The New Economy

Inflation, unemployment, and huge debt have most Americans concerned about the future.

But none are more concerned than recent college graduates.

Monticello College offers a solution for our graduates that allows them to build a business, build a family and a home, and do it all without debt.

The solution we are advancing is called the New Economy. The New Economy concept at Monticello College is broken-down into 5 elements:

  • Liber Education* (with no accrued debt)
  • Secure home/land with no-mortgage
  • Independent no-debt food source (95%)
  • Independent no-debt home energy/fuel source (100%)
  • Independent family business

*Liber Education is the method by which we fulfill the mission of the college; all studies and experiences can be categorized within the five elements of liber education:

  1. Liberal Arts
  2. Humanities
  3. Manual Arts
  4. Abundance Mentality/Producers
  5. Practical Spirituality

This combination allows a person to be as independent of our current debt-based economy as they choose to be. This is highly significant as most Americans embrace our debt society as a given, or at the very least they don’t like it, but they don’t know how to avoid it.

What the New Economy is and is Not

The New Economy is not a new way of living, but a return to how Americans lived from the first colonial days to the turn of the 20th century. The New Economy is not an alternative way of living such as “van life” or “tiny home” living. It is not some utopian scheme or a way to be isolated from society.

In a nutshell, the New Economy is a family-oriented, no debt, personal “means of production” approach to living. The New Economy is living without debt. That means finding ways to provide a livelihood and a home without a mortgage, car payment, utilities, food bill, and any other expense, anything that would hold American families as economic hostages. After nearly 100 years of an employee-based economy, it is clear that being an employee is not compatible with the concept of the New Economy.

American culture is a blend of two kinds of economic elements. Some follow a “dog-eat-dog,” “every man for himself” style of economics and others, a “government welfare entitlement” form of economics. This blend either sees everyone else as an economic enemy or at least objectifies them as a consumer or on the other hand, views themselves as needing constant entitlements and handouts from the government.

The New Economy suggests a different approach. It boasts an abundance mentality—all of nature and mankind can tap into abundance if they know how to access it. An abundance that can only be triggered by everyone taking care of their own concerns, on a piece of land sufficient for their needs, coming together during emergencies, but strengthening the community by virtue of their independence.

Liber Education - why you need one

We have written extensively on the need for a liber education in the books, A Thomas Jefferson Education for Teens and AMERICAN: Killing the American Dream, and many other articles. We have referred to many of the leading authorities regarding the need for the liberal arts and the manual arts: Adler, Hutchinson, Barzun, Kirk, Bloom, Berry, DeMille, Salatin, Brown, Bunting, and many others.

A liber education is vital to developing the skills to become a centered individual, experience a happy and successful marriage, raise a family, independently provide for your family, contribute to your community, follow the dictates of your own conscience, and make an independent positive impact on the world. The key is to get both a strong foundation in the liberal arts and the manual arts at the same time.

Secure Home/Land with No-Mortgage

On campus we teach students all of the criteria they will need to make the best choice of land for their future families. There are many particulars in the process of finding the right land for your needs. Once you have taken the proper steps to find the perfect piece of ground that is calling you, it is vitally important to get on your land as soon as possible with temporary housing. The power of ownership or working towards ownership is invigorating and will help you battle doubts and concerns of the future.

Independent No-Debt Food Source (95%)

Even before you secure land, you will begin to plan how to grow food. This is everything from vegetables to honeybees to livestock. A good plan will help you secure your seed from local sources (as soon as you have decided on land) and give you time to find free or nearly free starter hives and livestock.

Chickens are a must and a couple of goats are very easy to handle in the beginning. We go into depth on these things in our permaculture segment and our on campus farm. We do not recommend that you plant more than 1,000 sq. ft. of ground the first year. For comparison, that is the area of a 60 x 16 ft. greenhouse. Well managed, that can feed 4 people comfortably, which means you could grow most of what you would need to eat and have a surplus to sell.

Growing food includes the harvesting and preservation of food. To truly live without a food bill takes effort. Picking vegetables, canning, freezing, dehydrating, making cheese, and butter, butchering chickens and hogs, salting meat for ham and bacon, grinding flour for bread, and a thousand other things are all part of the New Economy.

It is better to start with a small but productive garden and a few chickens and succeed than to start with a big dream and then fail and lose your nerve. MC students will have at least 3 years of experience under their belts of growing and preserving food and will, of course, have the school as a resource for their own private post-undergraduate efforts.

Independent No-Debt Home Energy/Fuel Source (100%)

Learning to use wind power, solar power and to heat with wood or coal are all vital to the concept of independent energy. As our campus is off grid, students begin to learn how to live off grid and how to look for land that will allow them to continue energy independence when they leave.

Independent Family Business

If you attend Monticello College, before you even complete your higher education, we will begin working with you to create a business. Students create a proposal and then we begin to flesh it out with every aspect of a business start-up: business structure (for profit or non-profit), government compliance, finished product concept, budget, marketing, staffing, production, and distribution, etc. Examples of businesses created or in the process of being created by MC students include a chicken farm, an online high school, an educational and herbal mentoring service, a martial arts dojo, and a childcare nanny service.