[GJM] Is Money Obsolete

Tue Mar 13 21:34:06 MDT 2007

Steve, I'd like to point out that mathematically speaking,
a primary structural driver of inflation is compound interest.

The group I am working with advocates elminating interest
(with banks making their profits like any bookkeeper).

The work is directed within a society, as well within
companies, with such things as Community Investment
Corporations, or the proposal to give every member of
Iraq society shares in a national oilfield company.
We also consider it important to consider a global
society, rather than just a national one.

I agree that further advances, in which a mentality of abundance,
and an abandonment of money as far as personal
concerns go are in the cards. My point is that the
"bridge too far" effect will lead to failure. The 'Star
Trek' commentary won't work now, imo, and the experiments
cited re: Kibbutzim bear this out. Imo, the first
step is an honest money system (and the first part of 
this is as per step one of Seven Steps to Justice, which
is publicizing the injustice of the current system).

I would ask you to research further the full effects of
the creation of 95% of money, as debt, at compound
interest. The money to pay most of the compound interest
must be injected into the economy to keep the system
from collapsing, even as there is a continual shortage,
because not all of the money to pay compound interest
is put into the system.

Compound interest is of course exponential in nature.
I forget who said that the great majority of people 
have a problem conceptualizing exponentialism. 
Well we better get teaching it in grade school imo.

An additional reason for the money shortage is increasing
capitalization, in which money loaned to finance
capital intensive projects has been withdrawn from
the economy, through loan repayment, even as the 
products hit the street and require purchasing power
of this money.

Take these two together, and even with a 300+% of
money supply increase in Canada, in only 12 years,
there is still a shortage for all to meet their needs.

After the G8 summit in Okinawa in 2000, President Obasanjo of
Nigeria made this comment on Nigeria's debt:  

 "All that we had borrowed up to 1985 or 1986 was around $5 billion and we have paid
about $16 billion yet we are still being told that we owe about $28
billion. That $28 billion came about because of the injustice in the
foreign creditors' (BANKERS.) interest rates. If you ask me what is the worst thing
in the world, I will say it is compound interest." 

Regards
Dan Parker
  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: Steve Consilvio 
  To: discussion at globaljusticemovement.net 
  Sent: Tuesday, March 13, 2007 7:51 AM
  Subject: Re: [GJM] Is Money Obsolete

  Dan,

  What is described as Binary Economics is not very different than the concept of "Income Balancing" which I wrote about a few years ago in a thing I called The Contract for Mutual Responsibility (as part of From Slavery to Utopia.) Essentially, like ESOP's, and what Ben & Jerry did with their 12:1 income ratio, it creates more wealth parity within an organization. Unfortunately, this idea doesn't work, because it is actually ONLY a political settlement within an organization, rather than a change in economic relationships within society. The relationship with vendors and customers remains unchanged: Buy Low, Sell High. As such, inflation and the division of wealth will continue to occur, although the effect may be slowed somewhat. A kinder gentler capitalism is still capitalism, where people's value is converted into a number, and the primary motivation is to create "profit," rather than goods to share that we all need. As such, it really isn't a change at all.

  To create balance and harmony we need to reduce the importance of numbers themselves. Currently, all three Empires (religious/non-profit, government and business) focus on the numbers primarily and the ill-effects of the "other," rather than themselves. All three Empires are structurally, intellectually and financially the same. Even if something like Income Balancing worked for businesses, there would still need to be a rethinking in politics and religion for it to occur. All three Empires are intimately related, and any change in one effects the other two. A workable theory of reform must deal with all three issues simultaneously. (I sometimes joke that I am a religious libertarian communist.)

  I apologize that my ideas are not better presented in this area. I haven't written the rebuttal to my previous ideas, but the video Big History at my website does scratch the surface of what I am describing. Regardless of how we rank the Empires in importance, we are subject to the same indoctrination. Religions build churches, governments build legislative and military facilities, businesses build factories and stores. In all cases the individual is expected to serve the Empire, and not each other. In all cases numbers (money/accounting) are the determining factor of "good and evil," and the determining factor of what can or cannot be accomplished.

  To put in in terms of The Matrix, we are not enslaved by machines or numbers or agents, we are enslaved by our ideas about the value of money. Tea is tasty water, gold is colored dirt, dollars are green paper, stocks are electronic digits. None of it is "real." Money is an intellectual agreement and the farce endures because we make it so.

  There are news reports that there will be a record number of foreclosures this year. That shouldn't be a surprise. Just like in the game of Monopoly, the board is full of houses and hotels that nobody can afford to live in. Henry George was on the right track, but profit and interest play the same role as rent in the economy, which he missed. The desire to "pump money in" (Keynes) like at the beginning of the Monopoly game, gives the appearance that everyone is getting rich, when in fact they are getting in deeper. The more money in the system (inflation, etc) the poorer everyone eventually becomes. The swings become wider and wider. From 2+2=5 (boom) and 5=2+2 (bust) to 2+2=10000000 (Boom; overnight billionaires) and 1000000=2+2 (Bust; Enron, WorldCom, etc)

  Kelso's theories have not solved the reason why wealth divides or the reason for cycles and inflation any better than my old theories did. Both were an attempt at correction, not at explanation. Inflation is the key problem. As numbers grow everyone gets poorer. All three Empires conspire to create inflation. Why are the three Empires important? Because the three easiest things to sell are fear, pride and advertising. The world economy is based on all three. To change the world economy, then you need to address all three roots.

  peace,
  steve consilvio
  www.behappyandfree.com

  On Mar 12, 2007, at 8:39 AM, discussion-request at globaljusticemovement.net wrote:

    Steve, if you checked the link I sent with the my last

    post, you will see that many are working on such things 

    as you reiterate; and at a comparitively advanced level.

    Rodney Shakespeare and Peter Challen at the organization

    hosting this forum are doing likewise (i.e. in their

    book that includes binary economics).

    Automation, Bucky Fuller's concepts and so on move

    on far past the idea of organized labour.

    Also, for a global approach, the BIS might be a better

    institution to focus on rather than the Federal Reserve (i.e.

    many individuals on this list do not get their money

    after it flows out of the Fed and through an institution).

    I will be getting busy this week, and so would not have

    time to continue this discussion, but would encourage you

    to read The Seven Steps to Justice by Rodney and Peter

    as above, or other works on Binary Economics.

    Regards

    Dan Parker

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