I hope people will spend time contemplating money as a social phenomenon. This does not mean think about how to get more or how to manage the money you have. Money is a social phenomenon. There is so much literature available about money it is overwhelming. In fact, money is the reason the word “economy” exists. Think about that and what is has done already. The ‘economy is down.’ There is no work because the economy is down. So, all who don’t have plenty of money already will have to suffer. But money is a social phenomenon we create or not.

Money has become the means of survival. It was not always that way. In fact, it was not relatively long ago when people were able to survive independently of money. They could setup on a tract of land and tend to their needs independently of money. There are still small tracts of land available free provided improvements are begun within certain timeframes. The days of vast miles of good land are gone. The Homestead Act of 1862 and others were government moves to get people to develop land. Free land was available under certain conditions. Millions of people were granted deeds to millions of square miles of land until the early to mid-nineteen hundreds. Today, the possibility of living off the land without the use of money is gone. Even though there are free land deals available to some extent in the USA and even though there are other such opportunities in some other nations, the possibility of living without money is gone. 

As people spread across the Americas bringing the cultures of their heritage, the land became claimed and used. The process turned land into a commodity to be bought, sold, leased, traded. Pockets of cultural ways from other continents formed until self-sufficient living became impossible even for the natives that lived there before without using money. Money is now required to live nearly everywhere on earth.

Consider that- Survival has become a matter of getting money. Simple subsistence survival requires money because of taxes and bureaucratic management. The ownership of land has been destroyed by taxes levied on the land everyone owns. Even if someone manages to subsist on land paid for, money is still necessary due to taxes. But if one desires to live with the conveniences and pleasures brought about by the scientific, industrial, technological, and other so-called revolutions, money is required. Money must be produced to get virtually anything. That includes, of course, medical help. People die in millions due to the lack of money for medical help. That is just one of the horrible consequences of living in a world that requires money to live.

The quality of life is bound to the amount of money one can produce. Some have so much money they cannot even give it all away before their lives end. Others die miserably of starvation, disease, accidents, emotional intolerance, and hopelessness due to their inability to produce money. Wealth and poverty exist side by side like the black and white keys on a piano. The wealthy are a very small percentage of the population. A bit larger percentage live better than the poverty stricken. That and a lot more is due to the fact that money has become the means to survive with the quality of survival determined by the amount of money that an individual can produce.

What might have started as a convenience that eased the burdens of trade has become the means of survival and quality of life. Little time in terms of cultural development was necessary to make money something the governments create out of paper and ink. Today the USA counts money in trillions. Total money in use is incalculable. Figures for the USA alone are supplied by the Federal Reserve and total around twenty trillion. The rest of the world also creates money. The totals are simply impossible to calculate. But there is no valid need to know who much money there is to be able to contemplate money as a social phenomenon. It is not a set amount because it is removed and replaced constantly. The factors involved in money are so complex and so many, people become specialists in certain limited areas of money’s myriad characteristics.  According to one report, the world has about 2.7 quadrillion dollars.  None of the data is reliable due to the variables inherent in the phenomenon of global money. It leaves out so many aspects of value inherent in all aspects of social phenomenon, like the value of assets, currency, and other forms of monetary phenomenon. Trying to read about all the things related to money and how much there is takes more time than humans have. Simply dealing with currency in the USA employs a veritable army of people, infrastructure, assets, and social organizations the convenience said to be the cause of money is clearly gone. It has become a huge drain on human time, energy, and life. All of it is overhead. The more overhead a business creates—or a society–the less time, energy, and resources there are available to created the things money is supposed to make available for purchase. It is crazy. People make huge amounts of money buying and selling money. Stock markets are similar. The logical goal of production is efficiency, producing with the least amount of cost, or overhead. Then marketing is added to the process. All total, the cost of money to the earth and mankind is far greater than its benefits. There is a direct link between the fact that money is used by the global societies and the damage to the environment. Whether we think in terms of Capitalism, Communism, Socialism or other form of monetary system–and that is what they all are– money is more the cause of weather problems than any other man-made cause. But weather is not the only cost of money. The physical damage to the world is an even greater cost. Money is destroying the possibility of life on Earth. It is now doing it quickly. All that and more and worse simply because of a stupid social phenomenon we call “money.”

There is so much to offer the people regarding the phenomenon of money, it is a daunting task to even think of ways to help people comprehend money well enough to attain some degree of informed and intelligent comprehension. In the final analysis, it would be a waste of time were it not for the dominance, prevalence, and cost of money worldwide. We all inherited it as part of society. We must deal with it. To do that, we must think about it as a social phenomenon and how it has become an onerous phenomenon impossible to justify. It is not a convenience. It is a monster. Mankind is addicted to it. It is as though money is a living entity everyone serves.  Are we here to serve money or one another? It appears that we are living to serve money. It requires so much time, energy, and resources there is no justification. That alone should be enough to cause thinking people to at least want to attempt to enhance their awareness of money.

The factors involved in mankind’s lives today are so complex and so numerous there is no way whereby a person can grasp it all within the limits of human consciousness. We are only capable of so much. With more than seven billion people and thousands of years of accumulated history and changes to the world, we have long since lost control and understanding of what is going on and what will happen. The feelings of hopelessness and futility have spread out over the generations with ever increasing force. There is no valid reason to think things will be alright without global changes within the social phenomena and the individual characteristics of the billions of people. Change is inevitable, but intelligent changes are the best. But intelligence enough to include all the aspects of life today is not likely to exist. It becomes a factor of capacity quickly. How much can we consider intelligently? How much is there to know? How do we find the data we need? These and countless other questions debunk the hope that someone will be able to understand everything and help mankind rise out of the rut that leads to its destruction. BUT! It is not necessary.

All we need to do to alter course and begin a journey of security, pleasure, fun, plenty, and endless other wonderful things is to first start trying to comprehend money as a social phenomenon. Second, see that we don’t actually need money at all. Mankind can slowly and kindly begin to stop the phenomenon known as money. We are all people. We all work together already but divided by factors cultural. We are all mostly the same physically. The only things money can buy are the things produced, created, and discovered within the global human society or family. Everyone plays their part, even the homeless, poor, lazy, crazy, and whatever. It takes all to operate the global social structures. It is time to accept that and stop segregating people according to how much they are worth in terms of money. We are all equally deserving. If that is not easy for you to accept, the effects of living in a society that uses monetary systems has made it that way for you. The fact cannot be negated that society produces what we need and want. That means we all do it. That means we all are entitled to share and share alike in everything we produce. When we share and share alike all we produce, money has no place.

Money is used to allocate each person’s access to the products of society. We are only allowed to access those things for which we have money to purchase. The injustice of that is enough, but the lack of compassion and love is demonic. How easily we accept billionaires and poverty side by side! Can we really live well while others suffer and die needlessly all around us because they don’t have enough money? The answer is yes provided we have no hearts, love, compassion, commiseration, generosity, or any other virtue. The power and ability to live with it must not be confused with virtue. None are exactly alike. Each has strengths and weaknesses. But each is equally deserving of our love and equally entitled to the products of society. To facilitate the manifestation of the entitlement, we need only stop using any form of monetary system. So many people think money exists so we can get stuff. The truth is that money exists to prevent people from getting stuff. If we are producing for everyone equally, what role would money have? None!

The days are coming. What will they bring. One need not be a prophet to see what is obvious. There are people who have enough power by means of having so much money they can direct the work and lives of billions of people. The future will be what they make it. It will not be what the people want. In fact, it appears the people who have power want to reduce the number of people. They can do it, too. They began to formulate the plans long ago. When monarchs and such live in wealth and power, they feel special, better. They treat others as vassals, minions, pawns, fighters, and anything they want. They can deploy the people to build fantastic tombs for themselves. They can conduct world wars. They have power over the lives of everyone, including themselves. They can decide there are too many people and take steps to reduce the number. They have deployed mankind for so long now we have made it to the moon and other planets, albeit in very small numbers. They have put the people to work building things far more splendid than the Great Pyramid. So much of the earth is covered with the things the people have been deployed to build the future of life is threatened. This is known by the people who deploy mankind. That is why they are so intent on convincing the people that CO2 is causing the weather to change. But the real intent is to reduce the number of people. They think that will solve their problems. Such people have always been dominant throughout history. Life today is the result of the evolution of that factor. History is the story of nations and the rulers of nations. Include in the nations the religions and tomorrow comes clearly into view.

To avoid panic, changes must take place slowly and intelligently with knowledge and love. We know that. What better way to slowly change the world than by gaining better understanding of one of societies phenomenon that can be ended to transform the global societies into one global family of loving caring people of intelligence, wisdom, and virtue? When money is ended, people will be relieved of the burdens of survival and security. The effect on the coming generations will cause the transformation life for all forms of life on Earth. It could be the easiest thing in the world to do at this time. We have the legacy of the ancestors to work with already. We are already doing what is necessary to provide all that is being provided. We can refine the methods used at this time and increase the area of the galaxy we access by ending the use of a social phenomenon known as ‘money.’ Think about it.