Why is this significant? Some insist that money is incapable of representing more positive aspects of our lives, but I suggest there has only been a lack of consensus to make it that way. All too often, money gets the blame for the degrees of economic separation which people have unwittingly imposed on one another. What if populations decided it would be worthwhile, to make money capable of representing human effort as a whole? It's not impossible to do so. There would be far fewer people on disability today, if the focus was on keeping them economically engaged, instead of sending them a check because they were deemed "unsuitable" for some workplaces.
There's little progress to be had by insisting that money is mostly a tool for credit and finance, particularly when much about life should be livable without loans as a necessity. What's more, central bankers are the last ones who should be treating finance as the center of the economic universe, given the need for monetary stability. As a result, entire populations have been told that economic growth must be put on hold, indefinitely. What about the millions of people who happened to be born at the "wrong" time?
The definition of money is not set in stone, by those who continue to define present day circumstance for the public. It's hard to convey just how important this fact really is. After all, economies are supposed to be about what everyone does with a major part of their lives and in the same context, so is money.
Once, it worked relatively well to externalize monetary concepts beyond the personal level, when commodities were primary in the economy. Certainly large governments have benefited from the largess of commodities. But as services have grown with the spread of knowledge across the globe, money needs to be more closely associated with the time that we engage with others in the use of knowledge at local levels. When it comes to time use, money also needs to be recognized as an internal concept also capable of coordinating with the exogenous reality of the world's tradable goods.
This needed shift is all the more relevant, given the fact that too many services remain on the fiscal side of national ledgers - especially indirectly - as healthcare has been in the U.S. As a result, services are being blunted at the very moment when populations seek them out as primary goods. In mature economies such as Japan, the fiscal aspect of services means further attempts to spur growth can't readily percolate throughout the entire economy. Even in the midst of Japan's revitalization efforts there is now a broken labor equilibrium which is difficult to mend.
Nations may ultimately resort to some form of guaranteed income plan, for those who struggle to find gainful employment. But what would it feel like to find out early on, that one must become resigned to a minimal life? Only think about what people would choose instead at a young age if they had the chance, while it was still possible to think clearly about such things. If they were told there was no real room for the challenges they would seek through work...would they rather take money for not working, or would they rather be paid for finding ways in which to purposely engage with one another? I imagine that most would choose the latter.
It's not always easy to connect what we enjoy about life with others in meaningful ways. But I continue to believe it makes more sense to create compensated systems where individuals explore the possibilities, than it does to pay individuals to wander down lonely paths no one else can share.
Over time I hope to be able to explain my posts more plainly, for I need to become more directly engaged with everyone in what is becoming a growing search for labor participation solutions. Perhaps I need to put some outlines together, so that readers are able to review these concepts quickly. I really needed to set aside working on the book aspects of this ongoing project until at least a thousand posts were written - this coming week makes 500. Part of what makes it difficult to explain quickly of course, is that these are not corner solutions. If only that were all that was needed!
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