Talking about the circulation of money is deceptive at best. First we must speak of physics and philosophy.
Consider this:
We humans are only capable of acting on 4 dimensions. Three of which are matter and one of which is time.
Matter is merely energy spinning slowly. So all matter is energy.
That leaves humans with only two types of power in this world, energy and time.
All human endevours are one of these two, and usually both.
Money has no intrinsic value of its own, it is merely a way of expressing power.
And now consider this:
Money = Time multiplied by energy.
So What we are really talking about here is the circulation of energy and time.
If I become rich, I am merely increasing my ability to control other peoples time and energy. There by increasing my total reserves of both.
So now we have established the scope of what we are talking about, we can start to consider what is wrong with the current system, and how it could be improved.
Everyone gets all worked up over the worlds problems, I am as guilty as anyone of this, and it can seem like there are so many problems, it can be hard to know where to start.
Really there are four. Four things which if changed would solve most of the worlds current ills.
The Abolition of Fractional Reserve Banking
I believe I have explained this point, and as long as banks can still collect interest and fees then there will still be banks, they just wont have an unfair advantage over everyone else.
The Abolition of the Federal reserve.
Money exists only to facilitate trade. There should be a limited ammount in cirulation at any one time, too little and it becomes hard to trade, too much and it becomes worthless. The flow of currency should be controlled by the total populace. This means the government, and if we ever move to one global currency, then it would mean we would need to create a global government.
The printing and distribution of money is the prime responsibility of government, as the control of this mechanism is the prime driver behind any economy.
The Abolition of the wealth bell curve.
Let us imagine a man, sitting atop a bell curve of wealth. If he takes a few steps backwards he begins a slippery slope into poverty, and for every step he takes toward poverty, the easier the next step becomes.
What I mean is that once you are allready poor, then even the slightest financial imposition can dramatically impact upon your circumstances, and this effect is only magnified the poorer you get.
Conversely, if he takes a step forward toward wealth, things become easier and it becomes progressively easier to obtain more wealth.
What i mean is that a man with $10,000 will find it far easier to make $100 than a man with $1. And the greater your wealth, the easier it is to make a hundred dollars.
However, the average human doesn't sit atop the bell curve as the the name would suggest. They sit halfway down the poor side. And for the average man to make it past the top of the hill takes a huge ammount of perserverance, skill or luck, but once he is beyond the halfway point things become so easy that even if he were lobotomised he would still be capable of generating a sizeable income (if through nothign else than the interest on his assets)
I put it to you that this curve is an abhoration, that for capitalism to work, it requires each step in the ladder to take more effort than the previous step. rather than the highest steps requiring no effort what so ever.
Can you imagine a game (lets say WoW), where it is excedingly difficult to reach level 40, where it is easier to go backwards in levels than forwards. And then all fo a sudden, once you have reached level fourty, the game becomes a cakewalk.. with each subsequent level becoming easier and easier, at some point you dont even have to play.. the game just plays itself.. until finally the last level is granted to you so easily that you don't even notice because you ceased playing the game long ago and went off to a spa..
It wouldn't work. And in the same way our present economic system doesn't work.
The education and empowerment of the general populace.
Democracy (and so for our puposes capitalism) can not succeed without a well educated and well informed populace capable of making rational decissions and able to have those acted upon. There is a general trend globally toward nanny states. But the success of any economy is dependant upon the ability of the people within it to make good decissions. All of the people.
Currently there are a few people who are well educated, and they essentially run things by ripping off the poorly educated and calling it a successfull economy. It is not.
Why are such social issues so important to an economy?
As an example: Many people spend large ammounts of time arguing over the relative merits of regulation and self-regulation, when in reality there is only one kind of regulation that works. That is the regulation of the market where every member of the populace is well informed enough to spot a con, and well empowered enough to do something about it.
Another example is the environment, if the populace were well informed enough to assign value to nature, and well empowered enough to invest in and protect that wealth, then environmentalism would become the ultimate form of conservatism, as it should be.
The only area which requires strict regulation is education and the media, which must be high quality, uncensored and unbiased, or everything else will fall apart.
The exact measures taken to achieve these goals would require far more time to outline than i have available, but I would make these suggestions.
a) the distinction between government and the people is an illusion, we should strive allways toward the most direct form of government possible.
b) all of these measures can be achieved through legislation and taxation, but will only succeed if the general populace is actively involved in the creation and maintenance thereof.
c) the general populace must be well informed and impowered or any solution is doomed to failure.
When it comes time to rework things, and such a time will come, it seems to me that we must remember not to break everything in order to fix it, because there is really not that many things wrong.
You asked me what I would change.
Talking about the circulation of money is deceptive at best. First we must speak of physics and philosophy.
Consider this:
We humans are only capable of acting on 4 dimensions. Three of which are matter and one of which is time.
Matter is merely energy spinning slowly. So all matter is energy.
That leaves humans with only two types of power in this world, energy and time.
All human endevours are one of these two, and usually both.
Money has no intrinsic value of its own, it is merely a way of expressing power.
And now consider this:
Money = Time multiplied by energy.
So What we are really talking about here is the circulation of energy and time.
If I become rich, I am merely increasing my ability to control other peoples time and energy. There by increasing my total reserves of both.
So now we have established the scope of what we are talking about, we can start to consider what is wrong with the current system, and how it could be improved.
Everyone gets all worked up over the worlds problems, I am as guilty as anyone of this, and it can seem like there are so many problems, it can be hard to know where to start.
Really there are four. Four things which if changed would solve most of the worlds current ills.
The Abolition of Fractional Reserve Banking
I believe I have explained this point, and as long as banks can still collect interest and fees then there will still be banks, they just wont have an unfair advantage over everyone else.
The Abolition of the Federal reserve.
Money exists only to facilitate trade. There should be a limited ammount in cirulation at any one time, too little and it becomes hard to trade, too much and it becomes worthless. The flow of currency should be controlled by the total populace. This means the government, and if we ever move to one global currency, then it would mean we would need to create a global government. The printing and distribution of money is the prime responsibility of government, as the control of this mechanism is the prime driver behind any economy.
The Abolition of the wealth bell curve.
Let us imagine a man, sitting atop a bell curve of wealth. If he takes a few steps backwards he begins a slippery slope into poverty, and for every step he takes toward poverty, the easier the next step becomes. What I mean is that once you are allready poor, then even the slightest financial imposition can dramatically impact upon your circumstances, and this effect is only magnified the poorer you get.
Conversely, if he takes a step forward toward wealth, things become easier and it becomes progressively easier to obtain more wealth. What i mean is that a man with $10,000 will find it far easier to make $100 than a man with $1. And the greater your wealth, the easier it is to make a hundred dollars.
However, the average human doesn't sit atop the bell curve as the the name would suggest. They sit halfway down the poor side. And for the average man to make it past the top of the hill takes a huge ammount of perserverance, skill or luck, but once he is beyond the halfway point things become so easy that even if he were lobotomised he would still be capable of generating a sizeable income (if through nothign else than the interest on his assets)
I put it to you that this curve is an abhoration, that for capitalism to work, it requires each step in the ladder to take more effort than the previous step. rather than the highest steps requiring no effort what so ever.
Can you imagine a game (lets say WoW), where it is excedingly difficult to reach level 40, where it is easier to go backwards in levels than forwards. And then all fo a sudden, once you have reached level fourty, the game becomes a cakewalk.. with each subsequent level becoming easier and easier, at some point you dont even have to play.. the game just plays itself.. until finally the last level is granted to you so easily that you don't even notice because you ceased playing the game long ago and went off to a spa..
It wouldn't work. And in the same way our present economic system doesn't work.
The education and empowerment of the general populace.
Democracy (and so for our puposes capitalism) can not succeed without a well educated and well informed populace capable of making rational decissions and able to have those acted upon. There is a general trend globally toward nanny states. But the success of any economy is dependant upon the ability of the people within it to make good decissions. All of the people. Currently there are a few people who are well educated, and they essentially run things by ripping off the poorly educated and calling it a successfull economy. It is not.
Why are such social issues so important to an economy? As an example: Many people spend large ammounts of time arguing over the relative merits of regulation and self-regulation, when in reality there is only one kind of regulation that works. That is the regulation of the market where every member of the populace is well informed enough to spot a con, and well empowered enough to do something about it. Another example is the environment, if the populace were well informed enough to assign value to nature, and well empowered enough to invest in and protect that wealth, then environmentalism would become the ultimate form of conservatism, as it should be. The only area which requires strict regulation is education and the media, which must be high quality, uncensored and unbiased, or everything else will fall apart.
The exact measures taken to achieve these goals would require far more time to outline than i have available, but I would make these suggestions.
a) the distinction between government and the people is an illusion, we should strive allways toward the most direct form of government possible.
b) all of these measures can be achieved through legislation and taxation, but will only succeed if the general populace is actively involved in the creation and maintenance thereof.
c) the general populace must be well informed and impowered or any solution is doomed to failure.
When it comes time to rework things, and such a time will come, it seems to me that we must remember not to break everything in order to fix it, because there is really not that many things wrong.
-p0ss
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