Martin Niemoller the Protestant pastor whose words from WWII
ring perfectly true for the agents of the tyranny the people of Ireland are
being subjected to.
First they came for the Socialists, and I did not speak out--
Because I was not a Socialist.
Then they came for the Trade Unionists, and I did not speak out--
Because I was not a Trade Unionist.
Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out--
Because I was not a Jew.
Then they came for me--and there was no one left to speak for me.
This could be used today as follows;
First they came for the construction industry, and I did not speak out--
Because I was not a carpenter.
Then they came for the self-employed and the modestly paid public sector, and I did not speak out--
Because I was not self-employed nor modestly paid from the public purse.
Then they came for the graduates, and I did not speak out--
Because I was not a graduate.
Then they came for me--and there was no one left to speak for me.
Who is the latter “me”? Well they are the really misguided
individuals who are foisting odious corporate policies designed offshore from
the likes of the IMF onto the people of Ireland. They believe they are immune,
because perhaps they have permanent pensionable jobs. They could be TD’s, senior
Revenue officers, senior civil servants. What will they do when the machine has
consumed all others? Will it stop at them? Not likely. No one is safe unless we
all unite to stop this war against the people. Their loyal work against the
people will be rewarded with say 10K per annum property tax or perhaps 75%
income tax or maybe a 50% pay cut. Or all of the above. And who will speak for these poor unfortunates?
Thursday, July 25, 2013
Thursday, November 10, 2011
The Problem.......Some Solutions.
The Problem:
The modern banking model started in 1694 in London. For over three hundred years we have allowed private organisations, namely central banks, create money and issue it into society. They have three ultimate customers; individuals, businesses and governments. We deal with local national banks for our daily commerce, but ultimately they are just agents who are getting their money from the central banks of the world.
The central banks do not have the money to supply to their three customers. They are allowed create it out of thin air by a process known as fractional reserve banking, i.e. they only need a fraction of the money they issue into society on deposit to back up their loans. If a member of the public did this they would be jailed for fraud. In our society it is considered sober and proper finance. However this is far from their most devious action. In performing the sleight of hand of issuing money they do not have into society private central banks have never once created a cent of interest that is payable on our debts to them. Let’s repeat that. Interest, although owed to bankers, is NEVER created by bankers. All of the money in circulation is just the principal owed on our debts, and not the principal plus the interest. Hence there is not enough money in circulation in our world to service our collective debts. It is why our businesses are suffering, why our governments are imposing austerity, why taxes are rising and why people are working harder and harder just to tread water. All three subsets are fighting each continuously for ever more scarce monetary resources. It is a rigged game. We always lose.
Many may doubt that our central banks are privately owned. In 2011 the Federal Reserve in America finally admitted, after much pressure, that it was not a public entity. The same is true of the ECB, the central bank of England, the Irish central bank and indeed the central banks of all but four countries in the world. The proof is in the pudding. If the Irish central bank was a public entity would our governments from the 1940's onwards have allowed a branch of government to give money to the nation state and charge interest that did not exist, when the nation itself was in a permanent recession? Perhaps the reason the state was in a permanent recession was that its government was repaying vast sums of money to a private organisation masquerading as a public entity. Would the hundreds of thousands who emigrated from our shores in the 20th century have had to go if we were not paying erroneous interest to our supposed national central bank?
Since 2008 I think we would all agree we have been living through a collective nightmare. The middle class is shrinking by the day, suicide is rampant due to financial pressures and our sovereignty and sense of security and control is vanishing by the day. We have invested an awful lot of time listening to economic commentators telling us we need to tighten our belts, to get more efficient, to work harder, to accept austerity and then maybe in some hypothetical long term future we may possibly return to some semblance of normality. It is now time to identify the real cause of our problems.
The reason that we are in this nightmare at this moment in history can easily be explained. Even though the central banking model is fundamentally flawed, it worked for three centuries because our population was growing so fast. As an example the worldwide population in 1900 was 1.75 billion people. In 2008 the population was close to 7 billion people. Therefore in just over one century the population of the world quadrupled. Like any good Ponzi scheme there were always more and more participants coming to the table to take on this monetary model. Therefore the scheme thrived, i.e. the rate of monetary creation through new debts being issued exceeded the existing debt plus interest repayments, even though the interest due on old debts had not being created. For an economy to repay its debts it needs a GDP rise per annum of roughly 2-2.5%. In the century just gone the average rate of GDP rise across all countries was approximately 4%, i.e. proof that the flawed system was at least functional. Existing debt could be serviced.
However the system crashed in 2008 because the rate of population growth slowed dramatically. In the next century the population will rise up towards a maximum of 10 billion. That may seem huge but going from 7 to 10 billion is only a 50% rate of population increase. By applying the formulas above we see that this will only yield a GDP rise per year of roughly 0.5%, i.e. far less than the 2-2.5% required to repay our existing debts. Therefore our rigged game has permanently crashed. The only way to return to perceived economic prosperity with our current model is if our worldwide population rose to 28 billion by 2100, i.e. another quadrupling, thus giving us our 4% rise in standards per year. I am sure we would all agree that a population of 28 billion is not desirable, or even possible. As a point of interest Ireland’s GDP rise for the last year has been less than 1%, exactly as predicted by current population growth and far less than we need to repay existing debt obligations.
I think the time has come to say enough is enough. The whole world is in a process of foreclosure. Some are up for the chopping block first, but ultimately everyone will get there. Until economic commentators address this fundamental question of how money is issued into society then nothing else should be up for discussion, most certainly not austerity programs. The time has come to outlaw private central banking and reset our economies. If we allow the system to continue we are heading for a very dark future. If you supply money to people that ultimately they cannot repay, as we have proven above, then eventually the day will come where you seize all their assets, secured against the loans made. That is already happening; examples being one million homes seized in America, Greek national infrastructure up for sale and Ireland being forced down the route of preparing its assets for sale.
Now we can wonder if the private central banks are doing this by design or by accident. If I say they are doing it by design I am labelled a conspiracy theorist and my message gets lost. Therefore I say it doesn’t matter how this system came to pass. The fact is that the system is rigged to take ownership of you, your businesses and your governments. Do we allow it to continue as it is, or do we change the system?
There are many healthy alternatives. I examine some of them very briefly below. Firstly it is much more important to correctly identify the real problem, before the solutions are discussed. Once we do this we will be free in a very short period of time. The world could permanently thrive if we broaden our horizons. The ball is in our court, not theirs. A system can only be implemented on you if you accept it. In our soberness can we continue to accept the model as outline above? I contend the answer is no and that it is time we showed our strength.
Solutions:
- Stay out of fear. If people are afraid they will accept any change that is foisted on them, however inappropriate it may be. Wake up to the fact that our fellow man provides our nurturance and our beautiful earth our sustenance. The economy should never be the absolute center of our lives, as it has become.
- Absolutely refuse any solutions from the private central banks - and/or by extension their corporate and governmental proxies - who got us into this mess. These include, but are not limited to, the following “solutions”; a new global debt backed currency, more centralized political control of the Euro zone countries, a financial transaction tax (guess who pays for that!), selling national infrastructure and most especially any further austerity or taxation
- Wipe out all existing debt to private central banks, on monies that were issued into society through fractional reserve banking and through the issuance of debt where no corresponding interest was created and released. This will see almost all private and public debt wiped out worldwide. This legitimate amnesty and wiping of the slate allows a new system to be birthed into existence that allows a functional and healthy economic model to exist
- Reclaim any real physical assets from these banks that were wrongfully acquired from people, businesses and governments through their fraudulent practices. Use these refunds, especially to governments, as a start up fund for the new public banks
- Set up public central banks that will be controlled by the people through their elected governments. The notion of national debt will become obsolete.
- Ensure all future loans made to people and businesses are backed by real assets.
- Ensure all future loans issued into society also have the interest payable on them issued into society, or else ensure they are issued interest free into society. This will eliminate the scramble to obtain scarce monetary resources from dominating our lives
- Abolish the majority of taxation as it has been proved that it is mostly needed just to pay off governmental debt to private central banks and also to pay the wages of public sector workers and welfare recipients, who in turn need it to pay off their debt commitments to private central banking.
- As a result just one flat tax rate could exist across all society, at a nominal figure of say 15%. The proceeds of this could go to help build public infrastructure and pay much more reduced public wages as the people will not need such high remittances
- Prioritize the real needs of people and define true security. I contend it is to have guaranteed access to home energy, quality food and clean drinking water. Outside of these basics our needs are not necessarily universal, but more personal. Endeavour to build the infrastructure into people’s lives that provides these commodities free from the need to have money to obtain them. Wake up to the fact that nearly 4000 patents around the area of “free” energy and devices that require minimal finance to provide energy are actively being suppressed by the petrochemical industry. If these devices existed we would have no home utility bills or ever need fuel for vehicles again. This is real security. We could also build local permaculture, aqua-phonics and many other food producing models in our communities that would provide high quality, organic and healthy food in perpetuity, free from the need to earn money to obtain them. The same could be done with drilling wells to ensure we always have access to fresh water. With a major wipeout of existing fraudulent debt and a huge surge in building life enhancing infrastructure like above we would suddenly see a mass freeing of humanity
- With this freeing we would see an exponential surge in creativity. People would not be forced to work in jobs they despise when they can find the very real security as above. This creativity would inevitably lead to new discoveries etc. that would benefit mankind.
- We could see true bartering come into fashion, to further free us from the grip of centrally controlled money. This is often denigrated and scorned. However we live in a digital age with electronic accounts dominating our commerce. This notion could be transferred to our daily lives. We could list all the goods and services we could offer a community, however minute the task or menial it may seem. We could have a trading account and engage in commerce with our local community. A steering committee (that rotates) could rank each task on the listings page a value from 1-10 points depending on complexity of task, duration etc… If I need a service I request it. The task is completed by a fellow participant and their account is credited, mine debited. My debt is not to this person but to my account, i.e. my account can not go too far into overdraft. (maybe 20 points or so). I now need to offer my services elsewhere and work off my debt to my account. Similarly one cannot go too much into credit, i.e. it is no use expecting to build up huge credit by offering just one service to a select few people. In this case an upper limit should also exist. This model replicates money, but does exactly what money has failed to do, i.e. it lubricates commerce ensuring we all give and get what is needed, with security for all. To date we have all been so concerned with debt repayments that we clamp money when we get it or do whatever it takes to get it in the first instance.
- In a generation or so we will see our current money become very unimportant. We will quickly realise that it is our beautiful mother earth that provides all of our needs and not some fictional economy. When we are in balance with ourselves, our community and our world all of our needs are met, in perpetuity.
These bullet points are the merest hint of the limitless potential that awaits mankind when we free ourselves from the false tyranny of our debt backed currencies. In each and all cases the points can be vastly expanded upon in greater detail. There are many people who will become the architects of a new and functioning society. The solutions above are but a drop in the ocean of our collective ideas and potential.
Barry Fitzgerald
Author of "Building Cities of Gold"
Available Now From Amazon
(Paperback or Kindle)
http://tinyurl.com/22t3mkc
Publishing house: ATTM Press.
http://www.allthingsthatmatterpress.com/buynow.htm
Friday, April 8, 2011
It's TIME to rebuild.
In the time of the famine the potato was blighted. That was a small problem that became catastrophic due to our over reliance on the very same potato. Today our money system is equally blighted. Again it is a problem that has become catastrophic due to our complete over reliance on cash in our society.
All talk of bond burning, debt restructuring, interest rate reductions etc.. is a massive waste of energy. It is trying to root out the blight from the crop. That is not going to solve the long term problem; namely that modern society provides no security for people, save for those who can guarantee they can get their hands on this fascinating resource that is money, whenever or wherever they so wish. Even our sovereign government is proving that it cannot guarantee this.
What we need is simple Project management and for us all to get working at de-leveraging the power of cash. We need to diversify, as we should have done pre- famine.
Our current Monetary system is highly dysfunctional. All governments have relinquished their sovereign rights to print their own money and instead allow PRIVATE central banks to issue and sell them their national currencies. This evolved with the Bank of England in 1694 and extends right through today, including the Irish central bank (in the past), ECB, FED etc...in fact all but 4 countries worldwide.
When selling this money to local banks as loans (like Anglo/AIB/BOI etc..) or to governments, these central banks DO NOT CREATE the interest payable money on the loans. They only create the principal, i.e. if they create 1million Euros of a loan, they only create that sum and not the hundreds of thousands of Euro of interest due on it. Hence their ultimate customers, mortgage holders/businesses/governments are always striving/fighting/competing for scarce money to repay both the principal AND interest. While the principal on our loans does exist in society and since the interest does not, then it is only possible to find this elusive interest when others also take out loans. This is a RIGGED game. Everyone has to be in debt, always. It is a system that is designed to foreclose on the entire world. It has taken over 200 years to reach the point where this is starting to happen, but start to happen it has. The middle class worldwide is being wiped out, resulting in an ever unfolding stark future, i.e. a permanent working poor class and an elite, all ruling financial class. The more time that passes the more this future is taking hold.
All of this is a Ponzi scheme of such blatancy that we can't even see it. The house always wins, we always lose. Remember "WE", is not just me and you, but our governments and our businesses. And once again these are PRIVATELY owned central banks that are issuing our money.
Our current highly toxic worldwide situation is as a direct result of this. It worked ok while the population of the world was rising rapidly, as during the 20th century. The worldwide population quadrupled from 1900 to 2000 resulting in an average GDP rise of 4% per country. However from 2000-2100 the world population is only set to rise by 50%. Therefore simple maths (One eight of 4%) yields a GDP rise per annum of only 0.5%. Simply put we will never find the money to repay today’s debts, and never will. The rate of money creation has slowed down and the elephant in the room is coming into focus, i.e. that all the money created in the past 100 years plus was not issued into society with an equal release of the interest owed on the monies. This is why our efforts in Ireland to grow our way out of our problems through exports, while a noble concept, is very naive. The current financial system will not allow this to happen. No export boom will save us.
These central banks know the Ponzi scheme has finally collapsed and hence the reason there is a credit crunch that is so prolonged: a) they know there isn't enough cash to pay off the debts and b) vast swathes of cash have been sucked out of the system (by them) and transferred into precious metal assets etc., since they knew this debt crisis cannot be solved. All because there is not enough money created (by them) to pay it and not enough future people to work to pay it off.They have had our number for too long. We need solutions among ourselves. We need to take the power away from them.
Solution 1:
Outlaw private central banks. Since we are only concerned with Ireland in this discourse, establish an Irish sovereign controlled public central bank. Create money and if it continues to charge interest - see below, as we may not need to charge interest - then make sure the interest money is also created with the principal when loans are issued in the future. This will lead to a massive reduction in stress trying to find interest elsewhere, depending on others to borrow, to then fight them for this money in our current model.
Solution 2:
Build the infrastructure to de-leverage the power of cash. A great public works so to speak, to regain full employment. If a black swan event hit our lives tomorrow, like ATM's not dispensing cash, we have to ask ourselves what are the essentials that we need, that should be decoupled from needing cash to provide them. My answer would be,
A) Food
B) Water
C) Home Energy
Outside of them we do not need anything else in an emergency. Sure, individuals need medicines etc. but the typical person just needs those 3 things as basic necessities. Build those into our lives and provide them free to people. Yes free, but free as in we do not need cash to obtain them. This gives a huge baseline of security in our lives. Remember as consumers we have come from using pen and paper 50 years ago to nano technology today. Yet we still live in a society where even the basics can only be obtained by having this so called precious resource called money.
A) Build local community permaculture and aqua phonics solutions (high yield providers of quality organic food from small footprints) to provide food at a community level of 200 people or so. Let a few people work there and their "wages" paid from a mutual credit system with their neighbours, i.e. a sharing of services and resources. Alternatively, all adults could donate 2-3 hours per week to help cultivate food and therefore not need to purchase it with cash. This is very practical, even in cities.
B) Build water infrastructure. Scrap plans to introduce water charges (more taxes = longer working life = needing more cash) and to pump water from the Shannon to Dublin(madness!). Instead employ thousands of unemployed construction workers to install rainwater harvesting devices from roofs, to capture brown water. Also drill wells in housing estates etc. to always ensure fresh water is available, again without needing ongoing cash or taxes to purchase.
C) Energy. Example: Build something like Spirit of Ireland project as a national project. Do not let CRH or private companies profit from it. Nationalise untapped quarries etc. and create concrete at cost. Build the wind turbines in Ireland, but again not in private hands. This renewable project could be achieved at a cost of circa 10billion, providing free electricity for ever more to Irish people. Why Not? (Of course any consumption over an agreed standard would have to be paid for in some way).
If every citizen of this country had the security above it would mean that over 50% of pensioners and unemployed peoples welfare cheques could be met FREE from cash needs. That means we now don't need to pay them as much cash, something that is devaluing by the minute anyway. We could potentially save 10 billion per year on our welfare bill of 20 billion. Similarly a percentage in the public sector would not choose to work 40 hours per week if they had security like above. Hence we would also see a massive saving in annual public sector wage bills.
So for a modest outlay as a percentage of our current public expenditure we could secure all the people of Ireland with a massive public works scheme to give free energy, water and food into perpetuity. TAKING the power away from cash and putting real security into people’s hands. Diversifying from those rotten spuds!
Solution 3:
As mentioned let government issue its own money. It could greatly reduce, if not eliminate, income tax, vat etc... by choosing to charge interest on the money it sells to its citizens. Alternatively, it could keep some taxes and decide to issue money free from interest payable. There are so many options here as unnecessary government debt to outsiders (private central banks) will be eliminated.
Solution 4:
People can explore the infinite potential of mutual credit systems once they know they have food , water and energy security. Their work lives will greatly reduce in formal taxable employment but will greatly increase in supporting each other in the local community. e.g. plumber fixing a heating system for an accountant (one guys account credits, one guys debits, with no cash transactions) , who then both go and trade elsewhere. An infinite loop of work, services and goods that can circulate free from the need to obtain cash to partake.
____________
Of course the big question is what of the current debt legacy. Well as mentioned this is mainly owed to private individuals in central banks. They have got enough to date over the centuries. Their time is up. All interest should be cancelled on debt and a VERY hard deal done on the principal in our new currency. As for all the private pension funds etc. that are invested in government/bank debt, well some of that commitment should also be transferred into our new national currency, but again if we provide real solutions like the infrastructure above these future retirement funds will not be needed as much as before. Therefore people will accept a hit knowing life is becoming more secure.
As for mortgage debt, well again it should be transferred into the new currency but free of interest, and made payable to our government, possibly in lieu of taxes. Again there are many creative options available to us.
There is an infinite supply of goods, services and work needing to be completed in this world. What is in restriction is man made currencies. We need to completely change the game. Money should not restrict our lives. It is simply a logistical problem that could get addressed in a matter of months. We are meant to live in abundance, not restriction. Money is not our God, we simply have allowed a few people to convince us that it is.
As for the argument that we cannot possibly issue our own currency to clear our debts, as it will lead to hyper-inflation etc. Well that would be true if we allowed our private central bank to do so. You see it is not the printing of money that creates hyper inflation. It is when the banks use that new surge of money to then leverage out even more debt to society that causes the inflation. Remember they roughly loan out at least ten times the money then have on deposit. Once a careful management of the control of new government money ensues, as in money created by government has to be used to build national infrastructure like above and pay wages etc. then we will not see hyper inflation by clearing our debts and resetting our economy on to a truly sustainable footing.
Our current plans for a smart economy in this country require others to get in debt elsewhere, i.e. we wish to become leaders in technology etc., but for that to happen we need consumers elsewhere. Those consumers will have to work ever harder to purchase our products. Remember we are facing a population peak, hence IT IS NOT smart to build our future economic prosperity on consumption industries. What is a smart economy though is one that meets the basic needs of its people in perpetuity, free from the unsustainable need to obtain ever more deflating cash resources. We can have that with simple project management and planning.
Now for the crux. No politician or current institution will do this for us. The only ones who can force this change are us ourselves. That is our challenge. To realise we are the ones we have been waiting for. The question is will we realise it. Grass root movements have to start, to force the change. Mutual credit systems are ideal in that case, as they require no outside forces to set up. Just people helping people. In time this grass root movement will awaken those in power to what a real economy should be and do.
I have often wondered why the people of Ireland didn't take to small punts to land fish in the time of the famine, especially those around the coast. I now believe it was because they were so emasculated by the system of tenancy, single crop dependency, competition amongst each other etc. , that they failed to make the small changes to help themselves. Then all of a sudden it was too late. We are not in the time of the famine, but the circumstances do resonate. A political and social discourse that is totally self defeating and seeking villains. We are emasculated all over again. It's time to get to work, before it's too late. What if that ATM fails to dispense cash. It nearly happened in September '08. Could it happen again? One may not agree with my ideas on project management if it did happen. But pretty soon we all could be challenged and faced with the opportunity to think up and implement our own ideas. It really is that exciting, exhilarating and scary all at once. Yeah but the destination is sooo worth it - A reclaiming of true individual and community sovereignty, with more security and freedom thrown in.
p.s. There is a precedent for what I discuss. Canada is probably the only Western country that had a public central bank in recent times, namely 1935-74. They were so sick of the carnage post the '29 crash that they booted out the bankers and issued their own money, free from interest. For the next forty years the national debt flat lined at 18billion (this was a legacy debt) , public works soared, there was no visible poverty and there was a huge sense of social cohesion. Then in '74 the bankers wormed their way back in. Debt in Canada is now at 550 billion over a similar period of time, i.e. approx. 40 years. That shows the carnage of debt accumulation when private central banks run the world.
p.p.s. We only looked at the main crime of not creating interest on loans in our analysis of central banks. The even more potent crime is fractional reserve banking in itself, i.e. creating money that one doesn't have. In essence banks can create anything up to 20 times the deposits they have in their enterprise. This is morally unacceptable and once again has just been accepted as a part of modern economics. In essence this is fraud, but unless our legislators act on this it will continue. There are so many viable and just "outs" from the toxic economic models that run our world. We need to start taking them, to free the peoples of the world.
Barry Fitzgerald
Author of "Building Cities of Gold"
Available Now From Amazon
(Paperback or Kindle)
http://tinyurl.com/22t3mkc
Publishing house: ATTM Press.
http://www.allthingsthatmatterpress.com/buynow.htm
All talk of bond burning, debt restructuring, interest rate reductions etc.. is a massive waste of energy. It is trying to root out the blight from the crop. That is not going to solve the long term problem; namely that modern society provides no security for people, save for those who can guarantee they can get their hands on this fascinating resource that is money, whenever or wherever they so wish. Even our sovereign government is proving that it cannot guarantee this.
What we need is simple Project management and for us all to get working at de-leveraging the power of cash. We need to diversify, as we should have done pre- famine.
Our current Monetary system is highly dysfunctional. All governments have relinquished their sovereign rights to print their own money and instead allow PRIVATE central banks to issue and sell them their national currencies. This evolved with the Bank of England in 1694 and extends right through today, including the Irish central bank (in the past), ECB, FED etc...in fact all but 4 countries worldwide.
When selling this money to local banks as loans (like Anglo/AIB/BOI etc..) or to governments, these central banks DO NOT CREATE the interest payable money on the loans. They only create the principal, i.e. if they create 1million Euros of a loan, they only create that sum and not the hundreds of thousands of Euro of interest due on it. Hence their ultimate customers, mortgage holders/businesses/governments are always striving/fighting/competing for scarce money to repay both the principal AND interest. While the principal on our loans does exist in society and since the interest does not, then it is only possible to find this elusive interest when others also take out loans. This is a RIGGED game. Everyone has to be in debt, always. It is a system that is designed to foreclose on the entire world. It has taken over 200 years to reach the point where this is starting to happen, but start to happen it has. The middle class worldwide is being wiped out, resulting in an ever unfolding stark future, i.e. a permanent working poor class and an elite, all ruling financial class. The more time that passes the more this future is taking hold.
All of this is a Ponzi scheme of such blatancy that we can't even see it. The house always wins, we always lose. Remember "WE", is not just me and you, but our governments and our businesses. And once again these are PRIVATELY owned central banks that are issuing our money.
Our current highly toxic worldwide situation is as a direct result of this. It worked ok while the population of the world was rising rapidly, as during the 20th century. The worldwide population quadrupled from 1900 to 2000 resulting in an average GDP rise of 4% per country. However from 2000-2100 the world population is only set to rise by 50%. Therefore simple maths (One eight of 4%) yields a GDP rise per annum of only 0.5%. Simply put we will never find the money to repay today’s debts, and never will. The rate of money creation has slowed down and the elephant in the room is coming into focus, i.e. that all the money created in the past 100 years plus was not issued into society with an equal release of the interest owed on the monies. This is why our efforts in Ireland to grow our way out of our problems through exports, while a noble concept, is very naive. The current financial system will not allow this to happen. No export boom will save us.
These central banks know the Ponzi scheme has finally collapsed and hence the reason there is a credit crunch that is so prolonged: a) they know there isn't enough cash to pay off the debts and b) vast swathes of cash have been sucked out of the system (by them) and transferred into precious metal assets etc., since they knew this debt crisis cannot be solved. All because there is not enough money created (by them) to pay it and not enough future people to work to pay it off.They have had our number for too long. We need solutions among ourselves. We need to take the power away from them.
Solution 1:
Outlaw private central banks. Since we are only concerned with Ireland in this discourse, establish an Irish sovereign controlled public central bank. Create money and if it continues to charge interest - see below, as we may not need to charge interest - then make sure the interest money is also created with the principal when loans are issued in the future. This will lead to a massive reduction in stress trying to find interest elsewhere, depending on others to borrow, to then fight them for this money in our current model.
Solution 2:
Build the infrastructure to de-leverage the power of cash. A great public works so to speak, to regain full employment. If a black swan event hit our lives tomorrow, like ATM's not dispensing cash, we have to ask ourselves what are the essentials that we need, that should be decoupled from needing cash to provide them. My answer would be,
A) Food
B) Water
C) Home Energy
Outside of them we do not need anything else in an emergency. Sure, individuals need medicines etc. but the typical person just needs those 3 things as basic necessities. Build those into our lives and provide them free to people. Yes free, but free as in we do not need cash to obtain them. This gives a huge baseline of security in our lives. Remember as consumers we have come from using pen and paper 50 years ago to nano technology today. Yet we still live in a society where even the basics can only be obtained by having this so called precious resource called money.
A) Build local community permaculture and aqua phonics solutions (high yield providers of quality organic food from small footprints) to provide food at a community level of 200 people or so. Let a few people work there and their "wages" paid from a mutual credit system with their neighbours, i.e. a sharing of services and resources. Alternatively, all adults could donate 2-3 hours per week to help cultivate food and therefore not need to purchase it with cash. This is very practical, even in cities.
B) Build water infrastructure. Scrap plans to introduce water charges (more taxes = longer working life = needing more cash) and to pump water from the Shannon to Dublin(madness!). Instead employ thousands of unemployed construction workers to install rainwater harvesting devices from roofs, to capture brown water. Also drill wells in housing estates etc. to always ensure fresh water is available, again without needing ongoing cash or taxes to purchase.
C) Energy. Example: Build something like Spirit of Ireland project as a national project. Do not let CRH or private companies profit from it. Nationalise untapped quarries etc. and create concrete at cost. Build the wind turbines in Ireland, but again not in private hands. This renewable project could be achieved at a cost of circa 10billion, providing free electricity for ever more to Irish people. Why Not? (Of course any consumption over an agreed standard would have to be paid for in some way).
If every citizen of this country had the security above it would mean that over 50% of pensioners and unemployed peoples welfare cheques could be met FREE from cash needs. That means we now don't need to pay them as much cash, something that is devaluing by the minute anyway. We could potentially save 10 billion per year on our welfare bill of 20 billion. Similarly a percentage in the public sector would not choose to work 40 hours per week if they had security like above. Hence we would also see a massive saving in annual public sector wage bills.
So for a modest outlay as a percentage of our current public expenditure we could secure all the people of Ireland with a massive public works scheme to give free energy, water and food into perpetuity. TAKING the power away from cash and putting real security into people’s hands. Diversifying from those rotten spuds!
Solution 3:
As mentioned let government issue its own money. It could greatly reduce, if not eliminate, income tax, vat etc... by choosing to charge interest on the money it sells to its citizens. Alternatively, it could keep some taxes and decide to issue money free from interest payable. There are so many options here as unnecessary government debt to outsiders (private central banks) will be eliminated.
Solution 4:
People can explore the infinite potential of mutual credit systems once they know they have food , water and energy security. Their work lives will greatly reduce in formal taxable employment but will greatly increase in supporting each other in the local community. e.g. plumber fixing a heating system for an accountant (one guys account credits, one guys debits, with no cash transactions) , who then both go and trade elsewhere. An infinite loop of work, services and goods that can circulate free from the need to obtain cash to partake.
____________
Of course the big question is what of the current debt legacy. Well as mentioned this is mainly owed to private individuals in central banks. They have got enough to date over the centuries. Their time is up. All interest should be cancelled on debt and a VERY hard deal done on the principal in our new currency. As for all the private pension funds etc. that are invested in government/bank debt, well some of that commitment should also be transferred into our new national currency, but again if we provide real solutions like the infrastructure above these future retirement funds will not be needed as much as before. Therefore people will accept a hit knowing life is becoming more secure.
As for mortgage debt, well again it should be transferred into the new currency but free of interest, and made payable to our government, possibly in lieu of taxes. Again there are many creative options available to us.
There is an infinite supply of goods, services and work needing to be completed in this world. What is in restriction is man made currencies. We need to completely change the game. Money should not restrict our lives. It is simply a logistical problem that could get addressed in a matter of months. We are meant to live in abundance, not restriction. Money is not our God, we simply have allowed a few people to convince us that it is.
As for the argument that we cannot possibly issue our own currency to clear our debts, as it will lead to hyper-inflation etc. Well that would be true if we allowed our private central bank to do so. You see it is not the printing of money that creates hyper inflation. It is when the banks use that new surge of money to then leverage out even more debt to society that causes the inflation. Remember they roughly loan out at least ten times the money then have on deposit. Once a careful management of the control of new government money ensues, as in money created by government has to be used to build national infrastructure like above and pay wages etc. then we will not see hyper inflation by clearing our debts and resetting our economy on to a truly sustainable footing.
Our current plans for a smart economy in this country require others to get in debt elsewhere, i.e. we wish to become leaders in technology etc., but for that to happen we need consumers elsewhere. Those consumers will have to work ever harder to purchase our products. Remember we are facing a population peak, hence IT IS NOT smart to build our future economic prosperity on consumption industries. What is a smart economy though is one that meets the basic needs of its people in perpetuity, free from the unsustainable need to obtain ever more deflating cash resources. We can have that with simple project management and planning.
Now for the crux. No politician or current institution will do this for us. The only ones who can force this change are us ourselves. That is our challenge. To realise we are the ones we have been waiting for. The question is will we realise it. Grass root movements have to start, to force the change. Mutual credit systems are ideal in that case, as they require no outside forces to set up. Just people helping people. In time this grass root movement will awaken those in power to what a real economy should be and do.
I have often wondered why the people of Ireland didn't take to small punts to land fish in the time of the famine, especially those around the coast. I now believe it was because they were so emasculated by the system of tenancy, single crop dependency, competition amongst each other etc. , that they failed to make the small changes to help themselves. Then all of a sudden it was too late. We are not in the time of the famine, but the circumstances do resonate. A political and social discourse that is totally self defeating and seeking villains. We are emasculated all over again. It's time to get to work, before it's too late. What if that ATM fails to dispense cash. It nearly happened in September '08. Could it happen again? One may not agree with my ideas on project management if it did happen. But pretty soon we all could be challenged and faced with the opportunity to think up and implement our own ideas. It really is that exciting, exhilarating and scary all at once. Yeah but the destination is sooo worth it - A reclaiming of true individual and community sovereignty, with more security and freedom thrown in.
p.s. There is a precedent for what I discuss. Canada is probably the only Western country that had a public central bank in recent times, namely 1935-74. They were so sick of the carnage post the '29 crash that they booted out the bankers and issued their own money, free from interest. For the next forty years the national debt flat lined at 18billion (this was a legacy debt) , public works soared, there was no visible poverty and there was a huge sense of social cohesion. Then in '74 the bankers wormed their way back in. Debt in Canada is now at 550 billion over a similar period of time, i.e. approx. 40 years. That shows the carnage of debt accumulation when private central banks run the world.
p.p.s. We only looked at the main crime of not creating interest on loans in our analysis of central banks. The even more potent crime is fractional reserve banking in itself, i.e. creating money that one doesn't have. In essence banks can create anything up to 20 times the deposits they have in their enterprise. This is morally unacceptable and once again has just been accepted as a part of modern economics. In essence this is fraud, but unless our legislators act on this it will continue. There are so many viable and just "outs" from the toxic economic models that run our world. We need to start taking them, to free the peoples of the world.
Barry Fitzgerald
Author of "Building Cities of Gold"
Available Now From Amazon
(Paperback or Kindle)
http://tinyurl.com/22t3mkc
Publishing house: ATTM Press.
http://www.allthingsthatmatterpress.com/buynow.htm
Sunday, February 13, 2011
False and Farcical DEBT - We can be free, NOW!
Until governments reclaim the right to issue their own monies this banking and personal economic crisis will continue and just get worse. After all, economies or lives cannot run on debt. Usury or the application of interest on borrowed money is the single greatest malevolence in our world. It only works when the population is rapidly expanding, as during the 20th century. Now that the rate of population growth starts to slow down, the traditional deflation of debt will not hold true, as before. In simple terms there will never be enough working people to pay off all the debt.
This debt serves no useful purpose in society, save for lining the pockets of all the privately owned central banks of the world. Yes, privately owned! We do not coin our monies as nations, they are not backed to any real assets anymore (like Gold or Silver) and it is all a scam. Our debts are not real. The banks (central banks) know this; they are terrified of the day we will learn it and act on it, en masse. Thankfully that day is coming, across the world. In the meantime stand together, stand firm and do not let your neighbours suffer unnecessarily. Nobody should lose a home in this crisis, nor should it be tolerated in civil society, in any country, around the world.
Individuals created all of our home mortgages somewhere on a computer screen. Literally they were created out of thin air. These private institutions will end up getting close to 100% profit over and above the principal mortgage loans just to do that ONE transaction. Our governments allow this farce to happen. They could have issued our mortgages at 0% interest. We would be freer, happier and have shorter working lives. You never know there may even then be enough work to go around, for one and for all. That just looks at household debt. The same could be said for business debt, government debt etc. Hear the words of a very courageous man on this topic, for it is not a recent phenomenon.
“The Government should create, issue, and circulate all the currency and credits needed to satisfy the spending power of the Government and the buying power of consumers. By the adoption of these principles, the taxpayers will be saved immense sums of interest. Money will cease to be master and become the servant of humanity.”
- Abraham Lincoln
Or another
This debt serves no useful purpose in society, save for lining the pockets of all the privately owned central banks of the world. Yes, privately owned! We do not coin our monies as nations, they are not backed to any real assets anymore (like Gold or Silver) and it is all a scam. Our debts are not real. The banks (central banks) know this; they are terrified of the day we will learn it and act on it, en masse. Thankfully that day is coming, across the world. In the meantime stand together, stand firm and do not let your neighbours suffer unnecessarily. Nobody should lose a home in this crisis, nor should it be tolerated in civil society, in any country, around the world.
Individuals created all of our home mortgages somewhere on a computer screen. Literally they were created out of thin air. These private institutions will end up getting close to 100% profit over and above the principal mortgage loans just to do that ONE transaction. Our governments allow this farce to happen. They could have issued our mortgages at 0% interest. We would be freer, happier and have shorter working lives. You never know there may even then be enough work to go around, for one and for all. That just looks at household debt. The same could be said for business debt, government debt etc. Hear the words of a very courageous man on this topic, for it is not a recent phenomenon.
“The Government should create, issue, and circulate all the currency and credits needed to satisfy the spending power of the Government and the buying power of consumers. By the adoption of these principles, the taxpayers will be saved immense sums of interest. Money will cease to be master and become the servant of humanity.”
- Abraham Lincoln
Or another
“I believe that banking institutions are more dangerous to our liberties than standing armies.” – Thomas Jefferson
… The modern theory of the perpetuation of debt has drenched the earth with blood, and crushed its inhabitants under burdens ever accumulating. -Thomas Jefferson
If the American people ever allow private banks to control the issue of their currency, first by inflation, then by deflation, the banks…will deprive the people of all property until their children wake-up homeless on the continent their fathers conquered…. The issuing power should be taken from the banks and restored to the people, to whom it properly belongs. – Thomas Jefferson in the debate over the Re-charter of the Bank Bill (1809)
Or another
History records that the money changers have used every form of abuse, intrigue, deceit, and violent means possible to maintain their control over governments by controlling money and its issuance. -James Madison
Or another
“It is well enough that people of the nation do not understand our banking and money system, for if they did, I believe there would be a revolution before tomorrow morning.” Henry Ford, founder of the Ford Motor Company.
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First we have to believe we can have a better system, then one day soon we will, because nothing can beat the empowering evolution of mass consciousness. It is too powerful a force to control.
P.S.
If we had dug up all the fertile soil on the earth, or if we had poisoned every last drop of fresh water, or if our sun threatened to not rise, then and only then would we have real debts. When we owe pieces of paper to handfuls of men we do not have debts; we have the illusion of debt. We are like the caged birds who fail to see the latch has been lifted on the door. Our earth provides for all our needs, always has, always will, we just repeatedly fail to see how to distribute the bounty.
Barry Fitzgerald
Author of "Building Cities of Gold"
Buy Now From Amazon
(Paperback or Kindle)
http://tinyurl.com/22t3mkc
Publishing house: ATTM Press.
http://www.allthingsthatmatterpress.com/buynow.htm
Tuesday, December 14, 2010
Public Debt - What a Whizz!
USA public debt rises by 1 Million Dollars every 18.5 seconds.
That's 4.6 Billion dollars per day!!!
The average US citizen owes circa $44,750 and incredibly this debt is
rising by circa $3,000 per year!
That’s before they even begin to plan their own personal finances.
****************************************
UK debt rises by 1 Million pounds every 6.5 minutes.
That’s 221 Million pounds per day!!!
The average UK citizen owes circa 14,500 pounds and incredibly this debt is
rising by circa 1,000 pounds per year!
That’s before they even begin to plan their own personal finances.
****************************************
Global outstanding public debt is circa 40.66 trillion dollars.
That’s $5,930 per person in the world. Considering half of the world's population live on less than $1,000 per year, it shows that that half would need to give all of their cash for 6 years to pay off their share of the debt, debt that they most likely never profited from in anyway.
****************************************
We are an evolving and advanced species and yet we see nothing wrong with any of the above. Having huge outstanding public debt means we are constantly paying off excessive loans and interest. There is not, nor will there ever be, a population level capable of ever paying off these debt levels. It is a virus that grows and grows.
Inefficient governments and credit pushing bond dealers are priming this debt spiral. But there are only part of the problem. The real problem of course is those who issue and validate these monies. For hundreds of years we have allowed private central banking institutions issue and control our public money. They are free to set punative interest rates and cream vast profits off the public purse. The inability of governments’ world wide to set their own fiscal policies by
issuing their own money and setting their own interest rates has led to the intolerable situation as above. None of the real problems of the world, like poverty and/or poor public infrastructure will ever get tackled effectively as long as we allow this position to continue. No private banking institutes should have ever gotten their tentacles into public expenditure. It is time to root them out.
Canada is a great example.
From 1935-1974 Canada as a nation state managed the issuing of its own monies and setting
of its own interest rates. This process started in '35 to drag them out of the great depression. During the subsequent 40 year period Canadian debt flat lined, at approximately 18billion dollars. Many great public projects were undertaken during that time, like the repatriation to the workplace of thousands of WWII veterans and the building of the great cross country railways. However the public debt stayed on a steady flat line. Why? Because no private greedy mitts had their hand at the tiller. It serves no purpose to charge yourself high interest rates and crucify your peoples. Many who lived their adult lives throughout this time spoke of a sense of social cohesion and a lack of visible poverty. Post 1974, due to significant lobbying from the banking industry, Canada ceded control to the private bankers. Its public debt acquired an exponential curve ever since then. It now stands at 544 billion Canadian dollars!!!!! (That's right, 18 to 544 in 36 years).
It has been estimated that roughly 10% of that bill is actual spending that the state has undertaken, while the other 90% is compounded interest, amassed through the recent years.
And so we come back to the 40trillion world wide figure above. How much of that is real spending? How much is just compounded interest? Interest on interest on interest ad infinitum for the past few hundred years. We owe this money to private banks. Private individuals profit from the payment of these debts. These debts serve no other purpose in society. If we took the Canadian figures above we could guess we may actually only owe 4 trillion, as opposed to 40 trillion.
It really is as simple as declaring a large portion of this debt null and void, then moving on with reset currencies and a more inclusive and socially responsible method of controlling public finances. Political courage would fix this problem in a really short space of time; however intense lobbying and false and fearful propaganda is keeping the old dysfunctional ways in situ.
DEBT (of this kind) - Debilitating Emasculating Bespoke Tyranny
Barry Fitzgerald
Author of "Building Cities of Gold"
Buy Now From Amazon
(Paperback or Kindle)
http://tinyurl.com/22t3mkc
Publishing house: ATTM Press.
http://www.allthingsthatmatterpress.com/buynow.htm
Monday, December 6, 2010
The Farce - Act I, Scene (God only knows)
A report has highlighted how respectable and solid investment funds from the pension and insurance industries are planning to take the Irish government to court, to seek a reversal on, or even damages for, the governments decision to deeply discount the payments to these funds on sub-ordinated bonds in Irish banks.
We all know by now the crazy situation where our government had agreed to honour all senior bondholders in the Irish banks, but thankfully they have at least decided to not honour 100% of the monies invested by junior debt holders, or those sub-ordinated bondholders from above. Usually these bondholders would slink off into the night licking their wounds, recouping their energies, to proceed onto newer markets. But, considering the ineptitude and naivety of our ruling class in Ireland, they figure in this instance they may negotiate higher remittances, especially with the threat of court cases against the government.
All of this again beautifully highlights our dysfunctional modern relationship with money. If these guys had slinked off, we would never think about them and what they represent in our lives. By speaking up and demanding more they have shone a light on themselves.
We are told they are from trusted and respectable industries like the insurance and pension funds. Obviously commentators think that means we are to treat them better than rich private investors or vulture funds. However they only have money because we, the individuals who make up society, give them money. By investing in our future security, as the pensions and insurance industries promise us, we allow these companies amass massive funds that are then often invested in the bond market to generate vast profits for these companies. Our future security is drawn down when we need an insurance claim or when we retire, monies that are only a fraction of that generated by these companies on their investments in the long term.
As we all know by now the bond market is the main funding vehicle for our countries. Any revenue that is needed over and above taxation from the people is raised in the bond markets. So on one side we have investors needing somewhere to invest, i.e. pension and insurance companies seeking reliable, yet profitable investment opportunities. On the other side we have governments, mainly inefficient and inept, who repeatedly run their economies in deficit and so constantly need extra funding. So as well as paying individual taxation to run a country, our invested monies are also feeding back into our countries to meet the spending shortfalls.
Try explaining that to a six year old. I’m sure they would tell you it is madness. A circulation of money, your money, that is feeding two addictions. The addictions of the investors for fat returns and the addictions of our governance for access to easy credit. Now we can waste vast amounts of energy bemoaning morally bankrupt financial types or we can spew our venom at Muppet politicians but, and here is the crux of it, NOTHING will change. Nothing will change. Let it sink in. Nothing will change. Why? Because whatever legislation is passed to curb the tendencies of those trading in bonds and markets will always be bypassed and superseded eventually. Also no matter how much governance bleats on about change and root and branch reforms, the old inefficient ways will always kick back in.
Surely then we should despair. Throw our hands in the air. Well no we shouldn't, because there is an answer. I am sure too that the six year old would tell us how. STOP giving away our money to these industries. The promise of your future security is being used to trap you into committing your hard earned money. There is another way. Retain your money in your life today, use it to build real security and then you will not need to draw down cash at a later stage of your life. Form local community insurance models that create jobs and build real life enhancing infrastructure to provide services like ongoing free energy. These projects have the added benefit of building strong local communities.
Only when we stop priming these companies with our cash will they start to shrink in size and subsequently start to have less cash available to loan out to governments. Only then will huge profits and bonuses that attract risk takers, stop being paid. More importantly if the cash source is gone only then will our governance learn to balance their budgets and live within their means. You guessed it, only then do they become efficient. That is real effective change.
I’m sure our six year old would also question why it is considered totally acceptable for any Euro zone state to post a budget deficit year on year of 3%, and receive kudos for this. 3% of the Euro zone GDP equals the economy of Austria or Greece for one whole year. So every year the Euro zone is building up debts equal to one of the large countries above. I’m sure he/she would say, "But how do you spend money all the time that you don’t have". Exactly how do you?
It’s not like a huge population spike is coming down the tracks to pay it off. It's accepted and endorsed because it is feeding the two addictions. The only problem then is we, the bill payers, have to run faster and faster on the treadmill to meet these voracious addictions; longer working weeks, longer working lives, more taxes, higher premiums to offset risky losses etc.. etc..
p.s. If they are so respectable what are they doing investing in higher risk sub-ordinated debt? Higher returns in good times, thats why.
We all know by now the crazy situation where our government had agreed to honour all senior bondholders in the Irish banks, but thankfully they have at least decided to not honour 100% of the monies invested by junior debt holders, or those sub-ordinated bondholders from above. Usually these bondholders would slink off into the night licking their wounds, recouping their energies, to proceed onto newer markets. But, considering the ineptitude and naivety of our ruling class in Ireland, they figure in this instance they may negotiate higher remittances, especially with the threat of court cases against the government.
All of this again beautifully highlights our dysfunctional modern relationship with money. If these guys had slinked off, we would never think about them and what they represent in our lives. By speaking up and demanding more they have shone a light on themselves.
We are told they are from trusted and respectable industries like the insurance and pension funds. Obviously commentators think that means we are to treat them better than rich private investors or vulture funds. However they only have money because we, the individuals who make up society, give them money. By investing in our future security, as the pensions and insurance industries promise us, we allow these companies amass massive funds that are then often invested in the bond market to generate vast profits for these companies. Our future security is drawn down when we need an insurance claim or when we retire, monies that are only a fraction of that generated by these companies on their investments in the long term.
As we all know by now the bond market is the main funding vehicle for our countries. Any revenue that is needed over and above taxation from the people is raised in the bond markets. So on one side we have investors needing somewhere to invest, i.e. pension and insurance companies seeking reliable, yet profitable investment opportunities. On the other side we have governments, mainly inefficient and inept, who repeatedly run their economies in deficit and so constantly need extra funding. So as well as paying individual taxation to run a country, our invested monies are also feeding back into our countries to meet the spending shortfalls.
Try explaining that to a six year old. I’m sure they would tell you it is madness. A circulation of money, your money, that is feeding two addictions. The addictions of the investors for fat returns and the addictions of our governance for access to easy credit. Now we can waste vast amounts of energy bemoaning morally bankrupt financial types or we can spew our venom at Muppet politicians but, and here is the crux of it, NOTHING will change. Nothing will change. Let it sink in. Nothing will change. Why? Because whatever legislation is passed to curb the tendencies of those trading in bonds and markets will always be bypassed and superseded eventually. Also no matter how much governance bleats on about change and root and branch reforms, the old inefficient ways will always kick back in.
Surely then we should despair. Throw our hands in the air. Well no we shouldn't, because there is an answer. I am sure too that the six year old would tell us how. STOP giving away our money to these industries. The promise of your future security is being used to trap you into committing your hard earned money. There is another way. Retain your money in your life today, use it to build real security and then you will not need to draw down cash at a later stage of your life. Form local community insurance models that create jobs and build real life enhancing infrastructure to provide services like ongoing free energy. These projects have the added benefit of building strong local communities.
Only when we stop priming these companies with our cash will they start to shrink in size and subsequently start to have less cash available to loan out to governments. Only then will huge profits and bonuses that attract risk takers, stop being paid. More importantly if the cash source is gone only then will our governance learn to balance their budgets and live within their means. You guessed it, only then do they become efficient. That is real effective change.
I’m sure our six year old would also question why it is considered totally acceptable for any Euro zone state to post a budget deficit year on year of 3%, and receive kudos for this. 3% of the Euro zone GDP equals the economy of Austria or Greece for one whole year. So every year the Euro zone is building up debts equal to one of the large countries above. I’m sure he/she would say, "But how do you spend money all the time that you don’t have". Exactly how do you?
It’s not like a huge population spike is coming down the tracks to pay it off. It's accepted and endorsed because it is feeding the two addictions. The only problem then is we, the bill payers, have to run faster and faster on the treadmill to meet these voracious addictions; longer working weeks, longer working lives, more taxes, higher premiums to offset risky losses etc.. etc..
p.s. If they are so respectable what are they doing investing in higher risk sub-ordinated debt? Higher returns in good times, thats why.
Wednesday, November 24, 2010
The folly of the Euro masters defies belief !
History tells us that the monks of Ireland held steady during the dark ages. As Europe lay in the grips of fear, terror and repression after the fall of the Roman Empire, the Irish maintained their heads and subsequently proceeded to spread education and reason back across the continent over the ensuing decades and centuries. I believe our little island is about to inherit/assume another important role, albeit reluctantly, in the evolution of our collective societies.
Are we as a nation in the middle of a huge second Karmic role, giving us far more influence internationally than our small population should hold? After all we are being used as an experiment in crazy fiscal policy. We are being drowned in public debt, as much as 250billion, or roughly 60,000 per head of population. That's right, even the newly born owe that amount of money! Now Ireland hasn't suddenly lost lots of land or seen its natural resources decimated in anyway. Far from it, the sun still rises and night follows day. In fact we are having a beautiful winter to date. So the natural rhythm of our lives is still the same, as in mother earth continues to provide for us, but somewhere along the line we have been shafted with obscene levels of human financial debt.
Our European masters/bond holders have ensured we are going to fail and default, by allowing a small number of people build up this level of debt and then forcing of all of us to pay for it. The need for higher and higher premiums and more and more security to bond holders has meant that we in Ireland cannot hope to pay our debts as a nation. They are just far too excessive. By forcing us to assume this debt, they have inadvertently signed their own economic death warrants. The Euro itself, it seems, could potentially fail.
But this catastrophe may have some hidden upsides for us in Ireland. I believe we are going to be one of the first to truly highlight the dysfunctional relationship humans have with money and debt. If we are smart we can then use this opportunity to come up with some sensible alternative paths. Europe has set us up to be the teachers of this great lesson. There is nothing to do now but hold our heads, and take on the role that has been thrust upon us.
______
Our fundamental relationship with money and debt is highly dysfunctional. Our basic needs (food/water/home energy) are tied into the requirement that money is needed to obtain them. That means we can never achieve security as we always need cash remittances from somewhere (work/welfare/pensions), to even access the basics. Hence, when we have a black swan event, like September 2008, when ATMs came perilously close to not dispensing money, then we have no recourse for the most basic items as listed above. If we do not have cash, we do not eat or power our homes. That has become pretty much a universal constant, this over reliance on money. It has led to the complete emasculation of our populations.
We in Ireland are now saddled with the obscene levels of debt outlined above. However in the paying of it we will get no security. It doesn’t put food on tables or electricity into a home. All it does is sate the needs of investors. But those self same investors are us, ourselves!!! Bond holders are us; in the form of pension funds, insurance companies and private/public corporations. We invest in the market economy to provide us with future security. Hence we expect a return at a future date, as in a pension policy that allows us retire. Bond markets simply administrate that money for us. So we see the farcical situation where bond traders/holders across Europe are bringing down countries based on fears of default on investments. What we as individuals fail to see is that these bond traders are using our money to screw us! The promise of your future security is being used to penalise you today.
The double irony is that when you do receive your future remittances, by yielding cash back from pensions or investments etc., then it still does not give you security. You are still relying on these paper notes to fund your lifestyle; down to obtaining even the very basics of water, food and home energy.
If it was the year 1910 I would be more confident in our ability to pay off these percentage levels of debt. After all the worldwide population, of 1.75 billion in 1910, will increase 6 fold up to 2070, when the worldwide population will peak at 10 billion. However in 2010 the worldwide population is already 7 billion and is set to only expand by less than 50% up to the population peak in fifty years or so. Therefore the customary deflation of debt is going to be far less effective going forward. Our market economies need population growth to survive, not to mind thrive. Population growth is a finite commodity; therefore dependence on it is highly dangerous and in fact poses the greatest threat of all to our future security. So it is easy enough to see Ireland will not be able to deflate its debt mountain through dramatic population increases.
So it seems inevitable that we are heading for a default at some point in the future. How scary is that vista? All commentators tell us it is not possible to even contemplate such an action, based on the market retribution and subsequent treatment of us as a nation. But what it really means is that ultimately your present self will default on your future self! In real terms that is what is happening. So what should be our answer? Big Deal. Our future self will get over it. I’m sure they will make up in time.
We have also outlined how we don’t actually get any true security from those invested monies anyway. So why fret so much if we don’t pay off others foolishly gained debts. As shown our current model of a market economy is going to really crash at some future point, as long as we blindly follow the need for population growth dependency. So as long as we continue to pay back debt to our future selves and allow young pups to trade bonds like drunken brats at roulette tables, then we are just delaying an inevitable future guaranteed mega crash. What we need is to decouple from this market economy madness.
Why not draw a line in the sand and decide to make security of resources the new mantra to run our economies. If every citizen is guaranteed that they can access fresh food, clean water and home energy as a basic human right, without the need for cash to purchase these items, then we have provided security to our people. Then cash has far less power over our lives, we get to work less crazy hours and we do not need to invest all of our money into the market economy, in the fingers crossed hope of attaining future security. We can get basic security today and into the future.
How do we get these items in our lives without needing money to purchase them on an ongoing basis? Divert the money we normally put into pensions and other investments and use it to purchase local infrastructure like community energy generation (wind turbines/solar panels), permaculture and local community fruit/vegetable/meat production and local water generation (well drilling for clean water/rain water collection and harvesting devices for brown water).
In real terms just a fraction of our new national debt of 250billion would provide food, water and energy for all the households of Ireland in perpetuity, free from cash needs. I roughly estimate around 50 billion would meet all of these needs in perpetuity (approx. 30,000 per household). - (money sunk into Anglo plus Pension reserve fund equals 50billion!!). Therefore one fifth of our new national debt used in such a proactive way would mean we do not need money to buy food, provide water and power our homes. If we diverted that money into these projects, achieving that goal over a period of 5-10 years, then we are providing an invaluable service to our future selves. Our older self will now not need these monies so much as they will now have the basics guaranteed in life, thereby greatly reducing the need for pensions. Instead of thinking we are delinquents our older selves will think we are geniuses. A new, leaner and less voracious market economy can then build on these strong foundations of individual security.
Therefore it is not a disgraceful act to default on debt. What is disgraceful is to default and to continue running an economy in the same way. Default and build real security with a fraction of that money and you are suddenly a pioneer in designing true sustainable economic policy.
We have been thrust into the role of a future villain. Our hands are tied. We are going to default. How we react will be our greatest test. At the very least we are going to highlight how all western nations have built up too much debt. If we really want to spread the light like our forefathers did, then we will use the opportunity to get smart and divert the debt into building true security. It will finally free us from population growth dependency and show how humans can get a healthy relationship with resources and money. We were never meant to live in debt, as it is not natural law. Debt only works with rapidly increasing population levels, which as we know are going to stop soon.
The earth provides for all of our needs, always has, always will. We have never been smart enough to divvy them up fairly, to gain true security. This debt noose around our necks has given us the greatest opportunity in our history. We truly could be pioneers and gain a similar place in history that our monks of old attained.
So to our Euro masters implementing their foolish experiment I say, let it commence. Your foolishness will tear down the old dysfunctional ways and bring everyone with it. Have no doubt though that fresh healthy roots will flourish. The human is too ingenious a beast to allow anything else but rebirth to take hold.
p.s. Already we have to be grateful to bond traders. This crisis has highlighted how much power we have given you guys. The average Joe and Josephine is starting to see how much fat and cream you take off the top. A light has been shone on your lifestyles. That can only mean one thing. We are not going to accept it long term. We are going to start meeting our needs in our lifetimes, free from debt. No longer will the trading of debt allow you to grow fat. Stock up on the fast cars and champagne, while it's going.
Barry Fitzgerald
Author of "Building Cities of Gold"
Buy Now From Amazon
(Paperback or Kindle)
http://tinyurl.com/22t3mkc
Publishing house: ATTM Press.
http://www.allthingsthatmatterpress.com/buynow.htm
Are we as a nation in the middle of a huge second Karmic role, giving us far more influence internationally than our small population should hold? After all we are being used as an experiment in crazy fiscal policy. We are being drowned in public debt, as much as 250billion, or roughly 60,000 per head of population. That's right, even the newly born owe that amount of money! Now Ireland hasn't suddenly lost lots of land or seen its natural resources decimated in anyway. Far from it, the sun still rises and night follows day. In fact we are having a beautiful winter to date. So the natural rhythm of our lives is still the same, as in mother earth continues to provide for us, but somewhere along the line we have been shafted with obscene levels of human financial debt.
Our European masters/bond holders have ensured we are going to fail and default, by allowing a small number of people build up this level of debt and then forcing of all of us to pay for it. The need for higher and higher premiums and more and more security to bond holders has meant that we in Ireland cannot hope to pay our debts as a nation. They are just far too excessive. By forcing us to assume this debt, they have inadvertently signed their own economic death warrants. The Euro itself, it seems, could potentially fail.
But this catastrophe may have some hidden upsides for us in Ireland. I believe we are going to be one of the first to truly highlight the dysfunctional relationship humans have with money and debt. If we are smart we can then use this opportunity to come up with some sensible alternative paths. Europe has set us up to be the teachers of this great lesson. There is nothing to do now but hold our heads, and take on the role that has been thrust upon us.
______
Our fundamental relationship with money and debt is highly dysfunctional. Our basic needs (food/water/home energy) are tied into the requirement that money is needed to obtain them. That means we can never achieve security as we always need cash remittances from somewhere (work/welfare/pensions), to even access the basics. Hence, when we have a black swan event, like September 2008, when ATMs came perilously close to not dispensing money, then we have no recourse for the most basic items as listed above. If we do not have cash, we do not eat or power our homes. That has become pretty much a universal constant, this over reliance on money. It has led to the complete emasculation of our populations.
We in Ireland are now saddled with the obscene levels of debt outlined above. However in the paying of it we will get no security. It doesn’t put food on tables or electricity into a home. All it does is sate the needs of investors. But those self same investors are us, ourselves!!! Bond holders are us; in the form of pension funds, insurance companies and private/public corporations. We invest in the market economy to provide us with future security. Hence we expect a return at a future date, as in a pension policy that allows us retire. Bond markets simply administrate that money for us. So we see the farcical situation where bond traders/holders across Europe are bringing down countries based on fears of default on investments. What we as individuals fail to see is that these bond traders are using our money to screw us! The promise of your future security is being used to penalise you today.
The double irony is that when you do receive your future remittances, by yielding cash back from pensions or investments etc., then it still does not give you security. You are still relying on these paper notes to fund your lifestyle; down to obtaining even the very basics of water, food and home energy.
If it was the year 1910 I would be more confident in our ability to pay off these percentage levels of debt. After all the worldwide population, of 1.75 billion in 1910, will increase 6 fold up to 2070, when the worldwide population will peak at 10 billion. However in 2010 the worldwide population is already 7 billion and is set to only expand by less than 50% up to the population peak in fifty years or so. Therefore the customary deflation of debt is going to be far less effective going forward. Our market economies need population growth to survive, not to mind thrive. Population growth is a finite commodity; therefore dependence on it is highly dangerous and in fact poses the greatest threat of all to our future security. So it is easy enough to see Ireland will not be able to deflate its debt mountain through dramatic population increases.
So it seems inevitable that we are heading for a default at some point in the future. How scary is that vista? All commentators tell us it is not possible to even contemplate such an action, based on the market retribution and subsequent treatment of us as a nation. But what it really means is that ultimately your present self will default on your future self! In real terms that is what is happening. So what should be our answer? Big Deal. Our future self will get over it. I’m sure they will make up in time.
We have also outlined how we don’t actually get any true security from those invested monies anyway. So why fret so much if we don’t pay off others foolishly gained debts. As shown our current model of a market economy is going to really crash at some future point, as long as we blindly follow the need for population growth dependency. So as long as we continue to pay back debt to our future selves and allow young pups to trade bonds like drunken brats at roulette tables, then we are just delaying an inevitable future guaranteed mega crash. What we need is to decouple from this market economy madness.
Why not draw a line in the sand and decide to make security of resources the new mantra to run our economies. If every citizen is guaranteed that they can access fresh food, clean water and home energy as a basic human right, without the need for cash to purchase these items, then we have provided security to our people. Then cash has far less power over our lives, we get to work less crazy hours and we do not need to invest all of our money into the market economy, in the fingers crossed hope of attaining future security. We can get basic security today and into the future.
How do we get these items in our lives without needing money to purchase them on an ongoing basis? Divert the money we normally put into pensions and other investments and use it to purchase local infrastructure like community energy generation (wind turbines/solar panels), permaculture and local community fruit/vegetable/meat production and local water generation (well drilling for clean water/rain water collection and harvesting devices for brown water).
In real terms just a fraction of our new national debt of 250billion would provide food, water and energy for all the households of Ireland in perpetuity, free from cash needs. I roughly estimate around 50 billion would meet all of these needs in perpetuity (approx. 30,000 per household). - (money sunk into Anglo plus Pension reserve fund equals 50billion!!). Therefore one fifth of our new national debt used in such a proactive way would mean we do not need money to buy food, provide water and power our homes. If we diverted that money into these projects, achieving that goal over a period of 5-10 years, then we are providing an invaluable service to our future selves. Our older self will now not need these monies so much as they will now have the basics guaranteed in life, thereby greatly reducing the need for pensions. Instead of thinking we are delinquents our older selves will think we are geniuses. A new, leaner and less voracious market economy can then build on these strong foundations of individual security.
Therefore it is not a disgraceful act to default on debt. What is disgraceful is to default and to continue running an economy in the same way. Default and build real security with a fraction of that money and you are suddenly a pioneer in designing true sustainable economic policy.
We have been thrust into the role of a future villain. Our hands are tied. We are going to default. How we react will be our greatest test. At the very least we are going to highlight how all western nations have built up too much debt. If we really want to spread the light like our forefathers did, then we will use the opportunity to get smart and divert the debt into building true security. It will finally free us from population growth dependency and show how humans can get a healthy relationship with resources and money. We were never meant to live in debt, as it is not natural law. Debt only works with rapidly increasing population levels, which as we know are going to stop soon.
The earth provides for all of our needs, always has, always will. We have never been smart enough to divvy them up fairly, to gain true security. This debt noose around our necks has given us the greatest opportunity in our history. We truly could be pioneers and gain a similar place in history that our monks of old attained.
So to our Euro masters implementing their foolish experiment I say, let it commence. Your foolishness will tear down the old dysfunctional ways and bring everyone with it. Have no doubt though that fresh healthy roots will flourish. The human is too ingenious a beast to allow anything else but rebirth to take hold.
p.s. Already we have to be grateful to bond traders. This crisis has highlighted how much power we have given you guys. The average Joe and Josephine is starting to see how much fat and cream you take off the top. A light has been shone on your lifestyles. That can only mean one thing. We are not going to accept it long term. We are going to start meeting our needs in our lifetimes, free from debt. No longer will the trading of debt allow you to grow fat. Stock up on the fast cars and champagne, while it's going.
Barry Fitzgerald
Author of "Building Cities of Gold"
Buy Now From Amazon
(Paperback or Kindle)
http://tinyurl.com/22t3mkc
Publishing house: ATTM Press.
http://www.allthingsthatmatterpress.com/buynow.htm
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