Governments tend to look to businesses to develop community infrastructure. Policymakers and governments create proposals, and government workers and consultants develop specifications of what is needed. Governments go to private industry to build projects. This article shows another path that will cost the government a fraction of the current cost of building community infrastructure by removing the cost of interest and making multiple uses of the same capital.
Living Streets proposes:
The government guarantees a simple interest loan from a Community Bank to pay for the information system. The system will be owned by Living Streets, and members will earn shares according to their contributions to the system. Voting will be one vote per member who has shares.
The system records the outside walking of Living Street members, collects other personal information, and stores it on each person’s phone so that it can only be accessed by the person who recorded the information.
The government will pay Living Street members who use the app $3 per kilometre walked. Living Streets will receive notional money from research organisations that use the information.
Living Streets will use the money it collects to pay its expenses, build the system, and analyse the information from research organisations. The information will refine the value of each km walked (initially at $3). Living Streets will use its profits to improve the walking environment of its members in collaboration with the government authorities responsible for the streets.
Living Streets will make the app available to other community groups so that they can do the same thing with their members and operate other group systems. Living Streets will receive royalties to maintain and develop the system.
Living Streets will calculate the value to the community of better health and lower transport costs of the km walked by members to justify the payment of the $3.
Suppose 10,000 people use the app, resulting in 1,000 km per person yearly. In that case, the money collected will be 10,000 times 1,000 times, or $10,000,000, which, through the use of Simple Interest Loans, will result in the expenditure of $10,000,000 on the app and walking facilities for the community at no net cost to the ACT government assuming each km walked is equal to $3 in health and transport savings.
The data will be supplied to research and health organisations as specified by the government. The organisations will pay a nominal price for the information at a price determined by the government.
