Original Money

February 1, 2010 In olden days, a major portion of the money system was in neighborhoods and gardens. In the neighborhood, you had friendly labor to help harvest your wheat, build a barn, or put a new roof on your house. It wasn’t free labor – you had to repay in kind – but it was as good as having money in your pocket. From the garden you got food that fed you all year. It wasn’t free either – you had to till and weed – but it was like money in the bank, too. Everyone understood that all money came from the resources of Mother Earth. Gradually, as big business took over agriculture, many of the small farms, seed companies, neighborhoods, and gardens were lost. As more and more people got jobs, no one had the time to come over and help harvest wheat or grapes for a week. My! How people loved jobs because of the steady paycheck. They just had to show up to collect that paycheck! They didn’t have to be responsible for anything, they just had to do what they were told. As creativity shrank, independence melted, and freedom disappeared, there was ever-more-desperate dependence on a paycheck and an increasing willingness to overlook the avalanche of rules and laws that favored big banks and their money system, as well as big corporations and their food systems. Slowly, a major part of the original money systems were lost. As I look out at the money systems we use now - corporate banks and corporate agriculture - it’s amazing how similar they are to one another… Both pretend that the free market system is working for them while hushing up the ongoing manipulation at their core. Both subscribe to the “bigger is better” theory. Both rely on big government. The financial system was taken over by the Federal Reserve banks, while agriculture was taken over by big corporations. Both expect a tiny seed to produce enough to survive on whether it’s seed corn or seed capital. Both rack up tremendous amounts of interest income whether it’s 24% interest on a loan, or the 400% increase returned by Mother Nature when a crop is planted. Both use part of their return on investment to generate new income, all the while claiming hardship and excessive regulation. Both crash regularly. When they crash, we don’t eat or pay our bills. Today, our monoculture money system is strictly enforced in order to keep everyone captive in the system. If we were more honest with ourselves about what is happening, more oriented toward care, sharing, compassion, a sense of brotherhood, and peace, we would have access to a form of money that is as good as gold – neighborhoods and gardens. Instead, we have monocultures in both money and agriculture – and nothing could be more dangerous.