but let's start at step #1 - end debt based money and audit the fed (swarmusa.com). we can worry about other details later.
I agree on auditing the FED. Plenty of people besides Ron Paul are for that as well.
You often post on ending debt based money, and in this I think you are not looking at the full spectrum of how that happens. Money is created all the time by private transactions when someone signs a contract to pay in the future. True, this differs to first order from fractional reserve in many cases, but in other cases something similar does happen (the note holder can themselves borrow against the obligation from others or sell the note too). The notion of delayed payment is very basic to even bartering economies, but it requires individual trust. Our banking system formalizes this, and injects some degree of control and regulation (although many of us disagree with significant aspects of it) and removes the individual trust issue (although perhaps thats also a problem on a large scale??)
How exactly do you envision a monetary system without debt based "money" being created? Even during the gold standard, there was plenty of debt. It does not need a FED and the related banks.
does not an efficient medium of exchange increase productivity? not arguing gold here, just that some kind of money increases productivity and, therefore, standards of living?
Well an inefficient one, would by definition, negatively impact productivity. I visited Zimbabwe back in 2007 and transacting business for the locals was difficult. That is an extreme example. The real question is what incremental efficiency is demonstrated by whatever diversity of monetary systems we have in similar (take western) countries. My guess is that things like private sector vs public sector jobs are a much bigger issue than specific details of monetary policy in the western countries. Labor laws, unions, liability, etc are all quite significant. It would be interesting if we still had one (rare) commodity based monetary system in a western country with which to compare. |
