Fiat Money
...I believe that greed and competition are not a result of immutable human temperament; I have come to the conclusion that greed and fear of scarcity are in fact being continuously created and amplified as a direct result of the kind of money we are using. For example, we can produce more than enough food to feed everybody, and there is definitely enough work for everybody in the world, but there is clearly not enough money to pay for it all. The scarcity is in our national currencies. In fact, the job of central banks is to create and maintain that currency scarcity. The direct consequence is that we have to fight with each other in order to survive.
Lietaer, a former Belgian banker instrumental in the establishment of the Euro and a recognized world authority on money, believes that people should create their own currencies—he calls them "complementary currencies"—as a part of the answer.
The problem with our current system is not hard to define: There is not enough money in circulation to mediate the optimal number of transactions in our society and world. Put more simply, work needs to be done and there are workers needing work, and the only thing keeping them from doing the work is the lack of money. Lietaer believes that people can overcome many of these problems by creating their own currencies that operate alongside the official money system. In his book, The Future of Money, he makes a powerful argument for complementary currencies based on actual human experience, citing historical examples from ancient Egypt to the present time.
Unfortunately, Amazon.com lists the book as "unavailable," but it is available on amazon.co.uk, which will ship to the U.S.
It is time to bring some of the most brilliant minds to bear upon the subject of our monetary/financial system and how it may be changed to reverse its mindless rush towards ecological, political and social disaster for the whole Earth. In order to make our civilization sustainable, people must be rewarded for actions that promote sustainability. The system now rewards people for exactly the opposite behavior. Classical economics, with its one-dimensional conception of humankind as homo acquisitivus, has become no more than an elaborate mathematical justification for even more destructive corporate and national behavior, if such a thing were possible.
Having been immersed all our lives in the world of fiat currencies, it is hard for us to imagine something different. It is even more difficult, if not impossible, to comprehend how the very nature of the money we earn, spend, and think about so much of the time contributes to many, if not most, of the world's major problems. But Lietaer shows that is indeed the case and it doesn't have to be that way. We humans created money a certain way and we can change it. Most professional economists, unfortunately, will be of little help; they have too much stake in existing theory and their paymasters have too much at stake in keeping the present system going as long as possible. Solving the current crisis will require leaders with the openness and breadth of intelligence of an Adam Smith, and they are rare in any age. Let us hope.