Revolutionary Ideas Part 6 - Let's All Learn What Money Really Is

Today's idea is more of a big picture concept kind of idea.  Right now it seems to me that most people have their noses to the grindstones just trying to get their bills paid, maybe send kids to university, and think about how they're going to retire.  Maybe in order to think about how to create sustainable growth in Nova Scotia, and/or where ever else,  folks need to sit back and do some big picture thinking.

I only recently started looking in to what money really is and where it comes from, and I can see that we humans have a few problems.  

Somewhere along the way we've all been brainwashed to believe that money = wealth.  Does it?  What we as individuals need to survive is food, shelter, water, and, being social creatures, I'd include community and culture.  

 In 2001 I had the good fortune of being able to trek the Annapurna circuit in Nepal, as well as do the Everest Base Camp trek (in and out of the lowlands, starting in Jiri).  Despite having a very low per capita incomes, I was struck by how peaceful, healthy and happy the folks in the Nepali valley villages seemed.  I thought it was funny that here were all these foreign travelers lugging around these backpacks full of stuff that probably exceeded any one of these people's annual income, and I'd keep seeing rich foreign people throw snits over this and that "oh, there's not enough hot water for my shower" or whatever blah blah blah.  

I also have a family member who was married for a period of time to the son of a very rich banking family in the states (keeping details very vague here to prevent getting crapped on by my family). One Christmas we all went to this family's mansion; there was an orange grove, inground pool, several luxury cars, staff, huge fancy house, but I'd have to say that family was the most miserable bunch of people I ever met.  The rich banker guy took us out for supper at a fancy restaurant and it was just one complaint after another.  Zero gratitude for anything they had, it seemed.  And the kids all hated themselves, and had drug addiction issues and several plastic surgeries.  I'm not saying all money-rich families are like this; I've met some super happy generous rich people (the happiest ones tended to be the 'self-made' type - though I admit I haven't met all that many money-rich people) but it got me thinking, does money really equal "wealth"? 

Image I found on facebook - not sure who made it

Maybe if we could brainwash ourselves into believing that wealth = health.  Environmental health, community health, clean water, healthy food, a healthy family, healthy mind, healthy body, healthy spirit.  Instead of accumulation of money an end to itself, either out of circulation, or into the 'profit' line of a global corporation's ledger, money could be seen just as a tool for creating more of this good stuff for more people.

Because guess what, it turns out that money may not be what we thought anyways.

On to the problems with money and why the world is in this economic death-spiral that a fracking epidemic isn't going to fix.

Since Nixon completely got rid of the gold standard in 1971, money isn't really backed by anything.  It's a fiat currency (fiat = latin for "it shall be") so its up to the country to decide its value.  The fact that money is arbitrary, coupled with our fractional reserve banking system, means that money is actually debt.  And for every dollar that is created, the bank will need it paid back with the principal, plus interest.  

I think this is why the gap between the rich and poor has been widening so quickly all over the world, there are more people struggling to make money to make a few people wealthy (bankers, investors, owners of global corporations).  And look, some of these people I've met (the family I describe above) accumulating all that money don't even seem to appreciate it.   We're like a giant snake eating itself: people invest in corporations, thinking, woo - mutual funds! retirement! and then these corporations need to make money by trimming their bottom line, which results in the workers having to work harder for less, and/or cutting corners in how they treat the environment.  Or we try to save money by buying cheap imported stuff from big box stores and inadvertently screw all of our selves out of good jobs with good wages when companies find ways to get things done for cheaper overseas.  Or we extract and wholesale our raw resources for a quick buck, leaving a messy cleanup job and sacrificing environmental health.

Corporations and money don't care about any of the "health" things I listed above.  That's why families get busted up in this province because people need to leave to find work, or join the military.  Does anyone REALLY want to go overseas and fight a war? seriously? Risk getting themselves killed or killing innocent people?  I think people go into these careers because they need money.   Back to the fracking thing, I'm all for a relatively clean burning fossil fuel, if it is easily gotten at, but if means draining a watershed to extract it and being left with an insane amount of frack-fluid-contaminated water to try and figure out what to do with, was it really worth it?  Because that's how our current economic system is rigged: destruction of all of Nova Scotia's water and soil for some gas to sell would be seen as a profitable, money making investment.  But then what? What will we have left when that gas runs out? And once we have to pay to clean up the mess and find that we're missing an insane amount of freshwater, will it have really been worth it?  

I'm not an economist but I'm a concerned human who wants other humans to be healthy and happy.  So for today's idea I say let's all do some research and learn about what money really is.  Then we can all put our thinking caps on and come up creative ways to get out of the mess we're in and have more "wealthy" people in this province. I have a few ideas that'll be the subject of future posts.

For a while there I was starting to think like a conspiracy theorist, like the current state of the world is a clever plot by a few super rich people to enslave everyone else. But life is depressing if you go around thinking anyone could really be THAT evil, and I question if anyone is really that smart.  I may be wrong about that and end up beheaded in a FEMA camp or something for speaking out but I've narrowly escaped (accidental) death twice now, so I say bring it on, evil people, if you really exist...dancing around your Owl in your Bohemian grove or whatever you people do...  Meanwhile, I prefer to believe that we've just been a pile of ignorant, greedy, shortsighted humans - after all, we are animals, we do share the bulk of our DNA with apes - so let's all just wake the frack up, address the problem and start fixing it before we all pollute ourselves to death.
So now I'm just going to post a bunch of videos on the subject that I've found interesting:

This first one is a fun-to-watch cartoon, which explains $$ and also gives a compelling argument why Americans should fire their US Federal Reserve:




This next one is a bit drier but so good! "Money as Debt"



Money as Debt Part 11 




I'm posting this video here by Robert Kiyosaki, author of "Rich Dad, Poor Dad".  It is the first of a 7 part series and it completely changed the way I look at money and debt.  This is just part one but you can find the other 6 parts on youtube quite easily; part 2 will probably pop up after part 1 ends.

Watching this series made me realize that I wasn't taught any of this in school, what money is, etc.  Learning more about money on my own has given me some ideas on how to use our current economic system to build wealth that can be spread around a bit more evenly... more will be revealed...