Stewards: Achieving a sufficient return “for himself and family.”
The LAW, revealed on February 9, 1831, is the foundational framework on which plat-based NewVistas communities are based. A central provision of the LAW states that after receiving consecrated properties, “(the bishop) shall appoint every man a Steward over his own property or that which he hath received in as much as shall be sufficient for himself and family.”
For the community to accomplish this feat, in which every steward has a stewardship that provides enough for themselves and their families, it is necessary to implement the LAW with guidance from the instructions of the Plat of the City of Zion and the Plan of the House of the Lord, both revealed by June 25th, 1831.
This paper discusses the various social and economic practices embedded in the NewVistas system that allow participants to live in sustainable social and economic prosperity.
Designing housing to be sufficient for everyone
NewVistas apartments are built as modular suites measuring 4 feet by 16 feet. Each apartment has at least two of these suites, so if someone lives alone, they have one for themselves and another as a guest suite. A family of five—two parents and three children—will have a 6-suite apartment.
The community maintains this policy for all people. A person with more financial ability cannot say, rent all the apartments on a floor because they can or due to privacy or security concerns. The community’s infrastructure makes sure these concerns are addressed, negating the need for such actions.
All suites are modular, meaning they can be easily combined or separated. Each suite consists of a living area and a bed-bath module. Each part of the apartment can be isolated from the others using sound, light, and odor-proof partitions. This provides each resident with complete privacy and comfort whenever needed.
The specific dimensions of suites, apartments, and apartment buildings are informed both by the plat and the practical needs of individuals. Living spaces are therefore engineered to be sufficient for every person. Inside apartments, residents can personalize their spaces with décor such as wallpaper and paintings. The goal, therefore, is not to impose uniformity on everyone, but to provide enough living space for all without congestion or overcrowding.
Service-based economy
The community, consisting of at least 40,000 steward-owned businesses, owns all assets, including inventory, commercial and residential space, and equipment. Businesses that deal with inventory are either enhancing its value or converting it into convenient quantities for consumers. Goods – based businesses, therefore, similar to service-based businesses, offer services, where they move goods from one business or source to another, for eventual transmission to the consumer.
In this system, businesses are not the owners of assets, but they are still required to use them productively. Businesses are highly specialized, and operate processes that govern how a product moves from one stage to another.
With an approved business plan, businesses can access the resources they need from the community. In modern capitalist markets, prices are usually marked up through speculation, while in other instances they arise from ownership rent.
Where the community owns inventory, the price instead reflects the cost of transforming a good from one form to another. It also signals the logistics complexity, so that a material that is imported from a distant country as a raw material, for instance, and undergoes complicated refining processes, will have this factored into the price. In addition, scarce products will be more expensive, as the economy is market-driven, with demand and supply determining prices.
Because of its service-based nature, the barriers to entry in modern economies will disappear. What will determine whether a steward establishes a successful business is their business acumen, expertise, and the strength of their business plan. Because speculation and hoarding of production are no longer options, businesses find that quality and innovation are the primary ways to build a competitive advantage, aside from marketing. Their consumers therefore enjoy high-quality products at market-driven prices.
Walkable access – no cars
The built-up community measures 1.2 miles from corner to corner. It is therefore entirely walkable to able-bodied people. While the 1.2-mile distance is the farthest a person can walk one-way on the physical campus, most amenities are much closer. This is because commercial space where businesses are located is well-dispersed, with each apartment building’s first (podium) floor having a large space (64*160 feet) for businesses and storage. The storehouse and district buildings also have additional commercial space, hosting retailers, restaurants, offices, and leisure and recreation centers.
Because of the walkability of NewVistas communities’ campuses, and their planning in line with the plat, there are no motorways and roads, as is a permanent feature in modern towns and cities. Instead, community streets are green areas with manicured gardens and fruit trees that can be used as parks. Pedestrian traffic is mostly restricted to breezeways, which are right next to apartment buildings.
For people who need help getting around, maybe because they are infirm or have luggage to transport, the mule (MULE.WORK) comes in handy. Fitted with different apps as desired to serve as a seat, a bed, a trolley, and more, mules are essential companions for every participant. They can easily get around the breezeways and into apartments, where movement up and down is by elevator.
Connecting communities and the physical campus with hinterlands and pastures, cars are still used, alongside rail and air transport. In addition, trucks, tractors, and other special-purpose vehicles. It is within communities that they are not necessary. Mirrored industrial zones can also be accessed by mules, but due to the nature of the work done there, special-purpose vehicles are common, while vehicles for people to get around are a rare feature.
In an environment where people do not hold personal assets, the community can provide all the necessary vehicles at competitive prices while maintaining high standards of quality and maintenance through contractors who have custody.
Recreation and leisure
The community attaches great importance to leisure and recreation. Leisure has been associated with increased productivity, serving as a cognitive reset that enables a person to reorganize information and solve problems subconsciously. Leisure helps the brain to run “in the background,” spotting patterns and links that are then used to enhance the quality of work. Fatigue leads to diminishing returns, making one susceptible to errors and poor work. Leisure also boosts creativity.
An extensive body of research exists, strongly linking leisure and recreation to good health. The studies assert that because leisure and recreation help regulate stress by reducing chronic cortisol levels, they lower the risk of certain illnesses, such as cardiovascular disease.
Other findings reveal that leisure, recreation, and recharging help repair muscles, regulate hormones, and support immune function, thereby lowering a person’s risk of illness. Regular exercise and leisure activities also help reduce anxiety, depression, and emotional exhaustion, which, if left unchecked, can have potentially disastrous consequences for a person’s health.
Shared free time is the best opportunity that people have to bond. Clubs offer a great opportunity to do so. For instance, a few rounds of golf give the players ample time to talk about not just the game, but their lives and businesses, creating bonds that can be cultivated over time into strong friendships.
Today, only 24% of American men engage in any meaningful leisure activities, citing work commitments, lack of sufficient disposable income, and a lack of access to the facilities needed. For women, the number is even less. The community has many facilities within the physical campus and in the hinterlands, such as external resorts, where people can take time off on a regular basis. The community also aims to have a 4–day work week, so that people can take regular, short vacations within and outside the community, boosting their productivity and health while fueling economic growth.
Healthy food systems and lower health costs
Nutrition is one of the primary determinants of health. A healthful diet forms a strong defense against ailments that afflict many more people in the West, and increasingly, in other parts of the world.
One of the clearest manifestations of unhealthy nutrition in America is obesity and overweight. Today, more than 70% of Americans are overweight, with half of these being obese.
The high numbers strongly suggest that obesity and overweight are not a consequence of individual choice, but a systemic issue that is tied to diet composition, lifestyle, and environmental factors. In other words, people are becoming obese because of the lives they lead – sedentary with long hours at work or on the couch, the food available to them – highly processed and with excessive sugar and salt, and the unavailability of better food choices.
Poor nutrition eventually leads to illness – obesity is by itself a health condition, and is also a risk factor for other diseases, including cancer, hypertension, heart disease, and diabetes, which are highly expensive to treat and manage.
The community strictly governs food production and processing – healthful food production means less processing, fewer food miles, and access to the right food. Because food in the community travels fewer miles, is more plentiful, and is grown in full compliance with environmental standards, it leads to better health outcomes, especially when coupled with other things beneficial to health – recreation, a walkable community, and the absence of a car-dependent neighborhood.
Early diagnosis is a key part of quality healthcare and ensures that diseases can be treated in time. The community uses advanced medical surveillance and diagnostic technologies to detect and address the early onset of various conditions.
Organizational support for stewardships and universal access to credit
The 24 community agencies exist to serve participants in their social and economic endeavors, to greatly boost their chances of success. Agencies 4, 5, and 6, for instance, are concerned with people’s health and nutrition, life plans, education, and leisure, ensuring that they have the right physical and mental composition to pursue other interests. Agencies 19, 20, and 21 help participants with business planning, risk management, and marketing, reducing the blind spots that many small businesses today fall victim to and fail.
One of the primary barriers to entry for businesses today is a lack of capital and red tape. The community’s extensive economic infrastructure is designed to remove these barriers, making the establishment of a business easy, as long as a solid business plan with accompanying risk and market assessments and plans is approved.
Agencies 1, 2, and 3 give a steward all the tools needed for them to start and run a business. Agency 1, which governs the acquisition of current assets, whose title is held by agency 7, sets up the systems through which inventory flows. When a business needs inventory, it uses the owner’s credit line to facilitate the transfer of custody from another business. With custody, they can add value through the means that are available to their business, before passing on custody after payment of the cost they put up to acquire custody, plus a margin.
Agency 2 governs business space, which is again, under the care of a contractor who creates convenience for occupants, while agency 3 governs equipment and tooling. The three agencies, together, therefore give a business the necessary tools to operate. Other agencies in the community handle other matters, including audit, accounting, and legal affairs, ensuring that while a business may be small, it has access to all the services that a modern multinational would have, and which are instrumental to its continued success.
Every steward has a credit line, which is based on the contributory net worth they have put in agency 8, as well as the profit residue after subtracting what is sufficient for them and their dependents. This universal access to credit is essential to ensuring an economy where all resources are at full employment. When it comes to securing inventory, for instance, a steward uses their credit line, and so no business can run aground because it does not have inventory; instead, this is dependent on the business’s performance and the strength of their business plan.
All as business owners – no employees, emphasis on automation
Nobody has an employment contract in the community; every able-bodied adult participant owns a business. Every person who possesses a skill that would traditionally secure them employment is instead supported by the community’s infrastructure to start a business using those skills. Therefore, a person who has worked for a time as a janitor in a hospital can start a cleaning business, and sign up other businesses to offer his services.
Having a business as opposed to employment has several advantages for a steward. They get to gain diverse experiences, which further boost their profiles and the quality of their work. In turn, this enhances their income over time.
Participants do not have to wait until their 18th birthday to start a business. From the age of 12, every minor is actively encouraged to start a business. Usually, they will assist their parents in their businesses, picking up important skills in business and money management, while saving up for future needs. The education system lasts only 3 hours a day, affording minors ample time to work on their business. The education itself also aims to instill in every person, business management and entrepreneurship skills, so that their mindset is not focused on securing a job after finishing college, but on starting a business now, which they can improve as they gain more skills.
The community, as an engine of innovation, endeavors to embed technology in business operations. This is necessary, too, because the absence of cheap labor means that businesses may need to pay more than they do in current settings. AI-powered robots, for example, will become a fixture in farmland, as will be self-operating harvesters and planters. This automation will be replicated in virtually every other business sector.
Sufficient is individual – tailored to specific needs
As mentioned, each steward has access to a credit line provided to the community by an external commercial bank. The community then assigns each steward a credit line based on their contributed net worth to the community, and past residues from their business. The credit line is used to cover all personal and business needs. It is adjustable as circumstances demand, to take care of large expenses, for instance.
When a steward makes revenue in their business, it goes to pay the credit line. Any excess – more than is necessary to pay the credit line – is transferred to the community’s agency 8. Here, while the community has title to the funds, it issues the steward with a deed and covenant that cannot be broken, detailing what they have contributed to the community, their benefits, and responsibilities under the deed and covenant.
Over time, the community’s algorithms learn what is sufficient for each steward. They use their daily use data, as well as several other determinants – health, number of determinants, nature of business, normal vacation choices, lifestyle, general expense levels in that community and the economy within which it operates, among others. It comes with a tailored amount that it estimates the steward will find sufficient for their daily personal and business expenses.