatever this does, it does for the public good. Id call it something like a land bank or a holding trust, whose purpose is to hold, in trust, resources for the public good. Most of its resources are called real property lands, houses, commercial premises, trademarks, and copyrights - for the public good. This trust deed would be a nuisance but fortunately we have drawn it up (Mollison did email him). But you could have your lawyer read it and pay him to do so. Note: You can eliminate the company & put name to trustees but then something happens; the trustees are identifiable, they have a limited life & they are personally responsible therefore they are at risk. In a corporate trust, the trustees are anonymous, they have a theoretically unlimited life, and they are not personally at risk. The other company, this one lies, cheats, steals & thieves aka normal trade (this is all outlined in the deed). Its not for the public good - it is to make money. It is going to get out into the marketplace & will operate to make money. A businessman walks out onto the scene, a businessman who is unfortunately governed by an ethic, as a member of an association to which he must belong to be a director of this company. No member of that association can be a director of this company that goes into you company documents. In fact I would advise you to limit it further: Nobody who is not a resident of the region and a member of the association can be appointed a director. Youve got him now because hes a member of the association youve got him governed by the

associations ethics. Weve got the individual crammed by the law which will descend with all its awful majesty if he departs from either of these things. This company will make profit, and it will give it away according to the rules of the association. You will give the profit away. If the company doesnt make any money it doesnt pay any tax. Who will you give the profit to? You will now declare the names the beneficiaries; they will be members of the association and their dependants, the trust for the public good, any (registered) charity of your choice, and to any political party of your choice. You can give money away to four identifiable groups, and they are identifiable in law, and you cant give money from an un-discretionary trust to a group non-identifiable in law. This is an association, that while unregistered is still legal, this is a legally registered trust, and the other groups you are giving to are also registered groups, you can give to individuals & to any political party. Also you can give to any religious group of your choice. This is called a unit discretionary trust. This is a total separate legal entity from the holding trust. The land title is held by (whomever) as trustee for the Permaculture Institute (for example). The company as trustee holds any property held, for the institute trust. Therefore when anyone goes to see who owns this property they will see that a company, which is a trustee for a trust holds it and they cant go beyond that. Any property held by this institute, or this trust for the public good, in the documents by (insert company name) as trustee for the institute. This company as trustee for this deed, which well call the institute or the trust for the public good, holds the real property. All churches and institutes have this structure. Its sometimes called a foundation, a church, a school, a university, college, an institute. Weve developed a group of friends called an association, some of whom independently are directors of a company administering a trust and others (or same) of whom likewise are directors of a company administering a trust. They are two totally different types of trust. One is a unit discretionary trust and the other is some sort of institute trust (for the public good). This deed, once drawn up, is lodged with the company registrar & there is a lodgment fee, and it can cost you +/- $700 per deed. Now youve got to meet annually with three people (can be over the phone), to approve the accounts of your trust & then submit a return to your taxation commission. Youve got to have an accountant to do this, a secretary that takes minutes. The purposes of both are completely different. If you want to risk it, you can cheapen it by using just one company for both trusts. One company can be trustee for both trusts, but there is an unfortunate possible link through we started off like that & we busted it into two, then three or more. Because often what we do will come under attack. Therefore you dont want any root ways to yourselves or anything that is important to you. As this trust doesnt do anything, it never comes under attack, this one is the one that comes under attack. These companies now proceeds to register business names and can register any number of businesses for a low cost. They may like to register low-energy accouterments, Canadian Seed Company, energy accounting group, Permaculture consultancy, - anything you like just name it and register it. They are not companies they are wholly owned names of the trust. Every business transaction operates through the discretionary fund. The concept of trusteeship: In here you have everything you need. We only have the use of certain things during our relatively short lifetime. What we all want is access to land, a place to live, some security etc. That during our lifetime we will engage in some sort of commerce with a neighbour or friends, and then again put this commerce under trusteeship so that the amount kept by the group is roughly regulated to needs, the rest is passed off to increase the amount or the assets which are available to all, or to assist others in endeavours, and some proportion is kept by the people who get involved. Then there is the relationship with the public the public may form partnerships or associate with our businesses in any way, even in an employee status, even though we never employ people. They may access assets held by the public trust under the conditions of that trust. And they may give time or goods to either side of that equation. The public can form (trading) companies and they can form partnerships with the businesses of the trust. It enables this group to have assets available to the public, to

offer services to the public & to write contracts and agreements with members of the public. Or to have them as volunteer or paid associates. If there is a joint venture undertaken by this group, they may decide how they will divide the net profits the profit of this group would go back into the unit discretionary trust & the other part would be carried away by the members of the public. What if you want to build on the land that is owned by the institute? You must lease the land from the institute. The institute may not be subject to land tax. If however it must pay land tax the institute may demand that you pay a share of the tax due on the land. The problem only arises when the amount returned by the trading trust to any individual of the association, exceeds taxable income - if you imagine a situation where your house and land were already there, in which business provides vehicles & transportation what would you need more than ___/week? Why bother? This covers all your lifes activities. Theres no other system you would need to operate under, and it enables you to undertake such enterprises and use such money under your discretion, which is the discretion of the ethic that governs your system. It doesnt give anyone else access to that. These businesses are themselves being ethically governed are only businesses that sell self-reliance. They are familiar with unit discretionary trusts, & institutes - they arent interested. Notes 21a: If one of these businesses is very successful, take it out & give it its own trust & trustees. Detach it from the general income so that it can take as many risks as it wants. So one trust will risk everything, the other will risk nothing. Therefore only the one trust will own a motor vehicle or any other commodity that is a risk to the public. This one also invests funds in risky ventures etc. The other one is very cautious because it is administering public funds, and youre very closely accounted in the administration of public funds. You have to be publicly audited. We dont think there is any risk because there is never been a case in Australian law, in which someone has attacked a unit discretionary fund, because of its anonymity & it impregnability. However, because the of the determination of the business world to destroy people like ourselves, they are eternally launching attacks, and just to defend the attacks is risky. In the first hard, tough days of community, because you dont know about business practically all the money goes back only to the group. Otherwise they might starve. When things get swinging along, and a few thousand dollars starts coming in, the float of the institute begins building up until it gets too fat. At which point it begins to flow out of the trust to other groups begins. Your first discretion is to your group that they are fed & at that time they are probably renting houses. And when they gain ownership of the home then they gain land access, then they need to develop it, fence it so theres a flow to there. There should be a strict limit put on this so that it isnt over-capitalized. Then when you have no where to put the money anymore, everyones houses & land is paid off, the institute doesnt need it therefore the flow to any other group of your choice will begin and so on. 5:15 - There are no employees. People lend their time to the activities, which make money. When they do so they agree on how the net profit should be split up between them. If some of the public, and some of your group cooperate to run an enterprise, your group & them agree to split the money & your share of the profit goes to the trust. 6:15 I have nothing against cooperatives, except what they are good for. What they are good for is rather large- scale manufacturing systems, or for large-scale food distribution systems. Theyre not much good for anything else. Cooperative membership involves a lot of meeting & voting, some sort of consensus between a lot of

people. Its just a bloody mess it doesnt work. People get huffy & leave the cooperative because they cant get their way etc. 7:20 - You can run a dual system. You can earn an income & still partake in this. Your income is taxable however at any time you can have the income paid here (trust) & then its non-taxable. To do so you issue a declaration stating that you are not an individual wage earner - that you are a volunteer for a discretionary trust and therefore I am not subject to income tax. 9:25 - If you earn money a bit of money how is that organized? Its your income - from part of the profits that you made for the trust. Its payment to beneficiaries - payments to beneficiaries need to be strictly accounted and they should total all profit for the year. The people do the housekeeping/accounting, a professional does the sum of accounts, & then theres the external audit to check everythings in order. The trust pays the associated fees. The institute could allot the land to a house building trust - they can give a house building trust certain rights over cluster dwellings. 11:27 - Re: Multiple occupancy The institute can sell its land, or make a charge on rental of its land. The institute would not involve itself in building because it takes no such risks. There are no owners, no public shares. You dont sell shares of land in multiple occupancy - if the institute wants multiple occupancy it would allot multiple lease holds. How the occupants got their houses built might very well be their affair. They could set up a homebuilders association. 13:50 If somebody owns a couple hundred acres and wants to have people come onto his land & he doesnt feel like donating his land - he wants some of the money back seeing as other people are coming into it? How does he get some money back personally? He doesnt he can only donate - but it would pay him to give it to the institute. Because the institute can ask him to put up some fencing & put up some dams before they take it off his hands. (haha) Well once hes done all that, the institute will accept his land as an improved property at its increased value (up $40-50/acre) and if this institute is a land-accepting institute - it is also tax-deductible. He gets the money back for the improvements since he never pays land tax for the rest of his life. 17:15 - The institute caries a public liability insurance of 1million in case someone injures himself but then that comes in handy if we need a million bucks fast we just fall down a well. All money paid from insurance companies are made out to the institute. 18:40 - The institute gives you the right to do whatever over an acre at $1/year. The house belongs to you unless you give it to the institute. If you give it to the institute, the institute might fund you to build it anyhow. If you declare that any building you put on will belong to the institute, then the institute will pay for it. Otherwise, you can build it & sell it - together with the lease for the land, or you can give it to your children etc. 20:00 Does the institute with its piece of land, fall under the same category as multiple occupancies? Yes & no generally speaking most institutes are treated differently by authorities than private developers. 20:34 - If this institute is set up to attract gifts from the public it has to have tax deductibility. By reason of the deed of trust we have achieved tax immunity but if the institute is set up for tax-deductibility it would attract money & goods from the public. 21:50 A political party through the institute could set up a business running trucks therefore theyre not liable for parking fines. Politicians park free. 25:20 Most rich people are trading under a unit discretionary trust - the only difference is that they set it up so that they are beneficiaries of their system, whereas ours is governed by the general ethic that we dont take more than we need.

26:18 Tax deductibility is achieved in two ways - its achieved by virtue of the trust deed; by what sort of institute structure is described in that deed - or it is won by the institute via its acts. The first way is the easiest by setting up this trust in a way so that its immediately tax-deductible - the easiest way to do this is to make it a church. You can call it the Permaculture church. 29:04 Of all institutes in an allied group, not all need to be tax-deductible one or two is enough. Because if this is a tax-deductible institute, and it lies in the context of institutes, it can accept gifts from the public & re-route them to any institute of its choice. Ex: Take an existing church it can accept on behalf of your institute - land, money of goods & gift them to you. It deducts 4% on the way. 30:20 Now weve got your structure set up, you know what it means, and you know some of the ways it operates. Youve thrown a lot of questions at it as it goes along, and these questions are all inherently answerable in the structure & you can answer the questions if youve got a clear grip on the fact that this (one) holds real property but takes no risk, the (other) takes risks but hold no real property it borrows all its property; doesnt own any land or buildings; doesnt have any employees so it is at very little risk even though it takes risk. What is not lent to this company I contracted to them. There are no employees, no employers, no investors furthermore there is no investment possible. There are no takeovers possible. The whole system is largely immune to legal attack because it is operating in a disinterested way & the law protects disinterested operations to this extent: Under the ethics of the Australian law association, any lawyer will act as your foreign agent for a non-profit institute for no charge. There is no charge they should, by their own ethics, not charge you any of their time on matters for the institute. Therefore, the only things you pay are the basic stamp taxes & convenience fees. An ethical lawyer will serve the institute free of charge. 35:24 For any of you who want to make a change to the real world in a rapid & effective way if youre looking for a vehicle for change this is it. Youre out in the marketplace, youre offering services, manufactures, youre talking to bankers, business men and youre stashing your profits in a public interest trust, making available to people generally more sorts of opportunities for them to live. Several interesting things begin to happen. As these businesses become successful their true success is measured by the fact that they arent needed. So you really do sell self-reliance and you are successful at it. How long would you be needed? As long as you arent successful. If you limit them to particular areas of self-reliance they will be rapidly non-successful. If on the other hand during the period in which they have been non-successful & you have been making money (money is a measure of their non-success & anybody whos successful no longer makes money)