Solution to the Illusion

Just read an article about Britain considering cutting the work week down to only 3 days, because of the economy. Businesses don't have the cash to keep paying their employees to work 5 days a week, apparently. This premise is absurd: when there are people willing to work, and there are people who have needs they want to have met by the economy, yet both are doing without?

I'll ask it again,

If people are willing to work, and those same people are willing to consume each other's goods and services, then why doesn't it happen during recessions or depressions?

The answer, sadly, is really very simple. The problem is money itself. It is working as a hindrance to prosperity, not a facilitator.

Just dwell on that simple, obvious truth.

So how do we fix it? Isn't money necessary in an economy?

Well, it depends on what you think money is.

People who work for a living believe money serves as a receipt for labor. Evidence that they have created something of value. There have been times in the past when this was true, but today money is actually a very different beast altogether. Today, since money is literally created only when someone is willing to go in debt to a bank to get it, money actually represents DEBT. (Yes, money comes into existence only as loans from a bank. This sounds crazy, because common sense would tell you that a bank can't loan out what it doesn't have, but money is not a physical object. It's data stored on computers. If someone types your name into an account, and types in a one followed by six zeroes, viola! This person has a million dollars. That's ALL IT TAKES. Well, almost. The person has to promise to pay back more money than the bank created. Any mystery now why there is so much debt and defaulted loans? The banking system creates the money you borrow, but not all the money you have to pay back. The interest is missing from the economy, because only the principal was ever created by the bank.)

So that's what money is, crazy as it sounds. What should it be?

(continued on next post)


[edit on 25-1-2009 by username371]

Well, in most people's minds time is money. The time we spend getting things done. We want to be compensated for it. So why don't we create a system that creates money when work is done?

Here's one such system:

Let's say you're good at woodworking. If you can find a way to get your hands on some materials, you make something. A table. A desk, whatever.
Or you're a farmer. You have a truckload of watermelons, corn, or some cattle.
You're an electrician. You can wire up a house being constructed.
Doesn't matter. You've got a skill to sell or a product to sell.
Here's what you do: You go to a local market and you sell it there. A clerk or an auctioneer gets you the best offer the market will bear for what you have to sell. The unit of measurement will not be a "dollar," unless you really want to call it that. You could call them "units" or "market bucks" or say you have "300 widgets worth of money." You then get a receipt printed up by that market. Then you walk around the store, and find things you need. Other people's products. Other people's labor. You buy and sell, and the magic is that the money is created BECAUSE YOU WORKED. On the spot. It's the ticket printed up at the desk of the clerk. THAT is money. This system would work on scales large and small. Products simple and complex, concentrated, or diverse. Everywhere. Each market could have its own brand image, selling similar goods or to similar types of clients.


This system would have the following benefits:


- You wouldn't have to make a plea to someone richer than yourself to convince them to hire you so that you can have a job.
- Money wouldn't come into existence as debt from a bank. It would come into existence as evidence of work that was done.
- It would put the parasites known as "bankers" out of business. They need to get real jobs anyway.
- That person that hired you in the old system could tell you what to do in order for you to get your money. But now YOU can choose what to do for a living, and market this product or service directly to the public. If people really want it, you're in business. If not, you'll try something else. No longer will the rich be able to throw their weight around by funding what they want in the world and starving everything else.
- There will always be money available to pay workers. Why? Because it will be created when work is done.
- When money is tied closely to productivity, its value is high. Notice that right now America is spending a lot of money to blow things up... and it's no coincidence that our money is getting more and more worthless.
- Unemployment will reach a historic low. Everyone who wants to work can do so, without waiting for the economy to turn back up, or for some business somewhere to start earning a profit again and start hiring.

Originally posted by username371
So how do we fix it? Isn't money necessary in an economy?

Couldn't we all just work less and make more?

If basic needs (Basic emergency medical, basic food, basic shelter, common sense retirement, a balanced lifestyle - time off, and a reduction in stress) are met that way then anyone who goes above and beyond will be rewarded for thier hard work. Considering that most people are stupid, lazy and easily distracted this really is a no brainer.

Short of that just unleash the biological pandemics upon the earth and exterminate the population already.

[edit on 26-1-2009 by In nothing we trust]

reply to

post by username371

 

money is not a physical object. It's data stored on computers.
If someone types your name into an account, and types in a one followed by six zeroes, viola! This person has a million dollars. That's ALL IT TAKES. [...]

in the money worldscape you present, I would take the job of typing in
the numbers that people have in their accounts.

but what would be my pay? as i would not be making something utilitarian
or a product of some sort...

my worth would be as mystical as the presentday bankers who pay themselves many times the common pay rate and
exact super bonuses and golden parachute retirement plans.

Yes, people who work for the gub-ment would be paid with money created out of thin air as well. Everybody is anyway.


What makes money valuable is its relationship to goods and services. It must not come into existence without goods or services coming into existence at the same time, otherwise it would cause inflation.

Right now, when our government considers trillion dollar bailouts they're just adding water to the soup telling you "Now there's more to eat!"