Climate change is not a new phenomenon. It is a weather condition that has been taking part in cycles over the millennia; and by all accounts, the next cycle has been 50 thousand years in the making.
The bottom line is that climate change is a natural ecological event that is going to happen irrespective of humanity’s effort to stave it off; stave being the operative word.
Global-warming is another kettle of fish altogether: besides it being a natural ecological occurrence that takes place every-so years, it is also an occurrence that is aggravated by human consumption and industrial activity.
On the natural side, volcanic activity, solar radiation and the earth’s cyclic movement through the Universe, et al, all play a role in keeping the environmental scales in fine equilibrium, or not.
On the human side, industrial growth, human green-house gas generation and fossil fuel usage all contribute to upsetting the fragile balance that encompasses the environment, atmosphere and the way the eco system deals with these eventualities.
Although the Industrial Age is lauded and praised for much of the technological development that is being experienced today, it has brought with it unforeseen (maybe) side-effects; side-effects that have malignantly contributed to the many environmental problem and human enslavement being experienced today.
Yes, medically, technologically and financially, humanity finds itself riding the waves of success and development (although the last one is debatable.) Humanity is at an all time high: lofty life-spans, healthy bank balances and prosperity. And now that the ‘east’ has caught up and surpassed western developments, life has accelerated to the next level faster than anticipated.
Humanity has become technologically and information hungry. It has huge wants-and-needs that are being met by extravagant usage of natural recourses and over capitalisation of available real estate, all drawing upon the human propensity for avarice to drive those wants-and-needs along.
The main challenge facing modern Governments is employment: how to create avenues that help foster employment versus creating avenues that produce profits, thus keeping the economic status-quo fresh, is the quandary? It may be argued that other systemic life issues are of more importance but without employment, the system will consume itself to the overall detriment of humanity – the money energy cycle needs to be maintained.
To my mind, all the talk of climate change and or global warming will come to naught if the employment factor is not fixed. A hungry person does not care about the environment. A dejected unemployed person does not care about the environment. As a matter of fact, both types of people are more given to fits of pack-rage and destructive tendencies than those that are gainfully employed.
The South African Minister of Energy Affairs recently stated that renewable energy initiatives will cut employment as renewable-energy power generating plants, besides being more energy efficient, are also human real-estate efficient e.g. wind farms require less human-power to keep the equipment operational than that of a coal fired power station. Solar farms face the same employment dilemma.
With the growth in the human population expected to reach nine billion by the year 2030 (by recent extrapolations,) the employment quandary increases with each passing year. A prospect that is going to place even greater stresses on the environment due to the logarithmic growth in energy demand, food requirements, and other natural resources. A prospect that is neither positive nor captivating for the coming generations of humans.
I am of the opinion that the existing democratic (or whatever other forms of Government there are around the world) and capitalistic energies are in dire need of an overall. These energies worked well during the birth of the Industrialisation age to about 20 years ago. Since then, they have been faltering and overwhelming humanity at a dizzying pace of consumption. Changes to both systemic energies will not be easy, but the alternatives are worse.
Carl Sagan once said that if humanity can survive past its puberty stage (speaking of human development in the greater scheme-of-time,) the future will be humanity’s oyster. Unfortunately, very little positivity is pointing in that direction.
“The needs and wants of the people need to be addressed and pacified. Workable solutions have to be constructed in such a way that either gainful employment is generally guaranteed or alternatively, that a new means of income generation is implemented i.e. doing away with the traditional capitalist way of doing things.” ~ Global Warming: A Growing Woe
Money, Irreverence and Equity
November 21, 2022Fairness, equity and even-handedness are generally not associated with Money: A means of accepted exchange for services, goods, labour and intellectual property.
Governments have the power to print money when it is deemed necessary for their collateral is the land and all its associated resources. The downside is inflation, soaring interest rates and rating agencies.
The value of exchange depends on recognised global trade, the International Monetary Fund (Global Bank) and internal mechanisms.
Public trust in the exchange mechanisms also plays a vital role in the overall acceptance of value-for-money, sustainability of the processes and buying power.
Overall, money can be classed as an energy that needs to be acknowledged, managed and perceived as real. This applies in all sorts of social environments, human interactions and governing methods. The most common means of exchange governance is Capitalism.
The overriding principle governing money is that it does not exist in a vacuum: if a country with a strong currency ‘sneezes,’ the rest of the world gets a cold. The other overriding principle is that ‘money has no morals.’
Many a financial scholars and Nobel prize winners have written treatises on the apportioning of money on a fair dispensation. Unfortunately, the outcry by those with monetary resources push said treatises to the annals of academia.
The financial treatises mostly revolve around the distribution of money without the need of being paid a salary for services rendered. Three prominent theories are:
1) The National Dividend. This was invented by engineer C. H. Douglas and has been revived by Ezra Pound and designer Buckminster Fuller. The basic idea is that every citizen should be declared a shareholder in the nation, and should receive dividends on the Gross National Product for the year.
2) The Guaranteed Annual Income. This has been encouraged by economist Robert Theobald and others. The government would simply establish an income level above the poverty line and guarantee that no citizen would receive less. This plan would cost the government less than the present welfare systems, with all its bureaucratic red tape and redundancy factors.
3) The Negative Income Tax. This was first devised by Nobel economist Milton Friedman. The Negative Income Tax would establish a minimum income for every citizen; anyone whose income fell below that level would receive the amount necessary to bring them up to that standard. Again, this would cost “the government” less than the present welfare systems. It would also dispense with the last tinge of humiliation associated with government “charity,” since when you cashed a check from IRS nobody would know if it was supplementary income or a refund.
The National Dividend, The Guaranteed Annual Income and The Negative Income Tax, all make use of fair disbursement principles and rely of the integrity of those charged with the oversight thereof.
The web is full of interesting quotes about money and the pursuit thereof. Here are a few extracted from web sites and movies about money:
“Greed is right, greed works. Greed clarifies, cuts through, and captures the essence of the evolutionary spirit. Greed, in all of its forms; greed for life, for money, for love, knowledge has marked the upward surge of mankind.” Money Never Sleeps – Oliver Stone
“In a society governed passively by free markets and free elections, organized greed always defeats disorganized democracy.” – Matt Taibbi
“Prosperity brings choice” – David Voas
Modern life is about debt. Debt can be traded, exchanged and sold. It can be speculated on, extended and retracted. Every year, the USA extends its debt ceiling. A process that allows the Mint to print more money thus keeping their economy alive.
Credit Companies are alive and solvent. Mortgages are processed faster than a McDonalds burger. Likewise for Personal Loans (these tend to be stingier but having the ability to sell these off to 3rd parties makes them generally profitable.)
Lotto and Gambling syndicates are making money hand over fist. Insurance companies are no slouches where profits are concerned. Investors are dime a dozen. The ranks of the Well offs, Millionaires and Billionaires expand on a regular basis. Even during the Covid pandemic, profits were being recorded daily.
No one is exempt from the benefits or ravages of money for it has no gender, race or creed. Religions are past masters at collecting their dues (Tithings) and will not hesitate in establishing fund-raisers, collection drives all on the back of well-worded emotional-laden sermons.
The poor are more often than not, told to get-a-job by the apathetic public or given a pittance by those with a sensitive conscience.
Will there be an end to the value of national resources (the promissory note that Government relies on when printing money)? Capitalism has the habit of reinventing itself for there is too much money to be lost if ever the system fails. For the foreseeable future, there is still money to be made. Lots of it.
The digital world has unleashed a slew of new ways to trade and make profits: Bitcoin, Non-Fungible Tokens, Blockchain… (If one takes a gander at the value of bitcoins, no wonder that Companies are starting to accept bitcoin as a means of trade.)
Where too from here?
What must never be forgotten is the unpredictability life of money (i.e., complacency): One can be basking in glory today but there are no guarantees that tomorrow, life will be the same.
“There is no nobility in poverty.” Wall Street – Oliver Stone
Ends
Tags:economics, money, opinion, viewpoint, wages
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