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Jarek Steliga

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You cannot eat money, or make clothes, or build a house out of it.

In this day and age when it is politically correct to be out of work and complain on being hard up I propose to reflect whether this widely proclaimed poverty is real or faked. If it is MONEY that you are after, then I have no remedy. You will be poor (in the sense that you have not enough) forever. If however you are able bodied and need food, shelter and security for yourself and your loved ones, and live in a town or a city and no-one wants to employ you and pay you for your work enough to cover your basic needs, then move to the country, grab the fork and shovel and produce your own kitchen veggies, keep a pork or two and some chickens. Chances are someone will help you build a decent house in exchange for the food which you have in excess. I agree individual small scale farming and husbandry is not efficient, but who wants the efficient when clearly efficiency does not prevent hunger and what is more is directly the cause of so much unemployment. Believe me, you will be happy as a lark provided it is not money that is your object in life!

Topics: Unemployment economy financial crisis poverty
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  • Jarek Steliga

    • 0
    Jan 14 2013: Very depressing picture of the world John Smith. Very depressing. I gather you are a great believer in 1%/ 99% divide. I see the 1% as just the tip of the iceberg. Guess who constitutes the underwater part of this model? Yeah, the 99%. Whether you like it or not, we all contribute to the situation. We all have a stake in the system. We all in our brainwashed minds believe that we stand to benefit from our bank savings, from our pension funds and the like. We are all petty speculators, except that most of us are amsteurs and therefore we are bound to lose to professional players. Contrary to your belief, my belief is that if we the 99% stop taking part in the rat race, then the World Financial Institutions of which you are so fearful, will crumble onto itself much as the World Trade Center did. The big corporations, the financial elite of this world depends for their very existence on the greed of the 99%! Once that greed disappears, the game is over! So I prefer to live in my world, in my wonderworld in which money is just means, not an end. And I will start pulling my hair out only when my world is invaded and encroached on by the reality which you believe in. I guess I just do not want to waste one second of my precious and enjoyable time here on Earth on worrying sick of what the future can possibly throw at me.

    • John Smith 30+

      • +1
      Jan 14 2013: To answer this I shall use your own wording: "you cannot eat money, or make clothes, or build a house out of it, but money gives you the power to make someone else give you food, a house or clothing"

      If 99% of the people stopped caring about money the economy would collapse along with financial institutions but after a while the other 1% would come back on top and dominate the rest. You don't need central banks and limited liability corporations to transmute money into power, just the very act of consuming more gives power. It's also not something exclusively between the 1% and the 99%, that's just the most extreme case.

      Until either 100% of the people stop caring about money (or devise another economic system) or the people that stop caring can find ways of isolating themselves from the people who don't stop caring (probably through force, or the threat of force, since it's the only way to exert power other than having more wealth), you will be affected by the wealth of other people.

    • Random Chance 30+

      • +1
      Jan 16 2013: Jarek.
      Hope you don't mind or were you being facetious and I missed it?
      There is basically no greed on the side of the 99%, as far as I can see.
      Since there is a 1% on which you agree has it all, then they are the greedy ones and not the 99%.
      The 99% are just trying to survive and sometimes wind up doing things they wouldn't ordinarily do, because of this desperation-induced need and desire to survive. Then, because of this need and this right to survive, someone calls them greedy.

      To change this does not require people to stop "caring about money".
      They have to be willing to stop using it. They have to stop giving their power to it. They have to stop believing and begin learning that they don't need money. Along the way, then I guess they would wind up not caring about money. So maybe in that way you're right.

      And why do we need to stop using money, to stop giving power to it and to stop caring about it?
      Because nothing costs money. Everything costs people.
      Things don't "get done" because of money.
      Things "don't get done" because of money.

      We will still get things done without money and that may soon be the reality of the world.
      It will be a chance to function without it and take away the power of those who have falsely lied to use about the need for money. It is their need, not ours, in order to gain control of others, maintain control of others and use others against others. Why are they striving so hard to simultaneously end it and also to keep it going?
      First, ending it means they can then present to the world a one global currency which still means a monetary system which is unjust and won't work --- for the average person.
      Secondly, keeping it afloat keeps people believing they need it and they remain dependent upon it.

      Real beneficial change is inclusive of everyone on earth, is beneficial to all and is ultimately peaceful, not damaging and is real economy, and that is achieved by not using money and finding another way. We can do that.

    • shawn disney 10+

      • 0
      Feb 7 2013: Jarek : you're right about the possiblity of collapse, leaving the Wealthy stranded. But they are usually too arrogant to notice in time. The fact is that people are sociable, "Groups" are real, and cooperation is what makes civilization possible. But note, what gives "Money" its power is Cheap Energy, which permits a lot of construction of various kinds. Otherwise, one could say that the leaders of Zimbabwe are "powerful", (they have lots of money), but they are not, because all they have is Police Power, like Feudal Lords.

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