Moron Money

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Imagine living in a world where, when you step outside to start your car, you have to be there at the front bumper, cranking away. You’d have to be turning that crank so you can start the car while someone else in the family muscled your 2-ton 128 kilobyte computer into a wagon designed to tow your computer. After developing quite a thirst by doing all of this, despite doing it all in the rain, the two of you walk down to the watering hole or the creek where you can gather some water before proceeding with the rest of the day. And since the drive to work might be more than five miles, it would be a good notion to move towards the outhouse so you won’t suffer with that during what’s likely going to be a long sail.

That somewhat helps illustrate the frame of mind revolving around the economy and monetary system we utilize today. The monetary system and therefore the global economic standards we use today (which are a dismal failure on just about every level) are akin to horse-drawn carriages and the Guttenberg Press. Most laundry detergents of today are more modernized and technologically current than our systems of economy. And since we’re taking a look at the technology of laundry detergent, we can let out a deep breath and rest easy knowing that we haven’t turned over human liberty, forward thinking and societal evolution, and the value of the human soul over to laundry detergent, no matter how good the stuff works. It’s a trustworthy thing we haven’t done that with detergent, because that is precisely what we have done with our economy.

If we’re going to compare the present economic conditions to technological advancements, we’re at a dichotomous space. This is because the way our money works is about as advanced as a Chinese abacus, but virtually the entire human population, nearly all seven billion of us, have turned over all authority and governance of humanity’s future to this outdated monetary system. We have brought the premise of The Terminator movie franchise to the realm of science fact, as now we have a genuine human creation taking on a state of virtual self-awareness and thereby finding humanity the means to an slay rather than the purpose for existence. At least we can breathe easy radiant that agriculture hasn’t done this yet; it would be difficult to accept a world where the human population exists to help the population of livestock and grain.

However, we can breathe only as easy as our monetary systems will allow, as they are in charge of this planet and all that exists upon it. We have culled scientific advancement for the benefit of economy by shutting down set exploration and reducing that aspect of science to where we were more than six decades ago (except for surveillance technology, because economics require that powerful protection, apparently). We have effectively reduced the education of the next generations to that only sufficient for the masses to be corralled together and push the consumer products that only the minute percentage shined upon by the economy can afford. We’ve cut educational expenses for the common man’s children to the point where the average student can no longer find Canada on the map, could never add numbers above the hundreds without a calculator, and would struggle to spell American History, let alone provide any effective answers about it, should the simplest questions be asked. But hey, one only needs only know so much to well-kept suites, move appliances and take out the trash. Yea, for it is better for the antiquated economy that rules this planet’s most advanced species to keep economic solvency limited to less than five percent of the population. The remaining population will have to succumb to supporting the rest, because…because…well, who knows why.

Not since the disappearance of the Cowry Shells and paper banknotes were standardized from the receipts provided by Goldsmith bankers has the monetary system seen a modernization fit for the remainder of society’s advancements. Well, there was the emergence of the stock market, but other than modern technology put into play to forward global communication within the stock market, it still operates much in the same way it did before it updated to conform with the Industrial Age, when Abraham Lincoln was a boy. It’s detached the cacophonic act of type-A personalities shrieking like KISS groupies, all to support the solvent who are content and cozy as it is.

An apparent situation that lies before us, providing absolute proof to the fallibility of today’s economy and transcending beyond accusations of discontent among the insolvent, is the inexcusable recession of the present times. Caused primarily by the unrestricted and corrupted actions of great banks who intentionally sold overpriced real estate to consumers whom they were confident could never afford to pay for the properties, they smugly thought they could bilk what petite money these consumers had and then sell the properties for a profit after these consumers’ wells ran dry.

There are two primary theories explaining what happened soon thereafter, with one being highly conspiratorial and the other being on the brink of complete incompetency. Suffice it to say that these are the only two remaining common denominators reigning over the global economies and monetary systems of this stage of the 21^st Century. It is either the result of an enormous economic conspiracy on the part of despots seeking global control, or the result of inane morons running like a riotous bunch of soccer fans who just watched their team lose yet again. That is it, boys and girls; there are no other reasonable explanations to offer or make available.

The first is a conspiracy that places all monetary and economic control unequivocally into the hands of groups like the Bildebergs, the Trilateral Commission, the Council on Foreign Affairs and other elements of some autocratic New World Order, all of which are working towards global domination and therefore seeking convenient means to ensure ease of economic power by keeping its control to a minute percentage of minions who are compensated handsomely for their betrayal of their own species. The second theory is far more frightening and insidious.

The second theory contends that there is a small smattering of executives who have been afforded free reign over the management of the global economy and were allowed to view it as their project to wield as they see fit. They were allowed to bet that they could suck the meager savings from people who were close to achieving financial stability and then resell real estate for a profit, because everyone knows real estate only continues to escalate in value. It was more fun than an AIG executive escapade to mountainous retreats to lure the common man into the mirage of wealth by suckering them into the conception of safe real estate wagers. One would be forced to conceal on a mountain with blinders on to avoid the endless myriad of infomercials and promotional speeches given by success stories who went from rags to riches with honest a single dollar in their pocket and a vision. With that vision, they bought a mansion with fair a dollar down and sold it to some sucker the next day for twenty percent more than they agreed to pay, instantly pocketing tens of thousands from such a meager investment. From there, they accumulated wealth as they were smart enough to keep selling properties they never actually bought for profits they accumulated as they convinced the world this was the way it would be until the end of time.

That is, until it wasn’t.

Eventually, somebody come up with the intelligent notion of, “Hey, I’m not paying that for this place.” From there, it was just a few places that were in limbo and waiting for the supposedly assured paycheck to roll in, but when the money didn’t reach in, the bills had to be paid forward somehow, and then bank profits went down. Because we objective can’t have money grubbers going without luxuriant lifestyles, less was lent, causing businesses by the boatload to scramble as the amount of people who had debt-based credit to spend dropped like flies. This led to less money being spent on virtually everything, which simply allowed the recession to spiral out of control, watching hoards of businesses fail and leaving enormous amounts of people unemployed or under-employed. The situation is a bit more complex than that, with predatory lending, mortgage-backed securities and collateralized debt obligations spinning out of control along with false housing bubbles and other aspects of unscrupulous, subprime mortgages being pushed on so many levels. It would benefit everyone to seek as much information as possible on the subject while keeping an open mind to facts as they are.

Now, the foreclosure market is bigger than Mars and there are sizable numbers of people who are on the fence as to whether they should retain their home, knowing it will never be worth what they have to pay for it, or just cut it loose like an unwanted dog along a dirt road. Businesses across the board clutched onto the situation and found they can pay but a percentage of what they former to pay for an hourly wage or annual salary and then demand far more for the effect. While this does acquire sense in the short term, we now have an economy based on pinching pennies and cutting extraneous luxuries when we have a market full of IPads, cars that park themselves, and personal phones that have more options and computing power than the space shuttle Columbia did. Now, there are literally millions of people who are waiting to afford the ability to file bankruptcy so they might regain financial stability again some day, while the federal government provides corporations who are too important to fail with enough money and mismanagement to beget a federal deficit reaching tens of trillions of dollars. A debt owed, by the contrivance, to countries once considered sworn enemies to our democratic and capitalistic society because of their communist and dictatorial ways.

If humanity and the society of seven billion people around this cramped world of today are not going to continue teetering on the brink of chaos because of errant volcanoes and the shoddy governments in places like Greece of all things, then the world is going to have to come together and agree that our economy requires an upgrade. But not just an upgrade, but potentially a paradigm shift along the range of seeing the economic world go from analog to digital in scope. Because if we continue along the way we are now, the world is going to crumble into greater chasms of chaos and eventually those who believe they’re above the rest of us (those who caused all of this chaos, by the way) are either going to propel us into the rages of war or they’re going to concoct insidious methods that will force out millions or even a few billion through evil ways worse than violent war.

The present state of humanity is on a verge of seeking the future or falling back to the insanities of the past, and all of it rests on the foundation of economic and monetary structure. If we can come together and build a system of production, distribution and consumption that fosters peaceful stability for a population this large, then we just might peer a better world with humanity expanding into the possibilities and promises beyond our world and towards the frontiers of space. But if we continue with the nihilistic attitude that only a fragment of one percent of humanity has the value of life while the remaining billions only exist to support that fraction, then we will be doomed. We will be doomed to see the apocalyptic visions of negative skeptics of human ability come to pass, while the dreamers of a better tomorrow are scoffed into obscurity. Let us hope the passe cliché of Necessity is the Mother of Invention is just and we soon recognize the necessity of achieving a plot of sentience and civilization rather than inane chaos. But whichever way it totters, we can say we lived during one of the most pivotal times in the course of human history.

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