We are in trouble – we need new ways.
The financial system is creaking (breaking up?), differences in well-being among nations and people are greater than ever – many people are down-right poor, nation-states are working hard to get their share and fighting the rest, the US have costly processes of empire that is causing havoc in many places, the state is becoming more and more part of people’s lives, the big corporations – mostly American – are getting bigger and bigger and exerting more and more control over resources and output, the many are controlled by elites with the money. There are large refugee-problems, the environment is not taken properly care of. The states and the big corporations have the money and they control it all, resulting in huge inequalities.
There are no longer democratic processes of substance in countries. State capitalism is combined with huge corporations and is controlling money. There are wars going on, military men have influence in many countries. The isms of capital and commun are long gone. The internal processes of many countries are becoming increasingly inefficient.
The processes of the world are not developed and controlled by good thinking, fairness and inclusion. We do not have the power to control our own lives because we have no money. Control from the top is increasing, and to survive and have a livelihood we have to sell our lives to state and corporations.
We need major changes to find a better balance.
The world is now increasingly connected in a global network making it possible for all to take part in the processes of activity, in real time. Place is no longer important – the world is there for you. You can share and network with people all over the world. The aim is self-expression and real economic democracy. At the same time the divide between work and personal life will disappear – you will just live with a personal agenda and increased responsibility. We all will become self-conscious economic agents, based on self-reliance.
The system therefore must be changed so that we can have and make our own money and achieve economic justice for all. The resources of the world are for all – they must be shared and everybody are entitled to a share. This also means that the new practices must be environmentally sound and fully sustainable. The new money will be established as electronic money through the network.
Workers are not stuck in one place, their power and creativity will flow to where the activity is taking place – the supply will be fully flexible. Machines will communicate via the net and be part of the flexible resource pool.
New creativity must be found to realize this future. We must find a way to establish personalized internationalised money that initially will exist together with today’s money. National money will thus gradually disappear, and money management will be transferred to ordinary people. The value of the money will be determined by the participants taking part.
State revenue, taxes and duties must also be considered as a fully electronic international system will create a new situation: Internet users paying taxes to whom?
The ethical side must also be brought into the development: What responsibilities do we have for each other, for the environment, for the long term? New thinking about social relations may also be needed, but rational thinking will take us a long way.
We need: Development of a viable procedure, initial small-scale tests, scientific procedure, interconnected networked machines and workers, electronic international money, net-systems to effect the money and resource operations, pooling of resources, personal creativity and reponsibility.
There is a long way to go – but thinkers like Keith Hart, Manuel Castells are working on it (and John Locke would have approved).
More will follow!
See books: Keith Hart Money in an unequal world, Manuel Castells The network society, and Jacque Fresco with the Venus Project