The money system

[1SimonGarner]

At 50yo I'm only now beginning to look into this subject and I can tell you it's been a massive eye opener. I'm going to put a link below to a Youtube video I watched a few nights ago and I would encourage anyone with a couple of hours to spare to watch it. Maybe people cleverer and better educated than me on here will know a lot of these shocking facts already, I don't mind admitting that I certainly didn't and it really does say an awful lot about how corrupt and unfair the system is.

You're not taught money matters in school for one very good reason, the world needs worker bees to keep the larger economy going, but that larger economy is fighting over minority scraps while the vast majority of the actual wealth is controlled by a very small percentage at the top. This IS something I've always been somewhat aware of, but the methods that are used and the fact it is even legal defies belief.

I don't want to spoil the documentary for anyone interested but the single most amazing thing that I found out is that the big private banks can produce literally as much money as they want - digitally - out of thin air, it has NOTHING to do with mine or your's savings or deposits. With this unlimited ability to make money appear out of nowhere and invest it how they like, do you think they make their decisions for the good of the general economy and population of their countries? Of course they don't, the greedy feckers invest it in areas with the least risk to them and the highest returns.... again all with made up money that is backed by nothing since the world came off the Gold standard in the 70's.

As I say it was a real eye opener for me and maybe for some others. If you've not got time to watch the whole thing then fast forward to 1hr 40 and watch the cartoon sketch at the end, it's absolute comedy gold and had me in stitches.

 

[goozburger.]

I'm not going to look, but I was taught in history class that Henry Ford pioneered hire purchase for the first Ford cars. As with today, very few can afford to buy a car outright with cash. Extend that to things on a smaller scale, such as the latest mobile phones. It's a system that allows people to have what they want today by paying a bit more over time. And, nowadays, I'd argue considerably more over time. A decade ago, one of the clients I worked for had nothing to do with credit. Today, I probably do around three or four things for them per week related to credit promotions. One of the latest examples that made my jaw drop was 39.9% APR available to new credit customers only.

As I've aged, I've tightened up with money. That's probably a natural path for most people who have responsibilities, but I think it's also true that the economy, jobs, and so on, relies on the wider population spending beyond their means to keep it going. While we consider it normal, I can't help but think it's a system that collapses slowly over time. I'm no economist, and while it's perhaps served the world well so far, it always has an underlying feeling of being unsustainable and problems deferred.

Is there an alternative?

 

[1SimonGarner]

100% there's an alternative Goozy and it's already started and will gather pace at a rate over the coming decades. Neither of us will be alive when it takes over the current system completely but there'll certainly be noticeable changes in our lifetimes.

Of course I'm talking about decentalised crypto currencies. If you follow this asset closely you'll know it's a far fairer system than fiat money issued from central banks or digital money plucked from thin air by the private banks. It very much levels the playing field for everyone and will one day take over the monetary system.

At the moment it's still generally something that's making the rich richer but it genuinely has opportunities for everyone. One of my favourite stories regarding this is the Bitcoin pizza bloke, you can google it yourself and read the full story.

In short, in the early days of Bitcoin when it was just looked upon as a crazy fad that would be gone as soon as it came, a normal fella in America using a social media medium of the time (I'm not sure which one it was) put a message up saying that if anyone got a pizza delivered to his house, he'd send them 10,000 bitcoins. Someone took him up on his offer and got the bloke 2 pizza's delivered to his house, about $20, and he duly sent the 10,000 bitcoin. A few years later this fella was interviewed and confessed that he did this on another 8 or 10 occasions around that time to the tune of about 100,000 bitcoins, worth at that time a couple of hundred dollars at most. Fast forward to today and what would those 100,000 coins be worth to him if he'd simply held onto them? Over 4 BILLION dollars!!

He's famous, pizza day is celebrated every year on this day and is seen as the first real world transaction of crypto currency. Nowadays big investors are getting involved, new organisations every year are starting to accept it as payment and it will likely explode over the coming years and decades.

One cautionary note is that, if this system becomes more and more in the main stream and more and more people and business's start to adopt it to the detriment of the greedy banks and the system they dominate today, do you think they'll go down without a fight? Of course they won't, they'll do everything they can to protect their interests and that will probably spark a massive financial war.

It's going to be fascinating to watch and to see if the everyday man can take on the big banks and win.

 

[1SimonGarner]

PS Goozy, you're 100% right that modern economies are totally built of debt, they'd collapse if they weren't or if someone tried to change that within the current system as it stands. People are brain washed to an extent to keep the basics of the economy, like actually producing things, going, so the super rich can profit massively and the rest are left to scrap over the crumbs.

I would say however that the crumbs we're scrapping over in the western world are a lot bigger than the ones the poor sods in the undeveloped world have to. We live like Kings in comparison and we should never forget that or take it for granted. Money in itself is unimportant to me and even the things it can buy, but an unfair system should be something that annoys everyone.

 

[Old Darwen Blue]

Health is far more important than money in my opinion.

 

[Drog]

Both are very welcome companions.

 

[1SimonGarner]

Of course you're correct ODB, it reminds me of a saying I once heard that went something like "the poorest pauper is happier than the sickest King".

 

[Old Darwen Blue]

I like the saying, “ There’s no pockets in a shroud.“