A foundational problem is that we are goal oriented creatures in a cyclical, reciprocal reality.
Money has to circulate, in order for markets to function. Yet we treat it as the signal to extract from the noise of society and economy, necessitating ever more be added and ever more inventive ways to store what has been extracted.
Econ 101 teaches that money is both medium of exchange and store of value, yet these are distinct functions, as one is dynamic, while the other is static. Blood is a medium, fat is a store. Roads are a medium, parking lots are a store.
As a medium, money is largely a contract, with one side an asset and the other a debt. Even gold back currencies are a receipt for some quantity of gold. So in order to store the asset, similar amounts of debt have to be generated.
For one thing, this creates a centripetal effect, as positive feedback draws the asset to the center of the community, while negative feedback pushes the debt to the edges. Since finance and banking function as the value circulation mechanism of the entire community, this is analogous to the heart telling the hands and feet they don’t need so much blood and should work harder for what they do get.
The Ancients used debt jubilees to reset this dynamic, but after riding the wave of industrialization and colonialism, the modern world has not quite reached the end of that chain.
The other consequence is the government has been induced to be debtor of last resort. It is safe to say the finance markets could not function, without governments siphoning up trillions in excess money. The US debt really began with the New Deal, so not only was Roosevelt putting unemployed labor back to work, but unemployed capital, as well.
The secret sauce of capitalism is that public debt backs private wealth.
Which explains why we have endless, strategically inept wars, as their primary function to burn the money, in order that more can be borrowed.
Government, as the executive and regulatory function, is analogous to the central nervous system, as banking is to the circulations system.
Government was originally private, as monarchies evolved out of tribal hierarchies, but when kings lost sight of the fact they served a function to society, in order to be served by it, the system mutated into a public utility.
Finance is currently having its, “Let them eat cake.” moment.
The fact is that there isn’t sufficient viable investments for everyone to individually save for their future and the illusion that it is possible is creating an enormous speculative bubble which will leave many sorely disappointed.
We all save for many of the same reasons, such as housing, raising children, healthcare, retirement, etc, so if these could be invested in directly, as community assets and networks, rather than everyone trying to save for them individually, with bank accounts as a personal umbilical cord, we would have stronger communities and the healthier environments they require.
As it is, our individualistic ethos creates an atomized culture, that is more easily controlled by authoritarian elements and mediated by a parasitic financial system. A healthy existence is a two way street between the individual and the community. Nodes and networks.
Not that government and finance could be one, anymore than the head and heart are one. Politicians live and die on the hope they inspire and since we experience money as quantified hope, the tendency to print money, when all else is failing, is a usual fallback.
While this might seem wishful thinking, the future we have been borrowing against is going to arrive soon.
It is likely that some are planning on bringing disaster capitalism/predatory lending home to the US and insist on trading their piles of government bonds for any remaining public assets and the keys to the kingdom. Then we will understand true oligarchy.
Hopefully this is avoided, but even if it happens, it will be fairly unstable and unproductive.
Remember, we might be goal oriented, but nature remains cyclical.
