Many accuse our Federal Reserve of issuing money that isn’t worth the paper it is written on, that it has no value, that it isn’t backed by gold anymore – that in essence it is fake, and a the entire system is a giant scam. However, I say that money isn’t fake because it represents a concept – Future Work – and this is why it is valued when borrowed into existence, that future work is worth something to the individuals doing the work or the company doing business to create products.
Now then, that doesn’t mean it isn’t abused by Central Banks around the world or government or incestuous and unscrupulous individuals attempting to hoard and manipulate it. It doesn’t mean that the greedy who get in the way and siphon its flow without doing work or providing value, much like lawyers or government which get in the way of business transactions through unjustified fees, taxes, regulations and laws are not a problem for the system. Any sort of corruption or inefficiencies hurt the system overall, but the concept of the money we use isn’t fake, it represents something very important. And as long as we believe that and have faith in the value of our work or those things we produce the monetary system is healthy.
If you’d like to see a philosophical dark side of greed and corruption of such a system, there is a great Hollywood Movie worth watching: In Time (2011). The IMDb website has the movie trailer you can check out, the synopsis there states:
“In a future where people stop aging at 25, but are engineered to live only one more year, having the means to buy your way out of the situation is a shot at immortal youth. Here, Will Salas finds himself accused of murder and on the run with a hostage – a connection that becomes an important part of the way against the system.”
In fact, I bet you’d like and it is a real mind-screw and gets to the point of the intrinsic value or money based on work. It’s a Science Fiction movie that makes you think.
Of course, today we don’t really use much actual currency and coin, most money is digital, one’s and zero’s and is created by hitting a key board, unfortunately, it can be stolen or hacked away as easy as it was created – worried yet? I am to a small degree, I must confess, as there is no doubt that with the future of Quantum Computing that our digital money, banking system is at risk of a massive meltdown – and you mentioned trust, if people don’t trust it, it’s failed and then all of civilization melts down in about 3-5 days, a couple of weeks at most – scary stuff.
Tearing down the current system to bring forth a new one, will be too much change too quickly for human civilizations to survive, everyone loses, no one wins and 3 Billion people die, not worth the risk of getting rid of money yet. Maybe in 50-100 years, and certainly not until a proven system is there to take its place. If you ask me, I’d say it would be hard to convince anyone in any leadership capacity that now is the time to get rid of money.
First, we have to find a better method, then test it in a small area and then scale up slowly – unless, you start small, show the model to work without outside influence, it isn’t worth the risk. Of course, you prove concept, you move forward from there. So, does this mean Blockchain and Bitcoin are our future? I’ll save that for another article, you have enough to think about after reading this one.
