Municipalities Electronic Trade Agreement

Implementation of any form of globally standardized urban infrastructure will require A Treaty Between Nations driven by the self-interest of urban populations.

A treaty, the Municipalities Electronic Trade Agreement, can be created through a public process and presented to the Congress of the United States of America that will establish a program for any city in participating countries to form a special district that models the rules and procedures needed for a self-governing space-based society.  Most commentators say that the long-term growth of humanity means that space colonization and exploitation are necessary parts of any serious plan. Solving the political and cultural problems required to live in space can be used as a foundation for the earth-based META City d\Special Districts. It can address many of the social, legal, and economic problems on Earth that stand between us and success in any effort to colonize space. The rules for the META City district can be the same as those required for a space colony.

The Municipalities Electronic Trade Agreement is an alternate strategy to achieve global cooperation for the peaceful development of human civilization.  A META Treaty proposal would create:

• The Municipalities Electronic Trade Agreement will structure the political relationship between the META City and the city, state, nation, and META System. The Agreement should create treaty “zones” within each city that joins.
• The META will implement standardized high-density urban infrastructure design and acquisition systems with full three-dimensional modeling and simulation for META City designers and planners. The development structure establishes a standardized Request for Proposal format addressing new urban infrastructure. Suppliers worldwide would participate in all stages of the process using an Internet-based portal. At the same time, the urban planning community focuses on defining what a standardized high-density urban district should be.  Higher densities and shared support systems going beyond plumbing, energy, and transportation would be the main topics.
• Standardized bid proposals would be broken down into global volumes of each part that would automatically be total items shared by all bids. The resulting sub-component bidding is online worldwide. Ordered parts will be shipped according to instructions negotiated during the purchase.
• Tremendous productivity increases can be produced by global standardization of urban infrastructure technology and systems, enough to pay for a space development effort and to restore the Earth’s biosphere.  Cities are the source of wealth and, when they work well, can generate far more capital than required to maintain them.
• The process of developing a self-governing space-based culture should not wait until the opportunity exists because it may never come to a fearful and ignorant society. We can and should envision a form of city government suitable for operating a space colony. Moreover, we should see this as an opportunity to galvanize public thinking about the role of our technological islands on Earth and how they can lead society into space development.
• META Social Services Infrastructure Merit-based META citizenship with vested rights to housing, health care, education, and communications services.  One approach that can be included in an internship period is that it exchanges time in service for lifetime entitlements or access to them within the special district on a merit or vestment basis. New approaches to retirement, health, and long-term care can be integrated into this system since the people will begin participation at a young age and will have many years of productivity before needing any assistance. This investment of time and energy by the young can create a capital advantage for the META Cities.
• The Municipalities Electronic Trade Agreement will aid Space Development. The process of developing a self-governing space-based culture should not wait until the opportunity exists because it may never come to a fearful and ignorant society. We can and should envision a form of city government suitable for operating a space colony. Moreover, we should see this as an opportunity to galvanize public thinking about the role of our technological islands on Earth and how they can lead society into space development. In theory, all space colonies will be technological islands in space, whether on the surface of a large body or floating in a LaGrange point. Those living there will depend on each other and the complex of support systems that spawned their colony. Essentially, they will be cities in space existing in a resource region governed by a larger governmental entity, much as nations define the land, as in the US, for resource management purposes. This idea is self-evident. During the first stage of growth into space, a coalition of space-faring nations (probably the US and its client states, but maybe the UN) will appoint themselves arbiters of resources and wield power as they do on Earth. Current information is that such a coalition already exists in the form of the Secret Space Program and its investor administrative organizations, the Corporation is organized to allow every nation’s elite to buy in and have a share of the organization. Once the administrative infrastructure to ensure the continuing authority of the coalition is in place, an emphasis will be put on resource exploitation and colonization. The existing group is more like the United Nations, with the owners controlling everything, than what the META would evolve into that it would assure a means to give people representation too. Projecting civilian communities into space complements current military strategies by making them a supporting function of social expansion. The advantages for individuals are enormous.  A clear vision of each person’s interest and benefit from the development of space is possible with this program since the move into space will be perceived as the cumulative outcome of participation and development at the local level.