Please note: This post might seem a bit long and may seem to ramble off topic, but it all has a point to it.
Ever since the Occupy Wall Street protests have started and expanded globally, I have had mixed feelings about it. I think it's great that people are standing up and creating awareness that something in this world is wrong. You cannot deny that humanity is in a state of crisis if you open your eyes to see it. And the Occupy Movement is doing that. They are opening their eyes and opening the eyes of others. That's the good thing about it. The problem is, they are not seeing the true problem and are instead protesting the symptoms of the actual problem. Fighting corporate greed and government corruption, shouting about big government and taxes, chanting about Elitism and conspiracy theories. They are aware. Their energy is admirable. Their desire for change is understandable, and the fact that they are aware of the state of humanity's current crisis is progress. But do they really know what the true underlying problem is? The truth is, for most of them, no. They don't really know what the problem is. And their energy and determination should be directed towards actually doing something truly constructive. So, what is the problem? The true underlying problem that is causing corporate greed, government corruption, and inequality is really quite simple. It is the monetary system itself. The monetary system is not purely evil by itself. There was a time where monetary exchange for life supporting goods and resources was necessary. This time, I would guess, spanned from the time money was invented to maybe beginning or middle of the 20th century. After the industrial revolution, we began developing machines that could replace human labor more and more. And as time goes on, there is going to be more technologies developed and more machines being created that can minimize scarcity and replace the majority of human labor altogether. In a monetary economic system such as this, such technological developments will have serious consequences. Obviously, those consequences are displaced workers and eventual economic collapse, because even though machine automation will make goods more affordable, most people will not have the money to pay for those goods, no matter how affordable they are, because of unemployment. Of course, there is also the service industry. That can provide employment for a few people, but there would not be enough employment to go around for everyone, so many people will still be out of work. And further, the service industry is also on it's way towards automation. Have you ever used the self-check out at the grocery store? If not, you have probably at least seen them. And you have probably seen automated Kiosk stations as well, and of course, there will be more technological developments to come in the near future. As a result, there will be more displaced workers. After we eliminate the vast majority of human labor and service jobs, there will be still be some employment left, but not nearly enough to take care of the displaced worker problem. After manual labor and service is almost completely gone, the only jobs that remain will be mechanics and police (in an economic climate where almost nobody is working...police WILL BE required to maintain order). But if nobody can pay for the products and services, who is going to pay them? The government? I doubt it. Because the government gets most of it's money from tax payers. But if nobody is working, who is going to pay taxes? I supposed the government COULD create it's own currency and pay police and the mechanics. But that will not solve the problem. It would be the equivalent of putting a Spongebob Band-Aid on a bullet wound.
That sounds like a bleak future doesn't it? Most people unemployed, companies shutting down and no goods being produced because nobody can buy them, and countless police on patrol making sure no riots break out, which sounds a lot like a police state. So whose fault is this? It sounds like if we're going to blame someone, it would have to be those dirty rotten scientists and engineers who came up with all that technology. But that's ridiculous! We can't blame engineers and scientists for such a situation, and blaming people is not going to fix anything. Then what do we do to fix the problem? Hold an emergency election and elect a Democrat or a Republican president? I don't think making abortion illegal or giving gays the right to marry is going to solve the problems of this kind of economic climate. And I don't think any amount of Initiatives, Referendums, or Ballot Measures are going to solve much either.
After you replace service and labor with machines, there would only be a limited amount of employment. In an economic climate such as this, what can be done? Here's one idea. Replace the current monetary economic system with a resource based economy. Make goods and services (provided largely by machines by the way) available to everyone. It only makes sense to do it this way. And with money no longer being a boundary, think of the technology and the machines that could be developed as a result of that. The only limitations we would face would be the laws of physics.
There is now the issue of incentive. Why should the mechanics do anything if they aren't given some kind of compensation? Think about that for a second. The mechanics would benefit from this type of system as well. When a machine breaks down, that means that the product or service in question is unavailable for the duration of the time that machine is down. Somebody has to fix it! Since the mechanics, like everyone else, benefit from the machines, that is their incentive right there! They depend on the machines like everyone else. Engineers and scientists would have the incentive of creating technologies that would make things run even better and more efficiently, which, again, would be beneficial to everyone. But what about people who are not mechanics, scientists, or engineers? What would they do? I think a better question would be, what wouldn't they do? With everything being provided without a price tag, new incentives will arise. It will open the door for so many opportunities. People would be free to pursue any goal of theirs, no matter what it would be. If you need an example of how money does not create incentive, take a look at the world of open source software. There are people who program anything from simple word processing programs to simple computer games, all the way up to entire computer operating systems. I have seen and used many of these pieces of programing, and I have to see in a Resource Based Economy, the world of software looks rather promising. Am I saying we should just dump all of the money in the world in the garbage. Not necessarily. It would be better to simply accommodate the inevitable changes occurring in our global economic system by changing the way money is distributed, and not only that, but also work to phase out the monetary system entirely and transition toward a resource based economy. This would not happen over night or even over the course of 5 years. It will take time. But it's important that we start moving in that direction by redesigning our world system, starting with the way money is distributed and how we plan to make it less of a necessity over time. That would take a type of transitional system that could theoretically be implemented right away. This would not be some Socialist system either. Remember that Socialism is part of the current global system as well. This system would have to be able to accommodate the changes in society--a system that is designed to adapt while phasing out the use of money. There is currently no system that comes close to that.
There is the argument that humans are greedy and violent by nature, and that this serves as a reason why something like this could not be accomplished. This is a fairly big topic in itself, and it's too big to cover in this composition in great detail. In a short way of saying it, however, it simply isn't true. The only true human nature is our self preservation instinct. Humans will do what they need to do to survive, as will everything else that is alive. A person who is deprived of their basic needs will behave very differently from a person who has what they need. However, even if you believe that violence and greed are human nature, why should this serve as a reason not to change our system? It's a problem now, and changing our system is not going to make it any worse.
So what does this all have to do with the Occupy Movement and protesting the wrong thing? Ultimately, it comes down to the fact that they see an existing problem, and they think they know what it is. However, they are only protesting symptoms of the problem and hoping to fix those symptoms, but not the problem. You cannot put a piece of tape over your car's “Check Engine” light and hope the problem disappears. It is important that we are aware of the true underlying problem we are facing--the fact that we are using an out-dated and failing system that is past it's prime. If you need evidence that our global system is not working, take a look at the decaying global society around you and you'll have all the proof you need. And there is no amount of protesting that we can do that can fix these problems. We must become aware of the real problem, and become aware of a possible solution that could lead to a very bright future for humanity. Let's not focus our energy on marching in the streets, campaigning for career politicians, and trying to over throw multinational corporations. Let's focus our energy on getting this done. Right now is the time to educate people. Provide them with information about this. The more people we have on board with this, the quicker we can get this done. There is power in numbers and in group cooperation! We can do this!
While this composition is my original work, the ideas of a resource based economy are not new. These ideas are derived largely from Jacque Fresco's work. He is the founder of The Venus Project. To learn more, please visit The Venus Project's website at http://thevenusproject.com/ There is also a book written by Jacque Fresco on this subject called "The Best That Money Can't Buy". I suggest that you find it at your local library if possible, or you can buy it online as well. There also two online documentaries that cover this subject in more detail, including the issue of Human Nature. They are “Zeitgeist Addendum” and “Zeitgeist Moving Forward” and they can be found on youtube.
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