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Imagine a Money-Less Society, Can You?
What would a Money-less society be like?
The most important response to this question is that is MUST start with having a vision! This is the largest hurdle that most people, including me face.The reasons are because we have been programmed throughout many generations believing that this idea is NOT possible, and therefore our DNA genes have been shut down!
It's my aim to awaken these shut down genes through story telling. By writing predictive vision of a different society I myself can awaken the genes that are within me and therefore share it.
If there was no money to work for, what would people do?
- Would they give their full concentration to what they love doing?
- Would they go out to help anyone without thinking about making any money?
- Would they like to travel anywhere?
- Would they like to live anywhere?
- Would being money free force equality throughout society?
- Would they like to share with no regard to if they could ‘afford’ it or not?
- Would they co-operate with others wanting to make this world a better place?
- Would they like to work together with anyone who has the same interests as themselves?
I feel that most readers would say YES to most of these questions.
Imagine a world that works for everyone
Without money there is no need for most of the violence of our world, leading to less fear and a more content community. Money is a symbol of value given our consent; remove the consent, we remove the value. The cashless society reverses the current societies. Instead of taking it would be a world of giving.
There would be no more bills, banks, loans, financial crises, corruption, unemployment, crime, war, passports, terrorists, pollution, prostitution, hunger, poor, homeless....and the list goes on. The whole structure of control would collapse as soon as you remove the support of financial power.
In South Africa Michael Tellinger the founder of the Ubuntu party holds just such a vision. Look at the video and you will understand why we all need to shift our perceptions about money. What is Money anyway?
How would a merit system work?
When people in general are not motivated by money and profits, then surely they would look for another way to earn a kind of abundance. Then it would be the skills people have that become their exchange value. I’m sure that it is possible if a merit based system was introduced.
A merit system would reward those that put more effort into benefiting society and as such allow them access to greater opportunity to acquire more exclusive goods. In an abundant society of ease, if one wanted to raise ones standing in the eyes of the people, it would be out of the merit of one’s life.
Would it sustain itself and how would it interface with societies where money is the norm?
Through a story, I have imagine communities around the world where people learn to live together by participating in a sovereign society. Anyone who signs a contract to serve a community carries the personal liability to be able to prove their actions are honorable. Total transparency is the only thing that can prevent deception.
In a moneyless society, people have the incentive to help society to the best of their actual abilities. Money doesn't stop them from being a scientist if they are really that fantastic in that field. People could work less, and reasonable needs provided even with less work as a whole.
Having a moneyless society does not mean that people would not want to work. People need to keep busy in one way or another. That is a part of being human.
Where would we start?
First, by creating an alternative currency. This currency is called “Talents”. When a Local currency is spent among the people within that community, this will create a spirit of involvement. From there on communities will trade with other communities. This trade can be in the form of skills and talents, goods or an exchange in art, music or other creative activities.
Several alternative currency societies can be found throughout the world. I only know of one that started in Cape Town.
Who started the Talent community exchange?
The talent exchange
During 2003 we were a group of twelve people that came together to discuss setting up an alternative way for people to barter with each other without using money. Instead it was the skills people have that would be seen as the currency. Everybody has a skill. To give an example: babysitting, house painting, cooking, gardening, product creators, professionals like doctors or dentists, electricians, authors and book publishers (in our case) to name a view.
So long as anyone can offer something of value, any person can receive from the community goods and services of like value.
Join the Community Exchange System and start getting off the 'money grid'
How can we live without needing money. Can we imagine what it would be like?
To establish a completely moneyless world, we all have to travel back hundreds of thousands of years. Even ancient civilizations exchanged items for economic purposes.
What is our today's world heading towards when everything is based on the things that we acquire? How did we fall in the consumerism trap? How can we change?
Once I decided to drive home just by visualizing my destination and ignoring local signposts. My peripheral vision and automated reflexes took over and it was the smoothest, fastest journey I ever had. I was home before I knew it. Same with the world situation, I hold an image of where I want to go and know that, since there is no time, I am already there and anything I do will be an expression of my journey towards that reality.
Would you be willing to use your talents or skills as a form of exchange instead of asking for money?
The kibbutz in Israel.
The kibbutz (Hebrew word for “communal settlement”) was founded some 40 years before the establishment of the State of Israel (1948).
The ‘halfway house’ in the novels needed to become self sustaining. I was very influenced by Atlas Shrugged a novel by Ayn Rand that I read in the seventies. The destruction of the profit motive that is clearly leading to the collapse of society today reminded me of Atlas Shrugged, although my plot is very different.
Toon’s communities around the world offer a mutual aid and a socioeconomic system based on the principle of joint ownership of property, equality and co-operation of production, consumption and education. With the current financial and ecological weight of power production removed, I imagined a wine farm with a guesthouse including a permaculture garden and a publishing company made for a basic backdrop in my novels.
Several cottages were built where people who lived in them would start the whole new community living setup, but not without the problems that arise when people do not what to be part of the global system anymore.
Creating a kind of utopia living conditions
The act of planning these communities in itself was part of the structure that I used as the backdrop to my story rather than a rigid structure that still happens today. To imagine a new society, by the coming together of like minds acting in harmony, creates great waves of energy which will change the nature of society as we see it as easily as water flowing downhill.
As people are getting tired of the need for manufactured objects, with their perceived value, many would turn to a community living and see the value of the unique art and craftsmanship
When I came across an amazing website by fluke. I was totally flabbergasted. What I had written about did indeed already exist! That same year (2007) we had booked to go to the Frankfurt Book Fair, so we hired a car and drove to the Republic of Damanhur in Italian Alps and about 80 Km from Torino.
Our visit to Damanhur
Damanhur is a Federation of Spiritual Communities located in Italy, in a valley that is still green and clean. 600 citizens of Damanhur living there have given rise to a multilingual society, open to exchanges with the world and to different cultures and peoples. The Temples of Humankind, is incredible. What so uncanny was that what I wrote about as pure fiction was close to being already manifested! Not that I described the underground tunnels in France like the construction that was excavated by hand by the citizens of Damanhur. My story carries a more ancient history.
That the core of my story would lead to an explosion of creativity as people strive to express their individuality free of constraint had already being proven to work, then Damanhur is proof of people being who they want to be and enjoying it can create a moneyless society where each individual can practice their passion in exchange for an abundant life.
Namasté
Nadine
Are we all enslaved by the power of money?
- Mandela and Freedom
Nelson Mandela's struggle for freedom has failed. The dream remains a dream and now we just pretend to be free. - Slavery has been abolished, or maybe not!
Ways of freedom from economic slavery and visions of a bright future for all of humanity
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Comments
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Hi Daniel many thanks again for commenting on this post. my novels do mention how it could be done but lately i have a strong feeling that I must now update my novels and give them a new cover and ISBN number. So much is happening these days that I have written about, but now i need to push the dates up by twenty years! With all the changes in hubpages i have replied twice to comments but they seem to have vanished? I hope this gets to go.
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For many years have I contemplate a world where money is not the main currency. I should write a blog on my visions and how it would work in a practical manner to give you some ideas.
I can easily imagine a situation such as mentioned above because the community I live in adheres to it. Yes, we all have jobs to pay our mortgage and some bills but most of us have limited our bills by using alternative methods such as using rainwater for all our water needs, creating gardens that supply 75% of our food intake, using solar and wind power for some of our power needs and trading and bartering for other essentials.
Simply because most people live in the material world they can't imagine this existing doesn't mean it doesn't exist. This limited paradigm is what The Powers That Be hope will keep the majority of the world in everlasting ignorance.
Hi Nadine. If there was no money to earn in order to obtain material, services and to give offerings then we would need to work in one way or another to receive the value of whatever it would take. Unfortunately, money is used in the wrong way. "In God we trust" is a saying on money that is often not adhered to. Also, cannot imagine such a situation.
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Yes I read it. What a great and inspiring article. I shared it around. Many thanks
Um . . . I wrote a recent article about underground living past, present and future and included some links for technology that would help people interested in that idea.
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Thanks for that great comment. I’m so glad that there are face book groups like you describe. We, my husband and I are founder members on the Talent exchange. ( explained in this article)This is a local currency system where we as publishers sell our books for talents, while gaining skilled labour in exchange to help us with renovations. Our local community in Clovelly is also very keen to help each other with sharing goods, plants, herbs and we get together a few times a year. Lots of exchange is done through local Facebook groups and I love your projects about building underground living spaces and making the surface more of a natural park setting. We have often wondered if we could build our retirement cottage on the top of our sloping property partly inside our mountain, and use the top space to have a small nursery. (We might have a builders permission problem, unless we just go ahead....I keep that idea while in the meantime create rentals by dividing our main home into several units. I will look up your Face book group Full Disclosure.
I am currently involved in a group on FB called Full Disclosure Now, in which a variety of people are working together (not getting paid) to achieve a complete disclosure of the technology such as Tesla's free zero point energy device he created in the early 1900s (confiscated by TPTB), replicators that the Secret Space Program uses for food, clothing, etc. and developing a barter system (Ubuntu).
I envision a time in the not so distant future where there will be three major industries people can get involved in.
1. Space related industries and personnel for exploring and maintaining a space fleet.
2. Planet clean-up, including building underground living spaces and making the surface more of a natural park setting, while recycling all harmful pollutants and tearing down cities and transportation systems.
3. Natural food production facilities and maintenance.
This will allow people to only have to work around 10 to 15 hours a week and allow us to further our education and explore our own personal creativity.
Simple underground houses will be built for those that still want individual privacy and large communal underground apartments will be the norm.
There will be a great demand for immigration and building underground facilities on all the planets in our solar system and exploration.
Now many people will poo-poo this idea by saying that disputes need to be controlled and regulated by a Government but what they don't seem to understand is that most neighbors in rural communities resolve their own problems without violence or Govt, intervention and have done so generations.
I am from the big city but live in rural Tennessee and in the last five years, this community has never had the need to involve the police, courts or Government in any dispute and essentially already exist in a barter system. We GIVE each other what ever we need, we don't give each other money, as matter of fact we feel it is disrespectful to involve money in any exchange.
I can feel the fear in JB comments above. I see no difference in writing lengthy comments and researching and writing one's own editorials, all forms of fear hold people back. Actions helps overcome our fears and creates confidence.
Thanks for the article, I do so love reading your articles.
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Thanks for your comment ahorseback. I wrote this post in order to take people's mind away from our global economy and instead come up with a better solution that would benefit everybody on the planet.
Hi Nadine , Sometimes I look deeply at other cultures that never seem to get above certain levels of cultured evolution . Third world countries in particular , ones that seem to be the cause of many of our wars or societal disorders today . What I see , I believe , are economies and lifestyles that seem to have stagnated Or too never have even gotten off the ground to begin with ! Now , does that mean that everyone needs an economy like America's ? God , I truly hope not . But ! They all need some kind of trade . Some kind of currency . And , you will notice that no matter where or how poor a country is , there IS always some kind of currency .
Maybe the brilliance of our capitalism is just that idea on steroids ?
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Absolutely not. I love a good debate, but I need to have all the in's and out's on this topic to be of any use to you. I write from an intuitive mode and we all have different perceptions, but we ultimately want the same thing. Abundance for everyone. Thanks for your compliment
I haven't signed up yet because I enjoy reading interesting articles versus writing them. I thought yours was such an interesting and thought provoking article, so I figured I would add a different point of view. I hope my comments haven't offended you.
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I'm not all that qualified to have a debate on what alternative exchange would lead to vast advancements in society, but at the moment the human society is de-volving at such a fast rate due to Fear tactics from all sides, Money is just one aspect of it. Why don't you sign up for hubpages and share your information by writing articles on this topic?
Technically the Bretton Woods gold exchange standard collapsed, so it was necessary to adopt the Fiat monetary system. The Fiat system was adopted in the US by Nixon, but can be traced back to ancient China (Maceshich. 1999).
It is the government that manipulates this system by having the ability to decide how much should be produced, although the large corporations have their ways. But they would manipulate a system regardless of whether it is barter or monetary.
Without money, globalization is impossible and we would go back to being isolated tribes, but I do feel that bartering has its benefits at a local level, in conjunction with money. Globally, however, we need money. Money has led to specialization, which has led to vast advancements in society since the Industrial Age. If we went back to barter system, we would all have to become jack of all trades again and regress back 5 generations. This idea might be romantic to some, but for society as a whole, it would be destructive.
Macesich, George. (1999). Political Economy of Money: Emerging Fiat Monetary Regime. Westport, Connecticut. Greenwood Publishing Group, Inc. pp.15-17.
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Many thanks for your comment Jim. The reasons for me why, what we call Money as a form of trade does not work, is due to the fact that money is NOT backed up by gold, so the notes have no value and it is open for abuse by the larger co-operations not to mention walls treat. Trade for talents and skills seems more fair. Somehow we need to find a way that it is our skills and talents that we barter with.
Very interesting Hub! I know some people that have dabbled with this idea by getting off the grid and getting what they needed by bartering, but the reality is that as man progressed, money was created as a necessity. Typically it is not the private sector that messes things up, but the government. Take for instance, Venezuela. I read an article about how their 100 bolivar bill is now only worth 1 US dollar on the black market! Inflation is also conservatively estimated at 67% and realistically double that. On top of it, before Chavez died, he got rid of all the notes higher than 100, so they say that hot dog vendors are distributing money with one hand while applying condiments with the other. Vendors have to literally carry bags of money home even though the country has one of the highest crime rates. All this because Venezuela doesn't want to admit they are wrong about the economic system. Pride is one of the seven deadlies.
Colleen,
I understand that banks are considered the bad guy by the common man, but in my last life, I was a banker and it was my duty to educate customers on managing money. Bad money management is usually passed on by parents and is due to a lack of financial education, not from getting incorrect financial education from banks. Banks tend to get the bad rap because of the negative publicity from what the bank is doing on a higher level, not usually on the community level.
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AlyZen I loved your comment. I have seen the film The Host after I read the book. It is always great to read alternative possibilities even if it is through fiction. We, you and many others are WAKING UP! Then we do we see the world and our reality from a different perspective. People who do not are simply still asleep.
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Hi Colleen thanks for your comment. I have been away from Hubpages due to my computer having a major re-formatting. Only today have I been able to get on the feed page to see the comments from 10 days ago. Missed you all.
I was drawn to your article after posting something on my Facebook wall about how consumerism and materialism has all but destroyed our society's priorities and moral attitudes. All I did was simply post up 2 photos - one showing a long queue outside the Perth Apple Store, of people wanting to buy the new iPhone 6, the other showing a breadline of women queuing to get food for their families. And I asked people to think about it. The backlash from my post has been unbelievable, and for the first time my post has been shared by quite a few people who are of the same thinking as us here. I've been called crazy, been told my perception is skewed, been accused of war-mongering the great Apple vs Android debate, been laughed at when I told my "friends" about how a moneyless society would benefit us, got ridiculed when I said money was a human invention and therefore not real or necessary. I even got "unfriended" by some who took personal offence at what I said! Strangely enough, it was from reading Stephenie Meyer's "The Host" that I picked up on the whole Moneyless Society concept - but sadly that aspect was never even explained in the film, otherwise it would have served as a great vehicle to bring this concept to a wider audience. Nevermind the naysayers, I believe in this concept and I for one will continue to champion it. Glad I found your page and likeminded folk here! Namaste!
Great concept. There are many communities that experiment with this, but the banks always end up ruining it. I shudder that these bankers are now teaching our school children how to manage money.
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Thank you for your comprehensive comments. This article was mostly inspired by the banks charging huge interest fees in SA on loans people clearly cannot pay back. There is something greatly wrong with our global economic system, and I was imagining a different system, since I'm writing visionary fiction novels. Thanks for your vote.
Loved Star Trek The Next Generation and I think they had a good example of a moneyless society. I see no reason why the monetary system needs to be replaced with something that would ultimately be the same thing all over again using talents, skills, or some other 'thing' to replace paper money or credit cards. That's what the monetary system is supposed to accomplish after all, placing value on certain skills and knowledge and expressed in what we call money. Call it by another name and it would still be the same.
Currently money is supposed to represent earnings from time and skills/talents/knowledge expended for the benefit of others, yet it is inherently unfair because everyone isn't paid the same amount for the exact say service or product. When I worked at Verizon I did the exact same job as several other people there with the same job title. Because I was a contract worker, I received no medical or vacation benefits, no sick pay, or any other of the benefits permanent workers received, and my pay rate was less than half as well.
Get rid of this idea that a price must be affixed to everything. Everyone should have the things they need. Some people would just stay stoned their entire lives if they didn't have to do anything to pay for their basic needs, but I think most people would take satisfaction and pleasure from being freed to do what they love and do best.
Society wields a lot of power, more with some people than others, but overall society has the ability to encourage people to be useful worthwhile citizens of the planet even if their basic needs are met without any effort on their own parts. Society has the ability to 'persuade' most people to make contributions to the community, thereby justifying having their basic needs met and going beyond that as much as possible.
The exchange rate could be whether or not a person contributes something to society, and how many hours or minutes they do that. So long as they make a reasonable contribution to the community in line with their ability to do so, they should be able to have whatever they want. Otherwise basic needs met and no more.
You've definitely got a good article to encourage thought here. Voting this up and interesting!
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Yes that is a vision I would like to write about. My article: How to envision a brilliant new economic system is the start, like a transition period. Thanks for your comment Deborah.
What an interesting idea ... a society without money.
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Thanks for the comment but links are not really aloud. I do agree that Money is inherently undemocratic.
You might be interested in this theory of how a moneyless society could come to exist:
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DDE to imagine a world where money is not used at all as a form of Exchange is a very out of-the-box concept. Thanks for visiting my page
A wonderfully presented is the root all evil explains it all, I am living in a society where money matters the most. I could not imagine such a life I am better off with the least of everything. Too much here to think about
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Many thanks for your comments Romeos. Due to my research for my visionary fiction novels this topic is close to my heart. We have a great poverty problem and its not always due to peoples own errors. They just do not have any assess to the economy they it is now. 12 years ago a small group of people, me and my partner included, started the talent exchange. Everybody has a talent and that must be seen as a currency. That is the angle I take in my novels.
Hi Nadine May,
A great article of human interest; certainly thought about this a few times. If mankind learns to change from within, then perhaps it could be viable; utilizing barter exchange - goods for goods and services for goods etc.
If the community wasn't run by a ' cult of personality ', a dubious sect-like mentality, or the sly organization of political hatreds, and a large effort was concerted towards feeding everyone, finding cures for sickness and disease and the promotion of real wholesale love, peace and freewill; an environment to exercise the freedom to be all of that which one can be, it might be a veritable Eden.
I think the Christian church, and the ' Kibbutzim ' you mentioned when it functions correctly, are probably the best models we have.
All the efforts which are spent on war to be spent on peace, and not being a slave to a money-system in order to truly spread our wings, and be happy doing what we were born to do.
Capitalism is inherently designed to incorporate economic collapse according some fiscal experts I've read about and have been told that Communism is Christianity without Christ; so what's the answer? Some of your ideas sound like a goer :)
Thanks for a stimulating read and for the follow.
Best Wishes,
Romeo's Quill
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Hi Marie. So glad you liked my hub. its not an easy topic to imagine, unless we explore it through fiction, like Star Trek. I always wondered what series that clip was from. Yes indeed - Western civilization is bent on focusing what's "out there." Knowledge of the Inner Self is suppressed.- It's the younger generation that either rebel against today's leadership, knowing that it does not give them a future, or they are so brainwashed they don't know any better. I'm a visionary like many others. I have a strong feeling that through story telling, even if it only shifts 10 readers, I have done my job. These 10 people will affect 100 others and so on....
Nadine, I was thoroughly engrossed with the video.
My childhood community was rural and still is pretty much today; there's not much growth in Tawas City, Michigan, but it is slowly changing.
Western civilization is bent on focusing what's "out there." Knowledge of the Inner Self is suppressed.
What would happen to the transportation industry, for example, if everyone were able to teleport themselves at will? There's be no need for cars, buses, trains, ships, and planes. We, as a people, though, are not encouraged to explore these "superhuman" gifts.
At one time in the ancient civilizations no longer visible to us, people communicated telepathically. Telepathy eliminates cell phones and the other paraphernalia that we now use to communicate.
In a world of total equality, there is mutual support. There is no class system or favoritism based on how many possessions or how much money one has. The emphasis is on quality, not quantity.
My childhood community was very homogenous. We were probably classified "lower class" by federal government standards, but we were happy. If one farmer had a threshing machine, he'd go around to the other farms in the neighborhood. All local neighbors pitched in with their tractors, trucks, wagons, and manpower to thresh the grain for the farmer whose turn it was that day. Payment was an elaborate meal, if the laborer chose to stay. The day was exciting for me as a child to see the parade of neighbors with their farm equipment coming up the gravel road to our house. The whole activity was exhilarating.
How many people understand the feeling of communal sharing without the thought of money today? I am grateful for that childhood. As an individual, I am frustrated with the wave-thoughts directed at me for being "different" because I don't own a credit card. So, I have to give clearances for myself and the planet as a whole daily.
When we, as a race, are fully in tune with the Divine, problems cease to be.
Thank you for an interesting read. Voted Interesting and Awesome.
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Hi Martie so glad to meet someone from South Africa. Thanks for reading my hub. To comprehend the idea of a society where money is not the most important survival tool to make use of. That takes a great deal of shifting; in our ways of thinking, acting, doing and believing. Most people on the planet, (who have bank accounts) are becoming slaves to this institution by paying high interest rates on money that is created from nothing. Like the game musical chairs, someone always looses. If humanity wants to evolve as a specie, our financial system has to go. I explore the concept through fiction.
I can't imagine a money-less world. If money is replaced with talents and skills, only a handful of people will be able to "serve" each other. If one needs to travel from A-Z, what will he offer in exchange for a car; what will the builder of cars offer in exchange for the material and labour he needs... etc. Money enables more to survive. However, considering the population of the world....
Pondering....
I will have to read your novel to comprehend your idea.
The kibbutz-system will work in SA. I have asked myself why does our government not explore this system - easy to implement if they put the specific land in trust and allow citizens to produce their own food and also some cattle as well - as they do in Lesotho. Not necessary to implement the system all over, but strategic.
On the other hand, the kibbutz-system of Israel was not 100% successful. It has proven its own negative consequences.
Thought provoking hub!
Nice to meet you, Nadine :)
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Thank you both for your comments. There are already many online communities that do well and connect people all over the world. Yes physically it must start with small communities. One example we tried out was to offer the bottom room in our home as an "Ubuntu" center. This is directed at the residents who live in Clovelly. I've even made a fan page for it on Facebook, but it has not taken off. Still there are many people with the same intent, so the more people learn about these alternative currency communities the better.
I believe this idea, or ideal, could work well in small communities regarding basic day to day necessities such as food, clothing and shelter. It would be interesting to see how it would work if someone had cancer and needed chemotherapy. Could this be delivered in a cashless society? Sign me up. I'd love to be part of the experiment. Great and noble thoughts here, Nadine May.
I'm reminded of John Lennon's song "Imagine".....well, the old communes of the 60's were based on this concept; unfortunately, human nature ruined them. Is it possible? I'd like to think so on a large scale. We live in an economic system that is 70% consumer goods production...what happens when the consumers have no money? We are heading for economic disaster the likes of which we have not seen since the Great Depression, and it is not going to be a pretty sight.
Love the way your mind works, Nadine!
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