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Reprinted by permission.
Original source: http://sorms.blogspot.com/2012/01/debts-will-not-be-paid.html
The debts will not be paid. Not the sovereign debts, the corporate debts, the municipal debts or the personal debts.
This is not a question of moral hazard nor is it a slogan on a piece of cardboard or line out of an Internet manifesto. It is simply a systemic reality. It is not possible to “balance the budget” by reducing the quality of life. There are not enough teachers, firemen and police officers to fire. There are not enough government agencies to close.
We cannot solve this problem through deprivation. Aside from the human misery, the math doesn’t work. Certainly we can create a balance sheet that makes it look like we can get to a zero debt position but the problem is that our currency is based on debt. When we put people out of work they can’t pay their own debts or their taxes. That puts more pressure on a system that is already in collapse.
But there are many sources that analyze the decline of debt based monetary systems; that’s not the purpose here. The underlying question that we need to begin to address is the purpose of money.
Many of us still believe that we can put our money “to work”. We have 401k’s. We have investment portfolios. We buy gold and silver. We want to see the value of those accounts go up.
Money doesn’t “work”. Originally it was an abstract concept created to allow a more efficient exchange between human beings. This idea that you can make money from money has been derived essentially from the concept of gambling – something for nothing. But what has been deceiving about our accounting standards and financial markets is the fantasy behind it all. This money does not only not “work”, it doesn’t really exist. It can disappear in an instant.
Here’s what’s interesting. What we are discovering is that the exchange between human beings seems to rely less and less on this abstract concept.
We exchange all sorts of ideas without the involvement of money. There are many websites, perhaps the one that you are reading this on, that provide information without charging money. We can download operating systems and applications without the use of money. The use of those tools can add tremendous value to the lives of those who use them. The exchange seems to be based on the desire to share and the need to make a contribution. For some time the business community has viewed the individuals who develop these tools and share them without the use of money as whack jobs who just don’t understand how economic systems work. It’s beginning to dawn on some of us that it may be the other way around.
A world without money seems like lunacy. But we need to become more aware that money is really an idea and that its utility is based on a belief system. Belief systems do not change over night but they can shift quickly. Often ideas that still can be useful are subsumed into larger ideas – much like the understanding of gravity in Newtonian physics is subsumed under the idea of entanglement in Quantum physics. So one way to think about this issue is that money will not go away completely, it will just become increasingly less relevant.
One of the first steps in the transition toward a more sane process for human beings to exchange goods, services and creativity is to understand the futility of our current system. But it’s important to get past being right about what is going wrong. The next step is to take a chance, perhaps fail and then take another chance.
The Yuga Cycles of the Ages,Nevada City, May 25-28
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[...] this piece points out that, “This is not a question of moral hazard nor is it a slogan on a piece of [...]
CMN should look at the work of Dr. David E. Martin, who has done significant work in the area of, for lack of a better term, “alternative economic” system through his work with the Arlington Group and his own M-CAM Group. Here is the header from his blog:
“Wealth and the metrics used to measure it have become increasingly devoid of the creativity intrinsic to humanity. Welcome to the discussion of a new vision and an alternative Ancient Future of Wealth.” -David E. Martin
I have interviewed David Martin on my show and hewould make a fascinating guest for CMN, as well. Especially in the heat of the current “run” for a new currency system…he is actually out ahead in this area in a different way than Mr. Martinez. His website is:
http://www.m-cam.com/
My video interview with him is at:
http://exotica-radio.com/podcast/economic-reset-with-david-e-martin.html
The world is not a “zero sum game”, and we need to foster a view of a more expansive economy based on human value and the harmony of the humans with the planet.
Randy Maugans-Host/Producer OffPlanet Radio
http://offplanetradio.com
Here’s fulfilling food for the mind on this topic.
The End of Money and the Future of Civilization
by Thomas Greco, Jr.
“If anything could save this civilization from the calamity to which its economic madness has led it–the unrelenting pursuit of materialism, the starkly inequitable division of wealth, the despoliation of the earth for profit–it would be the widespread adoption of the wisdom embodied in Tom Greco’s clear and forthright new book. The fact that I doubt such a thing will happen, I am constrained to say, does not diminish the value of reading it.”
—Kirkpatrick Sale, author of Human Scale and After Eden: The Evolution of Human Domination
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Like the proverbial fish who doesn’t know what water is, we swim in an economy built on money that few of us comprehend, and, most definitely, what we don’t know is hurting us.
Very few people realize that the nature of money has changed profoundly over the past three centuries, or—as has been clear with the latest global financial crisis—the extent to which it has become a political instrument used to centralize power, concentrate wealth, and subvert popular government. On top of that, the economic growth imperative inherent in the present global monetary system is a main driver of global warming and other environmental crises.
The End of Money and the Future of Civilization demystifies the subjects of money, banking, and finance by tracing historical landmarks and important evolutionary shifts that have changed the essential nature of money. Greco’s masterful work lays out the problems and then looks to the future for a next stage in money’s evolution that can liberate us as individuals and communities from the current grip of centralized and politicized money power.
Greco provides specific design proposals and exchange-system architectures for local, regional, national, and global financial systems. He offers strategies for their implementation and outlines actions grassroots organizations, businesses, and governments will need to take to achieve success.
Ultimately, The End of Money and the Future of Civilization provides the necessary understanding— for entrepreneurs, activists, and civic leaders—to implement approaches toward monetary liberation. These approaches would empower communities, preserve democratic institutions, and begin to build economies that are sustainable, democratic, and insulated from the financial crises that plague the dominant monetary system.
http://makewealthhistory.org/2009/09/30/the-end-of-money-by-thomas-greco/
About the Author
Thomas Greco, Jr.
Thomas H. Greco, Jr. is the director of the Community Information Resource Center, which he founded in 1992. CIRC is a nonprofit consulting organization and networking hub dedicated to economic equity, social justice, and community improvement, specializing in community currency and mutual credit design, development, and implementation. He is a former engineer and professor of business administration. Tom’s previous books include New Money for Healthy Communities and Money and Debt: A Solution to the Global Crisis For more information on re-creating money systems, visit another webpage of Tom’s, Reinventing Money. For more information on …
This is really a critical point of understanding that we all must come to realize. MONEY IS NOT REAL!
We must change our currency from money – to people. Each day when we wake up we shouldn’t be asking how much money are we going to make today, but how many people can I help today.
This concept only sounds radical because we have become so indoctrinated into the concept of money that we are blind to the reality that MONEY IS NOT REAL!
Technology is making workers obsolete. Robots replace human beings on the assembly lines, Farming equipment reduces the number of farmers needed to grow food, ATM machines eliminate the need for bank tellers. This is gradually pushing people out of work. It’s not that they don’t want to work, it’s just that the jobs aren’t there. Yet they need a job because they have to earn money to pay for their needs.
What if our needs are met without money? Your home that you live in now is yours, you don’t have to pay for it. You get up and go to your job without getting paid, but with the knowledge that you are helping someone. You go to the grocery store and get the food you need without paying. Someone else has worked without getting paid, to grow the food, deliver it to the store and make it available to you. Money is not necessary for any of this.
This idea is not fully developed in my mind, and this forum is not the best place to flesh out all the issues surrounding this concept. But there are surely ways to reward and motivate people for helping others without compensating them with money. In that sense it’s a radical idea, but one that will eventually come to pass as our journey to the Golden Age progresses.
I am surprised that I don’t hear more discussion about this concept. This is our future. No matter what “fairer” money system you come up with, you will still create a system of haves vs. have-nots. We must eliminate money from the equation altogether. Only then can we truly be free. Only then can we realize our true potential as human beings.
Nice! Thanks for this post. I think people have a hard time envisioning that our species can completely leave behind all vestiges of “survival” mentality and focus, which will free up tremendous amounts of creative energy and open our hearts. Always worrying about where the next meal will come from or who is out to get us keeps our hearts closed and from closed hearts come the reactions like we’ve seen to James M’s news about a new economy. Once we are free of this worry over survival needs (which is a spiritual shift as well), we will fly. The more of us who can try to visualize this future where money doesn’t play a critical role— as idealistic and unrealistic as it may seem to some— the easier and faster it will happen.
I think the hunter gatherer consciousness as mentioned above may well be the consciousness we will need in the immediate future. I may be wrong but it seems a little more than possible. One thing I’m sure of is man will always know he was meant to be free. To see the cage is to leave it.
Well i think that the Debt money systems are an outcome of the natural inclination of people organizing/interacting with the hunter/gatherer mindset, which while advantageous in those eras, is now a dis-abililty back in the techological civilisation.
Interactions two/three or more people in an organisational mode is going into an artificial social state of one kind or another, this natural consequence of consciousness state suited hunter/gather requirements but it does not suit those with technological factors, producing debilitating politics.
Everyone is looking for heaven without, but we are not in heaven now and it has to be attained within first to some degree in all things. Organic by-pass modes please.