The Destructive Power of Money and Human Greed

Money in modern society has become synonymous with power which leads to greed and corruption. Before money, people traded goods and services through a system of bartering. Later, the acceptance of metals such as copper, silver and gold made trading easier. The advent of coins negated the need to weigh these metals. For safekeeping, people would store gold and silver in the vaults of goldsmiths for which they would receive a receipt. This practice was the beginning of the banking system. The receipts were the precursor of paper currency and could be traded because they were backed by the precious metal on deposit.

When politicians took their countries from the gold standard, the paper money essentially became worthless except for the promise of the government to honour its value. This is referred to as fiat currency. In other words, it only has value because of a government decree. There is an inscription on every US bank note which reads: This note is legal tender for all debts public and private. Without a backing of substance, governments can print as much paper money as they wish thus devaluing the currency. The US dollar has lost 99% of its value since being taken off the gold standard. A $20 gold coin is now worth over $2,000 in fiat currency.

Money has become concentrated in the hands of fewer people thus giving them power over others by keeping them in debt. Our so-called democracy is defined by some as an economic dictatorship. “Wealth” comes from the English word “weal” which was a measure of a person’s abundance including friends, knowledge, wisdom, and health. Today wealth is reduced to money or things of monetary value. A whole new industry known as wealth management has been created to help manage money. The continuance of today’s madness requires people to increasingly go into debt. Without debt, the system could not be sustained. Our path as humans is clear. Stop going into debt. Stop buying into the illusion that your worth as a human being is dependent on what you have and do. This is an ego-driven response. The advent of cryptocurrencies is designed to put the power and control back in the hands of the people instead of governments and big businesses.