Builders of the Ark Understand Money

Builders of the Ark - User Interface Understand Money Selector:    MAIN     Your LERN This page is still under development. Here you will be able to learn about money.

How Money Systems Work

Publications

Payment Methods

Glossary of Terms

The Money Conference

Currency Systems
Backed Currencies		Ithaca HOURS
LETS		National Currencies
ROCS		Time Dollars
Complementary Currencies

How Money Systems Work

What is Money?

Design Characteristics of Currency Systems

Social Implications of Currency System Features

Interact

What is Money?

Money is an agreement

The agreement may be voluntary or coerced, conscious or unconscious, and may fluctuate with time or remain fixed.

within a community

All kinds of communities--large and small; local, national, international, or virtual; cooperative or competitive--may create such an agreement.

to use something as a
medium of exchange.

The money itself can be issued en masse by a central authority or created ad hoc by two consenting parties in a mutual credit system; it may store value or merely mark transactions; it may be backed or valued with something tangible or merely by the issuing authority; and it may take any shape--coins and bills, some chalk marks on a blackboard, or bits of data inside a computer.
 

What is Money?

Design Characteristics of Currency Systems

Social Implications of Currency System Features

Interact

Design Characteristics of Representative Currency Systems

A growing number of currency and payment systems, each oriented toward different social and material incentives, are available for use today. The most appropriate one for any given transaction will depend on the needs and objectives of those taking part in the exchange. We present here an overview of the design characteristics of some representative currency systems, all of which are explained in further detail in our glossary of important terms and concepts and under discussion in The Money Conference.

	National Currencies	Ithaca HOURS	Time Dollars	LETSystems	WIR	ROCS
Unit	$US, DM, Fr, etc., mediated through $US	1 HOUR = $10 U.S. (bills)	hour of service	Green $ = $	$ (SF)	Hour
How Issued	Central Bank and constituent banks	Center	Mutual Credit	Mutual Credit	Center + Mutual Credit	Mutual Credit
Details	Debt-based fiat money, bearing interest; thus promoting competition.	Backed fiat currency whose supply must be managed.	Usually fixed exchange rate: your hour = my hour	Most prevalent local system	Uses national currency (SF) for unit of account; WIR for settlements.	Negotiated exchange rate Demurrage charge on both + and - balances
Main Benefit	Legal Tender	Ease of Use: Bills	Simplest System	Ease of Use: Single pricing for national and green currency	Oldest and largest local system: 80,000 members; $2 billion/year)	Synthesis of most robust features of all other local systems

 

What is Money?

Design Characteristics of Currency Systems

Social Implications of Currency System Features

Interact

Social Implications of Currency System Features

• Fiat money requires by definition an Authority (a Central Bank, in the case of national currencies) to be issued and to keep its value.
• Backed currencies can be issued by whoever owns the commodity or service which backs the currency.
• Scarce currencies will tend to induce competition among participants. All our national currencies are created by interest-bearing bank debts. They are scarce because:
  1. "Debt money derives its value from its scarcity relative to its usefulness." --Jackson and McConnell, Economics. (Sydney: McGraw-Hill, 1988.).
  2. currencies created by interest-bearing debt generate a negative sum game among participants (see "The Eleventh Round").
• Sufficient currencies (not to be confused with overabundant inflated currencies) are exemplified by mutual credit systems such as LETS and Time Dollars, which are created as a debit and credit by the participants themselves at the moment of a transaction and thus always in sufficient supply. They are therefore more compatible with gift economy- like social bonds.
• Currencies that store value (such as any commodity-backed currency, including electronic forms of it such as E-gold) encourage hoarding, and therefore competition.
• Currencies with demurrage charges discourage hoarding and thus encourage transactions and cooperation among participants.

 

What is Money?

Design Characteristics of Currency Systems

Social Implications of Currency System Features

Interact

Join us in The Money Conference, where we hope to compare insights on all kinds of money systems--old, new, high- and low-tech, real or theoretical--and to synthesize from our shared experience wiser and more efficient models of exchange media.

The Money Conference Sign up for conferencing Motet conferencing tutorial

top of this page

How Money Systems Work

Publications

Payment Methods

Glossary of Terms

The Money Conference

---

http://www.transaction.net/money/index.htmll
zisk@well.com

Making Money

A Trilogy by Bruce Beach Meaning of Money making money (this essay) Money Matters Making Money Making money is a modern euphemism for making a profit or gaining income. Here we are not concerned with either of those activities but rather we will discuss the mechanical methods and procedures for creating money itself. This does not mean that we will be particularly concerned with printing money or making coins, although that can be a minor part of the procedures. As discussed in the first presentation - The Meaning of Money - money today is most usually 'blips'. Blips are either marks in accounting books or electrons in a computer. In this sense, money may sound all very nebulous. Some people insist that money be 'backed' by gold or silver - but here we will have none of that. A mere scarcity of gold in a community does not mean that the community should not have money. While in the first presentation we went to some length to explain that money is a poor way to store wealth we nevertheless did not disparage the need for money. Money is as essential to a vibrant and vital economic system as is air to an animal. However, one must keep it in perspective. It is not the end-all or purpose of life as unfortunately so many people presently make it out to be. Money is a serious matter. But it is not THAT serious. There is no one system that is best or perfect. There is always a better way. Compare it to paint for a house. Yes, the house needs paint - but there are possible many different colors. Eventually the present or new paint will wear out. There is no reason that it has to be repainted the same color. And yes there are differences between paints. Some are better and last longer than others. But beware of those who say a money system has to be this way or that. Fiat money systems are much better in many ways than metal based systems. Yes, they grow old, decline, wear out - but then also so do all human systems. The real issue then becomes how easily and quickly a new and better working system can be installed. There have been a few successful experiments with alternate money systems. One is the Swiss WIR system. John Kenneth Galbraith (October 15, 1908 – April 29, 2006) "The process by which banks create money is so simple the mind is repelled." What we are going to discuss are the simple methods by which any group - from 50 persons to fifty million persons can create money. Our greater focus will be on those systems suitable up to a few thousand people. Beyond that number there will surely be enough people around that understand the principles of bookkeeping and / computers (if computers are available) to set up suitable systems. The first point of focus should be on the immediate local community. The principles developed here can be applied by higher communities which are simply communities of communities rather than communities of individuals. The first step is to make a list of every person in the community that is elegible to have an account. This should at least be every person over the age of fifteen. The individual accounts can be flagged in various ways and it may be desirable for anyone in business to have two accounts, a personal account and a business account, or even more than one business account. How accounts will be flagged will be determined by the bank administration and in my ideal world of Progressive Democracy the bank administrators are appointed and removed at the pleasure of the Community Servants. Some ways in which accounts might be flagged would be: A - adult personal B - business C - child (until age 15) D - dependent - someone needing supervision E - exceptional - an account requiring exceptional monitoring So - here is the first example table: Community List Account number Name Flag Comment 001 Community school account E Two of Three signers: Mrs. ____ Mrs. _____ Mrs. _____ 002 Community road account E Two signers: Superintendent Assistant Super 003 John Jones A Comment 004 Jones Road Company B Signer: John Jones 005 Jill Jones A Comment 006 Jill Jones Teacher B Authorized to receive teacher transfers 007 Tommy Brown A Comment 008 Tommy Brown C Transfers ONLY to teacher accounts 009 Susie Someone D Must be countersigned by Mrs. _______ The above are only examples of how accounts might be assigned. There could be thousands of variations all depending upon the principles that the community authorities wish to implement, but to understand the suggested principles let us examine the accounts in the example. Accounts 001 and 002 would be accounts for the local community. There could be dozens of community accounts - or if desired only a single community account and internal accounting kept in separate community books. The same would apply to a business that might keep dozens of separate accounts within the internal bookkeeping of that business. Even an individual may keep their own budgetary and internal bookkeeping system. Accounts 003 and 004 reflect the distinction between a personal and a business account maintained by an individual. Accounts 005 and 006 do much the same but have the distinction that account 006 is a privileged account in that it is permitted to receive ear-marked school funds. As an example of how that might happen - the community might deposit to each child's account a set amount of funds and these could only be transferred from that account to a teacher's account. We see an example in accounts 007 and 008 where Tommy Brown might be old enough to have his own adult account but at the same time may be young enough that payments from his child account have to be countersigned by his parents. It is this way that parents would have control over the selection of their children's teachers and consequently over the teaching that their children received. Account 009 is an example of a person that needs a supervised account. They might be a person who is mentally retarded or otherwise incapacitated. In this case it would be their guardian or trustee that had signing or required countersigning authority. This could apply to very elderly individuals who required custodial care - or even individuals that the community decided were irresponsible or incapable of managing community funds that were assigned to them. These have just been examples of how accounts might be set up or designated - but a community may take an entirely different approach. The emphasis here is mainly on an example, one example, of how the mechanics of bookkeeping might be set up. Once accounts have been set up - there are two more issues. The determination of entitlement to community contributions to the accounts and the mechanics of transfers between the accounts. The first of these issues is so important that it is dealt with on its own web page called Money Matters and in the remainder of this page we shall only deal with the mechanics of transfers. The method of transferring money from one account to another is very simple. All that one does is write a check. From: is the authorized issuing individual(s) and their account number on the community list. Date: is the date they issue the check along with any other identifying info they wish to put there. Amount: Is the amount of the check both written out and in numbers like everyone knows how to make a check. To: is the name of the person that the check is being deposited by and their account number on the community list. A name doesn't have to be filled in at the time that the check is written and thus the check can be just passed around as money. This is a way that the community can create currency. Number: is the transaction number and is entered by the bank administrators at the time the check is deposited into the system and can then be used as an audit trail. There is really nothing complicated about all this. Individuals issuing the check / currency may keep a personal register - if they wish - and place a serial number on the check / currency by the date. People, if they wish, may give receipts for the currency that they receive - and those making a deposit of the currency may keep a deposit slip record of what they have deposited. Any individual can implement any system of controls that they wish and in order to simplify the system for others people might issue the checks / currency / money in accepted denominations just as currency today is kept in specific denominations. Therefore, the issuing person, in order to pay a $36.30 bill might either write out checks for $20, $5, and $1 and even thirty cents - or they could write a check for the entire amount - or they might have checks from others in their pocket that in some combination would add up to the amount. A community might also make substitutes for coins. The proverbial wooden nickels in any denominations and these could be 'sold' by the bank, so that exchanges for small amounts could be handled by using these tokens made of wood, plastic, metal or what have you. There could also be bank issued checks / money / currency of various denominations that one might obtain from the bank by writing a check to the bank. As technology might permit these could be more fancily printed. One considered factor, however, is that they might be dated so as to become invalid after a certain date for reasons such as will be discussed in Money Matters. These are all just the mechanics of creating money and keeping track of it. There is nothing, or needs to be nothing, really that complicated about the procedure. The purpose of this money is simply to keep track of transactions within a small community where everyone is known to each other and there should be little difficulty in determining the culprit if someone should try to defraud the system. As has been repeatedly stated - the greater issue is one of entitlement - and that shall be covered in Money Matters. Here we are only concerned with an elementary tracking system. When the checks / currency / money (the terms are in essence synonymous and are all referring to the same piece(s) of paper) are presented to the bank they are then assigned a transaction number which is written onto the check and the check can then be filed with all the others in that order. The order in which the checks are entered into the transaction register has nothing to do with the order in which they are written but only the order in which they are presented to the bank. Community Transaction Register Transaction number Amount Issuer Number Depositor Number 811 $130.00 044 076 812 $88.00 053 027 813 $40.00 072 121 814 $70.00 025 044 The above is a random example out of a transaction register showing the four transactions from 811 to 814. Each transaction has both an issuer and a depositor although, as explained above, the depositor may be a different account than to which the issuer originally gave the check. Individual Account Register Account Name____Charlie Champ____________ Account Number __044____ Transaction number Deposit Amount Source Payment Amount Paid Account Balance 777 100 002 _ _ 100 811 _ _ 130 076 (30.00) 814 70.00 025 _ _ 40.00 930 _ _ 15.00 004 25.00 Here we see one Individual Account Register that happens to have been affected by two of the above transactions on the Community Transaction Register, specifically transactions 811 and 814. All entries on an individual account appear as either a receipt or a payment - but not both. 1. Looking at the four lines shown in order on the individual account we see that in some earlier transaction Charlie Champ received $100 from account #002 which added to a zero balance had given him a total credit of $100. 2. Then in transaction 811 he paid out $130 to account 076. This put Charlie Champ in an over-draft situation of $30.00. 3. Following this Charlie Champ received $70 from account 025 and so had a balance of $40.00. 4. And finally in this series of transactions for Charlie Champ he paid out $15 to account 004 and so had a balance of $25.00. The order, size or nature of the transactions is totally unimportant and irrelevant. The only purpose here has been to show the interrelationship between the Community Transaction Register and an Individual Account Register. It is not complicated and the system can be maintained with pen and sheets of paper - if that is all that is available - or it can easily be done with a computer so that the transactions are immediately dispersed from the Community Transaction Register to the Individual Account Registers. The accounting procedure is not time sensitive and it makes no difference whether individual accounts are in over-draft or not. There just needs to be account reconciliation on a timely basis as decided by the system managers and the subject of the relative importance of account balances is something that will be discussed under Money Matters. In this presentation we have only been concerned with the mechanics of accounting in the process of money creation. It is not a complicated matter and most any community will find someone who can manage these details. Meaning of Money Making Money (this essay) Money Matters

Meaning of Money

A Trilogy by Bruce Beach Meaning of Money (this essay) Making Money Money Matters Meaning of Money The purpose of this essay is to explain the meaning of money. At the time that I am writing this it is a subject that almost no one understands although innumerable and voluminous works have been written about it. If you have the disciplined thinking equal to that which comes from obtaining a bachelor's degree and if you are willing to not just skim read this essay, as is so often the custom today, but rather to read it with dedicated thought to where you actually understand and comprehend each paragraph written herein, then you can understand the nature of money. This will not be a difficult read and upon completion you will undoubtedly wonder why money has been such a mystery to those who have tried to comprehend it before. You will recognize that it is something that has not been understood by presidents, congressmen, heads of government financial committees, bankers, courts, lawyers, professors of economics or financial 'experts' of any stripe.    STILL TRUE TODAY! "All the perplexities, confusion and distress in America arise, not from defects in their Constitution or Confederation, not from want of honor or virtue, so much as from the downright ignorance of the nature of coin, credit and circulation." John Adams October 30, 1735 – July 4, 1826 Second President of the U.S. Is money the root of all evil? "So you think that money is the root of all evil. Have you ever asked what is the root of all money?" -Ayn Rand Ayn Rand thought that: "money is the root of all good" ... but that is another story - and certainly not the thesis of this essay. In point of fact - the correct saying is: "The LOVE of money is the root ...."

Bruce Beach (1934 - ) M.A. Economics 1970 Texas Christian University

I am an old man and I have studied and taught non-conventional economics for many years, but until just the last very few years, and even after having taken courses and reading books on the subject, I often remarked that monetary theory is one thing that I had never understood. Now, I understand that those who espouse various systems of monetary theory, and who are called experts in it, do not really understand money. What they understand and espouse are the workings of their particular system - no matter how divorced from reality it may be. So, forget all that confusion.

Here you are only going to need to learn and understand six things: Index and outline: The Meaning of Money Part 1. The three uses of money. a. As a store of wealth b. As a medium of exchange c. As a measure of value Part 2. The distinction between a. coinage b. currency c. money Part 3. How money is created a. Object (metal) based currencies b. Nominal currencies c. Fiat currencies Part 4. The entitlement to create money a. money created through debt b. money created privately c. money created publicly Part 5. The social purpose of money a. Creation of wealth b. Full employment c. Limitation and transfer of wealth Part 6. Spiritual motives for money a. Saints b. Sinners c. Satans Part 7. Conclusion: a. What can be done b. What should be done c. What will be done

Money - as a store of wealth Money - as a medium of exchange Money - as a measure of value Money is the oil that makes the gears of the economy turn. The Creature from Jekyll Island is a popular book that tells about the creation of the US Federal Reserve. US Fed Reserve Regions Saints also need money - even if Satans have it to burn. Christ drove the money changers from the temple. Do they now need to be driven out of the economy?

Bernard Lietaer

Bernard Lietaer

Bernard Lietaer is currently a Research Fellow at the Center for Sustainable Resources of the University of California at Berkeley. His latest book on the Future of Money, about which a free online conference has coalesced, was published in January 2001 and is now available online. (For a German version, see http://www.futuremoney.de/.) His professional background afforded him access to five different (and usually mutally exclusive) hands-on experiences with money systems, listed here in chronological order:

• For multinational corporations, he developed the first models of global currency management;
• He has consulted with developing countries on four different continents about improving hard currency earnings;
• His academic history includes a Professorship of International Finance at the University of Louvain in Belgium;
• For five years he was head of the Organization and Planning Department at the Central Bank of Belgium, where he was President of the Electronic Payment System; and
• Finally, in the speculative domain, he served as general manager and currency trader of the most successful offshore currency fund.

Read and critique excerpts from Bernard Lietaer's newest book, The Future of Money: Beyond Greed and Scarcity online conference on Money in the future Sign up for conferencing Motet conferencing tutorial

"An Interview with Bernard Lietaer" by Sarah van Gelder

'Community Currencies' article

'A "Green" Convertible Currency' article

Fairy Tales that Could Come True

---

http://www.transaction.net/index.htmll/money/bio/lietaer.html
zisk@well.com

The distinction between coinage, currency and money

------ Meaning of Money Part 2 The distinction between a. coinage b. currency c. money a. Coinage Coinage is the production of physical money in the form of 'coins' from some material such as a metal. Coinage In the past in some cultures there has been a policy of 'free' coinage by the government (sometimes with the payment of a small fee) for metals like gold and silver. This fee is called seigniorage: the revenue or a profit taken from the minting of coins, usually the difference between the value of the bullion used and the face value of the coin. Coins may depreciate through wear or in the case of gold it has been subject to 'sweating' where a small amount is shaved or removed by intermediate users. ------ b. Currency Currency is printed 'paper' money. But when we talk about the government printing money - it is just figurative, because most money isn't printed. from: Modern Money Mechanics by the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago "In the U.S. neither paper currency nor deposits have value as commodities. Intrinsically, a dollar bill is just a piece of paper. Deposits are merely book entries. Coins do have some intrinsic value as metal, but generally far less than their face amount. What, then, makes these instruments 'checks, paper money, and coins' acceptable at face value in payment of all debts and for other monetary uses? Mainly, it is the confidence people have that they will be able to exchange such money for other financial assets and real goods and services whenever they choose to do so. This partly is a matter of law; currency has been designated 'legal tender' by the government - that is, it must be accepted." ------ c. Money Most people recognize there are more forms of money than coins and currency. In fact, today, most 'money' exists simply as fiat bookkeeping entries on banks' computers. These electronic 'blips' are brought into existence by the rules of the monetary system - whatever those rules may be. REALmoney is BLIPS! Some readers have said that they have had trouble understanding what 'fiat' means and have asked that I define it better early on - so let me emphasize at the outset that 'fiat' simply means money that is made out of nothing. It has no 'gold' backing or such. If that sounds terrible then please be alerted that this trilogy advocates 'fiat' money and explains how and why it should be created. Click here to: go back to the Index or to go on to Part 3

Object based Currencies

Meaning of Money Part 3. How money is created a. Object (metal) based currencies b. Nominal currencies c. Fiat currencies a. Object (metal) based currencies One of predominant theories about money is that it should be based upon some rare physical objects such as seashells or diamonds. The most often named object is gold. It is seldom suggested - especially in the case of gold - that the physical object itself be used as the currency because if that were the case the commodity might depreciate through wear or in the case of gold it was subject to 'sweating' where a small amount was removed by intermediate users. Consequently the money would therefore be gold 'certificates' and it is the certificates rather than the gold that would be moved about. How much gold a certificate might be redeemed for might be fixed and it might take a great number of certificates to redeem a single ounce of gold. With a limited supply of gold, and great numbers of certificates being printed for each ounce, the availability of gold for other purposes would become problematical. The social question would become whether there was 'value of gold' for other than currency. But that issue aside there are much greater social issues because it becomes a question of 'who' has the gold. That is to say - 'entitlement' to the gold and equitable distribution of that entitlement. With certificates there are even issues as to who physically has the gold and as to whether or not it is actually there. If some country of group happens to not have gold then by what means can they initially obtain money? One could say that they might develop goods and services to trade for the gold, but then they are just out of luck at the outset. From the 'get go' the question is who has the gold and is it just that they do. Those who possess the gold may not be concerned about justice and some may argue that concerns about justice are not the proper purvue of a discussion about the nature of money. However, I will stand with the saying of William Jennings Bryan who said - "you shall not crucify mankind upon a cross of gold.” Just because a country or society doesn't happen to have gold, or a means to get it, doesn't mean that they should starve. In actuality Bryan was a bi-metalist. He just wanted the free coinage of silver - and not of gold alone. That would just move my concern down one step. Who has the silver and gold - and how did they get it? Seashells Diamonds Speculated as the money used on Easter Island William Jennings Bryan (March 19, 1860 – July 26, 1925) "you shall not crucify mankind upon a cross of gold.” - William Jennings Bryan John Maynard Keynes (5 June 1883 – 21 April 1946) "In truth, the gold standard is already a barbarous relic." Those who so strongly advocate gold backed currencies should ask themselves several questions: a. Who is it that owns the gold? Ownership of gold bullion is concentrated in the hands of a very few individuals in the world. In the 'capitalist / money' system those few people who own most of the gold - would have all money based on gold - or fiat currency that they control. b. What is it that you see useful when you look at the pictures of the storage of gold bars? How do the stacks of gold bars perform any better function than did the large stone carvings on Easter Island? c. What is it about not having the ownership of gold that should make the Punjabi farmers so ashamed that they commit suicide - or that should prevent a society from employing its university graduates. Currency / money should not be viewed as an end in itself. It should be a social tool for the efficient functioning of economies to assure that all the members are living productive lives that contribute to the society and enhance the material and spiritual fulfillment of each of the society members to the best of their ability. With fiat money, it is much easier to assure that there is money to achieve these goals. b. Nominal currencies Rather than silver or gold or some other physical object there are those who have suggested that money be based upon energy, labor, service, or some other nominal basis. There have been a great many attempts by various associations and bartering organizations to create supplementary money of this type, giving credit where energy, some product, or labor or service is performed. These systems have been generally unsuccessful because a more adequate monetary system was available even if it was performing poorly - still people preferred a currency that traded more broadly. Actually, anyone can create money. The problem is getting others to accept it. It is illegal, and called counterfeiting, to make someone else's money - but there are many specialized forms such as coupons, and tokens as pictured here. In Canada there is a famous type of money called 'Canadian Tire Money' that is printed by a private company. This bonus (not bogus) 'monopoly type' of money is not the sole example. Saving S&H Green Stamps was a popular activity when I was a boy. Some towns and firms made their own tokens when there was a shortage of money. There were also wooden nickels. A merchant leaving his clerk in charge of the store might caution - "Dont' take any wooden nickels."

------

c. Fiat currencies

Fiat currencies are currencies created without any backing except the authority of the issuing authority. If issued by a source other than the issuing authority then that is considered counterfeiting. Bi-metalists and other physical object oriented monetarists, feel that there needs to be some limiting factor to the creation of money - otherwise it can be just created limitlessly by the creating authority. Much of their discussion revolves around (inflation/deflation) and the money becoming valueless - with trillions upon trillions lost - but may I remind you that the real assets (physical, human, spiritual) remain. What is really lost is the trillions of dollars of human services, represented by the lost income and lost wages in the lives of workers, when there is not full employment caused by the lack of money. Most all the shouting in monetary discussions is about this meaningless veil of the collapse of fiat currencies/money. The search for the holy grail of a money that will remain infinitely stable is like the search for a perpetual motion machine. All human built systems eventually fail. If one has confidence in the value of gold or diamonds or any other commodity as a store of wealth and value - then let them by all means buy gold. However, to allow the possessors of gold to control the supply of money or the liquidity necessary for a viable and vital economy is social insanity. The real issue for any currency should be how to continue or restore the full employment of the real factors of production and how to equitably replace a currency that fails. Fiat money is not just printed paper and in point of fact is usually the marks on an accounting book or the blips in a computer memory. Fiat currencies are the most efficient to use to initiate and accelerate economic activity. The real issues are 'who is the authority' that creates them and by what 'principles' should they create money. That is the subject that we shall turn to next.    Currency manipulators were able to create such extremes of wealth and poverty that children starved to death while other people never worked but had environmentally non-sustainable ski slopes in the middle of the desert.

------

Note by Bruce: Disappearance of Money Money is a very useful thing to an economy. For an economy we might almost say that it as essential as the air that we breathe or as water is to a fish. Still, if as by magic - all the money in the world were to suddenly vanish it would be just an administrative act needed to replace it and the economy could then again function as well as ever so long as the REAL factors of production - discussed previously - remained. On the other hand if the REAL factors of production were to be destroyed (by war or some other means) then the economy itself would vanish no matter how much money remained.

Note by Bruce: Disappearance of Gold What was said in the box above about the disappearance of money applies even more to the disappearance of gold. Should all the gold in the world suddenly by magic vanish then except for some people missing fillings in their teeth, or some electronic circuits failing because of the disappearance of connections, and some diamonds in jewellery suddenly dropping on the floor - there would be no real loss to the world. But once again - it would truly be tragic to the world if the REAL factors of production were to disappear or be destroyed. There is the story of a Congressman who wanted to pass a bill that Congress go down to Ft. Knox to determine if the gold was still really there. A wiser Congressman replied - "It really doesn't make any difference, and if it isn't, you don't want to know."

---

Click here to: go back to the Index
or to go on to Part 4

Spiritual Motives for Money

Meaning of Money Part 6 Spiritual motives for money a. Saints b. Sinners c. Satans ------ a. Saints Saints need money to accomplish the socially beneficial goals to which they have dedicated their lives. Economics is often defined as the concern for the efficient allocation of scarce resources. One measure of the spiritual maturity of a society can perhaps be measured by the economic portion that it allocates to its saints. Muhammad Yunus is a Bangladeshi banker and economist. As a professor of economics he developed the concept of microcredit. These loans are given to entrepreneurs too poor to qualify for traditional bank loans. Yunus is the founder of Grameen Bank. In the past year the first U.S. branch of his Grameen Bank has lent $1.5 million, ranging from a few hundred dollars to a few thousand dollars, to nearly 600 women with small business plans in the New York borough of Queens.    Muhammad Yunus (born 28 June 1940) 2006 Nobel Peace Prize ------ b. Sinners Sinners, which means the most of us, strive in our day to day lives to achieve balanced lives in supporting our families and in being a benefit to society. There is one particular category of people for which the problems have so often become so overwhelming that they have committed suicide. It happens so often that I call it the farmer's disease. I have met it personally among family and friends. I can't think of a much tougher life (unless it would be an Inuit) than walking along barefoot behind a ox trying to pull a stick through the ground. But, that is not what drives these farmers to suicide. What finally gets them is the changing cultural times in which they don't have the traditional markets and resources and end up with about $20 thousand dollars of debt. It is the embarrassment and guilt about not being able to pay their debts that finally does them in. In other words, what kills them is the money system. “Andana and Lehra blocks of Moonak subdivision in Sangrur alone have reported 1,360 farmers’ suicides between 1998 and 2005. If all of Punjab’s 138 blocks show roughly the same level of suicides, the number would exceed 40,000 for the given period.” No need here to go into the many impacting aspects of the farm situation everywhere. The falling water table, the competition with imports, the imposition of governmental controls, the costs of fertilizers and seeds, the competitive impacts of economies of scale, changing weather patterns and so forth. Technological, economic and sociological changes affect people everywhere, but it is often the unnecessary restraints of the monetary system that make it impossible for them to make a viable response. It is solutions in this latter area to which this series of presentations is addressing itself.    Note by Bruce: Sometimes in the game of life as in the board game 'Monopoly' everything gets all piled up in one place. It has happened in centuries past with kings, religious leaders, landowners, and so forth. The current problem is with corporations, government and financial institutions. These have currently all leagued together. Once one player in the game owns / controls all the marbles, chips or whatever - the game ends and the same is true is real life. There needs to be a way to restart the game. The Bible recommends a jubile year every fifty year where debts are forgiven: Leviticus 25:10 And ye shall hallow the fiftieth year, and proclaim liberty throughout all the land unto all the inhabitants thereof: it shall be a jubile unto you; and ye shall return every man unto his possession, and ye shall return every man unto his family. 25:13 In the year of this jubile ye shall return every man unto his possession. Well - not likely that 3,000-year-old solution is going to happen today - so, what is likely to happen is the 'modern solution' instead - which is warfare to distract the people from their personal problems. Since this is now a world-wide problem it will require a world-wide solution and the modern technology is nuclear. In the meantime individuals will have to deal with their problems on a personal level and since suicide is not a solution for the soul they may try bankruptcy, going on welfare (if it is still available), and so forth - while those corporations that are 'too big to fail' will continue to pay their executives million dollar bonuses.

c. Satans

Satans, however, at least in the past, have almost universally been the ones in control of society and money. The study of ponerology shows us how sociopathic individuals are motivated by greed for power, influence, and control and because of this complete devotion to their personal ends are able to overwhelm the meek, the generous and the tolerant. The satans in their process take on the coloration of opposite qualities to such an extent that they self-righteously believe the lies that they tell about themselves that they are devoted to truth, beauty and justice and are only concerned about the welfare of society. For a full discussion on the subject of ponerology and how satans control society - see my web page on that subject. Will Smith on Satans Willard Christopher Smith, Jr. born September 25, 1968 Honoree of the Simon Wiesenthal Center highest honor, 2009 Humanitarian award --- "Even Hitler didn't wake up going, 'let me do the most evil thing I can do today.' I think he woke up in the morning and using a twisted, backwards logic, he set out to do what he thought was 'good'. Stuff like that just needs reprogramming."

Martha Stout, Ph.D. An interjection by Bruce: It is almost (I should probably remove the qualification 'almost') impossible for ordinary people to imagine the mind set of those who presently rule over the political and economic systems of this planet. From - The Sociopath Next Door The Ruthless vs. The Rest of Us "Imagine - if you can - not having a conscience, none at all, no feelings of guilt or remorse no matter what you do, no limiting sense of concern of the well-being of strangers, friends, or even family members. Imagine no struggles with shame, not a single one in your whole life, no matter what kind of selfish, lazy, harmful, or immoral action you had taken. And pretend that the concept of responsibility is unknown to you, except as a burden others seem to accept without question, like gullible fools. Now add to this strange fantasy the ability to conceal from other people that your psychological makeup is radically different from theirs. Since everyone simply assumes that conscience is universal among human beings, hiding the fact that you are conscience-free is nearly effortless. You are not held back from any of your desires by guilt or shame, and you are never confronted by others for your cold-bloodedness. The ice water in your veins is so bizarre, so completely outside of their personal experience that they seldom even guess at your condition. In other words, you are completely free of internal restraints, and your unhampered liberty to do just as you please, with no pangs of conscience, is conveniently invisible to the world. You can do anything at all, and still your strange advantage over the majority of people, who are kept in line by their consciences, will most likely remain undiscovered. How will you live your life? What will you do with your huge and secret advantage, and with the corresponding handicap of other people (conscience)? The answer will depend largely on just what your desires happen to be, because people are not all the same."

---

Click here to: go back to the Index
or to go on to Part 7