Well, now there's a visual simulator available on the website that compares the current economical system to how Sharphill would work. It's quite simplified, but does show in an interactive way how to change the entire world. And thats not a small feat!
More spending power despite working half-time
Here's the thing most people don't realize: rent and daily essentials eats everything. In the current system, housing takes up to 52 percent of your income depending on where you fall on the ladder. For the middle class that's roughly $800 a month just to keep a roof over your head. For the bottom 30 percent it's closer to $600, which on a $1,160 monthly income is devastating.
In a Sharphill town, that number is zero. Not reduced. Not subsidized. Zero!
The co-ops or companies that operate in the town contribute to housing as a cost of doing business. You as an individual don't pay rent. That's not a perk or a bonus or some trick — it's the foundation everything else is built upon.
When you take housing out of the equation, suddenly working 20 hours a week starts to look very different. The simulator shows that a Sharphill resident on half the income of a current middle-class worker ends up with more left over at the end of the month.
Citizens' equity creates faster spending power
This is where it gets interesting. When people aren't bleeding money into rent, they spend locally. They eat at the restaurant down the street. They buy from the market. They hire the plumber two blocks over instead of the cheapest option an hour away.
That local spending feeds local businesses. Those businesses grow and hire. Wages go up. More spending. You see where this is going.
The simulator models this as a flywheel effect — a positive feedback loop that the current system simply doesn't have. Under today's economy, your rent goes to a landlord who might live anywhere. That money leaves your community. In Sharphill, the money circulates inside the town, building value for everyone who lives there.
Eventually overthrowing the compounding effect of the richest
Right now the top 5 percent of earners grow their income at about 7 to 9 percent a year. Why? Because wealth compounds. You have money, you invest it, the investments make more money, you invest that. Meanwhile the middle class gets about 2 percent wage growth and the bottom 30 percent gets 1 percent — barely keeping up with inflation.
The rich don't just stay rich. They pull away at an accelerating rate because compound interest is the most powerful force in economics, and right now only one group gets to ride it.
Sharphill's model changes who gets to compound. When companies contribute to housing and residents build equity in co-ops, the wealth isn't disappearing into some landlord's portfolio. It gets invested in the community. And over a 30-year timeline, the simulator shows the gap between top and bottom finally stabilizing — then actually shrinking the income of the most wealthy.
That's not taxing the rich. It's just a different architecture for where money flows that actually works - for all of us!
