The
Destiny of Dollars
Visiting Paris, Rome or the grocery store costs more dollars every day.
The U.S. dollar's value is tumbling. After having been the world
champion of money for sixty years, our dollar is staggering.
Since 1933 our money has not been backed by gold, nor by silver since
1969. American manufacture was the spine of dollar power until those
jobs fled overseas. Domestic natural resources have been used up--
we've devoured 80% of America's original oil, most natural gas and
richest topsoil. Effective military control of cheap foreign oil and
labor is ending despite massive weapons spending. Federal Reserve Notes
today merely represent $9 trillion of national debt.
All national currencies are deep in debt-- indebted to nature-- because
human economies extract from nature faster than we replenish. This debt
accumulates as more human beings than ever consume earth's fuels,
metals, soils and water. Eventually, were the planet used up, money
would buy nothing.
Today, though, some national currencies still buy more than others,
because those nations control more of these dwindling resources.
Russia's economy, crippled when the USSR ended, rebounds because it
controls one quarter of earth's natural gas, and pipes it to europe.
So, to predict the destiny
of empires and economies, and of your money,
watch the flow of resources. China, currently the world's manufacturing
powerhouse and owner of more U.S. dollars than any nation, depends
itself on oil imported from the Middle East, South America and Africa--
just as we do. Burdened with one fifth of the world's population and
fading soils, China will decline. Japan, a trading nation once so
powerful that they owned America's biggest skyscrapers, has few
domestic resources. Venezuela, by contrast, with far more oil than it
needs, pulls Latin America from Washington's grasp. The Canadians are
selling us natural gas, so their money gets new respect.
|
Rather
than depending on massive extractive corporations, and our giant
landfill economy, America's economic health relies on millions of tiny
local economies, just as healthy lungs rely on millions of tiny air
sacks. Reviving human economies means reviving local economies,
ecologically.
These essential regional changes have begun, led by millions
of
American businesses and nonprofit organizations, and recent college
grads.
Among the many tools for rebuilding economies is local currency. Ithaca
has pioneered this process with Ithaca HOURS (one HOUR = $10.00).
Millions of dollars' worth have been traded since 1991. Connecting
people rather than controlling them, community cash releases the
creativity of area residents to trade more ecologically. Grants are
made to community organizations. Loans are made, interest-free. Local
government itself could be funded increasingly by local money. With
extra money committed to regional development, we're more able to
purchase local organic food, solar power, local crafts, energy
efficiencies, and holistic health care.
Americans are now forced to build a far better world because the
alternative is a far worse world. Preparing our nation to
thrive with
one-tenth the oil and natural gas and coal begins at home Looking far
enough ahead, towards the adulthood of your children, there will be
little oil but we will be warm. There will be few cars but we will go
faster to places more beautiful. In dry regions there will be no flush
toilets but bathrooms will be more sanitary. The most secure housing
will be built substantially underground. Cities will grow much of their
own food.
Time binds us to great change. And in Ithaca, that Time is Money.
[email protected]
MORE
ESSAYS
|
