I believe that humans were unfortunate to have evolved the world of finance before the industrial revolution occured, and thus we have have never been properly able to see the value of our labour. It has always been more profitable to own a machine capable of production, than it was to be the one labouring. Often, owning the tools or machines that can allow one to be productive on a level which they can thrive requires debt. Labour has always been at the mercy of the rent-seeking industry of finance. Here in Canada, we already work a quarter to a third of our day for free as a way of paying rent-seekers to distribute money back or pay interest on debt or build guns and many other things. There is a second tax called inflation. Often times, the excess value of those working for wages can be fed into speculative markets which are constantly having value extracted from them, and sometimes money is printed to prop up these markets. Money is always going down in value. Most people use speculative markets to invest something that will generally beat inflation, as it represents someone else's productivity and that does have value. It's an inherently broken system which perpetuates a need for it's own toxicity.
.... But money is a social artifact. All that matters is that people accept it as compensation for goods and services.
What if a community could obtain free education or healthcare simply by recognizing a currency? What if a person could go to work every day and not receive a wage but receive value on a currency that they themselves issue? What if people had the power to boycott acceptance of the police's money if they weren't happy with their conduct? This is the idea I am proposing, and I am open to discussion on it. It is a radically different type of market. I'm not saying it's perfect, but I think it's good enough to be shared.
Self-Issued currencies could incentivize a gift economy. There will be less and less need for transactions if you do things in exchange for value instead of a set amount of dollars. Imagine farmers bringing crop to market for free in exchange for value on their own currency facilitated by some sort of voting system. Imagine farmers with higher yields and no debt. Imagine all industry as productive and safe as possible without debt. Imagine it was more 'profitable' to give away goods for votes locally than to sell them for notes from a centralized institution. Imagine a market which no longer awarded scarcity (or artificial scarcity), but actually incentivized the opposite.
On an individual basis one's currency is sort of like a student loan, but instead of paying someone else's bills for a chance to be useful, this acts as a means for you to be as productive or skilled as you can be without that debt. This should act as a means to acquire housing without a prison sentence of debt. I think we can turn the toxic system in our favour and all it will take is to recognize different money.
I alluded to this being accomplished through some sort of voting system. Obviously the practicial parts are challenging but many can be solved by technology in the crypto space. Digital Identities and atomic swaps are just two innovations that make this vision a little more practical. Also, the implications of this sort of system ever being centralized and resulting abuse is rather terrifying, as is true with most blockchain technology. One's digital reputation becomes very important here - There is definitely much to debate about privacy and centralization with our current communications and it is important for us to have our networks as something that no one party 'owns'. Communications are for the community, they are part of the commons, and there is definitely a need to decentralize our existing networks. There is a need to make sure one can't vote multiple times and inflate their value. There is a need for transparency in some cases and a need for privacy in others. There is a need for this to be voluntary and you must issue something a community values. There is a need for money to be not the root of evil, but to be the root of consensus. A social artifact that can reward your altruism, and putting work into your community. Many of us realize that voting with our dollars is more effective than marking an 'x' on a box every few years anyway. Money already is a way to have our voices be heard, we just need that power to be decentralized and not limited to those who have large concentrations of money.
There is a separation of money and ethics which does us no favours. We will say "Sorry, It's just business" or make other excuses to do unethical things for money. Money is a means to make people do your dirty work for you, you might here someone say, "sorry, I'm just doing my job", as if this is anything more than a deflection of accountability. We can do better than this and it involves removing the rent-seekers that have always sought to own your labour. Your labour is yours, you must get value for it. It's similar to the decentralized net where your content belongs to you, and not to a centralized party. The decentralized economy is one where one's work is one's own, and we do not simply value ownership as a viable job.
Thanks for reading. Feel free to contact me.
Graham Grieves.
