is monetary reform our only hope?

DPrival78

the rich, and the big banks they own, call the shots. all of the money in circulation originates in these banks, and is loaned out to companies, individuals and governments at interest. every dollar out there is debt that needs to be paid back to these banks with interest. that being the case, how can debt ever be paid off in full? if you're in debt to someone, you're essentially their slave.

why do we need big banks? why does the government not just create its own money (rather than borrowing it from banks like the federal reserve), and spend it into the economy debt-free?

why is monetary reform not an issue being openly debated? go back 100 years or so ago, and beyond, and the issue of who controls the nation's money and it's issuance was something people talked about. politicians ran on platforms of keeping big central banks out of the u.s. why has that stopped?

i'm no expert on this stuff, but i find it very interesting and i was just wondering what others might think about this issue.

for those interested, here's a documentary called "the story of oz" that covers all of this - a history of banking and money creation, debt-free money in history, and an argument for going back to such a system to fix our current mess.

The Story of Oz

whygohome

The banks and oil companies own us. We are docile sheep too concerned with new phones and the boob tube to do anything about it.

DPrival78

i agree. more than likely it's a lost cause at this point. we'll find out soon enough.

here's another vid, one much shorter than the doc posted above. it's speech on monetary reform given by the creator of the doc:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hrV84FZ_4G4

OutOfBreath

Why would any monetary reform help against the real fundamental issue, namely that money and power always gravitate towards eachother, while there is widespread acceptance of money being a "private issue"? Twiddling with the dials on the system controlled by the powerful rich, wont change the fact that the powerful rich will call the shots.

This sort of criticism is from one of two sources as far as I see:

1. People who want to change the system (slightly) so it favours themselves more. They in this case will be people pretty well placed already, that just want to nudge the scales away from their rivals. Monetary reform will serve nicely to achieve this.

2. People who don't like that fact that a relatively limited group of people have too much power.. For these, no monetary reform will change anything. Capitalism tends to concentrate wealth, and hence power, into relatively few hands.

What could help more is removing money as the main driver of politics through legislating election funding etc, and opening up for more democracy with a higher redistribution of the wealth generated in society. That might help reduce the power of the select few and at least spread it a bit further so that the select aren't quite so few.

Peace
Dan

whygohome

OutOfBreath wrote:

Why would any monetary reform help against the real fundamental issue, namely that money and power always gravitate towards eachother, while there is widespread acceptance of money being a "private issue"? Twiddling with the dials on the system controlled by the powerful rich, wont change the fact that the powerful rich will call the shots.

This sort of criticism is from one of two sources as far as I see:

1. People who want to change the system (slightly) so it favours themselves more. They in this case will be people pretty well placed already, that just want to nudge the scales away from their rivals. Monetary reform will serve nicely to achieve this.

2. People who don't like that fact that a relatively limited group of people have too much power.. For these, no monetary reform will change anything. Capitalism tends to concentrate wealth, and hence power, into relatively few hands.

What could help more is removing money as the main driver of politics through legislating election funding etc, and opening up for more democracy with a higher redistribution of the wealth generated in society. That might help reduce the power of the select few and at least spread it a bit further so that the select aren't quite so few.

Peace
Dan

Agreed. Or we can embrace more socialist policies, in order for the country to grow......