An alternative to bailing out Wall Street

(10:30PM EST – promoted by Nightprowlkitty)

There is another way to solve the banking problem on Wall Street and that is to abolish money as debt. Here is a movie, Money as Debt, from Canadian animator Paul Grignon from 2006. The film is 47 minutes long. Please give it a view.

The film has been around in a shorter form since at least 2002. I think it is important to at least view before we sign $700 billion over to the Wall Street and international banks.

We have a systemically flawed monetary system. We cannot fix the fundamentally flawed system. The fundamentals of the American financial system is a bottomless pit of debt.

Frankly, I think we Americans should nationalize the banks and take away the ability to create money (through debt) from private hands and place in the hands of the people.

Since the banks have proven quite effectively that they are not profitable, we should buy out the banks and convert the American banking system into a not-for-profit service. The U.S. government should lend itself money without interest to create value for the public good such as improving and maintaining the nation’s infrastructure, researching alternative, renewable energy, and protecting the environment.

Money lent to private individuals would have interest with the interest being used to fund other societal needs. If there is, by chance, a surplus, then we could play dividends to citizens.

Why should the U.S. federal government borrow its own money at all? The U.S. does not have a sustainable economic system and since debt = money, we are always at risk to this financial collapse again and again and again.

I believe we should move to a system where money = value.

To do this we first must abolish the private lending system. Banks should no longer be allowed to loan money it does not have.

Then, to replace our current system in the U.S., money would be created and added to the economy by the U.S. government by creating value. Investments made the public good – such as durable infrastructure that helps the economy such as roads and bridges, or climate change / alternative energy research. Value must be placed on things that are priceless too, such as wilderness areas, clean water and clean air.

The key is money is created as value – to pay for something, not as debt. The value is the thing or project the money was spent on.

Inflation becomes a way of taxation. The higher the inflation is the higher the tax rate is in effect. If this isn’t palatable, then to reduce inflation the government taxes at a higher rate and removes the money from the system.

To control deflation, the government would simply create more money by creating more value for the people of this country.

A side benefit of this would be the eventual elimination of U.S. national debt. There would be no federal debt because the government would create the money it needed for its projects.

The key is to eliminate the private banking system – the very same system that wants at least $700 billion of American tax money, which is money as debt, not value.

We need to think outside the bank. The bank is broken. The current financial system is not sustainable. It wasn’t in 1929 it isn’t today. Now is the time we the people take responsibility for the American’s financial future and stop leaving it in the hands of bankers, traders, and money lenders.

11 comments

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    • Magnifico on September 23, 2008 at 09:28
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    We don’t have to run around in a panic and do what the people who got us into this mess want. It’s time to put them out of business once and for all.

  1. defined money as energy credits. A person expends x amount of energy at work, s/he gets x amount of energy credits which can be redeemed for someone else’s energy expenditures. It was a long time ago, and I don’t remember all the details, but it seems there was provisions made for different classes of work, i.e. ditchdiggers and nuclear scientists, but the essense was that “things” had no inherent value, only energy had value. Sort of like one joule equals one cent.

    Of course, imo, this approach, and every other one I have seen that redefines the monetary system are pie in the sky day dreams as the whole world would have to agree and switch over. If the world can’t agree on climate control in order to save the eco-sphere, what are the chances of redefining the monetary systems? Bleak.

  2. I think now is exactly the time to be putting forth these ideas.

    • Robyn on September 23, 2008 at 18:36

    …Terry Pratchett’s Making Money.

  3. Global pirates are running the show and as you say the real economy the one that most people globally live on is busting apart. The trick seems to me to be to get people to stop believing that this funny money is the prize they need and want. To stop believing that greed is good and that they are going to get a slice of this pie. Maybe this ‘crisis’ will open their eyes. This seems to me to be extortion of the worst order. They fleeced people with credit, giving them the illusion of wealth and not offering pay or jobs or any way to pay back or continue this cooked up wealth. The hubris involved while the pyramid is collapsing is breath taking. Extortion added to embezzlement.

    Your idea is a sane one but Americans are too caught up in the concepts of competition (greed) is good, and super size me to be able to see that capitalism run amok and entitlement to a life style is not freedom. Socialism is godless and the natural order of screw or get screwed is just the way it is. Now that we have been fleeced their fear will be misplaced and they will once again empower the philosophies that led us here.We are paying the last of our money to the global pirates. Like Humpty Dumpty the Kings men cannot put this together again. Will we? If we do it will be outside the system as the system is outside our reach.          

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