previous - ideas - further
ID-4-1 Money makes the world go round. January 8th, 1986
Things only happen in the economy because of the way money is
spent.
Most jobs are done simply because someone wants them done and
has the money to pay someone else to do them, for the money.
Many of the people with the most to spend, and therefore with the
greatest influence on what happens, show no particular capacity
to spend with wisdom.
Nobody would consider giving a loaded weapon to a child, and
allowing it to fire wherever it liked.
Yet we daily pass large sums of money into a process that almost
inevitably gives it, and its power, to people who show little
evidence of wisdom.
The catalogue of trivial pursuits is endless and presents a
dismaying picture of our culture.
Consider how many essential projects are shelved because there
are "not sufficient funds" - N.S.F., while various insanities
take place merely because the money is made available.
Those who enjoy Kafka may appreciate the irony of this frantic
dance where the paper matters more than the reality, where things
that need to be done, and could be done, are not done simply for
the lack of pieces of paper.
But none of us can consider ourselves independent of the farce,
while we need money to live, and must dance to the piper's tune.
It is axiomatic that anything which cannot perfectly perform its
function must be judged at least partially inadequate.
The purpose of money is to facilitate trading.
Conventional money fails to connect those who want with those who
want to provide.
That unemployment exists when human needs are unmet is specific
testimony to the inadequacy of conventional money.
Landsman Community Services Ltd. ID-4-1 Page 1
previous - ideas - further