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Mats Kaarbö

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Is There a Future for Money?

In our digital age, where banks and even nations fail through reckless monetary spending and policies, it seems that our monetary system is becoming the big elephant in the room, yes even obsolete. Automation replacing humans seems to be one of the fundamental contradiction of capitalism and may be the demise of the system itself leaving the looming possibility of fascism or military dictatorship to arise and flourish if we fail to arrive at any alternatives.

While some believe taking us back to the gold standard will fix things, and others believe that debt forgiveness is the solution, we hear talks about access/resource based economies, where we simply declare all of Earth's resources as the common heritage of mankind and make goods and services available to all without the use of money, credits, barter or any other system of debt or servitude, through technological abundance.

In fact, let's rephrase the question. At what point in the future do you think that our technology will make automated systems possible and allow us to move out of a monetary system?

Topics: cultural evolution education future future technology government money science social change society technology
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  • Kirk Gee

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    Sep 2 2012: Please read my new book "The New Game (World Peace)" I believe that world peace cannot be achieved unless we shift the paradigm from "Monetary Consumerism" to "Great Life Experience"
    Please check out my book and pass it along!
    http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Dstripbooks&field-keywords=the+new+game+world+peace

    • shawn disney 10+

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      Sep 2 2012: I submit that Pope Paul was right, and pithy, when he said "If you want Peace, work for Justice". It would not take a Paradigm shift to have World Peace, but merely educate people to the fact that there are countless cities which have populations larger than a great many of the hundred some "Nations", but yet in the cities , there is "
      Peace", in the Nations, Not so. For the simple reason, basically, that people have accepted that murder should be illegal in cities, but have not accepted that in the case of" Nations": they can kill whoever they like; there is no Law against it., as there is in cities. That, plus the fact that there is no mechanism in place to carry out any International Laws, even if there were any, is why there is still War. As the participants so pathetically claim: "We had no alternative but to go to War". Yes indeed , they had no alternative. And furthermore, by common consent, they are not guilty of Murder, even though an Alien visitor might assume that they ought to be.

      • Kirk Gee

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        Sep 2 2012: I agree with some of what your are saying. However, if you look at life as if it were a game that we are playing... all things are skewed to that end. If the game that we were playing for all of humanity was to ensure that our fellow human beings have a great life experience, life would look entirely differently.

        Of course there would still be disagreements, people who simply want to dominate others etc. but that would be the exception not the rule. Changing any protocol within the game of Monopoly does not change the fact that the endgame is to acquire as much as you can to win. If you really want World Peace, then you have to play a different game.

        • shawn disney 10+

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          Sep 3 2012: Kirk: Yes, I do look at life as a "game we are playing". I don't quite understand your objection to that idea. Our lives seem to me to have a great deal in common with "games". How do you look at it, and what would the objection be to the game idea?! Are you a Presbyterian?

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