Reply #81: Right, everyone is exporting captial.

[patriotvoice]

I assume that the amount remaining local for payroll is constant for all types of enterprise, but the use of local suppliers who do not import is limited to the Mom & Pop nearly exclusively. Thus anyone -- regardless of economic class -- who doesn't shop at a Mom & Pop is exporting a maximum amount of capital.

However, I can give two prime examples of how the higher economic classes spend more locally: food and furniture. Locally grown, fresh food is more expensive than processed imports. Hand-made furniture (hard wood especially, but even MDF) is 3 to 4 times more than comparable pre-fab import. Only the "more well off" can afford these "luxuries", and conversely the "less well off" must resort to options that maximally export capital.

But you raise a good point about saving. Few do, and that is extremely ill-guided. When you have very little, saving seems horribly foreign -- been there, done that. But it is a necessity. While "forced" savings like Social Security are "fine", they are not nearly liquid enough for weathering economic storms before people retire. Therefore, I would like to suggest that any GMI plan must include a mandatory, nearly-liquid savings plan.