If you want to get serious about sustainability, the politics cannot be ignored.
Governments are directly responsible for much of the greed and corruption that hinders truly sustainable development. The whole institution of government is a large part of the problem we face today.
The current monetary system under which we labour, save, invest and live is flawed. Our monetary system is corrupt to the core. This corrupt monetary system is responsible for “artificial competition” and therefore directly responsible for unsustainable development.
It’s all about the money we use…
It seems hard to believe. It goes against what we’ve been told about banks and how they operate. But the truth is money is created out of thin air. And the consequences for a sustainable future are dire as we’ll see.
As a kid your parents probably explained the virtue of saving for the future. It was most likely explained to you that banks would pay you interest and that your savings would grow. If you were inquisitive enough to ask why, the answer would seem to make sense…
Banks take your money and lend it to other people. The people who borrow that money would be happy to pay interest. The bank takes a small fee for the service and then pays you interest.
The only problem is it does not work that way at all. It’s simply not true.
Money is created out of thin air. Worse still, all the money in existence has been borrowed from private banks and attracts interest.
How can they do this?
The banks use the FRACTIONAL RESERVE system to CREATE CREDIT.
The fractional reserve system is a system whereby banks are able to lend (create) more “money” than they have on hand.
Every country has different regulations regarding the amount banks must have in reserve (note well that this reserve is not necessarily cash).
It is generally accepted that banks are able to lend up to 10 times their reserve, however many researchers believe and report that in many cases banks lend up to 70 times their reserve requirement.
To establish as fact that banks create “money” (credit) let’s see what experts in the field have said…
“Banks create credit. It is a mistake to suppose that bank credit is created to any extent by the payment of money into banks. A loan made by a bank is a clear addition to the amount of money in the community.”
– The Encyclopaedia Britannica (14th Edition)
“By means of a loan, an advance, an overdraft, or by the cashing of bills, the banks are able to increase the volume of deposits in the community, and because of this process it is not correct to say that a bank loans out deposits which the people make with it. It is clear that it creates the deposit by the issue of the loan. The loan travels back to the bank, or to another bank and assumes the form of a deposit”.
– Professor A.L.G. Mackey,
Professor of Economics, University of Rangoon.
“The essential and distinctive feature of a bank and banker is to create and issue credit payable on demand, and this credit is intended to be put into circulation and serve the purposes of money. A bank therefore, is not an office for the borrowing and lending of money, it is a manufactory of credit.”
– H.A.D. Macleod, MA. Barrister-at-law.
The theory and Practice of Banking
“The banker creates the means of payment out of nothing.”
– RAG. Hartwell, Assistant Secretary to the British Treasury
“The modern banking system manufactures money out of nothing. The process is perhaps the most astounding piece of sleight-of-hand that was ever invented. Banking was conceived in iniquity and born in sin. Bankers own the Earth.” …He continued and concluded…”But if you want to continue to be slaves of the bankers and pay the cost of your own slavery, then let the bankers continue to create money and control credit.”
– Sir Josiah Stamp. The Bank of England.
BANKS CREATE MONEY OUT OF THIN AIR then CHARGE INTEREST ON THAT WHICH DID NOT EXIST IN THE FIRST PLACE.
Why can’t we pay the interest?
Let us answer that with a question:
Where will we GET the “money” to pay the interest? (without borrowing it).
Here is a simple illustration which will help you understand the situation:
Imagine a closed economic system, a room with 11 people. One acts as banker. The ten others each go to the banker and ask for a $10000 loan. The banker obliges, creates out of thin air, then loans the money at a mere 5% interest per annum to each of the ten for a period of one year. Exactly one year later the banker calls in the loans.
How can the interest be paid?
The banker has not created, nor put into circulation the $5000 with which to pay the interest !
In effect, the only means to pay the interest is to borrow more money that attracts interest!
The modern world has been enslaved by what is known as the debt money system. Your government has endorsed this system by licensing banks to act in this manner.
The slaves of this system must compete with each other for their slice of “interest”.
Thanks to fractional reserve banking we live in an environment of artificial competition. As people struggle to meet their interest obligation there are winners and losers.
Winners are the shrewd who increase output, cut corners, mine more, smelt more, sell more or outwit their competitors in other ways. The process forces all competitors and especially the winners to unwittingly pollute more, consume more and cause more harm to the environment in the race to get ahead.
The bottom line is every product and every service is made more expensive in the process. All output is hindered and made inefficient through an artificially induced debt load.
It’s the root cause of unsustainable development. Yet your government endorses and licenses banks and lending institutions to operate in this manner.
Truly sustainable development cannot take place without a drastic rethink and societal shift away from a debt based money system.
The way forward is collaboration not competition.