It goes without saying that a think tank needs a constant flow of new ideas and innovations to be of value to our society and civilization. So, of course, we ask our fellow members to be generous with their ideas. From time to time we also get outsiders from around the work sending in their best mental brain storms. Not long ago, we had someone explain their plan to ditch the money rat race in society, actually to ditch money all together and increase our productivity by some 30%, here is what he had to say:
“I have an idea that could improve the overall efficiency of the world by perhaps 30%. I need help in the part of how to turn capitalism into a non-money using, non-communism structured government. Also how to persuade the government to move to it and think it was their idea in the first place.”
Well, my first thought was; if we can improve efficiency in human civilization by 30%, I am ALL-IN. Indeed, I am a capitalist and love free markets and yet, I must admit I agree that the unit of trade, we currently call a USD (reserve currency) has challenges in rewarding many of the things we need to propel humans into the future. If we could find a way to use (digital units) and give out digital units for things like volunteerism, picking up trash on a daily walk, innovation, mentoring, original thoughts, and other contributions to society we could have “real value” supporting the intrinsic value of the digital units.
Of course, we might be able to use digital currency, a Bitcoin or BlockChain type scheme, the same way as Free-Market Capitalism with a new form of “unit” to trade. This might help us curb the cronyism of socialist elite, Communist regimes and corporate/government incestuous relationships that Adam Smith warned us about. The units of trade could retain value based on “real work” – positive work towards noble endeavors, while the units traded for commerce remain the same. The “goodness” pay would be based on supply and demand, more pay for what is needed, less pay for what is already in abundant supply. The AI decision matrix determines this, not humans?
And really it is the next logical step as AI replaces decision making (executives, analysts, and management) and robotics replaces most labor jobs, and AI + robotics replaces most creative jobs (artists, writers, etc.) and AI + VR replaces teaching jobs.
In many ways we would avoid capitalism, at least the way it’s practiced in reality (crony capitalism), but we also need to make sure that no one games the system – including those controlling it – unfortunately, there is also that problem of human nature. Also the group, government, leadership of the system would have a little too much power and therein reminds us of the quote; absolute power corrupts absolutely, and/or the reality that power brings out and amplifies any character flaws, even those of a benevolent philosopher king.
In many regards Capitalism is becoming less usury driven, due to interest rates being so low and in some places negative rates.
So, here is the $64 Million question – is it possible to change our current monetary system and could we really do it any better – and is it worth the risk to try? Well, either way it is an interesting place to do a mental experiment isn’t it?