A System Architecture Inspired by the Work of Professor Richard Murphy

1. The Assignment: From "Politics" to "Economics"

For decades, your work has articulated a profound and consistent critique of our economic system. You've argued that we are trapped in a model of extraction that "can't afford the wealthy" because it is designed to serve rentier-capitalism, not human need.

The core problem, as you identify it, is one of measurement. We are beholden to metrics like GDP that value transactions over wellbeing. As a result, our economy systematically destroys the very foundations of life—what you have termed human, social, natural, and environmental capital.

Your proposed alternative, the "Politics of Care," calls for a total paradigm shift. It demands a system that:

• Prioritizes human, social, and natural capital over financial capital.
• Measures what actually matters: wellbeing, sustainability, and justice.
• Values the foundational work of care, community, and stewardship.

This document is a direct response to that call. It is not a critique or an academic paper, but an engineering blueprint. It accepts your "Politics of Care" as the assignment and outlines a functional "Economics of Care" designed to make your principles operational.

2. The Core Mechanism: Valuing What Matters

Your central thesis is that our system ignores the most valuable forms of human activity. Our solution is to create a new economic operating system—the Polis Protocol—that directly measures and rewards this "invisible" value.

This system is built on two new, parallel currencies that are created, not by debt or speculation, but by the provable creation of human and social value.

CareCoin: The Currency of Care

• Your Principle: The "Politics of Care" framework. You argue that the unpaid work of childcare, eldercare, community-building, and environmental stewardship is the most valuable work in our society, yet it is economically invisible.
• Our Implementation: CareCoin is a currency minted by individuals who perform this essential care work.
• How it Works: Using a simple application, a person providing eldercare, restoring a local habitat, or mentoring a youth can document their activity. This work is then validated by the community and, most importantly, measured for its impact on wellbeing indicators (e.g., improved health outcomes, reduced social isolation, increased biodiversity). The provider receives CareCoins proportional to the positive value they create, turning care into economically secure, productive labor. This is the direct implementation of your Commandment 3: "Fair Rewards for Work," extended to the work that matters most.

DemCoin: The Currency of Wisdom

• Your Principle: Your critique of a passive citizenry and the "graduate employment apocalypse." You've noted that AI is displacing knowledge workers, risking mass obsolescence and extremism.
• Our Implementation: DemCoin turns quality democratic participation into paid, professional labor.
• How it Works: AI cannot perform the uniquely human task of wise, contextual governance. DemCoin is earned by citizens for the cognitive work of researching policy, deliberating with peers, and contributing to collective decisions. An AI assesses the structural quality of a contribution (its reasoning, use of evidence, and consensus-building nature), not its political content. This creates a new class of dignified work that AI cannot automate and directly attacks the rational ignorance that plagues our democracies.