ECONOMICS IS BASED ON FACTS / MONETARY SYSTEMS ARE BASED ON CONFIDENCE

9/16/2008 10:18 A.M. PDT

The economy of the universe is based on discoverable facts and principles. Sunlight is beamed aboard planet earth continuously. It is a direct energy source, supports the growth of plants, powers the wind and rain, lights our way, etc. It is measurable. It is relatively consistent. Don’t know about you, but I’ve never heard a report that the sun coming into view in the morning was dependent on how confident humans were that day.

True, fundamental, cosmic, natural economics is about life support, purely, simply. Humans have chanced upon, and intentionally sought out ways to accelerate nature’s processes. For example, we found out that clearing a field and planting only one type of plant will produce a much higher yield than just finding a random patch of the desired plant; using fertilizer again upped the yield; we developed tools to still further up the yield; etc. All of this is measurable and relatively predictable. Although weather patterns change continuously, it is a fact that as a planet we have been producing enough food to feed everyone, and have been doing it for decades, at least.

Buckminster Fuller identified 7 facets of life support: food; shelter; health care; education; communication; transportation and recreation. Goods and services are produced in these 7 areas by combining materials, time, labor, energy and know-how in measurable amounts. The recipe for building and flying airplanes has no entry titled: confidence. “We have no confidence that the laws of physics are working today, therefore all flights are cancelled” is a laughable idea.

The one true economic system has no requirement for money, exchange rates, credit scores, stocks, deeds, etc., etc. This is all fascinating, stimulating stuff that grabs and holds our attention. They are also un-natural, wasteful impediments to life support.

It is only after we have misunderstood the essential character of economics and have built up complex monetary systems and theories, that are ever changing, that we could be in a position where our life support delivery system could be in so much turmoil in such a short period of time. It’s time to withdraw confidence in all monetary systems, and place confidence where it belongs: in the basic, super-abundant economy of nature, which includes and is augmented by human know-how.

William Daniels

THE TRAGEDY OF MONETARY SYSTEMS

AND THE GOOD NEWS WE’RE MISSING

9/15/2008 9:23 A.M. PDT

The big news today is the bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers and the buyout of Merrill Lynch.Thousands of people will lose their jobs. Markets around the world are in turmoil. The emotional toll is already great. The fear is that things could get worse. And yet the actual cause of the problem is unrecognized and the benefits are difficult to see. This is the greater tragedy.

Human inventors have been working for centuries to develop more and better labor saving products and services. They, we, have been very successful. Isn’t it ironic that we are not laboring less?

The foundational principle of monetary systems (We live in a condition of scarcity) blinds us to the benefits that become available due to our know-how. Know-how allows us to do-more-with-less. In practical terms, everyday reality, this means that it is good news whenever we can lay people off. We don’t need as much labor to produce the same or greater results. We won! We accomplished the result!

Uh-oh, we’ve got to “earn a living”. The good news, that we don’t need all those folks who are losing their jobs, actually looks like bad news. It certainly is bad news for them. They are going to be denied full access to the life support they enjoyed when they were “gainfully employed”. Heaven forbid, that these folks have the same, full access to life support. (Actually we’re doing a great job here, on our own, we don’t require ANY heavenly help.) The potential for these folks to develop even more efficient production and delivery systems to free up (lay off) even more people will be lost. We are still blinded and enslaved by monetary systems with their inaccurate premises.The image of the dog chasing it’s own tail is apt here.

However, all is not lost, Intelligence (love) will win out. Enough people all over the planet are intuitively (lovingly) recognizing, that all of us deserve to prosper. They are freely giving of their resources, time and know-how, so that all of us may benefit. I am optimistic that the incredibly good news that we are mostly unaware of, will get out, we will recognize it, we will simply drop these cumbersome, self defeating monetary systems.

William Daniels