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Reciprocity = Exchange

Money what is supposed to be?

Money functions in a society is to facilitate reciprocity in trade and labour, money is a tool of reciprocity. However it is true the only true currency is energy. Think what you do, you take the energy it takes to do something and reduce it to a monetary value: yet this energy is disparic most so in terms of labour. Assigning an objective value to it is nonsense, look at the outcomes. 

Teachers are worth less than CEOs, footballers more than technicians, Actors more than leaders of the world. Further still a person disadvantaged by nature, pours more energy into the same task, and yet is paid the same! Or the more passionate as the lazy! “Ah but” you say “they are paid for what they produce not the effort.” Then it is true money here ceases to function as a fair way of reciprocity. You are no longer receiving a fair price for your labour. As well too much harm comes from the existence of this idea money! Through its existence access to what one might consider basic human needs are unmet, so again it fails to fully meet the needs of reciprocity it is in effect a bit reciprocity. (you all wonder why we have problems) This equation doesn’t add up. 

But we are taught from an early age about money, it’s normal just a part of life. So was slavery, measles and polio. So was trepanning and leaching. So too was burning witches. It is normal and it is what we know is not an excuse. Now you must be forced to look at the dark side of money. Human trafficking is a huge issue in the world, particularly child trafficking. Children go missing and are stolen every day and trafficked round the world for very disgraceful reasons. How is that facilitated, how do you get a normal person to traffic children. Money and coercion. You can get an economically despite person to do almost anything much to humanites shame. Particularly if you groom from early years such a teens with the lure of money into gangs and general crime. It is true not all humans are good people; money makes it easy to be evil. So, we may change the equation, remove money mitigate evil. 

For the primitive mind having no Bit to exchange for a pint is inconceivable, not normal, bizarre not contributing to status thus not thought worthy. Should you say otherwise it is that you don’t understand, you don’t know what money is, just listen to that dude (Ayn Rand) who explained it because it’s all I’ve known we’re keeping it. The fear sets in and dissonance becomes the rule of day for such an individual. What will you replace it with? True reciprocity I reply: “we should be able to live in a society we created for ourselves without money. Manifesting a system that actually works and doesn’t periodically collapse, that doesn’t corrupt the soul, that insures we can protect the individuals in society and offers us all a high quality of life and an equitable existence. We would truly get out what we put in. Truly in keeping with the human endeavour to not just survive but thrive. 

To distil my conversation experience into dialogue.

Most People: we need money!

*achoo*

*economic collapse, suffering, panic, death.*

Most People: Yeh but if China hadn’t bla bla and we just do extremely complex, contrived and oppressive things we will be fine.

Me: What about next time, the time after that and the time after that? You know Einstein described insanity as doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.

Most People: Yeah but how will I buy a pint! What will you replace it with?

Me: When a doctor removes a tumour does he replaces it?

Most People: Yeh but! Umm isn’t that communism?

Me: No, but you could perhaps call it corporativism such a person would be a cooperationist: embodying the concept usually described but not necessarily as utopian. That being of people living in a society they create for themselves without money or such primitive systems of reciprocity manifesting full reciprocity.

Most People: Yeah but capitalists control everything and are mean so won’t let that happen.

Me: Most of the richest people in world would agree money is stupid if it meant everyone could live a very high quality of life. It is entirely possible and very probable they would give up money. Provided individual liberty and property rights are retained as would only be proper. 

It is so that even of the richest children – one works to consume, in abundance this inverts to consume to work because we keep money, the usual reply to this is that its only abundant because we have money. It is an entirely backwards way of life that insures oppression of “most people”. Allowing only the few the true fruits of labour stemming from the human endeavour to not just survive but thrive in the hostile and brilliant environment of the universe. No amount of anything will ever change the fact you must expend energy consuming it – it is as true for you as it is the lowly ant. Right now you have to work for the most part at something you hate or be at the mercy of charity and or the statei man this in terms of the infirmed and ill. Even assisted by the state and charity life under such economics is megger, an unnecessary struggle. Life is hard enough without this insane thing we call money – that however useful it has been ceases to retain that utility. Is ceases this utility because and becomes slavery and gradually over time forces people to work harder for less due to such thing as quantitative easing that and the natural infantry nature of money. It forces people into slavery because of the disparity between individuals that occurs naturally keeping people locked into wage slavery and dead end jobs just to get by when they could be doing something more constructive and necessary both in terms of art and industry.  

Also, what does that say about you as a person or people? You are worth a few worthless scraps of paper or digits in an account? How absolutely degrading to measure the worth of people by the exchange of useless papers or digits. How dare you suggest the dedicated teacher is worth less than a CEO. Makes me mad. Nurses are less valuable than doctors, what a joke. Our footballers get paid more than our doctors! What? An actor earns more than a president! What actually is that? Then they all turn to you the “most people” and say give – children need you in some far-off place. While children suffer right on your doorstep. Frustratingly as in a West of abundance where such things are completely unnecessary. We produce far more than enough, and a lost of this suffering could be over. We could choose to move on. We can choose to make things better now!

It’s also true that there will always be bad people, selfish people, kleptomaniacs and psychological issues that will or are disruptive, people that don’t wont to work too.  That is not an excuse to oppress people. 

From experience most people: Umm – but eh! Hmm um no! I don’t know! 

Me: That’s just your fear of the unknown, be brave, be bold because we can’t in all honesty (and pun intended) afford not to be.

Most People: How will it be different what would it look like? (now that’s a good question.) 

Means of exchange- means to facilitate reciprocity, reciprocity is provided in this hypothetical scenario as a cooperative society, a society that creates an environment in which people can live and work without the aforementioned system of bit reciprocity by exchange of money encompassing all the before mentions modes which here to prevent confusion will henceforth be referred to as ‘bits’ or a ‘bit system of reciprocity’.

Say you get up one day and as if by magic money has been removed from the world systems. You awake with that knowledge and are not afraid, you get up and go about your day. Perform your usual tasks, shower, perhaps eat or perhaps not and head to work. You collect your coffee from your usual vendor except this time you don’t exchange anything. You go to the office, and preform a function perhaps postal serves or anything really a labourer even. Let us say for example that morning you sort one hundred letters the machines couldn’t read, one of them was for the coffee vendor. It was from his mother. You go home, do your favourite things to relax, perhaps meet up with friends, go out and enjoy life being able to access the fruits of the human endeavour. 

The letter for the coffee vendor read. 

“Dear Trevor,

I hope you’re well, I’m fine and in fantastic spirits dispute your father’s latest DIY. I mean we didn’t need a patio; regales of my objections were now halfway to fishing one. It would not be so bad if he took his boots off before coming in but no. You know thinking about it I don’t think I’ve seen him lift a broom in twenty years. 

Annabelle was asking after you, when are you going to get married and give us grandchildren, Trevor! Which brings me to some fantastic news, your sister is getting married, to that handsome young man Dr Paul Goldman. You met him last year at the family reunion. Your Father I think has mixed feelings about giving his daughter away, might be why we are getting a patio. He is very happy and proud though. You must come home and celebrate with the family!

The wedding is in three months, we will need your help to organise things if you can.

Love

Mum”

You see the vendor’s that once live in an impoverished nation sister was diagnosed with cancer – in the bit system world she would not have survived. Her family is too poor to afford the best possible treatments. After years of long drown out cancer treatment passed away a shell of herself. However, in this new hypothetical world there was no such barrier. A vastly different letter might have been received by Trevor in the bit world.

Too Trevor severing humbly the needs man in a vibrant metropolis had longed to live in as child, was able in comfort and leisure fly home in time to share in his family joy where once the price of his dream would see I’m in near poverty sending megger checks home to a family missing a daughter. He would never really get the chance to live life, he would be merely surviving. 

Your choice to keep money not only keeps you oppressed while believing you’re not, it oppresses others. It kills people and has them suffer needlessly too it in my opinion facilitates evil. I am not saying there is not issues to work out not saying that it would be ideal just that we could do better than this if we actually tried. These are just my thoughts on it they might be daft naive even but that is just how I feel about the whole world that I am forced to live in, work in am enslaved to.  I do believe I am not the only one.