No Cash … No Crash

In this age of anti-immigration sentiment, many of the fears raised by its proponents can be traced back to money.

Other causes for this sentiment can be associated with culture and religion.  However, dig a little deeper and I can assure you that money will often edge culture and religion to second or third place.

So why is money at the source of most of anti-immigration sentiment in the world today?

If 100 jobs were newly created in your town and there were 100 able-bodied residents to do them, how would you feel if 20 immigrants arrived in your town just as those new jobs were announced? What if 5 of those immigrants were equally able-bodied, but ready to work for less wages than the current residents? What if a resident was not hired because an immigrant got the job instead?

Would it matter what religion that immigrant practiced? Would it matter what hometown she came from?

Religion and culture would likely have no impact on the residents’ feelings of resentment toward the immigrants.

Quite simply, some residents will have lost out on potential wages to these immigrants. Potentially, no money for food or gas, no new clothes or a vacation to somewhere warmer. Perhaps no money for basic necessities.

With no income, lifestyle suffers and stress increases.

Who cares about culture and religion at this point? These residents just want to survive.

So the grumbling and complaining begins, the new arrivals are resented, and talk of preventing new immigrant arrivals gains traction.

All for what? To put more money in their own pockets because that is how the system is run.

Take money out of the picture and all those problems dissolve away.

Those jobs may still be there, but anyone is free to take them and to help contribute to the smooth running of their society. There is no competition for resources or wages.

At this point you must be thinking: “What the heck is the point of money anyway? Why is it so frequently at the heart of our social problems?”

Why indeed?

Tell me if this you can relate to this experience.

While out and about, you come across something special that you would love to buy for yourself or someone close to you, but the item’s sticker price declares, “you can’t afford me!”

How frustrating is that?

Wouldn’t it make more sense to be able to express how you feel in the moment by spontaneously procuring a gift without having to put a financial value on that expression? Instead, we are currently forced to decide that “She’s/he’s/they’re not worth it” because we can’t afford the price tag on that gift.

We are all worthy, but we still allow an abstract and emotionless concept like money to decide how to show we care whether it be through a simple handmade card, a full-course dinner at a 4-star restaurant or a 2-week exotic holiday. In other words, there should be no “financial” limit placed on how we choose to express ourselves.

However, for now, we’ll buy that single red carnation instead of the 2-dozen roses because it is all we can afford today. Our special someone is going to have to wait until our next pay raise to get the “good stuff”.

Here’s hoping.

In Western cultures, on December 31, there are those who adopt New Year resolutions and often vow to improve some aspect of their lives such as losing weight, following a new exercise regime, focusing on their spiritual life, and so on.

It’s a cliché that those who make such resolutions often abandon them the first few weeks into the new year only because … it’s true. Speaking for myself, it’s not easy to make significant life and lifestyle changes so I completely understand the majority of individuals who fail at the endeavor.

I think it’s because we are trying to view our lives through a different paradigm, but that paradigm is entirely foreign to who we are. The status quo is so much more comfortable and familiar which makes adopting a new view of ourselves so difficult.

Now considering how difficult it can be for individuals to make significant life changes for themselves, one can just imagine how overwhelming the concept of adopting a new paradigm about money can be … for all Humanity!

Yes, it will be quite overwhelming to accept the concept of a money-free world, but I sincerely believe that it needs to happen.

Certainly not this new year, but hopefully in a not-too-distant future.

The Christmas season, in Europe and the Americas at least, has always been a special time for expressions of human kindness: Donating to local food banks, distributing gift baskets containing ingredients for a healthy Christmas dinner and children’s toys to families in need, collecting clothing for homeless shelters, and so on.

The unfortunate reality of this particular season is that, once it has passed, so have those “warm and fuzzy” feelings for one’s fellow human beings. After Christians have returned to their daily routines, most have forgotten that their poorer bretheren’s needs for food and other basic necessities remain.

Why is that?

My guess is that the season’s traditional catchphrase that “it is better to give than to receive” moves us to want to share our good fortune with strangers, but when the New Year has arrived our generosity has dried up and our focus returns to our own needs.

I suspect that we think, within the paradigm of money, that there is only so much that we can give away until we begin to run short on supplies and run the risk of not affording to replace them.

What if, within the framework of a money-less paradigm, goods were freely available to all of us? What if we all experienced a “season of plenty” regardless of the season?

If that were the case, then we could all deck our halls with more than just boughs of holly!

What a strange thing it is to be on the “before” side of a market crash while most economists are oblivious to or in complete denial of the inevitable.

It’s like seeing an accident about to happen, but you’re powerless to stop it.

One person raising the alarm, however,  is David Stockman in an article entitled “The Illusion of Growth” and published November 21, 2017. As his biography states, he was a two-term Congressman from Michigan. He was also the Director of the Office of Management and Budget under President Ronald Reagan. After leaving the White House, Mr Stockman had a 20-year career on Wall Street.

Rather than go into the details of the article, it essentially asserts that the current economic health of the US (and, consequentially, most of the world’s) economy is teetering on collapse and that you shouldn’t believe the “hype” that everything is okay.

Whether Mr Stockman is correct about the coming financial “correction” matters not. It is simply another consequence of allowing money to govern our lives in that we are constantly in a state of anxiety about the next market downturn and worrying about our life savings being wiped away by the next big “crash”. Honestly, what kind of a life is that?

Waiting for the collapse to happen is like how Damocles must have felt sitting under a huge sword suspended only by a single hair of a horse’s tail: Constant fear.

This is essentially the point of this blog: To remind everyone that we do not have to live this way forever and that we have a choice to abandon this way of life before the coming collapse. Let’s not wait to be on the “after” side of a market crash if we can avoid it.

As an individual interested in Internet Security,  I have been watching a show called “Mr. Robot.” The plot line generally follows an individual named Elliot Alderson with a social emotional disorder who is an extremely talented computer hacker.

The first season follows Elliott as he tries to bring down a monopolistic corporation called E-Corp, or as he calls it “Evil Corp.” By the end of the season, Elliott has managed to paralyze E-Corp’s business which, in turn, has significantly affected the American economy whereby the debts of millions of citizens have been erased.

The episodes that examine society’s breakdown as a result of the hack is a fascinating study of how North American society might react to a market collapse. Of course, the market problems described in this show revolve around the erasure of debts and not a total collapse of financial markets and people’s retirement savings.

At the end of episode 10, Elliot’s sister Darlene is observing a crowd of friends who are enjoying a party following the E-Corp hack. It was her simple observation that completely floored me because it captures what I feel about how Humanity would benefit if money we’re completely eliminated from our lives. Darlene said, “… look at all these people. They’re free because of us … They’re finally awake. They’re finally alive!”

What I took the statement to mean was that these people were now free of the burden of debt slavery and having to work to simply survive. What they were free to do now was be themselves without the stress of having to constantly eke out a living always under the thumb of major corporations that dominate their lives and control their fate at virtually every turn.

Now THAT is really living!

On January 16, 2017, Oxfam International published a report that had the world’s “99%” screaming mad.

Their report, entitled “An economy for the 99 percent“, essentially concluded that 8 businessmen owned the same wealth as the 3.6 billion people who make up the poorest half of humanity. Oxfam intentionally released the report to coincide with the 4-day meeting of the World Economic Forum that is held annually in late January in Switzerland, perhaps with the hope that it might have some influence on the monetary policies that will be drafted by the business, political, academic, and other leaders of society who usually attend.

Sadly, I don’t see such reports making much of an impact on meeting participants since they are working within the paradigm of world trade being dictated by money. As long as they continue to think that way, then humanity is a century away from a solution — if an ethical and equitable solution is even possible.

So, given the very clear evidence that “our broken economies are funneling wealth to a rich elite at the expense of the poorest in society” (as per Oxfam), do we continue to carry on as before and expect a different outcome? To do so would be the very definition of insanity.

What is the solution to this unchecked rise in global inequality?

It’s quite simple: Pull out the delusive thread that has weaved itself over the centuries throughout the now-tattered tapestry of human history, but that has provided no real value in the end.

In other words, remove money from the scenario and these 8 businessmen have no wealth and their 3.6 billion fellow humans have no poverty. Talk about a great normalizer.

Of course, there are the 1% who would scream: “What about all the riches and abundance I have accumulated over my lifetime? Do I not deserve to keep it after all the work I have done rather than see it erased?”

I would answer: “Why did you seek to accumulate wealth in the first place? Was it to help humanity or just yourself and those closest to you? Pursuing the accumulation of riches with your eyes closed to the poverty of others is not sharing the abundance that this world has to offer. We all deserve equal access to this abundance without the artificial barrier that money puts in our way.”

As I have said earlier in this blog, we now have the infrastructures in place to harvest and convert this planet’s resources for everyone to consume equally. If shopping could be about “just grab and go” without having to pay for it because humanity has evolved to the point where paying for anything doesn’t make sense, then we will no longer have the 99 versus the 1% … we will have 100% of humanity finally sharing what was meant to be from the very beginning.

In the words of David A. Bell, the defining feature of modern times is “equality itself … a great force that swept over kings and presidents as surely as it did other members of society.”

It is my sincere hope that humanity will finally realize the threat which money represents to real and lasting equality, and that our collective realization will forcefully sweep over kings, queens and presidents who will yield to the truth that the Age of Money is over.

A recent post in this blog about the collapse of Venezuela’s health care system is representative of this country’s slide into anarchy due to a crumbling economy for which only money can be held responsible regardless of the political philosophy that has driven it into the ground.

Numerous reports have surfaced of Venezuelan cities running out of food with resulting riots in stores and attacks on local businesses that are desperately trying to support the people through this very difficult time.

This is only one country, but such an economic plague will be spread the world over unless we rid ourselves of the scourge at the very heart of it: Money.

If you were to take an honest look at what BENEFIT money has done versus what SUFFERING it has brought Humanity, then you would very likely conclude that we need to abandon our system of trading in goods and services and share the wealth of the world without thought of compensation.

That is what Venezuelans would want right now because this is what Money has brought them: A life where Money has no regard or concern for their fate.

Unfortunately, this is a perfect example of where other countries cannot afford to help another in desperate need not because they don’t have supplies, but because they lack the money to support their will to help.

If we lived in a world where the concept of money did not exist, then our neighbors — whether next door or on the other side of the planet — would see help arrive without delay because we would not think twice if aid money being sent will not be stolen by corrupt individuals or governments. The proper focus would truly be on rescuing those in need because supplies and services could flow freely.

What reasons could convince humanity to give up money tomorrow?

How about these?

1. No bankruptcy of people, companies, towns, cities, states or countries
2. No begging for charity
3. You could care for aging parents or sick relatives with no loss of income
4. No struggle to “make ends meet“
5. A person’s value would not be tied to income
6. No more child or slave labor
7. No more welfare mindset
8. No need for lotteries or casinos
9. No homeless people
10. No worries about your credit rating
11. No more “keeping up with the Joneses“
12. No more advertisements interrupting your daily life!
13. No more offshore accounts to hide illegal gains
14. No need to impress everyone with your expensive “toys“
15. No need to rely on a second job to survive
16. No need for Christmas baskets for low income families during the holiday period
17. You could repair — not scrap — electronic appliances
18. Everyone would stop trying to “make a fast buck“
19. Everything would literally be price-less
20. No get-rich-quick schemes
21. No need for robots or AI to replace workers in order to reduce employment costs
22. No incentive to hold anyone hostage for a ransom
23. No more backroom deals
24. No more bribes to promote unethical behavior
25. No more human trafficking for the sex or slave trades
26. No more Ponzi (i.e., pyramid) schemes
27. Power would not be in the hands of the wealthy
28. No more “repo” businesses
29. No more piracy of software, movies, and music
30. No more spammers or hackers trying to defraud you
31. No more trademark and copyright protections
32. No more ransomware
33. No motivation to steal intellectual property
34. No need for identity theft
35. No need to steal or covet another’s possessions because they would be available to everyone
36. There would be no need for “equal pay for equal work” based on gender, race, etc.
37. We would no longer worry about the “fine print” in contracts
38. No more fair-weather friends who value your bank account over your relationship
39. No more need for credit or loans
40. No enslavement to the “rat race“
41. Development would be guided by need, not greed
42. No need for retirement savings
43. An end to unaffordable health care and to hospital ward closures
44. Families need not worry about living in squalor
45. Hard-to-afford or orphan drugs would be easily available
46. Humanitarian aid would get to those who need it
47. No complaints of “immigrants stealing our jobs!“
48. People would not go hungry because they could not afford groceries
49. Recalled products would be removed from shelves without loss of profits
50. You could choose healthier foods because they weren’t more expensive
51. Companies would not cut back on employee benefits to improve their profit margins
52. No need to ration food, gas, and other supplies until the next payday
53. No more obscene salaries for CEOs and professional athletes
54. No deteriorating infrastructures and road networks
55. Technological advancements would not be blocked for lack of funding
56. Innovation would not be a threat to old technology
57. Research groups would not have to beg for funds to continue valuable work
58. Banks would no longer exist
59. You would not have to leave a job you love because it did not pay enough
60. No influence peddling in politics
61. Companies would not be guided by profit and shareholders
62. Critical job positions would not be abolished for lack of funding
63. Employment would not be tied to the economy
64. Layoffs would not mean an end to livelihood
65. Local businesses would not have to close due to new mall construction
66. No longer tying one’s fortune to stock performance
67. No more corporate monopolies
68. No more putting profits ahead of workplace safety
69. No more food waste caused by market pricing
70. No need for social security or employment insurance
71. No need to hunt for the highest-paying job
72. No need to move whole families in search of work
73. No loss of income for calling in sick if you don’t have job benefits
74. Maternity and paternity leaves would be determined by the child’s — not the corporation’s — needs
75. Companies with great products would not fail due to cash flow problems
76. No job would not mean starvation or bankruptcy
77. You would not have to beg for a raise
78. Lawyers would be motivated only by pure justice and not by high financial settlements
79. An end to words like “unaffordable“, “expensive“, “budget“, etc.
80. You could vacation anywhere in the world
81. Concepts such as third-world economy would no longer exist
82. Younger workers won’t need to support an aging population through contributions to social security plans
83. No need for illegal drugs to escape a life of quiet desperation
84. Relief for natural disasters would not stall due to lack of state funds
85. No need for austerity measures
86. You would not be stuck at a job you hated because you had bills to pay
87. No need for fair-trade protections
88. Election campaigns would not be influenced by “big money“
89. Families and friendships would not break down over financial issues
90. Relatives would not fight over inheritances
91. Newspapers would not close down due to a lack of advertising revenues
92. There would be more time for family and friends
93. No price gouging for essential supplies during catastrophic events
94. No more hashtags like #luxurylife, #billionairetoys, #richkidsofinstagram, #narcostyle, etc.
95. A wage earner would not have to leave their family in search of distant work
96. No credit card debt
97. Special-needs programs would not be cancelled due to lack of funding
98. No popular uprisings due to economic struggles
99. No more market volatility or unpredictability
100. No more taxes!!!

… and this is just a small sampling.

If you could add another worthwhile reason, what would it be?

Gold: The world’s monetary standard.

Valued at approximately US $1,300 per ounce (at the time of this posting), it is the go-to commodity in times of economic depression.

Gold’s market worth is driven by supply and demand which are currently diminishing and skyrocketing, respectively. It is already an astonishingly rare metal and we have nearly exhausted underground reserves in our pursuit for more of it, yet we continue to rape the land in search of new seams completely justified by our insatiable appetite for more of the yellow metal.

This appetite has shaped human history which is a testament to gold’s solid grip on our psyches.

Another testament to its power over the human mind is what lengths we will go to mine it.

A recent television show introduced me to a town with the distinction of being the highest elevation human habitation in the world. It is called La Rinconada and is located near a gold mine in the Peruvian Andes.

What also makes this town unique is how the inhabitants make a living there. The workers are not paid a wage for mining the gold. They practice what is called the cachorreo system which means that they are obligated to work 30 straight days for no pay and then allowed one day to take as much ore as they can carry on their shoulders in hopes of extracting what gold they can for themselves.

They are literally toiling for a sack of rocks because too often they come up empty when those rocks are crushed and their contents exposed to mercury and heat to extract the meagre amount of gold contained within.

These people choose this life because they believe they have no other choice.

Then again, what if money never existed in the first place to drive the need for gold? If we sought gold only for its artisanal value but did not value it enough to despoil the planet when easily accessible sources disappeared, then we would be living in a different world indeed.

That revolutionary thinking would likely make the inhabitants of La Rinconada come down from the mountains and choose instead to live a long and healthy life.