you are viewing a single comment's thread.

view the rest of the comments →

[–]christine_grab 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (3 children)

Lately, I have been thinking about this a lot. More and more I am realizing that the only way to fix society's problems is to change the way money works. We already have engines that run on water, but it was shelved because it would seriously threaten Big Oil. We have light bulbs that never burn out, but they will never be produced because they can't make money long-term. Nowadays, most products have deliberately designed functional obsolescence to ensure that we keep buying said product. I have no answers about what a new money system would look like, but there has to be a way to distribute money as a reward for making things that will make the world a better place instead of our current system, which rewards us for making things that pollute, fill up our landfills, encourage corruption and exploitation, etc.

[–]yellow_algebra_31 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (2 children)

3D printers are an interesting example. Interesting innovation, but doesn't seem to be making money.

The things we need, actual wealth, as an anon on nab put it, is useful stuff, like tools, and resources.

Currencies seem to pop up when people trade and barter. If not bills then tins of meat, or cigarettes, or whatever else people barter with. Number of livestock has been used as a measure of wealth.

I'm also not sure what to make of "holding things in common". I've heard of the "tragedy of the commons," where nobody will take care of it. And people exploit each other all the time -- actually protected private property can help project people from exploitation. But it also creates this hoarding behavior. I feel better when I am cooperating with others to make something nice, together, as a group working together honestly for the good of the group. Everything feels much more natural to me that way... until someone takes advantage of the group or selfishly acts against the common interest. I also don't like being controlled by a group, I like being able to do what I want even if the majority of the group doesn't want me to. But I don't like when other people do that same thing when it's something I want them not to do, heh.

[–]christine_grab 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (1 child)

3D printers is a great example of a concept that could really push us forward as a society in terms of innovation, but it's not taking off due to lack of profitability.

I wrote a post a while ago about the book The Celestine Prophecy: https://saidit.net/s/conspiracy/comments/3yi3/the_book_the_celestine_prophecy_claims_that_we/ The TLDR is each person naturally emits energy, what psychics call our “aura.” When two people have conflict, the winner sucks away some of the energy of the loser, giving the winner a physical and emotional boost. The reason we have interpersonal conflict is because unconsciously we are all trying to get this boost. The Prophecy is that in the second millennium, the humans will learn how to harness this energy out of the earth itself. Once we no longer need to suck one another’s energy to fill ourselves up, we will no longer desire interpersonal conflict and we will become a peaceful species. The society it describes sounds like what you just described -- people stop being selfish and exploitative and just work together peacefully. I'll be honest, I am holding a lot of hope that the prophecy is real and that it comes true soon.

[–]yellow_algebra_31 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

That does seem maybe related, people also refer to social relationships as "having currency with" sometimes too.