Money's role in the modern world · Rebel Economist (Free)

Money's role in the modern world

I think the role of money needs closer examination in order to inform the design of a sustainable economy. In my grandmother's day it may have been sufficient to simply define money as a medium of exchange, with the government's role to stabilize its value. However we live in a very different world now, one in which we can no longer ignore our interdependence.

We've evolved from a more self-sufficient agrarian society into a complex interdependent urban culture in which most of our work involves maintaining the infrastructure we all rely on. In earlier times when most of the goods we needed were made by individuals, money could simply be used as a tally for tracking our exchanges. However in our densely populated urban world money is the tool we use to orchestrate our collective efforts, and to provision folks with the space and resources to live.

In an agrarian society the folks who thrived were those who were most attuned to the rhythms of nature, however in our modern world those who thrive are the ones most attuned to the rhythms of the market. Markets have become the social ecosystem that sustains our lives. While natural ecosystems have evolved over millennia with life as an emergent property, envisioning our social ecosystem is still gestating. If we consider money as a public utility that orchestrates our collective efforts, then we can recognize that how money is created and redeemed for reuse defines the culture of a society. I'm remembering a scene from the movie 'Why We Fight' in which a woman is working in a bomb making factory saying I'd rather be making toys for children, but this is the only job I could find.

The economy is our social operating system. It defines how we share the common resources of this planet, how we value each other and our collaborative efforts, and ultimately it is a major factor shaping the goals of our society. Currently our social operating system is out of balance with natural ecosystems as well as the nurturing of what is best in our human nature.

Examining the imbalances in our current monetary system seems to be the most critical place to begin thinking about designing a sustainable economy. For example:

Allowing money to act as a store of value rather than recognizing that our only true store of future value lies in healthy ecosystems is leading us to destroy the planet to gain larger stores of money, which then only act as tokens for redeeming a bit of what is left of a raped planet.
Allowing excessive wealth claims by so few individuals, who then are in a position to create the work we all must do to survive. Sadly the work created by these oligarchs tends to be in service to either increasing their wealth or the military & policing functions needed to protect their wealth claims.
The major problem with neoliberal economics is their claim that money is the private property of the wealthy rather than a publicly owned tool. The quote from Maragret Thatcher that 'there is no such thing as public money, there is only taxpayer money' must be addressed if we are to have a moral economy.

Economics needs to start from the perspective of money as a public utility that orchestrates our collaborative efforts and ultimately defines our culture. Money is more than a simple tally for tracking the exchange of things we all produce individually.

12 comments