we could have money that depreciates in value over time, increasing its circulation and availability and encouraging lifestyles motivated from love instead of doing things we hate so we can have enough money to live and spending the rest on numbing drugs and passive entertainment

Oh, how Mr. Wilson must be spinning in his grave….

But in all honesty, I truly hope that this bailout does fail. I view this systemic failure of our way of banking and economics (and to a larger degree, our way of life) as one of the few chances we have to wake up. We’ve been asleep for so long, dreaming and imagining many of our successes, while allowing our bodies and the spaces they inhabit to fall into disrepair. One of my greatest fears is that if we continue to ignore and/or dismiss other equally viable modes of living, we will continue to sleep until the next great catashtrophe, that our dream will deepen and become a nightmare, and that the future of humanity will be relegated to “a boot stamping on a human face - forever”.

What’s interesting about watching the US economy crumble is that it becomes more obvious how disconnected it is from reality

This is exactly what I mean. Although those in “control” of this whole trainwreck don’t realize it, they’re just acting out everyone’s desires to see the truth of this. It’s a play that we’re all acting in and directing at the same time.

Demurrage or gift economy or any other kind of economy, it’s still a system. We need to stop trying to make a better map. As we get in touch with reality, it gives us all the map we need. We do not have to create one on our own, no plans ahead of time. The more we tell reality what we want, and stay open to it moment to moment, the more we get what we need.

I can’t pretend to know ANYTHING about economics, but what Charles Eisenstein (and Silvio Gesell) calls demurrage money sounds like a step up from what we have. Instead of money based on accumulating interest and power over time that draws more and more of the real world into the economic game due to the artificial scarcity of such a system, we could have money that depreciates in value over time, increasing its circulation and availability and encouraging lifestyles motivated from love instead of doing things we hate so we can have enough money to live and spending the rest on numbing drugs and passive entertainment.

It’s a step, one I don’t fully understand, and what I think we really need (as a species) is to relearn how to navigate between artificial constructs of the world, and the world itself. What’s interesting about watching the US economy crumble is that it becomes more obvious how disconnected it is from reality, giving people an opportunity to bridge the semantic gap between map and territory.

I’ve always thought that a generational jubilee (wealth and debt can’t carry on to someone’s children) would be a great thing, too, but socially we’re too stuck in a way of living that pits us against each other, without enough community to fall back on when we need it. So the debtors won’t get off easy because their banking overlords want leverage over other people just to ensure the long term security and safety of their own families.

The question is, are we throwing away the old to make way for something new, or just giving up on things entirely? One thrills me, the other is terrifying.