Reply #27: Money and capitalism as we know it can't last.

[hunter]

Everyone needs to be thinking about alternative community based economic systems that rely on "pay it forward" systems of sharing and gifting, rather than federally enforced collections of debt.

It's very possible that being able to support oneself and others in a community without a stable national currency or functional national banking system is about to become a very necessary survival trait. For some of us it already is.

I don't think the 1% is ever going to give up their control of money in favor of "trickle up" economic systems where the people on the bottom of the pyramid create and control a great deal of non-monetized wealth. The one-percenters will continue to create debt instruments for things that are increasingly insubstantial, even as the rest of us begin to starve.

What is the value of an empty house that's been foreclosed upon? What is the value of an automobile that nobody can afford to buy gas for? What is the value of student loans or medical debts that can never be repaid?

This will be the one-percenter's downfall. They believe they are the engines of wealth creation, and it is becoming quite obvious to everyone else they are not.

It's very simple. If the 99% can't pay their debts, they don't. If the 99% have no money to buy stuff with, they don't.

It even applies to things like copyrights. Is a song really worth a dollar if the people most likely to listen to it don't have a dollar to spare?

I don't have a disposable income. My wife is not an economic dropout like I am yet, she likes to buy DVD movies, books, clothes, and art, but once our mortgage, medical bills, utilities, and kid's college expenses are paid, there's not much left. My wife and I have this internet connection for work. We currently don't have satellite or cable television. Our credit rating was destroyed by medical bills.

If I had some kind of disposable income, would I use commercial software and computers such as Microsoft Windows, Mac, or Photoshop? Would I buy music on iTunes? I don't know. I've been living so long on the outside of the conventional economy that it begins to look repulsive to me. I exist very much as a hunter-gatherer-maker in my personal life. I don't buy much of anything I see advertised because I figure if I needed it, they wouldn't be advertising it. I've never seen an ad for the bulk rice and beans or the fruits and vegetables I eat.

My computers and cars are resurrected from trash. I run open source software, Debian instead of Windows, Gimp instead of Photoshop. I buy art directly from artists, music directly from musicians. It's a wonderful week when my car sits in the driveway undriven gathering spider webs and lichens, and a wonderful month when I've avoided big box stores entirely.

Part of me wants to see our current economic system die, but I also know it won't be the one percenters who get hurt when it does.