Money and Value

What is money? Where does it come from? How do we use it? How does it make us feel?

The current climate of the world is that of massive job layoffs, businesses closing to keep people healthy, and humans scared of getting a paycheck to afford to live each month. When we’ve operated on this “you have to work for money” idea, and when there is no work to be done, what do we do? Of course there are things that can happen that improve humans lives but don’t “earn” money. But the money system, as it stands, is broken. We won’t be having as many jobs in the future (yay!) because we have a new system that makes life easy for everyone. 

We’ve got to adapt the system. We have to look at finance and see what things really cost, and at what cost they are to Earth and humanity. We have to stop pollutive industries and we need to use technology to improve quality of life for each and every one of us. We are operating on a hundred year old system and it needs to change.

Money came about as a neutral way to exchange goods and services. It makes sense. I have cows that make milk, you have wheat that can be made into bread. How do we figure out what is a fair trade? Well, whatever the two parties agree upon. But milk goes bad after some time, and wheat can get moldy. What if I want to give some of my milk now but don’t want any wheat? Now we create a neutral, non-perishable form of transfer in the form of metal coins, or shells, or any neutral item. Money was created because it doesn’t “go bad” like milk. It can be taken and used for anything. I like it. It makes sense.

Traders would bring goods to market and then sell them to buyers who liked getting things they could not provide for themselves. When you have foreign travelers, you will have some foreign forms of currency. Some people use gold coins, some people use silver coins, some people use shells from their local beach. With these different forms of currency, we now need to create an exchange rate and thus have someone that sits at a table – in Italian table is banco, where the word for bank comes from – and makes sure you can exchange one form of currency for another at the same value. These table bankers now became middle men – only dealing with money and not the exchange of goods.

When you accumulate a bunch of gold coins, what do you do with them? Well, you could store them in your house but you don’t have much security and people could come and steal it pretty easily. So now we have fortified buildings that will hold our gold for us, keep it safe, and let us access it whenever we want. We also realized that for larger transactions it is a lot easier to have a piece of paper with a value on it rather than dragging a roomful of gold across town. So we have representative money – paper money that says it is worth something backed up by the bank holding your gold. It says that whomever has this note has the right to access so much gold in that particular bank. Cool.

What do banks do with all that gold sitting around? They figured out that you don’t come back to take much out very often, so would you notice if it weren’t all there? Well, they take the gold that you put in and loan it to someone else who wants to do something but can’t afford it on their own. The bank loans your money to other people. You don’t get a say to who is getting your money now that it is in the bank’s hands. The bank makes money off of interest from the loans. But why? What service are they really providing except for using someone else’s money without them knowing hoping that they don’t come to claim their gold at once?

Cows. That’s where the concept of interest comes from. Let’s say I have a heard of cattle but want to get on a boat and search for exotic spices. You have a boat but are sick of sailing and wouldn’t mind looking after the cows for the year or so it takes you to come back. What happens to a heard of cows after a year? They procreate, making little cow babies. So your one hundred cows are now hundred and seven cows. You can still keep the hundred cows you originally left, but it’s easy to let the seven new cows go to the guy that watched them for you. Makes sense.

Banks charging interest on money loans make no sense. Cows growing makes sense. Money to make money is immoral. Money to create value and add wealth is moral.

How these big corporations are making money off of humanity is by selling information that we don’t even realize they have on us. Anyone with a new car, one with cameras and GPS and all the fun stuff – those car companies track you and sell your information to the highest bidder. It knows where you go, what you listen to, and has videos of the area you live. Alexa hears everything you say. Siri listens to you. Targeted ads are everywhere, but I see a world where we don’t need more cheap products, we need more life-improving products that empower the individual.

What is the shift? It will be easy, actually. We look at corporate finance and take all the weeds out. We look at efficient energy systems using the modern technology that these corporations have access to and we shift from a weaponry making system to a livingry making system. It’s nice to see business with factory infrastructures switching production from cars or clothes to ventilators and scrubs for the health and safety of humanity. We can change.

The Earth wants to be played on. She wants humans to be happy, outside, laughing and jumping and playing on her with your friends, family, loved ones. She doesn’t want you stuck in a cubicle staring at emails all day. She doesn’t need you to make another million dollars on Wall Street, she needs you to laugh on the beach and jump in the ocean. 

We do not need a bigger economy. We do not need more jobs. We have the technology, the knowhow, and the strength to create new systems where jobs are optional, you pursue what you want, and there is a basic level of care for each and every human on the planet. Earth does not charge rent for its inhabitants.

Transparent Finances for All. Removal of Corporate Personhood and the freeing up of all the money they weaseled out of paying.

What are taxes, and where do they go? Why do corporations not have to pay what they owe yet individuals do?

We also have to blend local and global economies. I’m for a one Earth currency, so no one is making money betting on exchange rates. Food becomes more local – grown in the Earth in your own backyard or a nearby public plot. Let’s disperse our population and get connected to the Land again. There are inexpensive high quality housing options that have been available and we are not using them. With technology it will be easy for us to have the luxuries we are used to but with an energy efficient, Earth-friendly way.

Money is formed out of a transaction. It’s when two or more parties need to agree on an exchange – putting a value on what something is worth. Money is not actually value. Or even real energy. It is a representation of energy and that is it. It is what we agree it to be. It came about naturally but then got manipulated by banks.

Profit seems to be a nasty word to me. Value, wealth, abundance are nice words. We can still use money as a form of exchange, but the cost of everyday items will be reduced considerably. It will be easier to live and breathe and play. We might need to build more theme parks.