Peaceful Transition

Educate – Organize – Move the Zeitgeist

Gary Kent aka The Zeitgeist Kid

Today, the power of money rules the world and banks control the money. Banks control the money because they have the power to create the money. This is how those who own and control the banks set the global agenda. They make and break Presidents and Prime Ministers. They determine who gets money and for what. This is why the businesses we now know as “too big to fail” banks are the ones that received all the monetary bailouts. This is why “quantitative easing” benefits the moneyed investors who own most of the Wall Street stocks, and the stock market is reaching new highs while the majority of the world's people struggle to survive. This is why ending the debt-based creation of money by the central banks and moving the creation of money back into the hands of the people is so critical.

The power of love works for all people. Only the few benefit from the love of power that controls the creation of money and creates the systemic wealth discrepancies we see ruling our planet. Those who control the creation of money set the agenda for us all. Our democracies are in deep trouble because those who control the creation of money have bought and paid for our governments with the money they have conjured out of thin air. At the climax of the documentary movie, Zeitgeist: Moving Forward, the people came together to take back their power by returning the money that rules us to the bankers who created it.

Even those who have begun to understand the dynamics of the economic forces at play, struggle to find a way to understand how we can move from our present culture dominated by the power of money to a “ Utopian” dream of a money-less society. The transition from a socio-economic system totally dependent upon money must begin by the people retaking the power to create money. This power cannot be allowed to remain in the hands of only a few. Only in this way can we ever begin to reset the agendas so critical to our long-term sustainability and survival.

This is not such a daunting task as it may at first appear. The process has already begun. Plans have existed for such a transition for decades. The broad effort to educate people is well underway. Many ideas have entered the global dialogue that were largely unknown a few short years ago. “The Chicago Plan Revisited” and “Universal Basic Income” are two cornerstones upon which a solid transition might be built. But before we can begin discussing the details of how these two ideas might lead to a peaceful, sustainable, money-less society, we need to clearly understand the socio-economic system as it exists today.

Since 1971, the money we use has been strictly speaking a fiat currency. This is true of all the major global currencies.

There is no backing of gold, silver or other commodities as a guarantee for fiat currencies. For more than 40 years this global system of monetary exchange has worked, more or less. People are able to work and be paid, go to the grocery store and buy food for their families and save money for their other needs. The greatest portion of the economic troubles we have seen have been related to the creation of money and not to the fact that it is a fiat currency. Inflation, recessions, bankruptcies and depressions are all symptoms related to the creation and circulation of money, not to its nature. Essentially, money is a way of keeping score between all people as to their contributions or debts to society. So long as there is a mutually agreed upon medium of exchange, it doesn't matter what particular medium of exchange is used. Some people don't trust fiat currencies because they are not backed by gold. But, so long as most people are willing to exchange value for a currency, that doesn't matter.

Now, a big part of the problem we are facing economically is related specifically to the debt-based creation of money. Because all money today is created out of debt, meaning you are indebted to those who created the money that is loaned to you, every nation and most people in the world live in a state of constant debt. All the austerity plans, budget cuts and taxes levied are efforts to pay back these debts at greatest cost to those least able to meet their debt obligations. Because the money to pay for interest charged on debts was never created at the time of the original loan, there is an endless cycle of too little money chasing too much debt, a problem that can only increase over time. This is one big reason why we have a planet on the verge of economic collapse and global bankruptcy. National bankruptcies, such as Greece and Cyprus, are a symptom of the debt-based creation of money by banks.

The "Chicago Plan” was initially proposed in 1933 when bankruptcies became so bad during the great depression that all the major banks were closing their doors to business, declaring bank holidays, because they could not meet their obligations to their depositors. The troubles began when mid-western banks foreclosed on farmers who were unable to meet their loan obligations due to crop failures during the mid-1920's. When the expected buyers of the farms failed to materialize, the banks were stuck with farms they had no way of managing because they had taken them away from the farmers who knew how to manage them. The farms that were left unmanaged, eventually led to the environmental disaster of the “Dust Bowl” or "Dirty Thirties” and the mass migrations of families no longer able to support themselves from the mid-west to California described in the literature of the times by authors like John Steinbeck, in “The Grapes of Wrath”. The mid-western banks at first affected by these economic and environmental woes were bought by larger and larger banks until the entire American banking system was in crisis.

Under "The Chicago Plan Revisited”, banks would be required to maintain 100% reserves for all loans. This would, in essence, eliminate the ability of banks to create money because they would have to guarantee 100% of all loans, either through private lenders or through the government. The government becomes the final guarantor of all loans, rather than the private banks of the Federal Reserve System. This is essentially the De Facto manner in which the banking system operates today as was made abundantly clear by the government bailouts of the “too big to fail” private banks that comprise the bulk of the privately owned and managed “Federal Reserve System”. In this way, the creation of money would be transferred back into the hands of government as it was originally written into the constitution before the Federal Reserve Act of 1913. Banks would become just like any other business that is required to maintain financial viability, or they would be allowed to fail. The financial “risk” associated with making loans through banks would fall entirely on any depositors willing to take that risk. Banks would not foreclose on businesses and properties as those would now belong to the people through their governments as the final guarantor of all prior outstanding loans made on reserve. Fractional reserve lending is the primary manner in which banks create new money today. The endless privatization of all property driven by fractional reserve lending would be reversed, with unsecured wealth beginning to flow back into the common holdings of the people as managed through their governments. This amounts to a De Facto declaration of the resources as the commonwealth of the people.

Even after the Chicago plan is fully implemented, money creation is still needed to make necessary balanced economic activity possible. With the end of fractional reserve lending, the role of banks as the creators of money is gone. As is constitutionally mandated, the creation of money must once again fall to the government of the people. Now remember, we are using fiat currency, so basically, a few strokes of a keyboard is all that is needed to create any given amount of money. Also, since the government is now the creator of all money, there is no longer any need to collect taxes or borrow money in order to fund government spending. The decisions of government on social priorities is easily funded by the creation of new money. The tricky part is that a carefully regulated amount of currency must be maintained in circulation in order to not cause either inflation or deflation and the ensuing economic turmoil associated with the boom and bust cycles of our present debt-based, fractional reserve, largely unregulated money creation by central banks and bankers. So just because government is able to create money 'out of thin air', so to speak, doesn't mean that there can be unlimited government spending. Quite the contrary, government spending through all programs, “Universal Basic Income” or any other must be carefully balanced by rigorous, scientific accounting to maintain just the right amount of money in circulation to meet the needs of people's economic activity without creating either inflation or deflation, much as the Federal Reserve attempts to do today, while of course insuring their own private profits. Private bankers often manipulate the supply of money for the purposes of gaining private economic advantage and securing profits(Libor Scandal). So maintaining a “balanced budget” would be critical, with everyone understanding clearly that the results of not doing so would adversely effect everyone equally. Obviously, transparency here would be a big issue. The first ever partial audit in the private Federal Reserve’s nearly 100 year history happened in 2012.

However, rather than benefiting only the wealthy few, the creation of money by government should be done as fairly and equitably as possible. This is where the idea of a “Universal Basic Income” begins to play a role. Nothing could be more fair or equitable than a guaranteed “Universal Basic Income” for injecting needed money into the economy. If this is implemented in a careful and graduated manner, so that the levels of “Universal Basic Income” at first provide enough for say the basic food needs of an individual, for instance, the economic effect of such a stimulus would be broad and immediate, helping those most whose need is greatest. As economic conditions allow, the “Universal Basic Income” can be expanded, to the most immediate necessities of life first, continuing to gradually increase until basically society is providing equitably and fairly for everyone. By maintaining a careful balance of money in circulation, real value will be constantly generated without the aberrant economic forces of profit driven by the need for survival-skewing consumption.

Many of the social support networks so problematic in our present economic system would gradually be replaced by a “Universal Basic Income”. Food stamps would be the first to go, then perhaps public housing, public education and public health care. The effects of unemployment would also be naturally mitigated by a “Universal Basic Income”. As people are no longer forced to work in order to merely survive, the general level of contentment within society could be expected to increase dramatically. People would begin to pursue more creative and rewarding activities. Those jobs that are tedious and repetitive, but necessary, could be rapidly and safely automated without having to worry about the economic impacts of technological unemployment.

As you may already have noticed, many of the socio-economic forces driving problems at a root level within our present system will naturally begin to mitigate. As people have their basic needs met by society, their interests will naturally turn towards supporting society in filling those needs. The gradual emergence of a truly global collaborative interaction, not only between individuals, but between cities, states and nations can reasonably be expected. Dealing with such pressing issues as environmental disruption will become much easier to manage when there are many fewer, strictly profit-driven incentives determining each person's every decision. A truly rational, scientifically determined management of the Earth's resources for the meeting of everyone's needs might begin to look like a real possibility. You may also have noticed that throughout this process, money is the lever that makes it all possible - the proper, scientific management of money for meeting common needs.

Of course, eventually, in some distant future, when true equality between all people is a achieved, it will begin to look kind of stupid to have to deal with money all the time. But it may take a while for that level of trust to build all around the world. We have a lot of past hurts that need healing first. The use of money after all, is basically an act of distrust. If our word and a handshake were enough, no money would ever be needed. But that's for some distant future. Today, we need to educate more people about why we find ourselves in this difficult moment of planetary crisis and about what we need to do to begin moving the Zeitgeist towards a more peaceful and sustainable future. We need to educate and organize. If we need to join hand in hand, arm in arm, in every street, in every city, all around the world in peaceful demonstrations to make this happen, then that's what we need to do.

Let the Revolution Begin, Peacefully of course!

Peace and Love to All,

thezeitgeistmovement