Even though money is an abstract and arbitrary construct, the product of which is created from nothing and therefore can be created (again, from nothing) to provide whatever we need or desire, the money people earn and work for is stolen from them to pay for the adventures of lunatics.
Yes this stolen money provides jobs but we need infrastructure upgrades and that would provide jobs too. Why doesn’t it go to something that benefits the funders (ie: the taxpayers?) The likelihood of being killed by a terrorist is equal to being killed by furntiure. Yet we are allowing the money that comes from our toil to go to destructive purposes, since we (erroneously) think that the money has to come from limited revenues. This money is stolen out of the pockets of everyday workers.
The rich can use their offshore havens and have a cadre of accounntants to ensure they don’t pay their fair share, meanwhile the plebs pay a higher tax rate in comparison. And the less endowed eagerly donate to the Bernies of the world who pretend they are going to do something to change things. They appeal to those who have the least ability to fork out donations and who usually end up betrayed by the very idols they struggle financially to support. Betrayal is becoming so predictable now that I’m surprised that Wall Street hasn’t started laying bets.
Different standards are applied to ourselves as peers than we do to “authority”. Most people would never accept anywhere near the deceit of their family or friends than they do of their beloved authorities. The world is being hijacked by the few and we plebs fight amongst ourselves and impose restraints upon each other and debase each other as though we are high and moral. Maybe it’s the pecking order syndrome. But we sure ought to realize who our real enemies are or we’re all going to be cactus. One thing that is obvious that we are not in The Club as the good George Carlin quipped.
This should be a matter of urgency. We are seeing the censorship of free speech everywhere today and you know what tht heralded last time that occurred. The truth will offend many but it is much better to be out than kept silent. Equals among adults are equipped to respond and should be able to handle it. I don’t subscribe to verbally attacking children or the mentally challenged. The link below helps us understand how much public funding goes to buoying the escapades of your illustrious “leaders” (they are not my leaders as I consent to none of this):
http://www.boilingfrogspost.com/2016/07/06/bfp-exclusive-report-a-distillation-of-dod-funding-priorities-for-june-2016/
Money isn't bad, people are
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It just goes to show you, there’s money to be made every which way one turns. Of course, “money is an abstract and arbitrary construct” from pennies to billions, so it really doesn’t matter how it’s used.
Money isn’t bad, people are.
Money and time
Money and time are two human inventions. They are both useful and enslave us.
Lise and I were talking about taxes this morning, and how on top of paying taxes for earning money, we also pay taxes for spending it. Add them together and the tax rate per dollar earned is 30+%. And much of this goes off to pay for tanks and bullets and drones, for bailouts, handouts, and subsidies… and some goes to make sure food and air are safe, and kids get educated.
We do live in an age where it would be possible for the gov’t to put forth it’s wish list and people could choose what programs to support. We could adapt our current way of doing things to allow for “consumer” input on quite a few things. Danger, of course, is that no one would want to support something essential, but we’re smart and can plan for that sort of curveball.
Our selectboard could do a form of this. Each agenda could be an online poll, with registered users authorized by Town Clerk. Everyone interested could weigh in, rather than just five people.
I like everything you said but we could look at
why we think we need a selectboard to decide when we could decide for ourselves by simply using polling software. There is no need for registration, rather everyone who chimes in must be an authentic human using their real name. People would be known for who they really are and the software should be totally open so that anyone could see a person’s voting or commenting history. That is the most trustworthy way of knowing who has good judgment. A selectboard is highly prone to established thinking and keeps us from advancing (as we can see with the traffic situation that never improves).
This system I imagine, would encourage more people to involve themselves in civics and it also, being open, encourages fresh ideas. We live in the digital world – why remain with the horse and buggy!
"Each agenda could be an online poll"
If taken into court, this might prove to be discriminatory, even if the “registered users authorized by Town Clerk” are based on a Brattleboro residency. Also,registered users should be registered by their ISP identification number.
Not everyone has access to the internet.
Nevertheless, a secure, online, one vote per ISP identification number, is appealing to me. There should also be a probation period so that the unified users know the efficacy and trust of the program.
Actually money IS bad because
it has scarcity built in and that has an effect on our lives. When money is created, only the principal portion is created, never the interest. Therefore the money supply is always running short. People have to pay back the principal and interest but they both have to come from the pool of principal only. This ensures that we all have to scratch around to get more money from the money available in the pool. It also ensure that the few receive interest and the many pay it. This is a profound separator of humanity – only a minuscule receive more interest than they pay.
Most of us do not understand the theory of money. We tend to look at money through our own personal experience, whereas the money mangers look at it in the aggregate.
Although the entire concept of money fails us (because it causes each human to think primarily of themselves at the expense of others), abolishing interest would work a lot better for everyone (except the 1%) because it would make everything more affordable.
The system of money we have always had makes losers out of caring people because generosity causes a loss and the object of the game is accumulation. We must be aware that money is an arbitrary game and it hasn’t changed over the centuries. It is supposed to be a tool to facilitate transaction but it is more like a bludgeon that imposes upon humanity. We could change the parameters of the game or do away with the game entirely or start a new game. We can change it, it’s not physics.
Money should have a function inbuilt into it that rewards circulation. That may come in the way of paying a fee for saving it (ie: a hoarding fee perhaps) or rather than punitive it can provide a bonus every time it is used, much like the rCredits system (a 10% bonus is added to every transaction which thereby rewards circulation)
Money is like the 7 day week, or the clock or the bible – it is purely a man-made conception.
Money , Censorship
When I first learned about the life cycle of money, it seemed so obviously artificial and invented (hence very likely rigged) that I could hardly believe it. You can hardly talk about money without talking about debt, and once you realize how completely interconnected money and debt are, you understand why the banks enable people to go into debt via every kind of credit scheme. Money is created by debt and all debt must be repaid with interest, i.e., extra money that goes to the lender. No way to get ahead through borrowing — lending is by far the more profitable game.
Long way of saying that I completely agree about money.
I also agree about censorship. I keep reading about censorship on Facebook which seems to be aimed at eliminating all political discussion that “it” doesn’t like. This seems to have included everything from Sanders and Trump supporters to people protesting a gov’t sponsored assassination in Kashmir, India. Leaving aside the question of why people think the only place to discuss matters of import is Facebook, it remains an issue that people have opinions and thoughts to express and big corporate entities are openly obstructing that. It reminded me once again that it’s never wise to put all your eggs in one basket. Nice to have a few stashed in other spaces — options, as it were.
Thanks for posting this interesting thought piece. I’d be interested in anything that would make our system of government more democratic and responsive to the will of voters. If we had a polling system, even an advisory one, it would change the way governing people govern. Once you know what people actually want, it’s much harder to oppose them.
Once you know what people actually want, it's much harder to
LL: “Once you know what people actually want, it’s much harder to oppose them.”
Over the years, I’ve never had a sense that legislatures use their empowerment of being elected to then give the voters want they want.
Politics is a never ending, crisscrossing money trail.
It’s too bad we in the states do not live in a democracy. We live in a Republic that claims to be “democratic.”