Whatever the reason, the trend is clear: we are turning ourselves into economic slaves - and creating a world where the public 'good' seems more and more unaffordable. What can we do about it?
We can find new ways of creating a range of new kinds of money that are locally controlled. We can persuade the government to start issuing its own interest-free money - put into circulation, rather than borrowed into existence with interest attached, as it usually is.
We can also limit the ownership rights of investors. If investors never look beyond 20 years when they buy foreign companies or build foreign factories - and they don't - then we are overpaying them by giving them perpetual rights. The Australian thinker and former financier, Shann Turnbull, suggests that rights should revert to locals after one generation.
But most of all, we should be aware of what is happening. Ordinary people are increasingly indebted, public bodies are increasingly cashstrapped, and governments are increasingly penniless. Corporations are increasingly wealthy, but so dependent on the tyranny of the stock markets and their own share price that they dare not step out of line. Between them, the money that allows us to live is being allowed to slip away.)
The Money Changers:
Currency reform from Aristotle to e-cash
