5.1 People - What REALLY makes the world go round!

The Local Alien
Nov 23, 2018
10 min read

Updated: Dec 26, 2018

This is the first of a 3-part section about how TheFREEconomy will clearly, brightly shine above the current (bank/corporation-driven, old) economic model. If, for example, a government (or a very resourceful, well-trusted/respected person/organisation) offered universal access to all that humans can provide to anyone, limited only by how much good you can do, instead of how much money you can make, the world would work very differently.

Our very minds would work very differently. When we're born, we're born into a game that we quickly need to learn the rules of. It's been this way since the beginning of the human race. Think about that for a second. Imagine you were born in a different time & place, into a society with a different culture, religion, maybe even as a different race and/or sex.

Let's try that for a sec. Imagine rolling a dice and randomly getting assigned a race/gender/tribe (nation, etc)/religion (a different denomination, even)/time/place. This is essentially what happens to everybody at their conception, by the way. How many of your deeply held beliefs ,that you hold now, would be completely different if you were a Sumerian living in a time before the existence of any of today's religions existed?

How would your, and everybody else's "spiritual head-space" be different? Now change your change your sex, or sexual orientation. How different might the world be for gay people if their societies' religious teachings didn't literally demonise homosexuality - a common phenomenon among species that reproduce sexually in nature.

Now imagine you're a native American, witnessing the brutal and reckless destruction of natural ecosystems by invading immgrants, who drive entire species which support incredibly intricately evolved systems to near (effective) extinction, e.g. buffaloes, - for the sake of coins/trinkets/paper that that particular, strange light-skinned group of humans value more than the very system (nature) they most truly rely on. Very ironically, those immigrants' descendants today say brown immigrants are the reason for the country/society's decline. Hmm, irony, or is that just textbook hypocrisy, I wonder.

Before this gets racially...inciteful though, let's focus on what drove (or allowed) the WHITE man ;-) to do such short-sighted, mean-spirited things? (Like plundering nature at a clearly unsustainable rate, not to mention slavery, and stuff...)

Well, it was usually, if not always for those little coins/paper, wasn't it? Actually, here's a little secret...it was probably more about the power of money (over other people). Everyone in that virtually worldwide economy, or that interacted with it, i.e. virtually everyone in the world, wanted those coins simply because...everyone else wanted those coins! Now ,that may seem silly, but actually, IMHO, that's the secret to understanding what's truly valuable!

What everyone really wants, is to get something from someone else.

Because people (again IMHO) are truly the most powerful resource, in the world.

People don't need money, and money doesn't make the world go round. People need people. Simple as that. The things is, how to get people to do things for each other. And that's where money comes in.

"Oh! We're back to square one!? People obviously do need money then!"

Well, yes. And, no. A currency is necessary, but no particular kind of currency is necessary. Earlier societies used cattle (unlike metal coins, a truly valuable commodity to humans for eating, drinking, wearing, and so on), cowrie shells, then gold, and now bank-issued-paper/coins, i.e. currency. And this feature of money is so profoundly pernicious, it can make monsters out of the brightest, highest-minded societies.

The great thing is, once the "folly" of letting bankers determine what's valuable is realised, it's quite easy to see how the problem can be corrected with sensible, almost unbelievable simplicity. Let's see if I can demonstrate this:

Scenario 1

You need money, so you go to a bank (because that's who issues the currency, not the government, as most people, maybe even you think), and you tell them you want to do something positive and altruistic for a poor (simply, underdeveloped) community, like educate it. The bank will want to see how you make profit out of it immediately. You inform them that the benefits of training and organising large groups of people are unimaginable, and impossible to put a predictable price on. Guess what the bank's going to say. Your altruism doesn't do us any good, or something to that effect, right?!

Scenario 2

Another guy goes to the bank with a literally, devastatingly good business model that has something to do with improving (maybe even activating/influencing) a nation's war machine. This "business" model, by the way has shown to be, hands down, the most prolific generator of profit/wealth since time immemorial. And bankers/banks care exclusively about the profits', don't they?! Not those usually sobering, externalities that common people have to live through, if they're "lucky".

It's only now (in the last year or two) that words/concepts like "externalities" are entering mainstream consciousness. They're the problems that those "other people" have to deal with, like the rebuilding of their devastated homes/lives, and loss of resources taken by the (usually enslaving) conquerors. and the resulting timebomb that poverty and ignorance can produce (think "World War 2")

Hopefully, it's clear how letting bankers determine what's valuable (as most countries have done/are doing) is not good for society, since societal good simply can't be priced simply.

Of course, educating a human is valuable! It's potentially the most powerful resource in the world and the only thing that limits that potential, is how nurtured/developed it is! The organisation/people that measure/reward what's good for society (and therefore issue the universally-valued currency) must be wise enough (it's not all about intelligence/power) to take externalities into account. Bank(er)s don't take negative externalities (like rape & pillaging) or even positive ones (like education-induced moral/spiritual regeneration of communities/societies) into account when they ask for "a business model".

Maybe that is what's at the heart of our global economic/social decline.

The people that value money over "other people", should NOT be allowed to determine, AND distribute, what's universally valuable!

If raw, unchecked, unsustainable economic prosperity (i.e. the lust of money) is a handsomely rewarded goal of a society, no matter the cost, then you can understand why history tells some of the horror stories it does - and why the economic system affects us the way it still does.

So if bankers aren't supposed to, then who? Well, the answer is quite simply, whoever thinks/realises that economic prosperity and human prosperity are essentially the same thing! And deep down, everybody knows this. If your philosophy/world-view is like a childish bully taking others' toys, you can only have some mean-spirited, selfish fun until the teacher (i.e. "life"/reality) returns to teach you some basic lessons that violence begets violence, and that sharing doesn't mean you have less to play with, it allows you to play with everyone else's!

The one thing bankers have though, is "brand appeal". People trust the establishment of the banking system, not the workings of it. Most of us quite simply don't understand the workings of it, and tragically for us (hilariously for the bankers, I'm sure) that's why we carry it on. Generation after generation. And our trust in just, pure establishment is quite easy to understand to when you realise we're actually trained to follow authority. Our parents/teachers/elders help with that, but crucially, these authoritative figures do actually care about our well-being (those externalities).

So we need to find an organisation/people with the highest aims and the greatest developers of human potential to replace the banks as the issuers of universally-recognised/respected unit of value (currency) to activate "econo-human development". Luckily we needn't look very far at all!

South Africa doesn't just have some of the best natural resources/environment, but some of the world's best human resources too. Unfortunately, our political leaders have apparently not thought of a way to harness the incredible(y untapped) human potential at its disposal. Maybe they think varsity-graduates holding signs on the streets is a sign of how abundant high-level education is! When really it shows that they don't realise that economic prosperity is literally begging to be used efficiently by someone who can recognise human potential, and supercharge it.

Just give these artists, scientists, engineers (intellectual powerhouses) a nice home to stay in with an inspiring quality of life (and access to whatever keeps them at their peak), and watch that inspiration turn to future wonders like free, abundant, clean energy (blackout-proofing) and infite water security (drought-proofing) for South Africa/the world, again, for free, forever!

Now, who is best-placed to lead this endeavour? It should be someone/an organisation that is obviously well-trusted, well-accomplished, and well-competent, with a proven track-record of working towards human prosperity. Luckily, to find such a person/people, again, we don't need to look very far at all! For technical achievement that surpasses pretty much what any single person has every achieved, this South African cannot be matched. If you haven't heard of Elon (motherloving) Musk, Google him NOW!! If we all offered our time to work for him, for free (as long as we get a better deal than we're getting now from "life/the default (old) economy") think of what's possible! It's kind of hard for me, because there would just be so much! But let's try:

If just Cape Town's million-strong unemployed people became a workforce dedicated to providing for themselves, and rewarding good (altruistic/ holistically beneficial/ society-developing activity) the future becomes almost blindingly bright! And since we're on the subject let's talk about how brightness will literally and figuratively be the engine of the future...

Let's demolish all the townships with their dirty, cold, inhospitable shacks, and relocate all the residents to a tiny section of the area previously covered by dangerous, unsightly corroded metal sheets, and electrical wiring to a piece of land just 10% of what they all took up previously, i.e. drastically reduce their physical footprint, and put them up in modern residential skyscrapers built (maybe with the help of Tesla's robots!) efficiently out of steel & solar panel-infused glass and "block batteries" (already developed by Elon's SolarCity), that not only won't need Eskom but might actually be able to compensate for it by supplying excess (abundant) solar energy to the grid.

If we demolish all township squalor, and cover that historical shame with a future that very few people now even dream about #VerticalVillages, that literally brings people together, minimises the ecological cost of humanity, and simultaneously and pragmatically provides universal access to true self-actualisation (the highest goal in Maslow's Hierarchy) and makes us a more enlightened and technologically-advanced, I can imagine other places around the world (or perhaps, all of it...eventually) catching on to this idea very quickly! We could unite around the shared core principles of altruism universal appeal & inclusivity, and access to provison of ALL human needs, limited only by the amount of value each individual (you) is/are willing to contribute to society. How does a strong, advanced Global, no, Universal Altruistic Empire sound to you?

Bonus Achievement

It's quite obvious, but once we realise that ignorance is just as bad, if not worse, for society than poverty, and that it can be remedied with just education (which is free to spread), we might realise how "innoculation from ignorance" (like some viruses), should be a worlwide goal. #UniversalFREEducation

Luckily, again, South Africa has already recognised the value of FREEducation, and perhaps the only thing of value Zuma ever did for SA was validating ideas of the #FeesMustFall. Before you confuse me for a JZ-sympathiser though, let me just note that he made no provision/policies for it's practical implementation - Here's where FREEconomic thinking shines:

"Who's gonna pay for all the teachers that need to be trained/paid, and the schools that need to be built?"

Well, what if those teachers"volunteered" their services, in return for the homes and school that the builders will "voluntarily" build (not just for the teachers that teach their kids, and the nurses/police that "voluntarily" keep them/the community safe in the #VerticalVillages

*I use "volunteer" in the sense that they're not being paid profit-centric, externality-blind, corruptive bank-issued money. They'll be paid in whatever currency #TheFREEconomy wants. It should obviously be a cryptocurrency, because that effectively replaces the current (greed-rewarding) banking system, with an app. And who doesn't love the freedom, convenience, and functionality of apps?!

So, essentially, if people are not being paid in money but in "imaginary points", then the dollars/cents cost of producing virtually anything literally goes down to zero!

But those points will have to mean something though, and their distribution must be measured. There must be enough rewards or "prizes" for the all the "points" you're giving away. This is basically Economics 101. Most economists focus on distribution/management of the economy/money, often without ever zooming out to examine/question the basic design of the system. Once we do though, we might see that the possibilities are truly endless.

If I say we should mechanise the production of buildings, food, clothing, etc. You might gasp, and cry out, "But what about those people's jobs?! How will they earn a living?" And if you thought anything even remotely like that, and be honest, your thinking might be compromised. In other words, you've been brainwashed by current economic theory. Remember in the 1st and 2nd paragraphs of this now epic entry (which I really hope I'm gonna wrap up soon) I said that the world and our minds would work very differently in #TheFREEWorld? I believe most of our minds have been warped. Follow my logic, for just a bit longer and see if it affects the way you think :

If there's a boring/ time-consuming/ degrading that a relatively cheap tool can do better than a human, we should obviously use it and free up that human, because another human has delivered a superior solution to a (probably common) problem. In an economic model made predominantly of small, competing companies (like warring tribes) who usually need to care more about profit than people, robots/computers are often cheap, effective replacements of humans. Once again, externalities (like unemployment, massive inequality, and social/moral decline) that are usually ignored, reveal inconvenient truths that are now impossible for anyone who isn't delusional to ignore. The Old Economic model is clearly outdated

#TheFREEconomy thinks very differently. It knows that people can do more than one thing. In fact, it knows we can do very many things, very well, if trained, even just a little bit. It knows you can do things that haven't even been done yet! So if a piece of technology outperforms you at solving one of today's particular problems, rather than cast you into the unemployment pile to beg (maybe steal) for scraps, we will see what other(maybe new) problems you can solve.

In #TheFREEconomy, robots don't replace people, they support them. People often dream of "breaking through ceilings", robots will "raise the floor" so that humanity can reach its highest goals. By "Automating" processes that are, as I type (eve of 2019) ready for large-scale adoption to do things like build beautiful, smart, sustainable housing developments, and farm food organically, vertically in controlled environments, the "Game of Life" now starts on easy/beginner mode! No more "Game Over" for newbie players (i.e. all poverty/war/famine/disease-related infant mortality is now solved)!

When you play #TheFREEconomy , as long as you play by the universally-understood rules of fairplay (no cheating/morally degenerative behaviour) then there won't be any need for you to stop playing (die of unnatural causes)!

Let's go full fantasy mode. Once that "floor" has been raised so high by robotic production of very inexpensive, high-quality, housing, food, (clothing, essentials, transport, etc.) people will be able to enter #TheFREEconomy in whatever state, and either stay there, or progress by taking on increasingly challenging tasks/"missions" (that offer attractive bonus points for "above par" performance to permanently motivate progress and "limit-pushing")

A child entering #TheFREEconomy at kindergarten will enter school vastly healthier (physically & mentally, due to poverty/war/famine/disease-curing progress) than today, and will themselves raised so rapidly by that robot-supported "floor" that by the end of adolescence they enter the world capable of unleashing unimaginable good on the world.

Having enjoyed access to Philosopher King-level education/training in whatever discipline(s) they have aptitude for/interest in, they might be able to demonstrate their "God-like" competency for creation/problem-solving/whatever with an effortless ease that initially embarrasses parents, until they remember it was their wisdom in gifting #TheFREEconomy to their children in the first place, that allowed for them, and so very many of their friends to achieve such levels of greatness! And good!

Also, Free Wi-Fi is a Basic Human Right, Free Smart Cars, & Our Home-Grown Afronauts/(Super)Heroes.