THE SHORT VERSION OF UNDERSTANDING MONEY

Every freely entered into transparent exchange facilitated with money makes both parties to the exchange better off.  In the aggregate we should all be increasingly better off! If we had an honest monetary system we would all receive more money, one way or another, to represent the increasingly better off and we could have a sustainable abundance.  How does the monetary system rob us?

 

Interest automatically transfers the wealth from those of us who pay more interest than they receive to those who receive more interest than they pay.  This has resulted in 1% of us having over 60% of the entire wealth of the nation.

 

Interest is mathematical, it is due and payable regardless of what happens in your life or the economy.  Since buying a house and a car almost always involves borrowing from a bank, we live in existential fear that if we do not do what is necessary to have the money to make the loan payments we will lose the house or car.

 

Our economy is based on the expectation that we will “save” money so that our money can work for us.  Is it our money that is working for us? Who is working for us? Who are we working for? Who has the money?

 

All our money except coins is issued (created) by banks when we “borrow” money and banks only create the principal of the loan, but we “owe” the bank principal and interest.  This means that there is never enough money in circulation to pay both the principal and the interest. All the money to pay the interest has to come from new loans. And the interest is paid to the bank, and although the bank spends a lot of it to cover its expenses it is still true that the interest is transferring the wealth to those who receive more interest than they pay.  And banks and the Central Banks, including the Bank for International Settlements (the Central Bankers Bank) are determining the conditions in which we live by deciding what is credit worthy, what you can get money for.

 

Money is not valuable in itself, you don’t want the money, you want what the money will buy.  That we use debit and credit cards, checks and wire transfers should make this amply clear. Money is a creature of law; it is an agreement to use something (a robust accounting system) as the circulating medium of exchange.  Money is both a unit of value that makes all the goods and services commensurate so that they can be exchanged and it is the means of exchange. All of which is a matter of law. Money is a public utility or measure, but it has been usurped or privatized by the banks.

 

If we learned in school what money is and how the monetary system works, we would never tolerate it, we would rebel - just as the Colonies did against the Bank of England.

 

When we understand money we will know that we can issue money to represent the values we create as goods and services and we can regulate the money supply so that there is always the right amount of money in circulation.  We can issue money for whatever we decide is good, and if what we issue money for creates new value then we will need to issue money to the people so they have the money to buy those values (goods and services).

 

Creating or issuing money is the primary sovereign power.  Whoever is issuing the money is determining whether we prosper or starve.  We should be issuing the money in a participatory decision making process that leads towards consensus, what all agree would be good.

 

Just Abundance recommends that we issue the money to the people directly so that they have the money they need to buy what the economy offers and we should issue money to capitalize our capacities.  We should issue the money to the people so that they can accomplish what they see is needed.

 

That is the short version.  It raises huge questions, and the articles on this website are meant to inspire you to find out all you can about how it is and how it could be.  The fate of the world depends on us wresting the money power from the Bank for International Settlements and wielding it for the common good. When we do we can heal the environment, release ourselves from debt and wage slavery and create a just and sustainable economy and society, a real meritocracy, what the Founders envisioned.

 

America is the hope of the world, we are failing in our mission, but we can be the light of the world again when we, the people, decide what is just and sustainable and issue the money to accomplish it.  When we assume the money power, we will have a government of, by and for the people.