Supplemental to the aforegoing...

[avevale_intelligencer]

Sometimes, instead of blinding me with economics, people say "fair enough, but what do you suggest we do about it?"

Good question, but premature. One does not need to have an umbrella shop to point out that it's raining, though gods know it would be helpful. But to solve the problem, even to begin, a significant number of people have to:

(a) acknowledge that there's a problem with the nature of money;
(b) agree on what it is;
(c) recognise that the government is part of the problem;
(d) agree on a workable alternative to the government that will address the problem;
(e) put that government in place in the face of overwhelming opposition from the current government, the banks, big business, other countries in the same boat, et cetera, et cetera;
(f) keep it there long enough to start making a difference, ditto.

Since as far as I can see we're still at (a) and likely to be stuck there indefinitely, thinking about (d) is ludicrously optimistic. Most people, while willing to badmouth the government and big business indefinitely, cling on to their childhood faith that whatever else may let us down we can always rely on money. The fact that government and big business could not get away with what they do were it not for the co-operation of the banks who thrive on the debt-based system seems to escape them.

So I've given up pointing out (a) for the time being, at least. Hopefully someone better qualified than I will come along before it gets too late and do it better.

Comments

[lexin.livejournal.com]

I agreewith (a). Revolutionary democratic socialist, that's me.

[zanda-myrande.livejournal.com]

Yes, but we probably disagree on (b). :)

[batyatoon]

Does saying "there's a problem with the current system of money" count as agreement with (a)? Because I definitely agree that there's a problem with money, but I'm not sure whether it's a problem with the actual nature of money -- or at least, the way I read "nature" indicates something inherent in the concept, rather than something about the way we're doing it.