There are numerous reasons why we should change our economic thinking: uneven distribution of power, large differences between the rich and the poor, corruption,debt crises, financial crises, waste of natural resources, artificial aging, pollution, mountains of waste, unemployment, famine, diseases caused by improper eating, drinking and breathing, you name it. You read about it in the newspaper every day. It is aired on television every day.

Everyone is aware of phenomena like unemployment and the existence of a small, rich upper-class. Everyone remembers images of extreme poverty. The images of economic refugees leaving their country in search of a better life are widely known. Everyone knows expressions such as "the rich are getting richer and the poor are getting poorer". I'm wondering how to create an economy that prevents poverty and the emergence of a rich upper-class. There are numerous issues that need to be resolved in an economy like this. How do we distribute the work to be performed equally among all people? In doing so, we prevent unemployment.

I am interested in the mathematical aspects of these types of issues. I focus on issues such as: What is the way to distribute work fairly among the population if you know which products are needed and how to make them? How can we avoid shortages, such as those caused by failed harvests? How can we prevent overproduction? How can we arrange the answers to these issues to construct a logical and manageable economy? On this website I have articulated my own answers to these questions as a contribution to the vast discussion on how to proceed.

❶ Allow the people to express their true needs. ❷ Adjust the production to what people really need. ❸ Distribute the work equally among those who are capable of working. ❹ Establish a steady value for goods and services that enables fair reward of labor. ❺ Prevent squandering. ❻ Produce in an environmentally friendly manner.

An economy is characterized by two cycles. ❶ The demand cycle is the initial step. The demand cycle corresponds to the question "What products do we need?" This question leads to the design of all kinds of products. ❷ The second is the supply cycle. This cycle corresponds to the question "How do we make the products?" This question leads to the design of all types of production processes, which involves multiple tasks that necessitate a wide range of skills. ❸ Skills are the glue that binds people to tasks. And needs connect people with products. ❹ The demand cycle results in numerous locations in space and time where products must be delivered. The supply cycle necessitates constant scheduling and rescheduling of tasks. ❺ This project attempts to reconcile these two cycles as closely as possible.

The following points of departure provide a brief description of a philosophy on how a universal economy could function. This philosophy will guide the research focus in the upcoming years. With the help of modern computers, we are able to achieve the following: ❶ First make an overview of the products already available, ❷ generate a list of every product being made, and ❸ make an inventory of the products that people need. From this data, you can ❹ deduce what must be added to the list of products to be manufactured. What people order may not match their actual needs. It is not wise to order addictive and dangerous drugs. As a society, you have the power to restrict what people are allowed to order. ❺ Compile a list of products that are not suitable for circulation. Now turn your attention to production processes. Forbid the production process being too taxing on the environment. ❻ You end up with a list of all sustainable production processes. Our next task is to concentrate on the coherence of the processes. ❼ Make sure that production processes that result in waste that cannot be recycled by a subsequent process, are not allowed. ❽ Give a detailed description of all allowed sustainable production processes. Describe the input and output of each process and of each task within the process. Identify all the necessary tools to perform a task. It is important to specify the necessary training and skills for every task in a production process. ❾ Compile a list of all available resources: people, animals, plants and tools. ❿ Identify those who are too young or too old to take part in the production process. ⓫ Identify anyone who, due to illness or other circumstances, cannot or can only partially participate in the production process. ⓬Register the education and skills of everyone. ⓭ Everyone who has the ability to work must work. Participating in the labour process makes people happier and is more satisfying than staying at home. As far as possible, all workers should work the same length of time. Use these premises to schedule the production processes in such a way that all products arrive on time and in their correct location and that human participants work - as far as possible - the same number of hours. Other restrictions, like having enough room to sleep, must also be met. ⓮ It's possible that the current capacity is not capable of producing everything. It is necessary to determine which products can not not be produced. The prosperity that can be achieved depends on the limits set by the available capacity of workers and materials. ⓯ There is always a tension between the amount of work that needs to be done and the prosperity that can be achieved with it. It is necessary to reach an agreement on the desired prosperity. ⓰ The value of a commonly used product is determined by the number of hours required to make it. When you say: 'the value of this product is 20 hours', you mean that people spent 20 hours making the product. ⓱ The distribution of goods ensures that everyone receives what they need. Everyone gets suitable housing. Everyone gets to eat. If a medical expert determines that you require a wheelchair, you will be given one. Goods are assigned in a stratified manner. The reward for your work is only a small portion of what you receive. ⓲ Repeat these steps endlessly. Each subsequent step takes into account what has changed in the meantime. ⓳ The fair distribution of work throughout the population, with everyone - as far as possible - working the same number of hours, leads to minimal unemployment. Technological progress will cause everyone to work less. Working efficiently and repairing as little as possible is in everyone's interest. This results in better quality, less waste and less unnecessary work. ⓴ The fact that the value of goods is linked to the amount of time needed to manufacture them. This results in stable prices and improved economic predictability.

The differences between capitalism and what the Ma'at Research Project aims for, are the fact that ❶ prices do not depend on supply and demand, but on the effort it takes to produce the product, the fact that ❷ supply is calculated on the basis of demand, and that ❸ the Ma'at Research Project starts with minimizing unemployment.

The differences between what the Ma'at Research Project aims for and traditional communism are that ❶ the Ma'at philosophy does not divide the world into two classes of people, entrepreneurs and labourers, and ❷ is against the idea of a class conflict. ❸ Short-cycle rescheduling is used to add flexibility.

The differences between what the Ma'at Research Project aims for and communism as it developed in many countries are that ❶ the production is aligned with what people truly need and that ❷ the people can really specify and order themselves the products they need. There is no small group that determines what others can and cannot buy. If an umbrella organization has control over what people are allowed to produce and order, then the results of fair referendums should be the basis for the decisions of that organization. The control should be carried out from below.

Prosperity

Prosperity for everyone is the goal of an economic system. Prosperity is defined as meeting the needs to live a happy life. What is needed to lead a happy life varies from person to person. It cannot be dictated by a government. In the end, it is up to each person to indicate their needs. Creating a list of what is necessary and what is available enables us to make a list of what needs to be done. This list contains all the products to be made, along with the delivery location and time. This list provides a basis for creating a production plan.

Scheduling system

An objective of the Ma'at Research Project is to develop a scheduling system, in which each individual in a population works the same amount of time. The main objective is to evade unemployment. The desires of the indivuals in the population, their expertise and competencies, and how these desires can be fulfilled are the principal input for the scheduling system. The system calculates what desires can be fulfilled, and produces a schedule where work to be performed is equally distributed among members of the population. Children, sick and elderly people are exempt from work.

Daily necessities in life versus luxury

Another goal is to identify the wishes that are necessary to live a normal life, and what wishes should be regarded as luxury. The scheduling program calculates a schedule, within which all the goals for living a modest happy life will be achieved. All wishes which are considered luxury are fulfilled when there is enough time to produce the luxury products. This will lead to a debate on what might be available wealth.

Assigning a value to goods and services

A goal consists in determining the value of goods and services. The value of the goods and services required to remain alive and to live a normal life should be in line with the amount of time needed to create the goods and services and to tidy up the dirt and waste. The same applies to luxury goods. But what about valuable works of art in galleries, what about monuments and landmarks?

Assigning value to labor

One of the goals is to determine the reward for doing the work. Everybody should be able to live a decent life, but are competence, expert knowledge and responsibility reasons for a higher remuneration? What should be a reasonable maximum difference between the lowest and the highest earnings?

Technological progress

One more goal is to analyze what to do when technology changes. If someone finds a way to produce a product in half of the time, the work is redistributed among the members of the population. They all work less. As the value of a product is associated with the time it takes to produce the product, the value of several products will change. During a certain period identical products with different production processes and different values are in circulation.

Preventing pollution by reusing waste

Another goal is to make the production process circular. All output of the production process should be input to another production process, or be a natural product that causes no pollution.

Efficiency

The next goal is to gain efficiency in production methods and administrative procedures. This can be done by re-evaluating production methods and by simplifying processes and keeping administrative procedures to an attainable minimum. The project aims at reducing the working time for every member of the population. Efficiency is not a natural characteristic of human beings. Efficiency is not something that humans are born with. Efficiency is a skill that needs to be taught. It must be taught in the family and at school. Learning how to organize in a way that prevents others from doing unnecessary work is crucial. It's a component of being responsible for others. It's important to ensure that others can work in a meaningful manner. The act of getting in each other's way and all being in traffic jams is not part of that. Nontheless: efficiency can be suffocating. It should be applied when there is routine. Creative processes and scientific research need the space to experiment, and leave the beaten track.

Continuity

A goal is to check that the circular economy goes on forever, that there will always be enough products that can act as input for the processes that create the requested products.

Freedom and righteousness

A very important goal is to find the criteria to check if efficiency was well implemented, guaranteeing freedom and righteousness. As part of this quest we are trying to find procedures that ensure that the supply in stores and other outlets is consistent with people's needs and wishes, and in accordance with the public interest.

Dividing labor among organizations

Cooperations often take the form of one ore more organizations. The members of an organization communicate in a shared language and the different skills of the members enable the organization to perform a certain task. Organizations come into existence and disappear depending on personal initiatives or forced by technical change. One of the goals is to determine the best way the work can be assigned to different organizations and how can cooperate within an economy based on the principles of the Ma'at Research Project.

The significance of organizations: Which ones are too big to fail?

One more goal is analyzing what organizations are too important or too big to fail and what measures must be taken to avoid a collapse of the economy.

Power

A goal is to analyze the power of big organizations. In a capitalistic society big organizations are considered too powerful. From history the Rockefeller imperium and the AT&T company are well known. Those organizations were forced to split up into smaller organizations. But there remains a tendency to form large organizations, like multinationals, joint ventures, consortiums or cartels. The unfair influence of their lobbying activities is well known. On the other hand, in a society that is technologically advanced, it is impossible to avoid very large companies. This research project is looking for ways to avoid misuse of power and to prevent organizations from becoming criminal. Anyone whose environment is influenced by decisions by large or small organizations should be involved in the decision-making process. Decisions must comply with requirements that are considered fair and just by everyone.

How to operate in a world that is dominated by capitalism?

A next goal is to analyze how an organization using the principles resulting from the Ma'at Research Project can operate in a society where money is used. Internally such an organization takes stock of the wishes of their members and there clients, checks if it is possible to fulfill those wishes within the organization. The work to do is equally devided among the members, Everybody who is able to work is supposed to work an equal amount of hours to achieve that the wishes are fulfilled. Goods and services are valued according to the time it costs to provide them. Externally the organization functions like a normal enterprise. Goods and services are valued according to the quirks of the financial markets. The organization has the same obligation and responsibilities as any other organization in the countries where it is operating.

Education

A good economy cannot function without education. It is necessary for all members of a society to understand their rights and duties. It is necessary for them to comprehend how the economy is functioning and what everyone's role is.

Monitoring experiments

Maybe some organizations will want to experiment with the results of this project in the real world. A last goal is to monitor those experiments.

There's no guarantee that the Ma'at Research Project will be a success. An economic system cannot be successful in an area where a form of apartheid exists. If people do not know how to live in peace together, there won't be a fair economic system.

The Ma'at Project is a research project. The project's outcome is still uncertain. New insights will be added. Other insights may be rejected. The ultimate objective, 'How can people live in peace together?' remains unchanged.

The project's aim is to contribute to the global discussion on how to achieve a fair and sustainable economic system.