Declaration of Independence

In Action January 1, 2001.

The UNANIMOUS DECLARATION of the FOUNDERS of the VeraSage Institute of the PROFESSIONS ASSEMBLED,

WHEN in the Course of Economic Evidence, it becomes necessary for one group of Professionals to dissolve the Traditional Bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the Powers of the Free Market, the separate and equal Station to which the Laws of Economics entitle them, a decent Respect to the Opinions of the Profession requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the Separation.

We hold these Truths to be self-evident, that all Value is Subjective, the Customer is sole arbiter of the Value which we in the Professions create, and Price determines Costs, not the opposite — That to secure these Truths, Policies and Procedures are instituted among members of the Profession, and that whenever any Policy becomes destructive of these Principles, it is the Right of the Profession to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Policies, laying its foundation on such Principles as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Professionalism, Dignity, Self-respect, and Happiness.

Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Traditions long established should not be changed for light and transient Causes; and accordingly all Experience hath shewn, that the Professions are more disposed to suffer than to right themselves by abolishing the Policies and Procedures to which they are accustomed. But when a long Train of Pernicious Effects evinces a Design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their Right, it is their Duty, to throw off such Traditions, and to provide new Procedures for their future Security.

Such has been the patient Sufferance of these Founders and Fellows; and such is now the Necessity which constrains them to alter the former anachronistic Systems of Firm Management. The History of the present Time Accounting is a History of repeated Injuries and Deleterious Effects, all having in direct Object the Establishment of an absolute Tyranny over the Professions.

To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a Candid World.

Time Accounting is a descendant of the thoroughly discredited Marxian Labor Theory of Value, which has never adequately explained Value in a Free Market and has no jurisdiction to control the Pricing of Intellectual Capital of which the Professions are engaged in Creating.

Time Accounting has foisted onto the professions the implicit assertion that Time x Rate = Value. This Equation is emphatically false, and is in need of being rejected as without Reason. The Notion that Time is Money is hereby directly rejected.

Time Accounting misaligns the interests of the Professional and the Customer whom it is pledged to Serve.Time Accounting has focused the Professions solely on hours, not Value, thereby keeping the Professional Mired in Mediocrity at the expense of Entrepreneurial Excellence in the pursuit of opportunities.

Time Accounting places the voluntary transaction risk entirely on the Customer, in direct defiance of the Customer’s interests the Professions have pledged to Serve.

Time Accounting fosters a production mentality, not an Entrepreneurial Spirit, thereby hindering the Professions in their attempt to innovate and contribute to the dynamism of the Free Market.

Time Accounting has called together Management and Partners at Places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the Professionals and Customers they are bound to Serve, for the sole Purpose of fatiguing them into Compliance with these arbitrary Measures.

Time Accounting creates a subsidy system whereby some Customers will pay for the learning curve of others, and the allocation of Value to any one Customer is completely arbitrary and capricious.

Time Accounting transmits no useful information, as it is definitely not a Critical Success Factor or a Key Predictive Indicator for any member of the Profession, as defined by the Customer whom it is Pledged to Serve.

Time Accounting produces information that is Suspect and subject to inaccuracies and nonfeasance.

Time Accounting has made Owners dependent on Its will alone for the Tenure, Promotion, and the Amount of Payment of Professional Salaries rendered, irrespective of the Value they Create.

Time Accounting has erected a Multitude of new Ominous forms, and internal Bureaucracies, and sent hither Swarms of Officers, Nefarious Cost Accountants, Superfluous Lean and Six-Sigma Belts of various Colors, and Activity Based Costing Neophytes to harass our People, and eat out their Substance, in fifteen minute increments, and sometimes less.

Time Accounting encourages the Hoarding of Hours with no attention paid to the internal efficacious utilization of a Firm’s Resources.

Time Accounting has conspired with others to subject us to a Measurement foreign to the Laws of Economics, and unacknowledged by our Self Evident Truths; giving Its Assent to the importance of pretended consequences.

Time Accounting focuses on Efforts, not Results. Customers don’t buy efforts, and they don’t buy hours, making Time Accounting a measurement of precisely the wrong things.

Time Accounting has become a tool, enhanced by modern technology, already rife with circumstances of Cruelty and Perfidy, scarcely paralleled in any other industry, and totally unworthy of a Proud, and Intellectual Capital based, Profession.

Time Accounting penalizes Technological Advances, as the Professions continue to invest in more and efficient technology, in order to produce more work in less Time, thus lowering Revenue in a Time Accounting Pricing Paradigm.

Time Accounting’s Hourly Rates are set by paying attention to competitors, who have no quantifiable interest in the success of any competing enterprise, thereby depriving a Firm’s Owners from being compensated for the Value They create.

Time Accounting is a Cost-plus Pricing method that has been thoroughly discredited throughout its inglorious history, and is no longer relevant in a world where wealth is created by Free Minds in Free Markets. It is not the Customer’s duty to provide the Professions with a Desirable Net Income; it is the duty of the Professions to Provide a Service that is so good, the Customer Dutifully Pays a Profit in Recognition of what was done for them. Profit is a Lagging Indicator, at best, and is a Result of a Job well done, an Applause. In a Free Market, costs do not determine price, rather, price determines costs and value determines price.

Time Accounting defies the imperative rule of private, Free Market Transactions; that is, the Price is known to the Customer before they purchase a product or service. The Professions Defy this well-known Law at their Own Peril.

Time Accounting does not Differentiate one firm in the Profession from another. Rather, it transforms the Crown Jewels of any one Firm—the human and social capital, experience, wisdom, professional judgment and intellect—into one completely arbitrary Hourly Rate, viewed as a Commodity by the Public.

Time Accounting imposes an arbitrary ceiling on the Income Potential of the Professions, as there is only a fixed quantity of hours in any given day, week, month, year or life. This ceiling has been imposed by Time Accounting, not the Public the Professions are Pledged to Serve.

Time Accounting diminishes the Quality of Life of the Professional, by viciously segregating His or Her Time into Billable and Non Billable segments. Rather than being a device for tracking the Inventory of Time, Time Accounting has become the Inventory.

In every stage of these Oppressions we have Petitioned, Pleaded and Exhorted the Profession’s Leaders and Consultants for Redress in the most humble Terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated Injury and Ridicule. A Master, whose Character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the arbitrary Ruler of a free Profession in a Free Market.

Nor have we been wanting in Attentions to Leaders and Consultants of the Profession around the world. We have warned them from Time to Time of Attempts by their anachronistic Practices to extend an unwarrantable Jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the Circumstances of our Emigration and Conception of a radical business model for Professional Firms. We have appealed to their native Justice and Magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the Ties of our common Knowledge and Interests to disavow these Usurpations, which, would inevitably interrupt our Connections and Correspondence and hinder the Future of the Professions. They too have been deaf to the Voice of Justice, Economics, and of Consanguinity.

We must, therefore, acquiesce in the Necessity, which denounces our Separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of the Professions, wrong in the Marketplace of Ideas.

We, therefore, the Representatives of VeraSage Institute, in GENERAL CONGRESS, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the World for the Rectitude of our Intentions, do, in the Name, and by Authority of the good People of this Institute, solemnly Publish and Declare, That this Institute is, and of Right ought to be, FREE AND INDEPENDENT FROM THE TYRANNY OF TIME; that it is absolved from all Allegiance to the Past Traditions as they relate to Time Accounting, and that all Measurements and Procedures between them are and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as FREE AND INDEPENDENT PROFESSIONALS, they have full Power to Price on Purpose and for Value, levy Ideas in the Free Market, contract Alliances, establish Commerce, engage in Capitalist Acts between Consenting Adults, and to do all other Acts and Thoughts which INDEPENDENT PROFESSIONALS may of right do. And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm Reliance on the Protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes, our Energies, and our sacred Honor.

SIGNERS OF THE DECLARATION

Signed by Order and in BEHALF of VeraSage Institute,

RONALD J. BAKER, California USA; JUSTIN H. BARNETT, California USA; DANIEL D. MORRIS, California USA; PETER BYERS, New Zealand; MICHELLE GOLDEN, Missouri USA; DARYL GOLEMB, California USA; PAUL KENNEDY, Goffs Oak, England; ED KLESS, Texas USA; CHRISTOPHER MARSTON, Esq., Massachusetts USA; TIM McKEY, Louisiana USA; PAUL O’BYRNE, Goffs Oak, England; TIM WILLIAMS, Utah USA; JOHN CHISHOLM, Melbourne, Australia; JAY SHEPHERD, Massachusetts USA; MARK CHINN, Mississippi USA; MARK BAILEY, Nevada USA; KIRK BOWMAN, Texas USA; GREG KYTE, Utah USA; PAUL DUNN, Singapore; LIZ HARRIS, Melbourne, Australia; MARK KOZIEL, North Carolina, USA; REGINALD TOMAS LEE, Ohio, USA; KURT SIEMERS, Kansas, USA; DAVID WELLS, Melbourne, USA; MATTHEW BURGESS, Brisbane, Australia; ADRIAN SIMMONS, Maryland, USA; MATTHEW TOL, Ballarat, Australia

Additional Signatories

Christine Kless, (Allen, Texas);  Susan McIsaac Amherst, (NS Canada);  David Milligan, (Omaha, NE);  David Winch, (Cambridge, UK);  Chris Farmand, (Jacksonville, FL);  Thomas L. Bowden, Sr., (Richmond);  Teresa Francis, (Ozona FL);  Lynn Williams, (Vancouver, BC);  Natalie McFarlane, (Toronto, Canada);  Crandall Melvin III, (Syracuse, NY);  Steve Riley, (Tampa, Florida);  Glen Mund, (Vancouver, BC, Canada);  Steve McIntyre-Smith, (Ontario, Canada);  Rick Zwetsch, (Boulder County, CO);  C.E. Rip Van Noy, (Arvada, Colorado);  Gerald A. Meloni, (San Antonio, TX);  Leigh Caldwell, (London, UK);  Tom White, (Miami Lakes, FL);  Fred Tricker, (Huntsville, AL);  Len Kamerman, (Hamilton, ON, Canada);  Alan M. Lee, (Schaumburg/Chicago, IL);  Kevin Chieff, (Rumson, NJ USA);  Susan Clark, (Houston TX);  Claude Demers, (Toronto, Canada);  Bill Kizer, (San Diego, CA);  Yuji Ioriya, (California);  Ged Gilmore, (United Kingdom);  Rebecca Ryan, (Madison, WI USA);  Ramphis Castro, (San Juan, Puerto Rico);  Richard Burcher, (Tauranga, New Zealand);  Shaun McGuinness, (Basingstoke UK);  Raymond McLennan, (Edinburgh, Scotland);  Bob Harper, (UK);  Alex Weddell, (Cornwall, England);  Gregory D. Hostelley, CPA, (Cleveland, Ohio);  Ralph Hochman, (Jacksonville, Florida);  Annette Balgord, (Oakville, Ontario, Canada);  Kathy Munoz, (Michigan, USA);  Nigel Harris, (Somerset, UK);  David DeVelder, (Tampa, Florida);  Douglas Luchansky, (Yorba Linda, CA);  Joel E. Jacobson, (Coral Springs, FL);  Rob Shaff, (Oklahoma City, OK);  Mark Binkley, (Knox, IN);  James E. Mason, (Paragonah, UT);  Kent Arnold, (Oregon);  Ann Allen McDonough, (Pickerington, Ohio);  Garry Beavis, (Perth, Western Australia);  Michael Stewart, (Brisbane, Queensland, Australia);  Ken Burke, (Rochester, NY);  Jeff Rozovics, (Park Ridge, IL);  Dennis Howlett, (Alcaudete, Spain);  Joe Zaccaria, CPP, (Langley, BC, Canada);  Hugh Williams, (England);  Casey Mattson, (Buffalo, MN);  Brad Perri, (Chicago);  Geoff Richmond, (Adelaide, South Australia);  Tom “Bald Dog” Varjan, (Vancouver, BC, Canada);  Phillip S Dvorak, (St. Petersburg, FL);  Shirley Crocker, (Madison, WI USA);  Bruce Dwire, (Grand Junction, CO);  Dan Catfield, (SLC, UT);  Joe Gallardo, (Arcadia, CA);  David Spray, (Houston, TX);  Joe Santoro, (Windsor, ON);  Brian Rice, (Las Vegas, NV);  Michael Golub, (Los Angeles, CA);  Dawn Hampton, (Santa Barbara,CA);  Brenda Richter, CPA, (Santa Barbara, CA);  Josué Román, (Concord, New Hampshire);  Matthew Burgess, (Brisbane, Queensland, Australia);  Bill Bakkeby, (Southport, NC USA);  Kevin R. Knutson, (Minneapolis, MN);  Justin Royer, (Minneapolis, MN);  Thomas Bowden, (Richmond, Virginia, USA);  Marian Rice, (Maple Ridge, BC, Canada);  Andrew Mason, (Roseville, MN);  David Winch, (Cambridge, UK);  Corey Lord, (Tecumseh, Michigan);  Steve Major, (Brisbane, Queensland, Australia);  Chad Davis, (Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada);  Grant Adams, (Malmö, Sweden);  Judy Coker, (Rogers AR USA);  The Estate & Elder Law Center, (Bassett, Virginia USA);  Daniel Glinert, (Madison, WI);  Jenn Saunders, CPA, (Franktown, VA (USA));  M. Juanita Priester, CPA, (Alexandria, VA USA);  Stewart R. Custis, (Richmond, VA);  Michael J. Chaffee, (Lansing, Michigan);  Gerd vant Hul, (The Netherlands);  Donald Tapp, (Glenwood Springs, CO);  Laura Chimienti-Prevratil, (Rapino, CH (Italy));  GloriaAnn Curwin, (ValCaron, ON);  Peter Ficek, CFP, (Calgary, AB, Canada);  Zak Ali, (Southlake, TX USA);  Patrick Finn, (Watchung, NJ USA);  JD Miller, (Vallejo);  Ron Leyva, (El Monte, CA);  Sterling McCullough, (Wilmington, DE);  NIck Kay, (Cambridgeshire, UK);  Mark Lubbers, (Savannah, GA);  Joseph Hughes, (Brisbane QLD Australia);  Pam Bingham, (Van Nuys, CA);  Solomon Lincoln II, (Washngton, D.C.);  Scott Traasdahl, (Mesa, AZ);  Leslie Cadwell, (Castleton, VT);  Denise Nieves, (Fort Lauderdale, FL);  Todd Perlman, (Deerfield, IL);  Maureen Millar, (Gold Coast Qld Australia);  Sharon Hotchkiss, (Dallas, TX USA);  Aaron J. Clark, CPA/CITP, (Ogden, Utah, USA);  David Wells, (Melbourne, Australia);  Richard Albrecht, (Seattle, WA);  Jim Starling, (Chapel Hill, NC);  Ro Rueda, (Houston, Texas);  Steffanie Anderson, (Spokane, WA USA);  Michael Fox, (Adelaide Australia);  Lucas, (Jacutinga MG);  David Bates, (Seattle Washington USA);  Vincent Denham, (London, UK);  David Le Sueur, (Brisbane, Qld, Australia);  Fernando Rendon, (Katy, United States);  Martin Meyer, (Sugar Land, Texas, USA);  Timothy Brien, (Buffalo, NY);  Angela Meharg, (Toronto, Canada);  Peg Hil, (Valencia, PA);  Brian Dirkmaat, (Carlsbad, CA USA);  Aaron Silber, (Charleston, WV);  Gavin Bain, (Perth, Western Australia);  Kathryn Catlin, (Hamilton ON Canada);  Dan Christensen, (North Little Rock, AR);  David S. Beider, (Santa Monica, CA);  Laura Marks, (Western Massachusetts, USA);  Casey Winans, (Raleigh, NC, USA);  Rahul Maitra, (Faber, VA);  Brent D Berkman, (Palm Beach, Florida);  Sonny Peak, (Hampstead, MD);  Courtney Deagon, (Brisbane, Queensland, Australia);  Daniel Taborsky, (Perth, WA, Australia);  Clinton Kam, (Burnaby, Canada);  Adeel, (Pakistan); Greg Tirico (Georgia, USA); Karen O’Lane (California, USA); Geir Herskedal (Norway); Warren Fewtrell (North Carolina, USA); Brian Kelly (South Carolina, USA); Reed Iredale (Brisbane, Australia); James Cliame (California, USA); Daniel Housser (Stratton, ON Canada); Marek Lis (New York); Marc Howard (Miami, USA); Alison Patterson (Kansas City, MO); Manuel Simões de Carvalho (Lisboa, Portugal); Nunzio Giunta (Australia); Mark Diehl (Palmer, AK, USA); Mattias LaVoie (Spokane, WA); Paul Shrimpling (United Kingdom); Clay Glassford (Colorado Springs, Colorado USA); Larry Weinstein (Houston, TX USA); Paige Comensoli (Melbourne, Austrailia); Jonathan Roberts (Jamaica); Frederick Thompson (Redwood City, California); Jennifer Drout (Maui, Hawaii); Bradley Miller (Ohio, USA)