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'The difficulty lies, not in the new ideas, but in escaping from the old ones, which ramify... into every corner of our minds' - John Maynard Keynes
Our world has become a place where we have witnessed big banks, global corporations and even governments selfishly pursue paths of greed and short-term financial gain despite the fact their actions have contributed to harming the livelihoods of thousands if not millions of people. The consequences of their short-sighted actions have destabilised economies, contributed to recessions and pushed governments to their breaking point. Yet despite these appalling crimes, for the 'greater good' these institutions have received bailouts in the billions. Bailouts paid for with the lifetimes of innocent citizens forced to live within the limits of the newly implemented 'austerity measures', some of them victims twice over due to the culprits' actions in the first place. We live in a world where the intrinsic values of the dollar and the Euro waver as the governments that back them bicker endlessly over their fiscal quagmires. We live in a world where the private and public debt of nations has risen to levels over five times their total GDP; and where being able to use precious metals as an equivalent form of payment is no longer possible. The promising system of commodity money that began in ancient Greece over 2700 years ago has been reduced to this...debacle.
Despite its numerous flaws - and with no other options granted to us - every one of us have been forced to accept the supremacy of money over man. Money has the power to decide the standard of living for each person on the planet; to prevent or allow access to education and health care; to obstruct or grant justice; to decide whether we starve or overeat. It is biased from the start, depending on what country one is born in and to what family. None are chosen to enjoy a 'good' life based on their merit or individual worth, it is a random fate. Unjust. Unkind. Unfair. It is a terrible thing. It is long past time to question the efficacy of money in a future global society. It is time to think about the future of man and of the planet. It is time to think about humanity's long-term goals. It is time to plan for a society that is driven by a purpose other than money.
All of our paradigms based on a society driven by the concept of money are flawed in one essential sense - money itself only exists as a certainty in the present. Saving money for the future is merely the setting aside of present money into a place where it can be accessed in a future present, with the awareness that the value of the cash saved today may be eroded more by inflation than the interest it will gain, paradoxically making it worth less in the future than it was when it was put away. Furthermore, there are limitations to how much we are allowed to save before we must begin to pay tax on the interest accrued on our 'unprotected' savings.
For the average saver, banks and governments do not make it easy to beat the inflation game so many have chosen to make their home their nest egg for the future. Before the recent recession, banks were allowing people to borrow up to six times their annual income to purchase property, and many did. Bigger was better. However, when the property markets collapsed during the last recession, homeowners were left mired in negative equity, or worse - lost their homes completely to bank foreclosure. In the long run - at least for these unlucky ones - renting would have been a more prudent use of their money. Stock market investments, funds and bonds are all equally volatile. They are only worth what the market and the governments can value them at when they are cashed in against current market conditions, and these numbers can change very quickly. Because money is no longer backed by anything of real value, such as gold, it can also become worthless overnight. Therefore the very act of saving cash for the future may turn out to be a fruitless endeavour, as many who have had their entire pension funds wiped out in times of economic crises have learned.
