Today this world is ruled by money, and most people take the existence of money for granted. Money is needed for everything from buying groceries and cars to build a new dam and to do space research. Scientists are dependent on money from government and/or investors to do their research. Governments are dependent on money to build schools and roads for their citizens. Citizens are dependent on money to travel and pay taxes and do most things in their lives.
It’s a rat race that no one can win, unless you are the inventor or the inheritor of the inventor of the whole system.
The truth is that we don’t need money. Once upon a time money might have been a measure for how much labor you put in and how valuable something was. If it ever was, it is not any more. Today, banks are basically casinos playing with Monopoly money, and the lenders are the true stakeholders. And money, yes today money is equal to debt. This is how money is created, through debt. The money supply on the planet is steadily increasing, and it is so by banks lending out more and more money. You see, every time a loan is created, so is the money for that loan. The bank doesn’t have the money in the first place. No, the money is created the moment the bank issues the loan and the customer deposits the money on an account. This is not speculation, this is ‘fractional reserve banking’, and is how the money system in the world today functions. If you don’t believe this, Google it.
Money is not a symbol for how much something is worth anymore. Money doesn’t even exist anymore. Money is only zero’s and one’s in computers. 97%, if not more, of all the world’s money today is electronic. Still, paper, coins or electronic. It doesn’t matter. One can not eat any of it. Money is only a thought in the mind of Humanity. And this thought is used to control the masses of this planet. And control it it does. Since most people believe that money is alfa and omega, that money will make them happy, and that money is needed to buy whatever they think they want, and to make this world go round, money IS controlling this world. People are working their asses off to serve the big Monetary System. But the monetary system doesn’t serve them.
We can, actually, make this world go around a whole lot better without money. Money (and ownership) is the biggest hindrance for a sustainable development on this planet. So many good inventions go undeveloped because a big corporation buys the patent, destroys the invention, or simply outcompete in devious ways the new (and often better) invention. If you have ever owned a car, you probably have had it in a shop one or more times. Cars cannot be made to last, nothing can be made to last in this system, because if it does, people will be out of jobs and the whole economy and the whole system will collapse.
Constantly, every day, every hour, every minute and every second, people complain about something in society that doesn’t work, because of the monetary system. Only, people don’t realize that it is the thought of money and profit itself, that is the problem, not whatever they are complaining about.
It is a crazy fucked up system. Insane. Of course, one can try with a more ‘sane’ type of monetary system, where banks cannot play with other peoples money any more and so on, but it will only still be a patchwork on a failing system.
WE DON’T NEED MONEY!
The whole world would function a lot better without money. Stop thinking about your next bill, your next paycheck, your latest investment, your next invoice, your tax report, your insurance, your house, your car, your living expenses. Instead you could start to use your brain to truly contribute to society. And the more you contribute to society, the better everyone will be, including YOU.
You would still have a house. In fact EVERYONE would have a place to live, food, clothing, transportation, medicine, and everything needed for living a good life. No more stress. The ‘overpopulation’ that is talked about so often is a huge hype. This planet can easily care for more than 5 times today’s population, when the resources are properly managed. Unfortunately money makes this very difficult, not to say impossible. Money has proven itself to be the worst carer for the planet’s resources. It has proven itself to be the worst means to supply the population with what everyone needs. It has created more stress, wars, famine (yes, famine is economically induced, not environmentally), corruption, instability, pollution and crime than anything else in the history of humanity.
I must say, though, that of course it is not money itself that is the true and real problem. Money, as any other thing in on this planet can be used for both good and bad. It is the love for money that is the problem. It is the thoughts that there is not enough, that we have to hoard, that we are not equal, that we have to compete, that we can actually own something (we can’t), that if we share we get less and that we have to earn a living that are the foundation for the whole Monetary System. These are the thoughts that created money in the first place, and actually make this system work. If we ever woke up to this awareness, there would be no Monetary System, no wars, no famine, no poor……and no money.
The truth is that this planet have an abundance of resources, food, land, air and water. And that when we realize that it will be much easier for everyone to simply share whatever we have. When we simply do what we like and want to do based on the awareness that we are ONE planet and ONE people we will automatically give to each other like we today give to a family member.
A world without money is not only possible, it is much easier for every one. It creates life, joy and celebration. It makes it possible for us to truly collaborate to make this world a better place, for real.
A resource based economy, a gift economy, a spiritual economy and a moneyless society is a humane world where the population has awakened and understands that when it shares, EVERYONE gets more.
by Loz
17 Feb 2012 at 23:36
Excellent. And here’s an article I wrote a couple of weeks ago, before stumbling across this site:
Here’s a thought: let’s abolish money altogether.
The imaginary stuff we call money has been used as the measure of trading between humans for around 3,000 years and has arguably been the cause of more violence, corruption, killings, fraud and downright unsavoury behaviour than anything else, even testosterone and religion.
So isn’t it odd that this stuff we call money doesn’t actually exist? It’s not like chickens, or cabbages, or rocks, or anything else that is of immediate, tangible value. Money is just a concept. The trouble is, this concept, this thing that doesn’t exist, has become more important than anything else, perverting our value system and creating a distorted society. Money doesn’t oil progress; it delays it, clogs it up and creates disgraceful iniquity in the process.
Imagine popping down to the supermarket, putting what you need into your trolley and going home without using cash or a card. (Items would still need to be scanned, but only to monitor stock levels.)
Aha! But how does the supermarket pay its suppliers; the farmers, manufacturers, etc? Easy peasy; the supermarket doesn’t pay them. It just tells them what is needed and the stock gets delivered.
Aha! But how do the farmers pay for their animal feed and fertilizer and how do the manufacturers pay for their raw materials? Again, easy peasy lemon squeezy. Everything they need is given to them.
Aha! But how do…?
You get the idea. Goods and services are obtained as and when needed by those who need them, but without those who need them paying with money. Likewise, goods and services are supplied to meet the need, but without the suppliers being paid with money.
So, we can all lie around all day scratching our arses, getting up only to get things from the shops. Well, no. We would still have to work, to give of our time. People who make things would still have to make things, lorry drivers would still have to drive lorries, nurses would still have to nurse, teachers to teach, farmers to farm, builders to build, bankers to bank…. well, no, there would be no need for bankers in a world where people give their time instead of money.
(A quick word about perks. What is the perk enjoyed by someone who picks strawberries for a living? A few punnets of strawberries. And what is the perk of someone who works in a timber yard? A few planks of wood. And what is the perk, or bonus, of bankers? Exactly! They make off with as much of the commodity they handle as they think they can get away with.)
But could a moneyless system ever really work? Well, beehives and ant colonies seem to get by reasonably well. Like ours, these societies comprise a wide range of individuals with different responsibilities and levels of seniority, yet as far as entomologists can tell, they operate smoothly and efficiently without money ever being exchanged. Perhaps we could learn from them.
Admittedly, in a world where nobody has to pay for what they need or want, other than giving their time to their vocation, the waiting list for Bentleys and ocean-going yachts is likely to be a bit on the long side. But at the same time, we’d see an end to youths mugging old ladies for the price of a packet of cigarettes. In fact crime, much of which is driven by the desire to possess, would nosedive.
And the quality of everything – yes, everything, would gradually get better.
Take a chest of drawers. You might say that a chest of drawers is a chest of drawers is a chest of drawers. But in fact there are chests of drawers and chests of drawers. So when you need one, you’re hardly likely to go into a dodgy retail warehouse and make do with some inferior chipboard held together (but not for long) by nails and glue. No, you’d choose another supplier, one who provides sturdy, well-made pieces that could last for centuries. Gradually, the crap that is manufactured, in all categories, would cease to exist because nobody would want it, and the people who made it would be obliged to start making better quality goods, or to go and give their time to a company that already does.
Yes, time. If time equals money, as some are so fond of saying, then maybe just the giving of our time could be enough to keep the wheels turning. And of course time is available to everybody in equal measure.
Aha! But surely some people’s time is more valuable than that of others? Surely a doctor’s time is of more value than that of a street cleaner? Maybe so, but would doctors be happy traveling around in filthy streets? Would teachers agree to their domestic rubbish not being collected? And would office workers tolerate their working environments not being kept clean and tidy?
In 2009, research carried out by the New Economics Foundation found that childcare workers, hospital cleaners and waste recycling workers were considered to be of more value to society than bankers, tax accountants and advertising executives.
Of course, people are not born with the same abilities. Intelligence, say, is not distributed equally and only those in the upper few percentiles are capable of learning and of practising certain professions. But should it necessarily follow that the rest are not deserved of a reasonable standard of living?
In a moneyless society (and God knows it would be a herculean task to effect the change) many of today’s ills would disappear. There would be instant full employment, for one thing. The only members of society excused work, of giving their time, would be those who are incapacitated. The rest of us would have to be of some use, to give of our time, to the whole.
All of this is highly simplistic, and perhaps some stepping stones may need to come first; a global currency and a global minimum wage, for example (think about that) but we should not kid ourselves that the UK summer riots, the occupy Wall Street movement, the St Paul’s protest et al are just empty events born out of nothing.
No, they are all symptoms of a real and deep-rooted malaise and it is the existence of money or, rather, it’s distribution that is the cause.
Maybe we really could do without the stuff. Time will tell.
by Brian.Christiansen
14 Nov 2011 at 07:06
Yeah! Without money you can`t buy anything you want. To solve your problem. You work hard to earn money. But money also can`t buy anything like love. I agree of that.
by metathoughts
21 Oct 2011 at 06:17
What does capitalism turn people into?
What does capitalism turn you into?
Is that really what you are?
Who would you be if you weren’t so dependent on money?
by Daniel Ku Ricardo
22 Sep 2011 at 14:08
i think when all 6 billion of us realise, we all own the world. Ur world is my world. my happiness, is dependent on ur happiness.
by eric
22 Sep 2011 at 00:57
OK but how to you expect to accomplish this and to keep order?? it would take an authoritarian regime to keep that kind of sustainability. i am anti authority and id like to be explained how a scientific world would be ran without force. and logically wouldn’t it lead to killing off populations to preserve resources for others?? i agree with all your points on a resource based society i just don’t understand how it would be administrated without totalitarian force.
by admin
22 Sep 2011 at 09:22
It’s a very good question, and one I’ve been asking myself several times. The only answer I can come up with to this is this:
The global population in general has to have a ‘spiritual awakening’ where we see all people as One, as we see our close family, wanting to share equally with them.
In addition, the ‘no money’ paradigm has to be seen as more beneficial for everyone that the money paradigm we’re in now. People have to share more and more without money, and this praxis has to ‘take over’ from the trading praxis with money.
I can see huge evidences for both of these directions today. There is a huge global rising awareness about ‘who we are’, about consciousness, about how our thoughts influence the world, etc., both within and outside science, and there are more and more people doing things ‘for free’ all over the planet. I am thinking about everything from volunteers in, which you find millions of, in all kinds of projects and organizations, free software (like Linux, WordPress, etc. etc.), free information (Wikipedia, + + + + + + ), and free efforts in all kinds of places.
Throughout history, there has been several ‘paradigm shifts’, like when the earth turned from flat to round, or when the earth was not longer the center point of the universe, but actually circled around the sun.
We’ve been living in a ‘money paradigm’ for millennia, and I think we are on the tipping point today. On one hand, money has a stronghold on the planet than ever before, with millions of people in need of money, not knowing about anything else. On the other hand, there’s a strong rising of people wanting to simply share and stop this whole ‘money charade’ and create a moneyless society.
In any case, most people on the earth are fed up today with the situation we are in, and something has to happen. Which way we will fall depends on the totality of the people on this planet. But the more people wake up and become aware of the ‘no money’ possibility, the bigger is the chance that we will get there.
So, I can not see any ‘totalitarian world regime’ controlled by machines. Far from it. What I see, IF we get a no-money-paradigm, is something completely different.
What we have to try to picture is HOW WILL PEOPLE ACT WHEN WE SIMPLY SHARE, RATHER THAN TRADE.
How will people act? And what will the world look like?
Of course, most greed has to be gone, most ego has to be gone. We have to realize that what we do for others we actually do for ourselves. And this can be illustrated well when one person makes an invention that will benefit both her AND society. When someone comes up with an idea to a betterment of something, one usually does that because it is something that one wants oneself. So, to realize this invention through the joint effort of others will of course a very exiting thing. It has got nothing to do with money. The same goes for art, or food, or basically everything you can imagine. Creating and sharing something and taking part in this is what it is all about. Not hoarding, competing and trading. This is a game we have played for so long. Now it is time to change.
People think that ‘we need money’. They live in this mindset and that is why everything is the way it is on this planet right now. The so-called ‘scarcity’ is money based. There is no real scarcity, and there definitely is no need to ‘kill off’ parts of our population to ‘save resources’. All of these thoughts are based in the old money mindset.
‘Famine’ is economically based, not environmentally. Today, we have the ability to change, design and help nature give us it’s best. We can produce food for everyone, there’s no doubt about that. 50% of all food is thrown away today. And this is because of our economic system, the monetary based market system. It is because food needs to be sold to those who have money. If is was simply given away instead based on who needed it, one could streamline the distribution 100% without waste.
The capitalistic system produces more waste than any other system on this planet. Which means that without this system, but RBE instead, the resources we HAVE will go a whole lot longer. That’s the point of RBE. It is resource based, not money based. Instead of hundreds of TV and computer producers competing with each other, releasing hundreds of new models each year, each model doing almost exactly the same, and depleting resourced needed to produce these models, a resource based economy would never let that happen. In RBE, we would rather produce ONE model, the best. Or maybe 5 models, of say different sizes, to cater for some different needs. But we don’t need one model WITH USB, and one model without. ALL models would have USB, if you see what I mean. There are minuscule differences on different models of products today, only to give the manufacturers more to sell, and the consumers (it’s a shame we are called ‘consumers’) a so-called ‘choice’.
So, what will society be like when people wake up from this mindset? If people woke up, say, tomorrow, what would happen…?
Well, that is many things. With a ‘no money’, ‘no property’, mindset based on sharing, compassion and real resources instead of trading, competition and fake money, we would:
1. Close down all banks and other so-called ‘financial institutions’.
2. Get rid of the so-called ‘government’ and develop a direct computer aided democracy instead to take care of real needs, rather than fake ‘money needs’.
3. Start to survey what we actually have in terms of resources on this planet. Both human, animalistic, plants and minerals. Both locally and globally.
4. Start to make sure everyone has what they need in terms of food, housing, clothing, medicine, etc.
5. Start to develop new more efficient and automated distribution systems.
6. Start to develop and use new sustainable energy and materials.
7. Start to respect each other more and more.
8. See this planet as ONE HOME for everyone, and think in terms of all people on this planet, rather than ‘this country’ and ‘that country’.
9. Get rid of all artificial borderlines.
10. Get rid of all military.
11. Start to organize ourselves based on need, want, skills and abilities, rather that ‘heritage, money, ego and greed’.
12. Utilize and develop local and global systems and databases of both planetary and human resources.
13. Educate everyone about real and important aspects of life.
14. Not get too many children, knowing that we have to stay within the caring capacity of the planet.
15. Not need to punish each other, but rather help each other reach our full potential and get well of any disease.
16. Utilize this planet and this world to work for everyone in every way, everywhere.
17. Work together to develop the best technology for the planet and everyone.
When we truly get out of our money mindset, this is all feasible. Not only feasible, but desirable and the best we can all experience. ‘When we all share, we all gets more’. Instead of being limited to ‘one car each’, we could have automated cars (Google have developed that already) that we can simply order when we need it. Much fewer cars would be needed, and we would all have access to a whole lot more cars!
Access, rather than ownership would be the new value, when people really open their eyes. Instead of ‘owning land’, we could use land where and when we need it. We could travel anywhere we want. We could move to anywhere we want and live anywhere we want. We could basically DO anything we want, as long as we all live in this NEW MINDSET. As long as MOST PEOPLE live in this ego-, money- and propertyless mindset, this mindset of sharing and collaboration, this will be the prevailing mindset, and the world will change automagically based on this mindset.
This whole blog is about ‘what it will be like’ and ‘how society will work’. This blog is about visualizing this new society, keeping a steady focus on this until we get there, and then keep focussing.
These new times is not about ‘grabbing positions’, ‘running in the rat race’ or ‘competing for resources’. No, these new times is about realizing that every little thing I do, I do not only for myself, but for everyone. For everyone to benefit. When everyone benefits, I will benefit too. In a much much higher degree than ever before, because it will all be free. For everyone. Even the richest of today will be freer, since they too will benefit from this new society. A society where true collaboration and sharing is possible.
It is about doing things for the joy of doing them. Just like I do now. I write this because I enjoy using my mind to visualize this new world. Not for money. Not for any egotistical reasons. Not even to be credited, as I even do this anonymously. And everything written here I share freely for anyone to copy. Not that I we don’t need or want crediting in the ‘new world’. Nothing wrong with being credited.
So, in answer to your question I would say that this new world will not work through any dictatorship of any kind. No, it will work through self governance, with people deciding over their own lives wherever they might live, or want to live. And it has to be based on the notion that ‘it is better to share and collaborate than to trade and compete’. This notion has to be the NEW BASIC VALUE, like money and trading is the basic value today. It has to be like this: Instead of the majority of people thinking ‘what’s in it for me’, the majority has to start thinking ‘what’s in it for all of us, both locally and globally’. This mindset has to WIN, somehow.
Many people think this way already today, working ‘for free’ on projects, but they haven’t realized that it might be possible to build a world totally with this mindset. Even those people; volunteers, developers of free software, artists, doctors that work for free, etc. etc. think that ‘yes, I suppose we need money to build roads, hospitals and schools and to pay for resources, teachers, doctors and nurses’ and so on. Actually, most people don’t even think this. Most people think of money and ownership as AIR: It is something that’s always been here, that always will be here, and that we can’t live without. Most people doesn’t really think about the possibility that we can live without money. It doesn’t occur to them. It didn’t occur to me either, until I heard about TVP and TZM a couple of years ago.
As you can see, the new ‘no money’ mindset will change this world so drastically in itself, that it is difficult to imagine exactly what it will look like in praxis. But if you imagine a world where the emphasis lies on global cooperation, rather than competition, global sharing, rather than hoarding, fee travel, rather than restricted, a focus on fast development of new efficient technology, rather than sticking with old models, global and local direct democracy, rather than fake politics, and compassion rather than cynicism, well, then you’ve come a long way in picturing this world.
by Ellis Suthern
26 Aug 2011 at 07:31
I will definitely agree to that today, all of us are ruled by money. Money is everything and that’s the only reason why we need to work hard to get the money that we need to buy all our basic needs. Some say that “money is the root of all evil” which is true but think again, in this crisis world, we really need money to survive.
by Brian Taylor
07 Mar 2011 at 06:55
I think it is obvious that the question of money is our most pressing problem.
Every other problem we have stems from it.
To solve the money problem is to solve every problem, for there will no longer be “the imaginary obstacle.”