Money - what is it REALLY?

We're trying to start up a Timebank in Halswell (and you can find out more about timebanking and what it is here, or here.  I'm interested in doing this because I've recently learned a lot about our money system and it has been an eye opener! 

 I thought over the next few months that I'd write a little bit about our money system to highlight some of the issues and talk about what they mean for us and our communities.  Money has enormous effects (much more than we realise) on our way of life, on our relationships (or lack of them) and on our environment.  The system we currently have is faulty and is creating enormous amounts of waste at the same time as many people are not able to access the things that they need to live adequately.  It is also seriously weird!

First up have you ever wondered where money comes from?  As a kid I thought it appeared magically in my mum's purse (and I guess she'd like that!).  Of course I wasn't that old before I realised that it is not like that.  However what I did notice was that the amount we had to pay for things keeps going up and so does the amount that people want to earn or that people have to pay off in their mortgages.   Why is this?

It turns out that a major reason for this is that banks are not places where we put our money for safe keeping.  They are actually places where money is created and a large proportion of our money is never anything other than 1s and 0s in a computer (as this three minute video points out).  ALL of our money comes into being when someone goes into debt.  Many people do know this.  Seven Sharp had a little article on it one night pointing this out.  If you have a bit more time and interest you might also watch the Money as Debt Series on Youtube.  New Zealand banking is no different to banking in the UK or the USA.  And in case you are wondering about whether you can trust all these documentary films, even the Bank of England spells this out in this publication. 


There are enormous implications (some of them weird, as I mentioned) that  arise from this fact.  I plan to talk a bit more about some of these things in some future posts.