With apologies to James Buchanan for the use of his book title, the matter of money has taken top billing on Wall Street and Main Street. As trillions are lost in the value of homes and 401(k)s, Washington has moved from doling out billions to the heady experience of running up bailouts in the trillions.
Money is fast becoming an abstraction.
Jacque Fresco, an industrial designer and social engineer living in Florida, has gone a step further in the Venus Project, describing a fantastical universe that does not use money but seeks to live in harmony with the Earth and its resources. To be sure, there is a severe need to reorder our relationship with the Earth, acknowledging the limitations of resources on a finite planet, but we are not there yet. Instead the American public”™s prime goal has been to acquire ever larger mountains of cash and worldly goods in what now appears to be a chase after fool”™s gold. When this country went off the gold standard in the early 1970s it seems the need for fiscal discipline also disappeared. Now we see the result.
The paper trail
Only a few years ago, about the time the debit card came into being, there were serious discussions of getting rid of paper money. There followed a barrage of credit and debit card inducements in the mail, each more enticing than the last. TV ads made fun of those retrogrades who still wrote checks. To be sure, we did virtually get rid of paper money but it was not replaced with anything of equal value but instead a mountain of debt.
Whether in oversize uncontrolled mortgages or the maxed out cards in everyone”™s purse, debt was the name of the game. Somehow, though, it didn”™t look like debt because we never saw the paper money flying out of our hands to alert us as to exactly how much money was involved. The so-called “wealth effect” that contributed to the national well-being, on which the U.S. economy depended, was actually all perception and expectation.
As personal debt of the American citizen grew, the money men ”“ those individuals who knew how to create instruments that were nearly incomprehensible to all but the most sophisticated investor ”“ were spreading the fun around the globe. CEOs and those at the top of investment banks and corporations figured out how to expand their salaries and take-home pay through a variety of murky subterfuges, while the average worker, not privy to those strategies, either did not keep up or fell behind in individual buying power. Â
The money trail
Currently, the man at the top makes 400 times the salary of the lowliest worker, the gap between the top and the bottom earner having risen exponentially in the last decade. The economy is now demonstrating no sense of fairness in the distribution of wealth. The public responded with understandable outrage when the bonus package doled out to executives was revealed to be distributed, not because of any earned improvement in a given company, but as an entitlement of the employee “and” paid for by the U.S. taxpayer.
Again, the question is what kind of money is that?
President Obama”™s budget has gone to Congress containing a grand total of $3.6 trillion. There are multiple explanations as to why it is so high but the question to be raised here is ”“ before the Congress passes that budget shouldn”™t we know what a trillion dollars is? Does anybody really know? Here are a few hints ”“ it has a total of 12 zeros and amounts to 1,000 billions. It would take you 31,000 years to count to a trillion. It is said that if you had given away a billion dollars a day since the birth of Jesus you couldn”™t reach the trillions in the Obama budget. There is no word for any amount above a trillion. No, zillion doesn”™t mean anything. Likewise, gazillion.
So how do we understand the real meaning of money in terms of a trillion dollars? It is as if we shot ourselves into the stratosphere with regard to our current money system and haven”™t figured out how to come down. Meanwhile life goes on and solutions will be found.
Blazing new trails
As money disappears how do we exchange goods with each other? There is a way ”“ it is called barter. Don”™t laugh. The Craigslist “Barter” site has expanded 100 percent in the last year and from all accounts the declining economy will assure its continued growth. This is not about exchanging a dozen eggs for a couple of pounds of hamburger. The Internet has allowed this truly basic economic system to be way more sophisticated. A modern example of barter: an accountant offers to prepare someone”™s taxes in exchange for a car repair. The system can become even more complex than that exchange. Of course we are reminded that barter does not eliminate the need to pay taxes on one”™s acquisitions. Right!
Meanwhile, the public is learning more ways to reduce the need for money ”“ the backyard or rooftop vegetable garden, a tradition that never died in many families but is now becoming mainstream across the land, encouraged by the proliferation of local farmers”™ markets. The Obamas have just given a boost to the trend with the first vegetable garden on the White House lawn ”“ growing arugula yet! And so it goes ”“ American citizens, little by little, reducing their need for money in order to survive the future.
Surviving the Future explores a wide range of subjects to assist businesses in adapting to a new energy age. Maureen Morgan, a transit advocate, is on the board of Federated Conservationists of Westchester. Reach her at mmmorgan10@optonline.net.