Insight and inspiration in turbulent times.
We live in a vast mechanized economy, where machines do 90-99% of the mechanical work needed to create and deliver products and services, even food. These machines are paid in energy, and have no notion of human currency. This article explores the idea of metabolic (energy backed) currency, how it might come about, and what we can learn from the technology industry.
So here we have it. The austerity versus Keynsian spending debate is about as useful as arguing whether the earth is flat or sitting on the back of a pile of turtles. Neither will provide sustainable interventions to our converging crises while the debt-based money system remains the only significant game in town.
Once money becomes primary value rather than a marker of value, it’s almost automatic that money will further dissociate our values and alter our perceptions. We don’t see the hungry person, we see the poor person—and the response is very different.
