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This lecture is going to actually form part of six lectures

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focusing on the root causes of our society's problems.

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[Are you going to do all six now?] - No, no, sadly not, no.

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There will be 6 one-hour lectures. They'll be available online.

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They're really to give people a sense of idea

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of how our movement came about because the fundamental root causes

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that have informed our world views are not to be summed up

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in a nice kind of ten-minute elevator speech.

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This is the first one, and as this is already telling you

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this one focuses on the monetary system specifically.

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It should be noted that a complete understanding of the tenets

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social goals and understandings of the movement I represent

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can't be achieved through this lecture alone, but I think it will be

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a very useful starting point and I hope that by the end of today

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if anything, you will have a look at some of the societal constructs

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that affect us every day with fresh eyes.

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Before I begin, a word on the two organizations that I speak on behalf of.

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I'm primarily a member of The Zeitgeist Movement

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a global, decentralised grassroots organisation

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founded at the very end of 2008.

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The term "zeitgeist" means the dominant intellectual

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moral and cultural climate of an era.

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The closest transliteration is the German "spirit of the age".

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The term "movement" simply denotes motion or change.

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As such, The Zeitgeist Movement calls for a change

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in the dominant intellectual, cultural and moral climate of the time.

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The Zeitgeist Movement is an activist and communications arm

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of another much older organisation called The Venus Project

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which under the direction of Jacque Fresco and his associate Roxanne Meadows

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has focused on the technological redesign of an entirely new social system

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known as a Resource-Based Economy.

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At its core, the application of the current state of science

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and technology for social concern sits

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using the scientific method and practicality

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to maximise the quality of life for all people.

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This is to be achieved through tangible solutions to our problems we face

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instead of hollow rhetoric and opinion.

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Our reasoning behind our conclusions are not based on political opinion

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nor are they idle speculation nor are they stop-gap measures

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to treat the symptoms of a society as a psychiatrist will treat

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a psychological aftermath of a patient's experiences.

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We would rather minimize, and if possible

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wholly preclude the situations that got the patient

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in front of the psychiatrist in the first place.

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Our main focus therefore is to pinpoint the root causes

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of these ill-effects and to propose straightforward concrete solutions

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based on the inferential logic and the scientific method

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and applied for global concern holistically.

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I wanted to address in the introduction some common barriers we have

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when it comes to the analysis of economics in our current society.

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In today's world, many of us question the institutions

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we're brought up in and by which we're influenced.

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In fact, it has become a slightly more promoted disposition

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that questioning authority is healthy than in prior human history.

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After all, questioning religion no longer is

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tantamount to being burnt at the stake.

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And the development and adoption of the scientific method

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has allowed humanity to update and revise its knowledge

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of the physical world by systematically adopting

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a viewpoint of skepticism while hypotheses are tested

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and until they are proven true or false and adopted or not.

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Indeed, any and all social protest

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is essentially a questioning and a conscious rejection

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of some pre-existing or presented framework.

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Yet, of all the institutions common across the globe

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be they political, social, religious or national in origin

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none has remained so thoroughly unquestioned

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and even beyond the most basic analysis or understanding

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by most people than the monetary system itself.

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Even as the system of monetary finance is displacing

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more than six million American homeowners

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and half the world's six billion people are now

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classed as suffering through poverty, one billion starving

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a figure is up, by the way, by 80 million since the early 1990s

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the system remains unscrutinized despite its global presence.

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Here are some reasons why:

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Economics is often viewed as a rather dull and abstract subject.

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In fact, I'm amazed you're even all here today.

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Financial news tends to be presented

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and dominated by complex-looking graphs

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which don't allow for any real understanding of the subject being discussed

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silently promoting the idea that this is an area best left to the experts

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to well-paid economists and bankers.

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Abstract terms like derivatives, mortgage-backed securities and

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strangely named institutions like Fannie Mae

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and Freddie Mac are not only hard concepts for me

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I don't encounter these abstractions in real life.

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No one has ever sold me a mortgage-backed security.

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I've never been contacted by Fannie or Freddie

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and I'm sure it's taken quite a few days for some people other than myself

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to even catch onto the fact that these aren't even real people.

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They're institutions. Economics isn't like football.

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It's not like the physical process of shopping.

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And even worse, it sounds like it might be about maths.

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We shy away from this mess of abstract terms

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and we fear that we might not understand them

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and suspect that we would dislike them if we did.

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Others simply don't see a need to question the monetary system.

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After all, isn't simply the method by which goods are transferred

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and so, anything that simply represents that method is

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natural, necessary and will function as dictated by the needs

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of a populace to earn, buy and survive in a social construct.

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We do all rely on resources in some form or other

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and since we don't have absolutely everything

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a unified, preferably, global exchange mechanism

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seems the necessary steps in easing

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any process of acquisition and hence, survival.

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How can it be questioned any more than we question the need for air?

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For others still, the monetary system which applies to their community

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and day to day routine seems to be embedded so heavily in the framework

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of their lives that it appears not to even be a system at all.

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It is part of the landscape, invisible to their day-to-day lives

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exactly because it is a function of their day-to-day lives.

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Like the ancient music of the spheres which was theorized

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by ancient philosophers when describing the nature of planets in orbit

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it is this ever-present thing from birth

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and therefore invisible and undetectable.

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It's not so much that it's hard to single out for people.

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It's the very idea of singling it out [that] seems impossible

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for it doesn't even occur as a possibility.

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It doesn't even appear as a separate entity.

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Maybe it's also because economics relies on a numerical bias

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on mathematics, equations and graphs.

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It seems therefore likely to be based on logic, measurability

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and as true and immutable as those of physics

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biochemistry or other sciences.

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And while elements of physics are questioned, revised and updated

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upon their receipt of proof, physics itself remains entirely intact.

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In fact, once revisions and corrections are made

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physics has itself become a more established entity than it was before.

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Yet, as we'll find later on, not only are the supposed laws of economics

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not only based on no real-life referents whatsoever

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when the analysis of the processes of money creation

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its tangible negative effects upon society and the behaviours

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it instills upon and encourages in members of society

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one sees that there is almost nothing in the system

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of modern economics as it now stands

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that is of any real value to our process and well-being.

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And yet the most powerful force that has rendered the system of economics

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as it stands now beyond analysis, is this closed-door brotherhood

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of the initiated "Guardians of the Status Quo"

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who form the population of modern economics

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authorities, credentialed economists

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trained by the already established institutional logic

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CEO's and other lofty and well-paid positions.

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These are the men and women who should be dealing with economics

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not average Joes like myself, right?

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Let me remind you that throughout the glorious period

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of history known as the Dark Ages precisely this mechanism of initiation

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and separation was employed by the Church

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to avoid its institutional power being questioned

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and to keep education, anything it deemed a threat to its establishment

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or even reading out of the reach of the remaining inhabitants

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of that socio-cultural landscape.

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This sentiment is particularly well-expressed by John McMurtry

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author of the "Cancer Stage of Capitalism" who writes

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"We might say that economics is to the corporate market

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what theology was to the medieval church.

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Just as ancient Latin operated in the medieval church

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to deify dogmas into ritualized sequences

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untouchable by the vulgar passage of time,

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so econometrics functions in today's economics.

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It conceals the value judgments it assumes

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in an atemporal algebraic apparatus

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that is severed from natural language, living referents,

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and the accountability to its effects."

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It's a remarkable book.

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This, however, is changing.

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And it's changing quite rapidly, much quicker than I actually thought it would

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given all of the above reasons why we don't tend to lock in

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and engage in questioning of the system.

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In researching this monetary system I have many a time carried with me

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large and boring-looking books detailing the history of finance

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and the way it operates today

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which does mean wading through thousands of pages of literature.

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One evening in a bar, no less than 3 unrelated strangers

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asked me what my book was about.

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I've been approached on The Underground, that standard haven

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of uncomfortable silence by strangers asking me

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not only what is the book about, but even asking me upon hearing

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my relatively brief 3-minute elevator talk summary of it

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what the answer might be to our problems raised.

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And more and more people are beginning to agree

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not only on the problem that they see

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when they are presented with the simple facts

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but also upon the solutions as well. People aren't stupid.

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They know something's up. And they think it might just be something other

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than having voted for the wrong politician in the last election.

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All I wish to do today is to have that

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same London Underground conversation with you.

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It's time to question the system that in recent years

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has become notable by its failure and its damage.

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First off, the assumption that monetary economics is too complex

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for normal people like us to understand is completely erroneous

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nor is it a natural part of society anymore, although

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as we'll see, it once was, and served fairly interesting functions.

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And once you understand the methods by which modern finance

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is operated worldwide, you will understand the dire need

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to question every aspect of this vast

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all encompassing system and its validity.

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So, in order to provide an understanding of economics

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as it presently affects us, it is necessary

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to give a brief history of the history of money.

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Contrary to popular belief, it is very new in the human race's history.

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Ostensibly, the rationale for money at all

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existed in ancient times to manage scarcity.

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In order to ensure that enough labour was contributed to a social system

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and that it was proportional to the natural resources

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that people then extracted out of that system that they were in.

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Coined money appeared around 1500 BC, possibly earlier

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and many credit the Lydians with introducing gold and silver coined money.

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This coined money system is termed commodity money

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being formed or created out of a good or material

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that is perceived as valuable or has some tangible use.

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And while there are two materials we would commonly associate

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with this, being gold and silver, in fact many materials or objects

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have been used as a base commodity value

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such as copper, another familiar one, still used today:

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salt, pepper corns, which pretty much takes care of restaurants, doesn't it?

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[Others are]: large stones, decorated belts, shells

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(The Far East used shells quite a lot.)

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alcohol, cigarettes, which makes me a millionaire

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chocolate, and candy generally, and barley

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and my favorite one, weed.

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This one is particularly interesting. One can only surmise as to

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how much more peaceful and yet massively unproductive

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and pizza-consuming the world would be

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if there were a commodity currency of the globe made weed.

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Yet one might also suspect that a downside

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to the cannabis-based monetary system would be hyper-deflation.

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The next step of monetary evolution was to representative

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or receipt money, a sort of meta-money if you will.

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This representative money derived from promissory notes or receipts

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issued by goldsmiths, individuals who deposited their gold

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which had become the dominant commodity money

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for safekeeping in the goldsmith's safe when it became too much to carry

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or to ensure security of their stash.

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As trade between the populace picked up or whenever someone came into

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a lot of wealth, carrying around large sacks of gold

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or any other precious metal became cumbersome and heavy.

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Depositing it in the goldsmith's safe is much safer.

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I wonder which one of those words came first.

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Not only that, the goldsmith issued promissory notes

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to enable someone to easily pick up their gold when needed.

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These promissory notes from the goldsmith's

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were essentially receipts for the amount that had been deposited

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and thus, were essentially still backed 100% by the known value

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an equal value to the face value of that receipt.

249
00:13:15,317 --> 00:13:17,963
This receipt here is actually English, comes from 1774

250
00:13:18,100 --> 00:13:21,125
although I must point out, it does also specify interest

251
00:13:21,269 --> 00:13:23,775
so that doesn't quite fit into the order I'm doing things

252
00:13:23,925 --> 00:13:26,700
but it is a fairly good example.

253
00:13:26,844 --> 00:13:30,778
People began directly trading these receipts in the market place

254
00:13:30,928 --> 00:13:33,659
instead of going to their goldsmith, removing the gold from the vault

255
00:13:33,803 --> 00:13:36,297
and then using that to buy goods.

256
00:13:36,441 --> 00:13:41,096
Essentially, it's a swap of IOU's all backed by the goldsmith's stash

257
00:13:41,234 --> 00:13:43,372
for any good or service that's required.

258
00:13:43,510 --> 00:13:45,558
Around this time, the promissory notes were adorned

259
00:13:45,689 --> 00:13:48,038
with the phrase you'll be aware of if you've ever looked at the money

260
00:13:48,182 --> 00:13:50,766
that we actually use today that "promise to pay

261
00:13:50,910 --> 00:13:53,562
the bearer on demand the sum of."

262
00:13:53,706 --> 00:13:56,738
Essentially the bearer of the note was able to lay claim to the gold in vault

263
00:13:56,882 --> 00:13:59,654
due to the ownership of the promissory note in his or her possession

264
00:13:59,798 --> 00:14:03,687
so they were naturally transferable very much like the original:

265
00:14:03,837 --> 00:14:07,960
shells and belts and snickers bars and the other stuff that we used.

266
00:14:08,100 --> 00:14:10,957
The immediate effect of this was that very few people actually removed

267
00:14:11,101 --> 00:14:14,334
their gold from the vaults. This is absolutely key in the history of finance.

268
00:14:14,489 --> 00:14:18,077
Trade was abstracted to the level of paper representations.

269
00:14:18,215 --> 00:14:21,028
The goldsmith, already earning a proportion of the gold stored

270
00:14:21,178 --> 00:14:24,372
via vault rental costs to store the gold in the first place

271
00:14:24,516 --> 00:14:26,715
realized he now possessed a large amount of gold

272
00:14:26,859 --> 00:14:30,556
on a near permanent basis which was just sitting there.

273
00:14:30,700 --> 00:14:34,138
On average, just 10% of the gold was ever removed or redeemed

274
00:14:34,282 --> 00:14:36,462
by the people bearing any notes at any time

275
00:14:36,606 --> 00:14:39,465
meaning that the goldsmith could safely lend up to 90%

276
00:14:39,609 --> 00:14:42,869
of the excessive gold without running short

277
00:14:43,013 --> 00:14:46,282
should any of the rightful owners return and demand their actual gold.

278
00:14:46,426 --> 00:14:49,005
The goldsmith began lending out at interest

279
00:14:49,142 --> 00:14:52,177
doubling up his earnings essentially profiting off the wealth of others

280
00:14:52,320 --> 00:14:56,123
who were already paying rental fees for the alleged safekeeping of this gold

281
00:14:56,273 --> 00:14:59,741
despite the fact that the gold in the safe already represented by

282
00:14:59,891 --> 00:15:04,177
and tied to receipt money was not available for circulation.

283
00:15:04,652 --> 00:15:07,484
G. Edward Griffin, who wrote the seminal "Creature from Jekyll Island"

284
00:15:07,627 --> 00:15:11,578
explains this paradoxical scenario through a game of poker:

285
00:15:12,104 --> 00:15:15,949
"Let's pretend that we all converge on Charlie's house for a poker game

286
00:15:16,086 --> 00:15:20,317
and at upon arrival, each of us hands Charlie a $20 bill.

287
00:15:20,630 --> 00:15:23,841
Charlie, acting as a banker, issues each of us 20 poker chips

288
00:15:23,973 --> 00:15:25,940
and stuffs the money in an envelope.

289
00:15:26,078 --> 00:15:28,408
The agreement is that I may leave the game at any time

290
00:15:28,552 --> 00:15:31,827
and exchange each of the chips I possess for $1.

291
00:15:31,965 --> 00:15:36,047
Now comes Larry, Charlie's brother, but Larry isn't here to play poker.

292
00:15:36,191 --> 00:15:38,640
Larry is in a tight spot and needs to borrow some money.

293
00:15:38,778 --> 00:15:42,843
Since 8 of us are playing poker there's a total of $160 in Charlie's envelope

294
00:15:42,981 --> 00:15:45,974
and that turns out to be just exactly what Larry needs.

295
00:15:46,124 --> 00:15:48,734
You can well imagine what would happen if Charlie decided

296
00:15:48,884 --> 00:15:52,516
to lend out his idle money. It is not available for lending.

297
00:15:52,654 --> 00:15:57,357
Neither Charlie nor any of us other players has a right to loan that money out

298
00:15:57,501 --> 00:16:00,161
because it is still being held in escrow so to speak

299
00:16:00,306 --> 00:16:04,282
pending completion of the contract between Charlie and his guests.

300
00:16:04,438 --> 00:16:07,892
Those dollars really shouldn't have even been considered money at this point

301
00:16:08,030 --> 00:16:11,761
because the value that they represent has been assigned to the poker chips.

302
00:16:11,911 --> 00:16:14,864
If any of us has enough compassion for Larry's plight to want

303
00:16:15,001 --> 00:16:18,965
to loan him the money it must come from other money in our possession

304
00:16:19,102 --> 00:16:22,143
or we turn in our chips and repossess the money

305
00:16:22,287 --> 00:16:25,204
in the envelope in order to give Larry that.

306
00:16:25,341 --> 00:16:28,617
We could not spend or loan that money in the envelope

307
00:16:28,754 --> 00:16:31,698
and still consider the chips to be worth anything."

308
00:16:31,848 --> 00:16:33,927
That is the absolute key point to this story.

309
00:16:34,071 --> 00:16:37,608
Griffin succinctly sums up the issue: "Chips or any other representation

310
00:16:37,746 --> 00:16:41,632
are valuable only as abstractions of another value held in escrow

311
00:16:41,776 --> 00:16:45,098
until exchanged. The use or re-use of that valued object

312
00:16:45,236 --> 00:16:49,009
undermines the value relationship as one does

313
00:16:49,173 --> 00:16:51,951
for example, a one sided see-saw.

314
00:16:52,877 --> 00:16:55,298
The tendency towards undermining this value representation

315
00:16:55,429 --> 00:16:58,098
by lending out more than was in reserve

316
00:16:58,242 --> 00:17:00,588
led to an unpleasant occurrence for the goldsmith.

317
00:17:00,732 --> 00:17:04,504
For when the goldsmith became fabulously and ostentatiously wealthy

318
00:17:04,654 --> 00:17:06,991
because he was now beginning to earn off the interest

319
00:17:07,135 --> 00:17:09,878
on someone else's money, those who had placed their gold in reserve

320
00:17:10,022 --> 00:17:12,318
were lead to believe that perhaps he'd been lending out

321
00:17:12,455 --> 00:17:15,746
and spending their gold instead of storing it.

322
00:17:16,148 --> 00:17:18,630
Panicking, large numbers of account holders got together

323
00:17:18,774 --> 00:17:20,963
and demanded their gold all at once.

324
00:17:21,107 --> 00:17:23,336
Obviously, there was not enough to go around.

325
00:17:23,467 --> 00:17:26,860
One of two things could happen. The goldsmith could go out of business

326
00:17:26,998 --> 00:17:29,801
and I would imagine have his cranium forcibly removed.

327
00:17:29,938 --> 00:17:32,854
Or, he could cut them into the deal to prevent going broke

328
00:17:32,998 --> 00:17:36,367
and retain their business and, of course, their gold.

329
00:17:36,518 --> 00:17:39,899
This was a major shift in the practices of what came to be modern banking.

330
00:17:40,049 --> 00:17:43,243
Essentially, it was the shift from vault rental

331
00:17:43,387 --> 00:17:47,350
to what we understand to be interest today as this monthly incremental

332
00:17:47,487 --> 00:17:50,556
earning mechanism became applied to both the vault owner

333
00:17:50,700 --> 00:17:53,319
as well as the depositor or the account holder.

334
00:17:53,462 --> 00:17:56,006
Where did the extra gold come from to pay that?

335
00:17:56,150 --> 00:18:00,201
Of course, it came from the people borrowing from the goldsmith.

336
00:18:00,351 --> 00:18:03,276
This then, would become the basis for modern banking.

337
00:18:03,426 --> 00:18:05,750
Lending out more than was on hand and this has lead to

338
00:18:05,882 --> 00:18:09,286
a third type of money. So, we've gone from commodity money

339
00:18:09,430 --> 00:18:12,233
through to receipt money and now we're at fractional money.

340
00:18:12,383 --> 00:18:15,992
Essentially, a note backed by only a fraction of its value in reserves.

341
00:18:16,136 --> 00:18:18,726
And the process by which it has lent to the general public is called

342
00:18:18,876 --> 00:18:21,346
'fractional reserve banking'. Here's how it works

343
00:18:21,490 --> 00:18:24,183
from the creation of bank reserves within the commercial bank

344
00:18:24,321 --> 00:18:27,749
through to the creation of loans to the general public.

345
00:18:28,062 --> 00:18:30,927
Here's what we're going to walk through

346
00:18:31,058 --> 00:18:33,436
and before I actually start I should probably quote Alan Greenspan

347
00:18:33,574 --> 00:18:35,828
the former chairman of the Federal Reserve, who once said

348
00:18:35,968 --> 00:18:39,041
"I guess I should warn you if I turn out to be particularly clear

349
00:18:39,179 --> 00:18:42,220
you've probably misunderstood what I have said."

350
00:18:42,401 --> 00:18:45,305
And he's right. Money, contrary to what I thought

351
00:18:45,449 --> 00:18:47,379
is not produced by the government.

352
00:18:47,523 --> 00:18:50,026
Here's how it works in the UK. The Central Bank of the United Kingdom

353
00:18:50,164 --> 00:18:52,751
is the Bank of England, a privately owned company

354
00:18:52,895 --> 00:18:55,784
with exclusive rights to the money supply for the entire UK.

355
00:18:55,934 --> 00:18:58,249
Of course, you can write to the Bank of England and ask them

356
00:18:58,387 --> 00:19:00,730
if they are privately owned. Of course, they'll tell they are not.

357
00:19:00,874 --> 00:19:04,821
But even cursory knowledge of history would completely inform you otherwise.

358
00:19:04,971 --> 00:19:06,707
It was chartered in 1694

359
00:19:06,842 --> 00:19:09,213
owned by a group of individuals who were never revealed.

360
00:19:09,351 --> 00:19:11,465
It was then nationalized in 1946

361
00:19:11,602 --> 00:19:14,440
in that the government bought all the stocks in it.

362
00:19:14,590 --> 00:19:16,747
Yet, the government didn't have the money to buy it so

363
00:19:16,897 --> 00:19:20,248
brilliantly, the Bank of England was bought through the use of stocks

364
00:19:20,392 --> 00:19:23,099
that bore the burden of interest. In other words, the government

365
00:19:23,243 --> 00:19:27,172
borrowed the money to buy the bank from the bank.

366
00:19:27,788 --> 00:19:31,279
And it only gets weirder. Here's how money is actually created.

367
00:19:31,429 --> 00:19:35,439
Here we have... we'll map the creation of £10 billion.

368
00:19:35,946 --> 00:19:39,709
So, the Bank of England creates 10...sorry, 10 million.

369
00:19:39,872 --> 00:19:42,209
The Bank of England creates 10 million out of thin air

370
00:19:42,360 --> 00:19:45,053
and credits its own account. Using this money

371
00:19:45,203 --> 00:19:47,721
it then buys government bonds or corporate bonds

372
00:19:47,865 --> 00:19:51,269
from commercial banks or any lending institution.

373
00:19:51,413 --> 00:19:54,239
The sale results in the money being deposited in the reserve accounts

374
00:19:54,376 --> 00:19:57,361
of financial institutions across the UK and "Hey, Presto!"

375
00:19:57,505 --> 00:20:01,187
Money has been created and distributed to lending institutions.

376
00:20:01,350 --> 00:20:03,670
Let's say that one of these commercial banks

377
00:20:03,801 --> 00:20:07,015
has received 10 million in deposits from the Bank of England.

378
00:20:07,166 --> 00:20:10,921
On the basis of this, they lend a couple 10 grand to buy a house

379
00:20:11,071 --> 00:20:14,077
[which is] wishful thinking perhaps, but nonetheless.

380
00:20:14,396 --> 00:20:17,391
Now it would make sense to assume that the 10 grand lent to the couple

381
00:20:17,529 --> 00:20:20,591
came out of the bank's reserves which already invented money

382
00:20:20,741 --> 00:20:24,067
leaving 9 million, 9 hundred and 90 thousand pounds.

383
00:20:24,204 --> 00:20:27,026
Yet, this is not the case. For

384
00:20:27,182 --> 00:20:29,529
as Modern Money Mechanics puts it

385
00:20:29,668 --> 00:20:31,925
"Of course, the banks do not lend their depositors' money.

386
00:20:32,070 --> 00:20:35,129
If they did, no new money would be created."

387
00:20:35,272 --> 00:20:38,455
What is Modern Money Mechanics? Is it some communist propaganda?

388
00:20:38,599 --> 00:20:41,877
Is it some fringe publication based on Internet research?

389
00:20:42,021 --> 00:20:45,998
No, it was published by the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago.

390
00:20:46,167 --> 00:20:49,764
Instead, the loan is invented on the spot from nowhere

391
00:20:49,910 --> 00:20:53,203
based on the wonders of the fractional reserve laws which demand

392
00:20:53,347 --> 00:20:56,954
that, just like the goldsmith somewhere in the region of 10%

393
00:20:57,098 --> 00:20:59,510
of that amount needs to be backed by the bank's reserves

394
00:20:59,650 --> 00:21:02,130
which in this case, of course it is, because 10 grand is easily covered

395
00:21:02,273 --> 00:21:05,077
by that 10 million in reserves.

396
00:21:05,452 --> 00:21:09,360
So the couple who have borrowed the 10 grand now deposit it in a rival bank.

397
00:21:09,497 --> 00:21:12,324
That bank, however, can't behave exactly as the first bank

398
00:21:12,468 --> 00:21:14,962
which simply lent out 100 grand

399
00:21:15,099 --> 00:21:18,299
based on 10 grand as the 10% deposit rate.

400
00:21:18,437 --> 00:21:22,755
What Bank 2 has to do is divide the 10 grand by the reserve requirement itself.

401
00:21:22,899 --> 00:21:24,979
So 1,000 becomes the bank's reserve

402
00:21:25,123 --> 00:21:28,480
and 9,000 is then lent out as new loans.

403
00:21:28,617 --> 00:21:31,004
Does this money come out of the existing 10 grand?

404
00:21:31,148 --> 00:21:34,111
No, once again it's actually created out of thin air.

405
00:21:34,248 --> 00:21:37,542
That 9,000 can then be borrowed and deposited at yet another bank

406
00:21:37,686 --> 00:21:40,555
which can now lend out 8,100 and so on.

407
00:21:40,705 --> 00:21:43,849
Every bank in the world does this. Every transaction

408
00:21:43,999 --> 00:21:47,756
produces more money to the tune of 90% of its own numerical value

409
00:21:47,906 --> 00:21:50,443
meaning that from 10-grand loans you could actually produce

410
00:21:50,587 --> 00:21:53,759
100 grand in completely new money.

411
00:21:54,199 --> 00:21:56,208
And if you're already way ahead of me you might be wondering

412
00:21:56,352 --> 00:21:58,625
where the money comes from to pay for the interest

413
00:21:58,775 --> 00:22:00,752
for all loans come at interest.

414
00:22:00,889 --> 00:22:04,411
Every loan in the process of money creation is at interest

415
00:22:04,549 --> 00:22:06,470
and the commercial banks will eventually have to pay

416
00:22:06,614 --> 00:22:09,079
the Central Bank back at interest as well.

417
00:22:09,216 --> 00:22:11,567
Given that you have to pay back more than you borrowed

418
00:22:11,705 --> 00:22:13,894
someone will end up with the short straw

419
00:22:14,037 --> 00:22:17,063
and will default on payments, mortgages and so on.

420
00:22:17,206 --> 00:22:21,070
This is where the tent cities are coming from in the US and even in the UK now.

421
00:22:21,226 --> 00:22:24,065
So who creates the money to repay the interest? Yes, it's the banks

422
00:22:24,215 --> 00:22:28,357
in the form of new loans. Shout, when you see the one that you have.

423
00:22:28,564 --> 00:22:30,616
Even if you are repaying a loan to the bank

424
00:22:30,753 --> 00:22:33,996
with the money you are earning from a job, where did that money come from?

425
00:22:34,129 --> 00:22:36,681
It was also lent, at interest, to your employer

426
00:22:36,819 --> 00:22:39,581
so your employer could pay you, or let's say you are selling

427
00:22:39,719 --> 00:22:43,707
something you own that someone you have sold to

428
00:22:43,864 --> 00:22:46,838
has borrowed at interest

429
00:22:46,981 --> 00:22:49,277
to pay you for the good or services you provide as well.

430
00:22:49,412 --> 00:22:53,225
Every pound, dollar, euro, is owed by somebody to somebody else

431
00:22:53,369 --> 00:22:56,030
and the whole lot is owed ultimately to the banks

432
00:22:56,174 --> 00:23:00,352
and they are always owed more than [what] was previously created.

433
00:23:00,502 --> 00:23:02,410
Ladies and gentlemen, this is a pyramid scheme.

434
00:23:02,542 --> 00:23:05,341
Quite simply, it is a massive global ponzi scheme.

435
00:23:05,485 --> 00:23:09,153
It is a game of musical chairs where many people have to lose

436
00:23:09,312 --> 00:23:12,111
in order for the flawed logic of the system to be maintained.

437
00:23:12,255 --> 00:23:15,928
Wealth is transferred upwards from those with less to those with more

438
00:23:16,078 --> 00:23:18,975
by magnifying the level of debt at every new level of the pyramid.

439
00:23:19,112 --> 00:23:21,380
And it's actually reinforced on another level

440
00:23:21,524 --> 00:23:23,609
by the application of interest between accounts.

441
00:23:23,753 --> 00:23:26,215
Here's how, and you'll be familiar with this one. It's not new.

442
00:23:26,359 --> 00:23:28,704
An account with a million pounds in it will accrue interest.

443
00:23:28,847 --> 00:23:32,279
At 5% interest, it will produce 50 grand in one year

444
00:23:32,429 --> 00:23:34,711
not from contributions to society

445
00:23:34,849 --> 00:23:37,192
that you earn or that earn you credits

446
00:23:37,336 --> 00:23:40,100
but from simply having money to begin with.

447
00:23:40,232 --> 00:23:42,682
Similarly, a poor person's debt to a bank

448
00:23:42,825 --> 00:23:47,358
via an overdraft facility or the need to survive on loans, accrues interest.

449
00:23:47,502 --> 00:23:50,465
This interest theoretically is what is used to pay the interest

450
00:23:50,609 --> 00:23:53,440
to the account of the person possessing a million.

451
00:23:53,584 --> 00:23:56,378
In other words, the transference of wealth from the poor to the rich

452
00:23:56,528 --> 00:23:59,462
is driven by the inherent inequality of the system

453
00:23:59,606 --> 00:24:02,021
which is produced, in the first place

454
00:24:02,165 --> 00:24:04,713
with only the very rich, the owners of the system, the commercial

455
00:24:04,857 --> 00:24:07,314
and ultimately central banks like the Bank of England

456
00:24:07,452 --> 00:24:09,555
and the Federal Reserve of the United States

457
00:24:09,692 --> 00:24:14,111
which is another private institution. These are the only true winners.

458
00:24:14,696 --> 00:24:17,474
"The modern banking system manufactures money out of nothing.

459
00:24:17,617 --> 00:24:21,371
The process is perhaps the most astounding slight of hand

460
00:24:21,514 --> 00:24:24,205
that has ever been invented." Those aren't my words.

461
00:24:24,342 --> 00:24:28,559
They're the words of Lord Stamp, Bank of England Director in 1937.

462
00:24:28,703 --> 00:24:31,847
This is thoroughly recognized by the people who run this system.

463
00:24:31,985 --> 00:24:34,215
It is not some secret. It is admitted openly.

464
00:24:34,359 --> 00:24:38,442
Ask a banking friend. They'll tell you. So what is wrong with this system

465
00:24:38,580 --> 00:24:42,632
other than that it is legalized fraud by a private closed-loop banking cartel

466
00:24:42,776 --> 00:24:46,342
based on "cloud-cuckoo-land" logic, apart from that?

467
00:24:46,492 --> 00:24:48,920
Far more serious than a monetary system which generates

468
00:24:49,063 --> 00:24:52,273
encourages and necessitates debt servitude, poverty and ultimately war

469
00:24:52,417 --> 00:24:56,792
to say nothing of the fact that wars are funded on both sides

470
00:24:56,936 --> 00:25:00,868
by exactly the same people which are essentially the banking cartel

471
00:25:01,012 --> 00:25:04,028
far worse than this are the side-effects of a monetary system

472
00:25:04,172 --> 00:25:07,516
when it comes to the fundamentally most important aspect of global societies

473
00:25:07,660 --> 00:25:11,286
and that is the access to and management of the world's natural resources

474
00:25:11,436 --> 00:25:14,555
without which no society would ever flourish

475
00:25:14,705 --> 00:25:16,547
or even begin to develop.

476
00:25:16,701 --> 00:25:18,559
Part 3

477
00:25:18,672 --> 00:25:22,924
This section looks at how the use of a profit based system of exchange

478
00:25:23,061 --> 00:25:27,607
actually affects society in other ways than just purely debt.

479
00:25:28,364 --> 00:25:30,651
We've already denoted how money of any kind

480
00:25:30,788 --> 00:25:32,881
has historically been employed by a society

481
00:25:33,019 --> 00:25:35,756
to manage scarcity of resources.

482
00:25:35,900 --> 00:25:38,643
This is, in fact, the only functionally relevant attribute

483
00:25:38,787 --> 00:25:42,037
of a monetary system at all, for it was originally conceived to

484
00:25:42,181 --> 00:25:45,094
ensure fair and sustainable balance between what was put in

485
00:25:45,245 --> 00:25:49,095
and what comes out of a society and what one can get out of it

486
00:25:49,246 --> 00:25:53,350
to benefit oneself amid the sparse conditions that we first had

487
00:25:53,488 --> 00:25:57,733
when we were hunter-gatherers in the early part of our Neolithic revolution.

488
00:25:57,877 --> 00:26:01,334
For having a lot of money itself, doesn't actually enhance your life.

489
00:26:01,478 --> 00:26:05,790
It doesn't feed you, food does. Money does not make your car run.

490
00:26:05,925 --> 00:26:08,931
You may garner a little heat from it if you set it alight

491
00:26:09,081 --> 00:26:11,881
but the only thing benefiting you there is the energy from a fire

492
00:26:12,025 --> 00:26:14,337
you would get the same from kindling your newspaper.

493
00:26:14,487 --> 00:26:17,556
Personally, I'd recommend an unread copy of The Daily Mail

494
00:26:17,700 --> 00:26:22,426
as an excellent fuel-base for a nice big bonfire. But that is just me.

495
00:26:23,465 --> 00:26:26,844
Money does nothing. It is the access to resources

496
00:26:26,981 --> 00:26:30,776
be they food, water, housing, technological conveniences

497
00:26:30,920 --> 00:26:33,282
transport or any other life-enhancing object

498
00:26:33,432 --> 00:26:35,806
or service that makes for a better life.

499
00:26:35,950 --> 00:26:38,479
Millionaires aren't healthier, safer or more well-fed

500
00:26:38,629 --> 00:26:41,242
because of their money. It is their access to abundance

501
00:26:41,385 --> 00:26:43,891
that makes their life so plush to begin with.

502
00:26:44,035 --> 00:26:48,194
Despite this truth, profit remains the primary focus and goal

503
00:26:48,338 --> 00:26:51,532
of a monetary system ahead of social concern and human well-being.

504
00:26:51,676 --> 00:26:55,505
And you can never have enough profit. Ask any CEO

505
00:26:55,655 --> 00:26:58,598
for to gain a greater advantage over another in this system

506
00:26:58,735 --> 00:27:02,715
is to achieve a measure of security to be rewarded by more money

507
00:27:02,868 --> 00:27:06,046
and in turn better access to what resources are available.

508
00:27:06,196 --> 00:27:08,236
And since none of us can live without resources

509
00:27:08,386 --> 00:27:11,774
our very survival amid competition-riddled marketplaces

510
00:27:11,924 --> 00:27:14,378
now global in scale, is down to our ability

511
00:27:14,505 --> 00:27:18,250
to compete as unfairly as possible.

512
00:27:18,531 --> 00:27:22,520
"If you're not growing, you're dying." So goes the old adage without a hint

513
00:27:22,663 --> 00:27:24,975
of irony that precisely the opposite is true

514
00:27:25,125 --> 00:27:29,639
if you're speaking about the survival of anything within a finite environment.

515
00:27:29,815 --> 00:27:31,932
The way the we have now structured our planet

516
00:27:32,076 --> 00:27:36,727
is on the basis of finite energy resources and inefficient use of space.

517
00:27:36,870 --> 00:27:41,391
I come back to John McMurtry whose analysis of our present global paradigm

518
00:27:41,528 --> 00:27:44,030
compares the situation very much to cancer.

519
00:27:44,172 --> 00:27:47,263
It grows for the sake of growth ignoring limitations and thus

520
00:27:47,407 --> 00:27:50,525
its own future sustainability.

521
00:27:50,669 --> 00:27:53,159
Not only is it mathematically impossible

522
00:27:53,300 --> 00:27:58,010
it is ecologically destructive to chase profit and growth.

523
00:27:58,446 --> 00:28:02,013
Follow this chain of events. We harvest food from an impoverished country

524
00:28:02,166 --> 00:28:04,743
because it is cheaper to do so often to the detriment

525
00:28:04,887 --> 00:28:07,230
of that society in the form of poorly paid jobs

526
00:28:07,374 --> 00:28:10,893
and significant loss of the resources to foreign economies.

527
00:28:11,037 --> 00:28:13,524
It is then transported to a facility which employs

528
00:28:13,674 --> 00:28:15,766
slave labor because it is cheaper.

529
00:28:15,910 --> 00:28:19,773
Then derivative products are then very often transported yet again

530
00:28:19,917 --> 00:28:22,054
produced and processed in yet another factory

531
00:28:22,198 --> 00:28:25,942
then transported across the country to a distribution center

532
00:28:26,086 --> 00:28:30,029
and then ultimately to the world. The reason for this?

533
00:28:30,179 --> 00:28:32,242
People in countries

534
00:28:32,389 --> 00:28:34,986
where those fruits or items aren't naturally occurring

535
00:28:35,123 --> 00:28:38,705
are more likely to pay for them in greater numbers.

536
00:28:38,855 --> 00:28:40,954
And also because this inefficient process

537
00:28:41,098 --> 00:28:44,104
is cheaper than fluid, efficient, streamlined production

538
00:28:44,248 --> 00:28:47,273
a profit-motive orientated system demands inefficiencies

539
00:28:47,417 --> 00:28:50,778
for those very inefficiencies are the cost savings to be made

540
00:28:50,922 --> 00:28:54,244
at the expense of the environment and the well-being of humanity.

541
00:28:54,388 --> 00:28:57,037
You can rail against polluting companies and carbon footprints

542
00:28:57,168 --> 00:29:00,030
all you want for destroying the planet. The bottom line is

543
00:29:00,174 --> 00:29:04,507
the system any institution operates in requires this behavior.

544
00:29:04,651 --> 00:29:07,582
It is utterly expected when you really look at the logic

545
00:29:07,726 --> 00:29:12,476
of the market system. As of 1999, 99% of materials used

546
00:29:12,627 --> 00:29:17,310
in the production cycle in the USA end up as waste within 6 weeks.

547
00:29:17,466 --> 00:29:21,401
Every ton of garbage requires 5 tons of materials to produce it

548
00:29:21,545 --> 00:29:24,883
and those 5 tons took 25 tons of materials harvested

549
00:29:25,021 --> 00:29:29,007
and mined from nature to produce it. It is a hugely wasteful system.

550
00:29:29,151 --> 00:29:31,855
Almost nothing that we produce or process

551
00:29:31,993 --> 00:29:35,303
actually ends up being used at all.

552
00:29:35,447 --> 00:29:39,904
I'm trying to convey to you just how inefficient this is.

553
00:29:40,054 --> 00:29:42,785
Inefficiency is a good thing, a necessary thing

554
00:29:42,929 --> 00:29:45,285
if you are operating in a monetary system.

555
00:29:45,429 --> 00:29:47,928
On a related note, where do you think this comes from?

556
00:29:48,072 --> 00:29:51,733
Other than inefficient systems applications in industrial processes

557
00:29:51,877 --> 00:29:55,177
the vast consumer waste produced on a global scale

558
00:29:55,321 --> 00:29:57,720
is a huge danger to our survival.

559
00:29:57,858 --> 00:30:01,344
Not only does it pollute our world with plastic

560
00:30:01,488 --> 00:30:05,822
chemicals and unsightliness, it is a visual demonstration

561
00:30:05,972 --> 00:30:08,597
that the resources we are burning through

562
00:30:08,741 --> 00:30:12,046
for the sake of profit are as vast as they are.

563
00:30:12,197 --> 00:30:14,314
The necessity of infinite growth-based consumption

564
00:30:14,465 --> 00:30:18,700
and profit-driven production of goods means three inescapable ramifications

565
00:30:18,844 --> 00:30:22,000
to the societies which operate under a monetary system:

566
00:30:22,151 --> 00:30:25,915
We must keep spending more on products usually on a yearly basis

567
00:30:26,065 --> 00:30:28,912
to satisfy cyclical profit cycles for companies

568
00:30:29,062 --> 00:30:32,037
that in turn, pay wages for labor.

569
00:30:32,193 --> 00:30:34,906
Those products must be made in the cheapest way possible

570
00:30:35,006 --> 00:30:37,214
from the cheapest possible materials in relation

571
00:30:37,358 --> 00:30:39,695
to their marketed cost to the consumer.

572
00:30:39,834 --> 00:30:42,401
And of course, products produced within a monetary system

573
00:30:42,545 --> 00:30:45,320
must wear out, break down, require servicing

574
00:30:45,464 --> 00:30:48,102
or become technologically or operationally obsolete

575
00:30:48,258 --> 00:30:51,308
within the time frame the company can economically endure

576
00:30:51,452 --> 00:30:54,409
before repeat business is required from the consumers.

577
00:30:54,684 --> 00:30:58,947
In 2004, it was estimated that 15 million mobiles are replaced annually

578
00:30:59,090 --> 00:31:01,889
with owners updating them on average every 18 months.

579
00:31:02,027 --> 00:31:04,133
"Updating" is a nice word there. That means throwing one

580
00:31:04,277 --> 00:31:06,133
in the garbage and buying another one.

581
00:31:06,271 --> 00:31:08,663
In the time immediately following Christmas it was estimated

582
00:31:08,800 --> 00:31:12,292
that 750,000 phones were dumped by consumers.

583
00:31:12,432 --> 00:31:16,121
Can you imagine what that figure might be today, 6 years later?

584
00:31:16,264 --> 00:31:18,798
This type of market behaviour is called "planned obsolescence"

585
00:31:18,942 --> 00:31:21,626
and it's been the primary mover of this infinite-growth paradigm

586
00:31:21,770 --> 00:31:23,666
since the end of the Second World War.

587
00:31:23,803 --> 00:31:27,648
Companies like Apple need you to spend more, over and over again

588
00:31:27,800 --> 00:31:30,095
on similar or derivative products every year.

589
00:31:30,227 --> 00:31:35,170
Hence we have multiple iPhones, iPods, iPads, iBoards, and iMats.

590
00:31:36,302 --> 00:31:39,108
This, in turn, means that all goods produced in a monetary system

591
00:31:39,246 --> 00:31:41,820
can only last as long as that company can endure it

592
00:31:41,970 --> 00:31:44,844
before a further or repeat sale needs to be made.

593
00:31:44,995 --> 00:31:48,565
The effect of this is waste, inefficiency, incompatibility

594
00:31:48,715 --> 00:31:51,452
and a general disrespect and lackadaisical attitude

595
00:31:51,602 --> 00:31:55,378
to what we've come to perceive as "throwaway consumerism."

596
00:31:55,522 --> 00:31:58,005
This value program orientates members of society

597
00:31:58,149 --> 00:32:00,704
to disregard the importance of resources.

598
00:32:00,848 --> 00:32:03,673
We train ourselves not to see the vast implications

599
00:32:03,811 --> 00:32:06,679
while somehow entertaining the notion that we are more "free"

600
00:32:06,830 --> 00:32:09,201
by consuming more and more.

601
00:32:09,345 --> 00:32:11,561
It translates into a form of aspirational buying

602
00:32:11,710 --> 00:32:15,717
or "keeping up with the Joneses" as fashion and style

603
00:32:15,854 --> 00:32:19,399
creep into the perceived values of the products in question.

604
00:32:19,543 --> 00:32:22,939
Adverts like the one with a tagline that said

605
00:32:23,089 --> 00:32:25,613
"Are you ashamed of your old mobile phone?"

606
00:32:25,751 --> 00:32:28,471
You remember that one? As though shame has any relevance

607
00:32:28,615 --> 00:32:31,299
to the benefits of mobile communications technology.

608
00:32:31,443 --> 00:32:34,597
It struck me as vastly incredible when people think about it that way.

609
00:32:34,747 --> 00:32:38,091
In fact on a related note, I had the misfortune of being

610
00:32:38,241 --> 00:32:42,174
in the Apple Store on Regent Street at the 27th, I think it was

611
00:32:42,305 --> 00:32:44,907
when they were giving out the new iPads. I was just there to buy

612
00:32:45,051 --> 00:32:47,585
yet another lead that I need because things aren't compatible.

613
00:32:47,717 --> 00:32:50,504
And they were clapping, clapping and cheering

614
00:32:50,648 --> 00:32:52,832
each new iPad customers as they walked in the door.

615
00:32:52,976 --> 00:32:55,291
It was just screaming like they were at a football match.

616
00:32:55,429 --> 00:32:58,263
It's absolutely remarkable that we put so much value into it.

617
00:32:58,407 --> 00:33:00,684
I often think to myself  "Wouldn't it be wonderful if we felt

618
00:33:00,828 --> 00:33:03,027
that thrilled about advances in technology?"

619
00:33:03,171 --> 00:33:05,543
People in the streets would be clapping and yelling "Yeah, did you hear?

620
00:33:05,687 --> 00:33:09,320
We've got 20% better water efficiency!"

621
00:33:09,470 --> 00:33:12,125
And while we are at this point it is literally impossible to offer

622
00:33:12,269 --> 00:33:14,428
"the best product at the lowest possible price".

623
00:33:14,567 --> 00:33:17,948
It's another advertising slogan that ignores the actual mechanisms

624
00:33:18,092 --> 00:33:20,050
that govern production and sale of any product

625
00:33:20,188 --> 00:33:22,128
in a competitive marketplace.

626
00:33:22,265 --> 00:33:26,667
Were SonyEricsson to offer a truly robust, solid upgrade-flexible phone

627
00:33:26,811 --> 00:33:30,001
that was long-lasting, feature-accommodating, environmentally safe

628
00:33:30,145 --> 00:33:32,384
and recyclable as possible and with a lifespan

629
00:33:32,521 --> 00:33:35,546
of as many years as technology allows at that point,

630
00:33:35,690 --> 00:33:39,450
it would be a necessary consequence of competition

631
00:33:39,600 --> 00:33:42,504
and market-share hunting that another company will come along

632
00:33:42,647 --> 00:33:45,414
and make a slightly inferior phone at a slightly lower price

633
00:33:45,566 --> 00:33:47,655
in hopes to catch that market share.

634
00:33:47,780 --> 00:33:49,666
This spiral then continues and branches out

635
00:33:49,816 --> 00:33:51,825
into multiple similarly produced items

636
00:33:51,963 --> 00:33:55,129
with decreasing lifespans and sub-optimal technologies

637
00:33:55,267 --> 00:33:57,854
for the sake of market-share to begin with.

638
00:33:57,991 --> 00:34:00,560
This competition that we are trained to prize so highly

639
00:34:00,704 --> 00:34:02,726
also produces another kind of waste.

640
00:34:02,870 --> 00:34:06,402
Thousands of different versions of the same thing will spring up

641
00:34:06,546 --> 00:34:08,839
duplicating the amount of resources we burn and use up

642
00:34:08,976 --> 00:34:11,493
on every imaginable product that can be sold.

643
00:34:11,631 --> 00:34:14,700
It is by definition the most unsustainable method of production

644
00:34:14,844 --> 00:34:17,735
that there is. Even worse we produce tons of products

645
00:34:17,879 --> 00:34:21,011
that aren't even necessary simply so earnings can be made

646
00:34:21,155 --> 00:34:23,241
because we now rely on money to begin with.

647
00:34:23,379 --> 00:34:26,724
Go into a Pound Shop, or even Tesco's and count the amount of items

648
00:34:26,868 --> 00:34:31,263
that are absolutely necessary to the operational function of your life.

649
00:34:31,692 --> 00:34:34,757
It's less than 10% of the items if you ignore food.

650
00:34:34,908 --> 00:34:38,446
We're given food anyway [and] vast, vast aisles of bleach.

651
00:34:38,583 --> 00:34:40,778
It's like, "Well, if you need bleach, just have bleach".

652
00:34:40,916 --> 00:34:44,379
You don't need to have all this duplication.

653
00:34:44,548 --> 00:34:47,031
And while we're on buying and selling, the next ramification

654
00:34:47,175 --> 00:34:50,868
of a monetary system, of course, includes the future of employment.

655
00:34:51,012 --> 00:34:53,834
Technological Unemployment, which is unemployment caused by

656
00:34:53,984 --> 00:34:57,685
the use of machines as vehicles of labor

657
00:34:57,822 --> 00:35:01,076
has continually and systemically forced relevant numbers of people

658
00:35:01,204 --> 00:35:04,485
out of every new emerging sector for the past 100 years.

659
00:35:04,654 --> 00:35:09,262
In the words of Nobel Laureate Economist Wassily Leontief

660
00:35:09,400 --> 00:35:13,776
"The role of humans as the most important factor of production

661
00:35:13,926 --> 00:35:17,011
is bound to diminish in the same way that the role of horses

662
00:35:17,148 --> 00:35:19,525
in agricultural production was first diminished

663
00:35:19,663 --> 00:35:23,606
and then eliminated by the introduction of tractors."

664
00:35:24,529 --> 00:35:27,035
Our current economic employment market

665
00:35:27,179 --> 00:35:29,453
is basically broken down into three sectors:

666
00:35:29,603 --> 00:35:32,684
agricultural, mining and fishing, things like that;

667
00:35:32,822 --> 00:35:34,950
manufacturing which is tangible goods;

668
00:35:35,094 --> 00:35:37,156
and service which is intangible goods.

669
00:35:37,300 --> 00:35:39,655
As a near universal social progression

670
00:35:39,800 --> 00:35:43,126
all societies tend to follow the developmental path

671
00:35:43,257 --> 00:35:46,520
which takes them from a reliance on agriculture and extraction

672
00:35:46,670 --> 00:35:48,838
towards the development of manufacturing

673
00:35:48,982 --> 00:35:51,481
such as automobiles, textiles, ship-building, steel

674
00:35:51,627 --> 00:35:55,451
and finally towards the more service-based structure.

675
00:35:55,789 --> 00:35:59,025
Naturally, the only reason some countries are farther behind

676
00:35:59,169 --> 00:36:02,072
the process than others has to do with the affordability of the technology

677
00:36:02,206 --> 00:36:06,658
required to move to the next level irrespective of its social system

678
00:36:06,795 --> 00:36:10,634
or political disposition. It's simply a scientific progression.

679
00:36:10,765 --> 00:36:13,809
Let's now consider this phenomenon using the United States as a proxy.

680
00:36:13,953 --> 00:36:18,223
In 1860, 60% of Americans worked in the agricultural sector.

681
00:36:18,373 --> 00:36:20,951
However today due to the advancement of machinery and automation

682
00:36:21,086 --> 00:36:24,683
less than 1% do. Fortunately, those technological developments

683
00:36:24,827 --> 00:36:27,261
also gave rise to an emerging industrial revolution

684
00:36:27,411 --> 00:36:31,252
and by 1950, 33% of Americans were employed

685
00:36:31,403 --> 00:36:34,114
in the factory-based manufacturing sector.

686
00:36:34,258 --> 00:36:37,064
As of now, due to continual advancements in machine automation

687
00:36:37,202 --> 00:36:39,877
it is less than 8%.

688
00:36:40,333 --> 00:36:43,255
Considering that only about 9% of Americans work in the agricultural

689
00:36:43,399 --> 00:36:46,099
and manufacturing sectors now where did everyone else go?

690
00:36:46,243 --> 00:36:49,661
If you went to Z-Day or if you've had a look at a fascinating book

691
00:36:49,798 --> 00:36:52,052
by Jeremy Rifkin called "The End of Work"

692
00:36:52,196 --> 00:36:54,270
which is where a lot of these numbers come from

693
00:36:54,401 --> 00:36:57,201
they went to the service sector.

694
00:36:57,364 --> 00:36:59,591
The only thing that has served the US labor market

695
00:36:59,741 --> 00:37:02,210
and in fact all labor markets is exactly the same over here.

696
00:37:02,362 --> 00:37:04,718
After the technological renovation of the agricultural

697
00:37:04,862 --> 00:37:08,287
and manufacturing sectors is the flight to the service industry.

698
00:37:08,425 --> 00:37:11,613
From 1950-2002 in the service sector

699
00:37:11,756 --> 00:37:15,219
the employment went from 59% to 82%.

700
00:37:15,886 --> 00:37:18,585
The service sector is the dominant employer of much of the world

701
00:37:18,723 --> 00:37:22,999
today with all other industrial countries.

702
00:37:24,053 --> 00:37:27,076
Of course, this begs the question "Is this sector susceptible

703
00:37:27,219 --> 00:37:30,126
to the wrath of technological unemployment as well?"

704
00:37:30,269 --> 00:37:33,570
Well, of course, it's not insusceptible.

705
00:37:33,707 --> 00:37:36,382
With the advent of increasing versatile computer technologies,

706
00:37:36,544 --> 00:37:39,145
which I'm sure you're all better versed in than I am,

707
00:37:39,281 --> 00:37:41,562
we are seeing job displacement once again this time

708
00:37:41,706 --> 00:37:44,612
in all service industries. The replacement of tellers

709
00:37:44,756 --> 00:37:47,931
and cashiers with kiosks, the use of automated voice systems

710
00:37:48,062 --> 00:37:51,156
for phone calls, even the Internet has redefined retail

711
00:37:51,300 --> 00:37:54,613
not to mention full kiosk systems in physical market places

712
00:37:54,763 --> 00:37:57,794
advance food prep by machines, even research by automation

713
00:37:57,945 --> 00:38:01,395
is being done from statistical modeling to lab experiments.

714
00:38:01,548 --> 00:38:03,988
As economist Steven Roach has warned "The service sector

715
00:38:04,132 --> 00:38:09,116
has lost its role as America's unbridled engine of job creation."

716
00:38:09,561 --> 00:38:11,425
As a unique example in Germany

717
00:38:11,563 --> 00:38:13,987
the first fully automated restaurant is in operation.

718
00:38:14,131 --> 00:38:16,248
In fact it's old news now. I think this came about...

719
00:38:16,392 --> 00:38:19,794
I think it was the end of 2008? Certainly by 2009

720
00:38:19,938 --> 00:38:22,982
it had been going very well. It uses kiosks for order and payment

721
00:38:23,119 --> 00:38:25,991
and the food is then served by fully mechanized systems.

722
00:38:26,141 --> 00:38:31,339
There are zero wait staff. There is no reason this, and more

723
00:38:31,477 --> 00:38:34,521
could not be done with every single eating establishment in the world.

724
00:38:34,674 --> 00:38:38,603
In fact, if one were to think creatively about the application

725
00:38:38,747 --> 00:38:42,879
of technology as it currently exists to the entire service sector

726
00:38:43,023 --> 00:38:46,949
you could probably wipe out most of the jobs overnight.

727
00:38:47,136 --> 00:38:50,055
The only reason it hasn't been done is because the focus of society

728
00:38:50,199 --> 00:38:52,466
is backwards when it comes to social progress.

729
00:38:52,603 --> 00:38:54,615
To illustrate this more, lets stop thinking

730
00:38:54,719 --> 00:38:56,892
about technology in terms of unemployment for a moment

731
00:38:57,023 --> 00:38:59,461
and consider it from the angle of productivity.

732
00:38:59,605 --> 00:39:03,068
The most incredible relationship of all

733
00:39:03,215 --> 00:39:05,919
is that the more technological unemployment increases

734
00:39:06,071 --> 00:39:08,391
the more productive things become.

735
00:39:08,541 --> 00:39:12,492
In the G-7 industrialized countries

736
00:39:12,664 --> 00:39:15,548
employment in manufacturing has been dropping

737
00:39:15,698 --> 00:39:18,826
but manufacturing output has been rising. Here's the chart.

738
00:39:18,969 --> 00:39:22,705
You can see. It's practically an inverse correlation.

739
00:39:23,405 --> 00:39:25,869
Here's a wonderful quote from Bruce Bartlett.

740
00:39:26,013 --> 00:39:29,538
He said "The truth is that US manufacturing is doing quite well

741
00:39:29,682 --> 00:39:32,958
in every aspect except in the number of people it employs.

742
00:39:33,102 --> 00:39:35,459
Furthermore, [few] economists would judge the health or sickness

743
00:39:35,597 --> 00:39:37,677
of any industry based solely on employment.

744
00:39:37,821 --> 00:39:40,608
.

745
00:39:40,973 --> 00:39:43,698
By that standard agriculture has been the sickest industry of all

746
00:39:43,842 --> 00:39:46,035
for decades because employment has declined

747
00:39:46,172 --> 00:39:50,368
although farm productivity rose dramatically in the past century.

748
00:39:50,512 --> 00:39:53,062
Industrial health is better measured by output

749
00:39:53,212 --> 00:39:56,449
productivity, profitability and wages."

750
00:39:56,650 --> 00:40:00,438
Unfortunately, this person is forgetting one universal thing:

751
00:40:00,587 --> 00:40:04,440
If human laborers are displaced, they cannot obtain purchasing power.

752
00:40:04,585 --> 00:40:07,822
If they cannot obtain purchasing power, they cannot fuel the economy

753
00:40:07,966 --> 00:40:09,896
by consumption, so on that level it doesn't matter

754
00:40:10,040 --> 00:40:13,563
how productive we are.  No one will be able to buy anything.

755
00:40:13,707 --> 00:40:18,499
This phenomenon is not new. It's called "The Contradiction of Capitalism".

756
00:40:19,673 --> 00:40:21,782
I hesitate to use this phrase because

757
00:40:21,926 --> 00:40:24,951
I'm talking about the monetary system generally, not just "capitalism".

758
00:40:25,113 --> 00:40:28,384
Of course, that can mean anything you want it to, and it often does.

759
00:40:28,528 --> 00:40:33,699
For not only is the obsolescence of human labor the obsolescence

760
00:40:33,843 --> 00:40:37,453
of the human consumer, the high level of output

761
00:40:37,591 --> 00:40:40,613
generated by technological efficiency makes the corporate motivation

762
00:40:40,757 --> 00:40:43,588
to pursue such advances very strong

763
00:40:43,732 --> 00:40:46,423
even though it is economically self-defeating over time.

764
00:40:46,561 --> 00:40:49,285
In other words, regardless of the level of productivity

765
00:40:49,429 --> 00:40:53,049
if people don't have jobs they can't buy anything.

766
00:40:53,205 --> 00:40:56,818
This very fact alone that productivity is inverse to employment

767
00:40:56,956 --> 00:41:01,132
in all sectors should be enough to warrant a deliberate shift

768
00:41:01,282 --> 00:41:03,494
from the focus of human labor to a system

769
00:41:03,638 --> 00:41:06,131
where technology is given the highest priority.

770
00:41:06,276 --> 00:41:08,319
The system is literally denying peak production

771
00:41:08,457 --> 00:41:11,670
in a world where those 1 billion we mentioned are starving.

772
00:41:11,820 --> 00:41:16,030
I think that's probably the most despotic thing I can think of.

773
00:41:16,356 --> 00:41:19,976
Another damaging culmination of a society operating under a monetary system

774
00:41:20,120 --> 00:41:23,407
is the propensity for generating "established institutions".

775
00:41:23,536 --> 00:41:26,866
By this I mean the self-reinforcing need for any company

776
00:41:27,010 --> 00:41:28,996
or institution with power or vested interest

777
00:41:29,140 --> 00:41:32,286
to preserve that same power and investment to the exclusion

778
00:41:32,424 --> 00:41:35,511
of any and all new or differing information.

779
00:41:35,662 --> 00:41:40,991
It is, on a smaller scale, the same self-defending mind-lock

780
00:41:41,132 --> 00:41:43,543
most of the world's population has

781
00:41:43,687 --> 00:41:46,724
towards alternatives to a monetary system.

782
00:41:47,340 --> 00:41:49,577
Consider this: If you founded a drug company

783
00:41:49,715 --> 00:41:53,862
to produce cancer treatments, employed staff, attracted shareholders

784
00:41:54,019 --> 00:41:56,681
who invest in your company and expect a return on that investment

785
00:41:56,825 --> 00:41:59,987
you must do everything to maintain the viability of your enterprise.

786
00:42:00,151 --> 00:42:03,513
You are, in fact, a vested interest in cancer.

787
00:42:03,657 --> 00:42:06,432
Were a cheap, easily administered non-toxic cure

788
00:42:06,575 --> 00:42:09,183
for a wide variety of cancers to come along

789
00:42:09,381 --> 00:42:11,745
you are forced into the position of "fighting tooth and claw"

790
00:42:11,889 --> 00:42:15,838
to suppress, outsell and block this alternative medicine.

791
00:42:15,988 --> 00:42:18,985
The need for cyclical returns, growing profit and the need

792
00:42:19,129 --> 00:42:22,417
to maintain a competitive edge means increased prices

793
00:42:22,561 --> 00:42:24,597
and the maintaining of the status quo.

794
00:42:24,735 --> 00:42:27,401
It doesn't matter if it's bad for people or not.

795
00:42:27,538 --> 00:42:31,012
The radical change in the status quo means ditching practices

796
00:42:31,169 --> 00:42:35,833
developed drugs and research has been heavily funded on

797
00:42:35,977 --> 00:42:38,117
and which employs large numbers of people.

798
00:42:38,267 --> 00:42:40,283
And even if the jump was made to a singular

799
00:42:40,420 --> 00:42:42,404
cheap and easily applied treatment

800
00:42:42,549 --> 00:42:45,252
prices would remain artificially high to maintain the profits

801
00:42:45,396 --> 00:42:48,057
and the bottom line you'd already inherited from the old system.

802
00:42:48,212 --> 00:42:50,226
Immediately this puts the treatment out of the reach

803
00:42:50,351 --> 00:42:52,566
of the poorer sections of society, exactly those

804
00:42:52,717 --> 00:42:54,781
in the more unequal countries

805
00:42:54,919 --> 00:42:57,434
who absolutely require it.

806
00:42:58,061 --> 00:43:01,790
Those in more unequal countries have higher rates of illness as well.

807
00:43:01,939 --> 00:43:05,845
In a sustainable society formulated around the logic of a monetary system

808
00:43:05,989 --> 00:43:08,441
there would be nothing to hold back

809
00:43:08,579 --> 00:43:11,950
developmental implementation of anything

810
00:43:12,832 --> 00:43:14,756
once it's been tested thoroughly.

811
00:43:14,909 --> 00:43:17,191
There could be no "Established Institutions". New methods

812
00:43:17,329 --> 00:43:20,272
would immediately be implemented into society and no monetary institution

813
00:43:20,416 --> 00:43:24,604
would thwart the change due to their self-preserving nature.

814
00:43:25,790 --> 00:43:28,578
Prior evidence of this kind of sick self-preservation to the detriment

815
00:43:28,722 --> 00:43:31,614
of the population easily fades from collective public memory.

816
00:43:31,764 --> 00:43:34,408
However, here are some examples of the outright lies

817
00:43:34,552 --> 00:43:37,153
that various institutions have perpetrated to preserve

818
00:43:37,304 --> 00:43:40,212
their own operational safety regardless of social concern.

819
00:43:40,362 --> 00:43:42,908
Has anyone seen these?

820
00:43:43,058 --> 00:43:46,853
Lucky Strike [is] almost the best example of this, actually.

821
00:43:46,986 --> 00:43:50,819
If you look, there's a guy on YouTube who keeps posting 1950's adverts.

822
00:43:50,970 --> 00:43:53,880
It's surprising how many of them are Lucky Strike. Filled with facts

823
00:43:54,030 --> 00:43:57,486
evidence and dead-faced grinning physicians with rosy cheeks

824
00:43:57,623 --> 00:44:01,372
Lucky Strike clearly saw the benefits of employing pseudoscience

825
00:44:01,523 --> 00:44:03,966
to convince countless people of the alleged safety

826
00:44:04,109 --> 00:44:07,902
and superiority of their cigarettes. Rather than withdraw this poison

827
00:44:08,039 --> 00:44:10,060
from the marketplace the act of reinforcement

828
00:44:10,198 --> 00:44:12,059
of sales through advertising is obvious.

829
00:44:12,209 --> 00:44:14,193
And rather than any government banning outright

830
00:44:14,339 --> 00:44:17,853
the sale of deadly toxins being sold to their own voters

831
00:44:18,003 --> 00:44:20,772
the tax garnered from their sales, which grows year upon year

832
00:44:20,922 --> 00:44:23,860
proves to be the dominant social mechanism in the process

833
00:44:24,004 --> 00:44:27,626
that selects this cultural attribute for self-preservation.

834
00:44:28,178 --> 00:44:30,357
Or how about this? - Mike, welcome to the show.

835
00:44:30,501 --> 00:44:33,103
We appreciate you being on tonight. - Thanks for the invitation, Joe.

836
00:44:33,247 --> 00:44:35,444
- Ok, let's talk about the rat of the week.

837
00:44:35,581 --> 00:44:39,134
Why is Bayer Corporation the rat of the week?

838
00:44:39,280 --> 00:44:41,828
- Internal documents show that after this company

839
00:44:41,966 --> 00:44:45,171
positively, absolutely knew that they had a medication

840
00:44:45,322 --> 00:44:47,248
that was infected with the AIDS virus

841
00:44:47,386 --> 00:44:49,667
they took the product off the market in the US

842
00:44:49,811 --> 00:44:52,993
and then they dumped it in France, Europe, Asia and Latin America.

843
00:44:53,130 --> 00:44:57,000
The medicine's called Factor VIII. It's an injection medicine.

844
00:44:57,131 --> 00:44:59,484
It was used for hemophiliacs, mostly children.

845
00:44:59,628 --> 00:45:02,972
Children who had been born with an incurable disease. - Hold on Mike.

846
00:45:03,116 --> 00:45:05,512
So you're telling me, that Bayer knew

847
00:45:05,650 --> 00:45:08,487
that this drug was infected with the AIDS virus.

848
00:45:08,637 --> 00:45:10,780
They yanked it from the market in America

849
00:45:10,937 --> 00:45:13,693
and then they dumped it in markets overseas?

850
00:45:13,837 --> 00:45:16,801
- They had to figure out a way, Joe, to make a profit on a product

851
00:45:16,945 --> 00:45:20,439
that they could not sell in America. So they made a huge profit.

852
00:45:20,583 --> 00:45:23,329
They dropped the product in Japan, Spain and France.

853
00:45:23,466 --> 00:45:26,016
By the way, Joe, government officials in France

854
00:45:26,160 --> 00:45:29,110
that allowed that to happen actually had to go to prison for it.

855
00:45:29,260 --> 00:45:33,004
In America, not one corporate executive for this company

856
00:45:33,148 --> 00:45:36,834
has been indicted or even criminally investigated by our Justice Department.

857
00:45:36,978 --> 00:45:40,377
- Why not? You're telling me that these people that dumped

858
00:45:40,521 --> 00:45:43,483
this AIDS tainted blood in foreign countries

859
00:45:43,615 --> 00:45:45,517
who killed children

860
00:45:45,654 --> 00:45:48,946
have not been taken to task in the United States?

861
00:45:49,090 --> 00:45:52,704
- It's worse than that. The US Government allowed it to happen.

862
00:45:52,861 --> 00:45:55,060
The FDA allowed this to happen.

863
00:45:55,204 --> 00:45:57,899
And now the government is completely looking the other way.

864
00:45:58,049 --> 00:46:02,901
Thousands of innocent hemophiliacs have died from the AIDS virus

865
00:46:03,039 --> 00:46:05,739
and not only they're dying, their family members are dying

866
00:46:05,876 --> 00:46:08,219
because they're becoming infected with the disease.

867
00:46:08,370 --> 00:46:11,132
This company knew absolutely that they had a problem

868
00:46:11,282 --> 00:46:13,872
with a product that they knew was infected with AIDS.

869
00:46:14,016 --> 00:46:16,024
They dumped it because they wanted to turn

870
00:46:16,161 --> 00:46:18,692
this disaster into a profit.

871
00:46:18,836 --> 00:46:21,457
- Mike, I want to read to you what Bayer

872
00:46:21,601 --> 00:46:23,591
told The New York Times about this scandal.

873
00:46:23,735 --> 00:46:28,198
They said "Bayer behaved responsively, ethically and humanely.

874
00:46:28,342 --> 00:46:30,870
Decisions made nearly two decades ago were based

875
00:46:31,014 --> 00:46:33,889
on the best scientific information of the time

876
00:46:34,033 --> 00:46:36,864
and were consistent with the regulations in place."

877
00:46:37,002 --> 00:46:39,509
That sounds like a lot of legal mumbo-jumbo.

878
00:46:39,653 --> 00:46:42,983
Yet, you say you have internal documents that show that they knew

879
00:46:43,127 --> 00:46:46,833
that this drug they were dumping was tainted with the AIDS drug?

880
00:46:46,996 --> 00:46:50,424
Or the AIDS virus? - The documents show that there was no question

881
00:46:50,568 --> 00:46:53,318
that this company absolutely understood the risk.

882
00:46:53,455 --> 00:46:56,806
They knew that it was contaminated. It wasn't a possibility.

883
00:46:56,950 --> 00:46:59,725
They knew it was contaminated. Americans were dying

884
00:46:59,869 --> 00:47:02,295
from the product before it was pulled off the market.

885
00:47:02,439 --> 00:47:04,784
The only reason it was pulled off the market is because

886
00:47:04,915 --> 00:47:07,276
lawyers found the documents and showed it to the government.

887
00:47:07,420 --> 00:47:09,797
And finally the government said "You can't sell it here."

888
00:47:09,928 --> 00:47:13,423
But then the government allowed them to dump it in Spain, France and Japan.

889
00:47:13,567 --> 00:47:15,947
- That's amazing. That's just amazing.

890
00:47:16,072 --> 00:47:19,519
I want to read to you what The New York Times said.

891
00:47:19,665 --> 00:47:22,816
This is an investigation that they also did

892
00:47:22,960 --> 00:47:25,471
and they said the Federal Government was part of the problem.

893
00:47:25,615 --> 00:47:28,407
While the Food and Drug Administration told the company

894
00:47:28,551 --> 00:47:33,389
not to ship the drugs overseas, the man responsible for the drug supply, quote:

895
00:47:33,552 --> 00:47:37,251
"Asked that the issue be quietly solved without alerting the Congress

896
00:47:37,401 --> 00:47:41,461
the medical community and the public." This is a cover-up!

897
00:47:41,600 --> 00:47:44,584
And our Congress is not doing anything!

898
00:47:44,734 --> 00:47:47,143
What should Americans do?

899
00:47:47,280 --> 00:47:50,274
Have you ever wondered what today's "Lucky Strike" products are?

900
00:47:50,405 --> 00:47:55,391
What is your asbestos? What is your HIV-infected commercial medicine?

901
00:47:55,522 --> 00:48:00,036
What is our generation's DDT? What is the thalidomide of now

902
00:48:00,180 --> 00:48:03,363
pushed as safe and sound, rushed through production without proper testing

903
00:48:03,501 --> 00:48:06,115
or understanding the effects due to the profit system?

904
00:48:06,257 --> 00:48:11,136
Commercial drugs have patent lifespans of 7 years, including trials

905
00:48:11,267 --> 00:48:15,139
and it takes only a cursory glance at modern medicine

906
00:48:15,289 --> 00:48:19,650
to see stories like Vioxx and realize

907
00:48:20,178 --> 00:48:23,869
which is more important out of human concern and the profit motive.

908
00:48:24,581 --> 00:48:27,737
What is being sold to you now that is self-evidently harmful

909
00:48:27,881 --> 00:48:29,924
ineffective and deliberately expensive?

910
00:48:30,074 --> 00:48:33,603
What today, tonight, will you consume that is developed to solve

911
00:48:33,746 --> 00:48:36,857
a non-existent problem such as "restless leg syndrome"

912
00:48:37,001 --> 00:48:39,479
or produced and tested in the cheapest way

913
00:48:39,617 --> 00:48:43,945
that can be like Dell computers. I'm sorry, I've got a Dell, as well.

914
00:48:46,189 --> 00:48:48,817
Or marketed to you as absolutely necessary

915
00:48:48,961 --> 00:48:52,589
like SSRI anti-depressants or carcinogenic food colorings

916
00:48:52,740 --> 00:48:55,100
which are only there to make the food more attractive

917
00:48:55,244 --> 00:48:57,459
so you will buy it.

918
00:48:57,609 --> 00:49:00,090
But why do we forget these histories of socially offensive behavior

919
00:49:00,228 --> 00:49:02,292
and outright danger, these negative retro-actions

920
00:49:02,440 --> 00:49:05,555
in our societal construct? Are we stupid? No, it's not that.

921
00:49:05,706 --> 00:49:09,486
Many people regard the corporations as responsible in abstraction

922
00:49:09,637 --> 00:49:12,819
almost as separate individualized entities.  Corporate fines

923
00:49:12,957 --> 00:49:15,597
or the public offering up of CEO's for punishment

924
00:49:15,741 --> 00:49:19,412
in a semi-ritualistic manner makes people feel a misguided sense

925
00:49:19,556 --> 00:49:22,103
that "justice has been done," and that we can all now move on

926
00:49:22,253 --> 00:49:24,603
now that the offending "bad apples" have been removed

927
00:49:24,747 --> 00:49:27,502
that an aberrant problem has been rooted out of the system.

928
00:49:27,646 --> 00:49:30,267
Yet the root of the issue is not an isolated behavior

929
00:49:30,418 --> 00:49:32,599
by some rogue corporations or individual

930
00:49:32,749 --> 00:49:34,794
for the damaging behaviors are themselves a generation

931
00:49:34,938 --> 00:49:37,280
of the monetary system to begin with.

932
00:49:37,424 --> 00:49:41,456
A much stronger reason for the attrition of our memories

933
00:49:41,600 --> 00:49:43,756
and awareness of these kinds of failures

934
00:49:43,893 --> 00:49:47,770
is down to the media companies which automatically filter out

935
00:49:47,913 --> 00:49:50,494
negative stories because of corporate ownership

936
00:49:50,638 --> 00:49:52,799
the need to attract advertising from the very companies

937
00:49:52,943 --> 00:49:56,118
they might be exposing, or editorial censorship driven

938
00:49:56,268 --> 00:49:58,885
and informed by worldviews already indoctrinated into the logic

939
00:49:59,029 --> 00:50:01,612
of the market system as it currently is structured.

940
00:50:01,762 --> 00:50:05,692
You will not read about the vast corporate crimes in history class

941
00:50:05,843 --> 00:50:08,664
just as you will not be taught the fractional reserve banking system

942
00:50:08,808 --> 00:50:11,667
in economics. Ultimately it is of little value

943
00:50:11,811 --> 00:50:15,173
to the self-sustaining nature of the system or is a direct threat

944
00:50:15,311 --> 00:50:19,130
to its dogma, as John McMurtry might have put it, and is just ignored.

945
00:50:20,229 --> 00:50:22,043
And it's usually at this point that many believe

946
00:50:22,181 --> 00:50:25,305
that greater government intervention or regulation

947
00:50:25,455 --> 00:50:28,540
or even lack of government regulation or intervention

948
00:50:28,684 --> 00:50:32,025
or some mysterious and detail-lacking "reform"

949
00:50:32,156 --> 00:50:34,165
would solve this issue.

950
00:50:34,302 --> 00:50:37,389
That a true "free market" would somehow work out for the better.

951
00:50:37,539 --> 00:50:40,195
The one we're seeing now is not the true "free market".

952
00:50:40,332 --> 00:50:42,256
Quite apart from the fact that the ecological

953
00:50:42,400 --> 00:50:44,721
and socially offensive detriments we have already outlined

954
00:50:44,864 --> 00:50:47,670
would continue untouched or completely unchecked

955
00:50:47,826 --> 00:50:51,002
one must realize that there is no such thing as "the free market".

956
00:50:51,145 --> 00:50:54,038
Governments are simply extensions of the corporations

957
00:50:54,176 --> 00:50:57,133
and the competition/advantage-driven marketplace.

958
00:50:57,271 --> 00:50:59,595
This is why we see so many politicians

959
00:50:59,733 --> 00:51:02,933
going on to be heads of vast private businesses

960
00:51:03,070 --> 00:51:05,169
or Directors of the World Bank or the IMF

961
00:51:05,301 --> 00:51:08,417
or worse, lobbying and non-governmental agencies

962
00:51:08,569 --> 00:51:12,360
whose singular qualification is access and power and connections.

963
00:51:12,498 --> 00:51:15,059
Monopoly and cartel are the logical ends and goals

964
00:51:15,203 --> 00:51:19,730
of any corporate entity in a competition-based monetary system.

965
00:51:19,955 --> 00:51:22,668
For example, let's say I open an electronics store.

966
00:51:22,812 --> 00:51:26,428
(I could probably do it outside given the problems we had here today.)

967
00:51:26,673 --> 00:51:28,941
And at that time, there are 3 other stores in my area

968
00:51:29,079 --> 00:51:33,055
and I have to compete with them. As time moves forward

969
00:51:33,205 --> 00:51:36,042
I would streamline my competitive strategies

970
00:51:36,186 --> 00:51:39,573
and reduce overhead in such a way that my store becomes the dominant

971
00:51:39,723 --> 00:51:42,528
most affordable contributor of a certain set of items

972
00:51:42,672 --> 00:51:47,253
and everyone in town flocks to my store over the others for such items.

973
00:51:47,397 --> 00:51:50,619
Due to this, 2 of the other 3 stores go out of business and leave town.

974
00:51:50,756 --> 00:51:54,848
At this point it is just my store and the little other competitor in my region.

975
00:51:54,985 --> 00:51:57,860
Since my profits have been so good I decide to attempt to acquire

976
00:51:58,004 --> 00:52:00,126
or buy the competing store in town.

977
00:52:00,270 --> 00:52:03,249
They agree, so I purchase that store, put my logo on it

978
00:52:03,384 --> 00:52:06,218
and BOOM!  We have a regional monopoly.

979
00:52:06,584 --> 00:52:09,720
Likewise, let's assume I didn't purchase the other store

980
00:52:09,864 --> 00:52:13,258
but rather became "friends" and then partners with them

981
00:52:13,402 --> 00:52:16,004
and thus figured out ways to allow for both of us to flourish

982
00:52:16,155 --> 00:52:20,045
in a non-competitive way. Then you have a cartel.

983
00:52:20,183 --> 00:52:23,069
In other words, business is based, in part, on a gaming strategy

984
00:52:23,219 --> 00:52:25,087
to win market share and hence profit.

985
00:52:25,225 --> 00:52:27,633
Therefore, it is a natural gravitation to seek dominance

986
00:52:27,777 --> 00:52:31,675
in your sector or industry and the highest level is monopoly and cartel.

987
00:52:31,819 --> 00:52:34,427
It is a natural progression of the free-market system

988
00:52:34,571 --> 00:52:36,727
to become as dominant and powerful as possible.

989
00:52:36,871 --> 00:52:39,341
There is no corporation in the world who would not want to have

990
00:52:39,479 --> 00:52:41,337
a complete monopoly.

991
00:52:41,481 --> 00:52:44,857
A lot of people believe motivation

992
00:52:45,007 --> 00:52:47,014
is spurred on by the promise of monetary reward

993
00:52:47,146 --> 00:52:49,669
and that without money nothing would ever be done.

994
00:52:49,818 --> 00:52:53,177
It is a remarkable truth that modern life is based in large part

995
00:52:53,321 --> 00:52:56,826
on the sum of achievements of very few people many of whom

996
00:52:56,964 --> 00:52:59,923
had heavily altruistic ideas and who died poor.

997
00:53:00,067 --> 00:53:02,184
Those who license, buy or steal their ideas

998
00:53:02,328 --> 00:53:04,610
to make products and services for profit, however

999
00:53:04,748 --> 00:53:08,862
are feeding off those other people's ideas for quite different reasons.

1000
00:53:08,999 --> 00:53:12,013
Nikola Tesla who was the inventor of wireless technology

1001
00:53:12,156 --> 00:53:14,228
and one of the inventors of radio. I say "one of"

1002
00:53:14,372 --> 00:53:17,756
because there is actually a large debate as to who exactly produced it first.

1003
00:53:17,900 --> 00:53:20,661
Broadly speaking, Marconi, Tesla and a few other people

1004
00:53:20,792 --> 00:53:22,798
developed the technology at the time.

1005
00:53:22,935 --> 00:53:24,942
We have Tesla to thank for the alternating current

1006
00:53:25,074 --> 00:53:27,604
which powers the world.

1007
00:53:27,742 --> 00:53:29,746
It's incredible he's forgotten.

1008
00:53:29,852 --> 00:53:32,780
He is the reason this room is even usable today.

1009
00:53:32,924 --> 00:53:35,817
And Tesla was not doing it for the money. In fact, later in his life

1010
00:53:35,955 --> 00:53:40,466
Tesla built the Wardenclyffe Tower which was going to become

1011
00:53:40,610 --> 00:53:43,976
one large hub of electricity that would be transferred wirelessly

1012
00:53:44,113 --> 00:53:46,879
around the globe. It was actually part of a system.

1013
00:53:47,137 --> 00:53:50,147
J.P. Morgan, our good friend, the richest and most powerful man

1014
00:53:50,291 --> 00:53:54,026
at that time, was a financier of the 'Tesla Broadcasting System'.

1015
00:53:54,170 --> 00:53:56,465
The tower was designed as a world communications center

1016
00:53:56,603 --> 00:54:00,031
and Tesla added to the project

1017
00:54:03,278 --> 00:54:06,035
in that the tower would also be used for transmitting

1018
00:54:06,172 --> 00:54:09,693
electrical energy without wires to the entire globe.

1019
00:54:09,837 --> 00:54:11,980
Tesla wanted to saturate the globe with electricity

1020
00:54:12,123 --> 00:54:14,808
as a dynamo so that everyone on the surface of the globe

1021
00:54:14,952 --> 00:54:18,669
could obtain electrical light just by sticking wires

1022
00:54:18,819 --> 00:54:21,136
into the ground and an electrical bulb would light up.

1023
00:54:21,292 --> 00:54:25,247
Has anyone seen "The Prestige"? That's not science-fiction.

1024
00:54:25,397 --> 00:54:28,669
Tesla managed to do that. The reason we don't see it now

1025
00:54:28,813 --> 00:54:32,648
J.P. Morgan heard about the Tesla project

1026
00:54:32,792 --> 00:54:36,280
and he asked "How can we get money"? (These were his exact words.)

1027
00:54:36,424 --> 00:54:38,795
"How can we get money from the electricity which Tesla

1028
00:54:38,939 --> 00:54:40,726
is supplying to every part of the world?"

1029
00:54:40,870 --> 00:54:44,774
After that, Morgan cut the funds and the Tower was never finished.

1030
00:54:44,924 --> 00:54:48,396
Tesla died of heart failure in 1943

1031
00:54:48,527 --> 00:54:51,643
alone in his room in the New Yorker Hotel. [He was] broke.

1032
00:54:51,799 --> 00:54:54,231
Not only was Tesla not motivated by money

1033
00:54:54,381 --> 00:54:57,048
he was actually hamstrung by it, and so are we

1034
00:54:57,192 --> 00:55:01,348
years later, still seeing sights like this.

1035
00:55:01,486 --> 00:55:04,647
So the next time you're wrestling with your cables behind your computer

1036
00:55:04,791 --> 00:55:07,148
or hear stories of power lines destroying houses

1037
00:55:07,292 --> 00:55:10,334
or large rolling blackouts because the power lines broke down

1038
00:55:10,478 --> 00:55:12,669
remember by which mechanism we were denied

1039
00:55:12,811 --> 00:55:15,493
globally available, wireless energy. All created by a man

1040
00:55:15,637 --> 00:55:20,033
who simply wanted to make a better world and who paid the price for it.

1041
00:55:21,110 --> 00:55:24,557
Is Tesla one in a billion? Evidently not.

1042
00:55:24,694 --> 00:55:28,273
British inventor Emily Cummins invented a solar-powered fridge

1043
00:55:28,411 --> 00:55:32,043
for use in hot and arid countries in a potting shed.

1044
00:55:32,180 --> 00:55:34,994
It doesn't require electricity. It's self-powering.

1045
00:55:35,138 --> 00:55:38,050
These students invented self-powering biosensors

1046
00:55:38,200 --> 00:55:40,912
that detect dangerous toxins.

1047
00:55:41,062 --> 00:55:43,469
Bear that one in mind for later on. That's quite important.

1048
00:55:43,612 --> 00:55:46,456
Some students in North Carolina invented a textile

1049
00:55:46,593 --> 00:55:48,782
that blocks radiation, making it possible for astronauts

1050
00:55:48,919 --> 00:55:51,732
to survive the dangerous levels of radiation in space.

1051
00:55:51,876 --> 00:55:55,758
It wasn't NASA that fixed that, some students in North Carolina.

1052
00:55:55,889 --> 00:55:59,881
And an ignorant machine (this is my favourite one)

1053
00:56:00,031 --> 00:56:04,739
given raw data deduced Newtonian laws all by itself.

1054
00:56:05,014 --> 00:56:08,091
We aren't all that far away from Deep Thought, the giant supercomputer

1055
00:56:08,237 --> 00:56:11,175
in "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" who is so powerful that

1056
00:56:11,326 --> 00:56:14,673
when first switched on and started with "I think, therefore I am"

1057
00:56:14,829 --> 00:56:16,963
he'd deduced the existence of income tax

1058
00:56:17,101 --> 00:56:19,481
and rice pudding before they could turn it off again.

1059
00:56:19,619 --> 00:56:22,232
All we need is unhampered scalability for the same thing.

1060
00:56:22,376 --> 00:56:25,952
We've already created exactly what Adams was talking about.

1061
00:56:26,559 --> 00:56:29,155
Or have a look at the correlation of successful patents filed

1062
00:56:29,299 --> 00:56:32,258
as opposed to income inequality in our own lifetime.

1063
00:56:32,402 --> 00:56:35,426
In countries where there is a smaller gap between the richest and poorest

1064
00:56:35,569 --> 00:56:38,594
the number of patents is much higher than those

1065
00:56:38,738 --> 00:56:42,570
in which massive stratification like the UK or the US exists.

1066
00:56:42,708 --> 00:56:45,771
Were we truly equal, truly able to access resources

1067
00:56:45,915 --> 00:56:49,403
on a level playing field, our innovation would skyrocket tomorrow

1068
00:56:49,547 --> 00:56:52,046
based on the trends we are seeing even now.

1069
00:56:52,184 --> 00:56:54,360
That line hasn't been drawn by me, by the way.

1070
00:56:54,485 --> 00:56:56,637
That's a mathematical inference.

1071
00:56:56,775 --> 00:56:58,895
It's not designed by Wilkinson or Pickett either.

1072
00:56:59,045 --> 00:57:02,458
That's a by-product of the statistics themselves.

1073
00:57:03,928 --> 00:57:07,232
Imagine how many more Teslas there would be were we not hampered

1074
00:57:07,376 --> 00:57:10,467
by merely the best education that we can just about afford

1075
00:57:10,611 --> 00:57:12,657
and an education system that isn't purely geared

1076
00:57:12,801 --> 00:57:16,950
to conditioning us for the 9-to-5 wage slavery of a job

1077
00:57:17,100 --> 00:57:20,571
that, on average, produces nothing of societal significance

1078
00:57:20,715 --> 00:57:22,719
and the exposure to low-grade media

1079
00:57:22,863 --> 00:57:24,951
designed to make us buy rather than think.

1080
00:57:25,089 --> 00:57:29,785
I have absolutely no reservations in this: The human race is brilliant.

1081
00:57:29,929 --> 00:57:32,846
We are massively inventive, naturally curious, and have

1082
00:57:32,983 --> 00:57:35,760
in spite of the hamstringing effects of the profit system

1083
00:57:35,904 --> 00:57:39,283
designed and invented incredible systems of abundance.

1084
00:57:39,427 --> 00:57:42,854
It's time to put these systems into effect replacing the poisonous

1085
00:57:42,998 --> 00:57:45,864
irrelevant and detrimental systems of profit, self-interest

1086
00:57:46,008 --> 00:57:49,447
and duplicative competition, ecological mismanagement

1087
00:57:49,591 --> 00:57:51,865
and the lack of general awareness of our needs

1088
00:57:52,003 --> 00:57:54,243
and goals for survival on this planet.

1089
00:57:54,398 --> 00:57:56,908
This is what The Venus Project proposes.

1090
00:57:57,052 --> 00:57:59,165
We have, and have had for a long time

1091
00:57:59,302 --> 00:58:01,833
the necessary technological wherewithal

1092
00:58:01,977 --> 00:58:06,109
to build systems of abundance, generation right now

1093
00:58:06,271 --> 00:58:09,966
not in some misty future. We could do it today.

1094
00:58:10,135 --> 00:58:12,753
Why is there a water-shortage anywhere on this planet

1095
00:58:12,890 --> 00:58:14,892
when it is covered mostly in water?

1096
00:58:15,030 --> 00:58:17,871
We can produce desalination plants that work off the sun's energy.

1097
00:58:18,009 --> 00:58:21,079
Don't think it can be done? Where do you think clouds come from?

1098
00:58:21,228 --> 00:58:23,553
We haven't done it systematically because there's no money

1099
00:58:23,697 --> 00:58:26,288
in solving a problem and producing abundance so massive

1100
00:58:26,431 --> 00:58:30,026
that it doesn't require money. Think of Tesla.

1101
00:58:30,214 --> 00:58:33,888
Like Tesla's vision of free energy for all, the only reason it doesn't exist today

1102
00:58:34,038 --> 00:58:37,451
is because scarcity equals profit by our present logic.

1103
00:58:37,595 --> 00:58:41,418
So what do we do to get from here to there?

1104
00:58:41,569 --> 00:58:44,089
What is proposed, and how do we do it?

1105
00:58:44,233 --> 00:58:46,700
Here are the fundamental concepts and strategies towards solving

1106
00:58:46,844 --> 00:58:50,471
these issues direly pressing in our world.

1107
00:58:50,615 --> 00:58:52,934
It is called a Resource-Based Economy. First off

1108
00:58:53,071 --> 00:58:56,003
we move from a growth economy to a steady-state economy.

1109
00:58:56,146 --> 00:59:00,298
We do not have the resources or the environmental freedom to keep using

1110
00:59:00,441 --> 00:59:03,498
consuming, wasting and poisoning our resource pool.

1111
00:59:03,635 --> 00:59:06,438
Not only do we have to move away from this paradigm

1112
00:59:06,582 --> 00:59:08,522
we must outright flee it.

1113
00:59:08,659 --> 00:59:11,137
We call for an absolute end to the monetary system.

1114
00:59:11,281 --> 00:59:14,497
This scarcity and waste we see around us is being generated

1115
00:59:14,640 --> 00:59:17,545
created by us, not some intrinsic process of nature

1116
00:59:17,689 --> 00:59:21,245
or some human nature, the assertions of which are religious in nature and are absurd

1117
00:59:21,395 --> 00:59:23,763
when you think about our evident adaptability.

1118
00:59:23,907 --> 00:59:25,915
The use of money is no longer relevant to us

1119
00:59:26,053 --> 00:59:30,445
as we have thoroughly discussed and it's extremely detrimental.

1120
00:59:30,980 --> 00:59:34,394
Second, we must move from a primitive

1121
00:59:34,544 --> 00:59:38,276
competition-based invention system to a collaborative system.

1122
00:59:38,432 --> 00:59:42,231
Not only are all goods produced in our current system inherently inferior

1123
00:59:42,363 --> 00:59:45,638
due to the need to maintain a competitive cost basis in the marketplace

1124
00:59:45,795 --> 00:59:49,276
but the competitive system also generates large amounts of corruption

1125
00:59:49,413 --> 00:59:53,117
and yes, the incentive to compete does produce improved goods and services

1126
00:59:53,261 --> 00:59:57,172
to a certain degree, but that positive is completely overshadowed

1127
00:59:57,322 --> 00:59:59,481
by the planned obsolescence, pointless duplication

1128
00:59:59,625 --> 01:00:03,348
and general environmental detachment created by the necessity

1129
01:00:03,504 --> 01:00:06,229
to stay ahead of someone else.

1130
01:00:06,410 --> 01:00:10,907
Imagine for a moment if the top engineers of the major car companies

1131
01:00:11,048 --> 01:00:15,256
rather than competing, got together and decided to collaborate

1132
01:00:15,400 --> 01:00:18,195
on making the best car possible to a given point in time.

1133
01:00:18,333 --> 01:00:21,112
Imagine if we established an incentive system that pulls people together

1134
01:00:21,256 --> 01:00:26,216
to create the best rather than compete and produce inherent inferior...

1135
01:00:26,366 --> 01:00:28,431
(Sorry, I'm miles behind now, there we go.)

1136
01:00:28,575 --> 01:00:30,642
...inferiority, think about that.

1137
01:00:30,780 --> 01:00:33,928
An open source world, with all lines coming together

1138
01:00:34,071 --> 01:00:37,482
to produce and improve goods so everyone can benefit.

1139
01:00:37,635 --> 01:00:39,904
The progress would be unbelievable. Not to mention

1140
01:00:40,047 --> 01:00:42,201
it would save tremendous amounts of resources

1141
01:00:42,345 --> 01:00:44,654
for there is no longer a need for the duplication inherent

1142
01:00:44,798 --> 01:00:47,878
in the corporate, competing mechanism.

1143
01:00:48,047 --> 01:00:51,316
Third, we move from our piecemeal dispersed industrial methods

1144
01:00:51,460 --> 01:00:55,568
to a centrally planned system of streamlined functionality.

1145
01:00:56,043 --> 01:00:58,226
Is it me or is it absolutely insane

1146
01:00:58,364 --> 01:01:01,354
that we import strawberries from Brazil, bananas from Ecuador

1147
01:01:01,498 --> 01:01:05,111
water from Fiji, when all of these things can be produced locally.

1148
01:01:05,255 --> 01:01:09,469
As Jacque Fresco...does describe

1149
01:01:09,613 --> 01:01:11,651
in regard to his city systems, everything

1150
01:01:11,782 --> 01:01:14,566
is as self-contained as possible in a Resource-Based Economy.

1151
01:01:14,717 --> 01:01:19,094
As another example consider the general route of production

1152
01:01:19,238 --> 01:01:22,144
from mining materials, creating preliminary components

1153
01:01:22,294 --> 01:01:24,350
to assembling components, to distribution. You'll find

1154
01:01:24,494 --> 01:01:26,702
that these factories are all over the place:

1155
01:01:26,846 --> 01:01:29,039
different states, countries, parts of the world.

1156
01:01:29,189 --> 01:01:32,990
These components get transported around.

1157
01:01:33,134 --> 01:01:35,409
We can do that all from one place.

1158
01:01:35,552 --> 01:01:39,122
The Earth is a system and must be treated as such.

1159
01:01:39,259 --> 01:01:41,801
There are resources all over the planet Earth

1160
01:01:41,939 --> 01:01:45,232
and we must therefore create a system that can monitor

1161
01:01:45,376 --> 01:01:50,363
these global resources in a holistic way.

1162
01:01:50,626 --> 01:01:53,577
The first step would be a full survey of the Earth's natural resources.

1163
01:01:53,709 --> 01:01:55,711
If you don't know what you have, you can't make

1164
01:01:55,855 --> 01:01:57,819
an intelligent decision about management.

1165
01:01:57,957 --> 01:01:59,993
We must first understand the full range and capacity

1166
01:02:00,131 --> 01:02:02,091
of the earthly components in order to derive

1167
01:02:02,234 --> 01:02:04,207
inference as to our capabilities.

1168
01:02:04,357 --> 01:02:06,803
There are many natural resources to be considered on planet Earth

1169
01:02:06,947 --> 01:02:09,302
but for the sake of quickly showing the train of thought

1170
01:02:09,440 --> 01:02:11,026
let's just consider energy.

1171
01:02:11,163 --> 01:02:16,364
Since energy is the fuel of society, it makes perfect sense to begin with [energy].

1172
01:02:16,957 --> 01:02:18,843
So we scan and analyze the Earth

1173
01:02:18,980 --> 01:02:21,641
listing all of the relevant energy locations and potentials.

1174
01:02:21,785 --> 01:02:26,071
The potential, of course, to clarify is always based, in part

1175
01:02:26,208 --> 01:02:29,081
on the current state of technology for harnessing.

1176
01:02:29,219 --> 01:02:31,339
I say "current technology for harnessing"

1177
01:02:31,477 --> 01:02:34,855
because in some areas the potentials is based extensively

1178
01:02:34,999 --> 01:02:37,705
on our ability to actually utilize it. For example

1179
01:02:37,837 --> 01:02:42,300
solar energy has a dramatic potential but it is still greatly underutilized

1180
01:02:42,462 --> 01:02:44,560
as the technology has been very inefficient so far.

1181
01:02:44,681 --> 01:02:48,490
But with the advent of nanotechnology, we can see

1182
01:02:48,634 --> 01:02:52,269
a possible exponential increase in this potential.

1183
01:02:53,450 --> 01:02:56,231
So it is contingent upon the quality of our methods.

1184
01:02:56,375 --> 01:03:00,664
I don't have time to spend too much on this interesting topic

1185
01:03:00,802 --> 01:03:04,256
but if you research the trends of nanotech applied to solar radiation harnessing

1186
01:03:04,380 --> 01:03:06,401
it becomes clear that solar energy alone

1187
01:03:06,526 --> 01:03:09,376
could power the entire world, thousands of times over.

1188
01:03:09,519 --> 01:03:13,268
Moving on, we then have this raw data. We need to rate each resource

1189
01:03:13,405 --> 01:03:15,729
based on its renewability, pollution output and everything

1190
01:03:15,873 --> 01:03:19,597
that factors into it, weighing to the degree of sustainability.

1191
01:03:19,891 --> 01:03:22,583
Those sources which have the most negative retroactions

1192
01:03:22,727 --> 01:03:24,890
are given the least priority in utilization.

1193
01:03:25,027 --> 01:03:27,055
For example, since fossils fuels are non-renewable

1194
01:03:27,193 --> 01:03:29,790
and can pollute the environment and given the tremendous power

1195
01:03:29,934 --> 01:03:32,940
of geothermal, wave, wind and solar combined

1196
01:03:33,084 --> 01:03:37,278
I might find that there is no reason to burn fossil fuels at all.

1197
01:03:39,011 --> 01:03:43,577
Once realized, we move to the third step: Distribution and Monitoring.

1198
01:03:43,721 --> 01:03:47,259
Energy distribution and infrastructure projects would logically be formulated

1199
01:03:47,397 --> 01:03:50,636
based on technological possibility and proximity to sources.

1200
01:03:50,786 --> 01:03:54,083
In other words, if we have wind energy being utilized in Asia

1201
01:03:54,221 --> 01:03:57,946
we are likely not going to delivery that energy to Latin America.

1202
01:03:58,092 --> 01:04:00,230
So distribution parameters would be self-evident based on

1203
01:04:00,368 --> 01:04:04,566
the current state of technology and proximity practicality.

1204
01:04:05,147 --> 01:04:09,065
Likewise, active resource monitoring done through earth sensors

1205
01:04:09,203 --> 01:04:11,426
(and that brings us back to that self-powered sensor system)

1206
01:04:11,570 --> 01:04:14,670
would run itself. It wouldn't need energy in the first place.

1207
01:04:14,821 --> 01:04:18,177
And earth sensors and computers would allow a constant awareness

1208
01:04:18,321 --> 01:04:21,553
of the rate of use, the rate of depletion, the rate of renewal

1209
01:04:21,703 --> 01:04:23,814
and any other parameter relevant to know

1210
01:04:23,964 --> 01:04:26,156
in order to maintain a balanced load.

1211
01:04:26,294 --> 01:04:29,203
If the scarcity of any raw resource is going to occur

1212
01:04:29,353 --> 01:04:31,526
we could forecast that well in advance

1213
01:04:31,664 --> 01:04:34,801
which is what we're not doing, for example, with oil now.

1214
01:04:35,314 --> 01:04:39,603
In fact, Hewlett Packard is developing

1215
01:04:39,734 --> 01:04:41,972
a wireless sensing system to acquire

1216
01:04:42,109 --> 01:04:44,740
extremely high-resolution seismic data on land.

1217
01:04:44,884 --> 01:04:47,227
This is exactly the direction that we need to move in

1218
01:04:47,371 --> 01:04:50,650
and the next level is simply maximizing the scalability of this technology

1219
01:04:50,781 --> 01:04:52,808
in regard to creating a monitoring system

1220
01:04:52,961 --> 01:04:55,445
for the entire planet including parameters

1221
01:04:55,589 --> 01:04:58,596
from extraction to production to distribution.

1222
01:04:58,733 --> 01:05:02,043
We must monitor and understand the rates of depletion and generation

1223
01:05:02,181 --> 01:05:04,676
of all Earth's resources and, in turn, our actions

1224
01:05:04,814 --> 01:05:08,721
will always be cognizant of their environmental impact.

1225
01:05:08,884 --> 01:05:12,006
So what do we have so far? We have the locations of the energy resources.

1226
01:05:12,147 --> 01:05:16,701
We have the output potentials and the distribution qualifiers

1227
01:05:16,845 --> 01:05:20,139
based on statistical usage, technological harnessing and proximity.

1228
01:05:20,283 --> 01:05:22,620
And finally, we have a system of active resource monitoring which reports

1229
01:05:22,764 --> 01:05:27,321
the state of the energy supply rates of usage and any other relevant trends.

1230
01:05:27,953 --> 01:05:30,020
In other words, we have created a system.

1231
01:05:30,158 --> 01:05:33,389
A systems approach to the energy management on this planet.

1232
01:05:33,539 --> 01:05:36,862
The system is comprised of real-time data and statistics.

1233
01:05:37,006 --> 01:05:42,121
The process of unfolding is biased, not on a person or group's opinion

1234
01:05:42,283 --> 01:05:44,873
not on the whims of a corporation or government

1235
01:05:45,016 --> 01:05:47,483
but on the natural law and research. In other words

1236
01:05:47,627 --> 01:05:50,045
once we establish the interest that survival

1237
01:05:50,195 --> 01:05:53,365
and hence sustainability is our goal, which I hope everyone here

1238
01:05:53,515 --> 01:05:57,122
would think is quite important, each parameter to consider in regard of

1239
01:05:57,246 --> 01:05:59,130
resource management becomes self-evident.

1240
01:05:59,255 --> 01:06:02,695
It's called "arriving at decisions" as opposed to making them

1241
01:06:02,845 --> 01:06:06,541
which is a subjective act based on incomplete information

1242
01:06:06,685 --> 01:06:09,021
and often cultural bias. (I can't imagine what

1243
01:06:09,159 --> 01:06:11,348
our Prime Minister is going to decide.

1244
01:06:11,493 --> 01:06:14,687
I don't know what he would use as his reference point.)

1245
01:06:14,837 --> 01:06:18,355
Using this energy model as a procedural example

1246
01:06:18,499 --> 01:06:20,580
this systems approach can be applied to every other

1247
01:06:20,730 --> 01:06:24,491
earthly resource and quantifier. We survey, find potential

1248
01:06:24,635 --> 01:06:27,334
qualify for negative retroactions and apply modern technology

1249
01:06:27,478 --> 01:06:29,586
to harness, distribute and monitor

1250
01:06:29,724 --> 01:06:32,073
in the most logically advanced, holistic way possible.

1251
01:06:32,223 --> 01:06:34,231
A computer database and management program

1252
01:06:34,363 --> 01:06:36,616
would be the logical means to navigate these issues

1253
01:06:36,756 --> 01:06:39,315
where all the attributes we have discussed are fed in

1254
01:06:39,453 --> 01:06:42,797
with strategic computation applied.

1255
01:06:42,941 --> 01:06:45,510
And since the goal is maximum efficiency

1256
01:06:45,660 --> 01:06:48,654
the automation of adjustments becomes very simple.

1257
01:06:48,798 --> 01:06:51,555
For example, let's say we have two geothermal power plants

1258
01:06:51,695 --> 01:06:55,186
in the same region, each outputting in tandem the required amount of energy.

1259
01:06:55,330 --> 01:06:59,151
One day there is a problem and the output of one plant drops by 30%.

1260
01:06:59,295 --> 01:07:03,116
This would be seen by the monitoring system and the other plant's output

1261
01:07:03,272 --> 01:07:05,458
would be automatically increased by 30%.

1262
01:07:05,596 --> 01:07:08,241
It is reactive, just like the nervous system in your body.

1263
01:07:08,379 --> 01:07:12,291
No reasons to vote on it or debate it in Congress or in the Parliament.

1264
01:07:12,435 --> 01:07:15,104
It's automatic because it's self-evident.

1265
01:07:15,241 --> 01:07:20,586
We want to eliminate subjectivity currently dominant in today's society

1266
01:07:21,329 --> 01:07:25,652
and replace politics with a system of physical reference.

1267
01:07:25,802 --> 01:07:28,343
The possibilities of our technologies are absolutely profound.

1268
01:07:28,480 --> 01:07:32,625
Even as unintuitive as it may seem, complex surgery

1269
01:07:32,762 --> 01:07:35,156
is on pace with full automation and based on the pattern

1270
01:07:35,306 --> 01:07:38,830
will likely become much more reliable than the human hand.

1271
01:07:38,980 --> 01:07:43,299
In fact, people in the future will be appalled at the way we allowed

1272
01:07:43,442 --> 01:07:47,086
someone as irrational, technically inexact and with as varied a result

1273
01:07:47,230 --> 01:07:50,751
as a human being to operate directly on the most valuable, subtle

1274
01:07:50,901 --> 01:07:53,856
and advanced machine we have, the human being.

1275
01:07:54,012 --> 01:07:55,977
The bottom line is that it is socially irresponsible

1276
01:07:56,121 --> 01:07:58,862
not to recognize this pattern and maximize the potential.

1277
01:07:59,006 --> 01:08:01,302
We do not have the luxury of Luddite romanticism

1278
01:08:01,445 --> 01:08:04,511
when it comes to the goals of material abundance and sustainability.

1279
01:08:04,668 --> 01:08:08,060
We must follow the trends as they come about.

1280
01:08:08,591 --> 01:08:12,339
The final issue to talk about before we leave is ownership.

1281
01:08:13,024 --> 01:08:17,158
Ownership actually hampers access. We have less because we own more.

1282
01:08:17,302 --> 01:08:20,611
The best example is cars, all right? If you require a car

1283
01:08:20,755 --> 01:08:23,136
for whatever reason, the car is made available for you.

1284
01:08:23,273 --> 01:08:25,477
When you get to your destination, the satellite system

1285
01:08:25,621 --> 01:08:28,164
in the car should (we already have development)

1286
01:08:28,301 --> 01:08:31,032
should be able to send that car off to the next person who needs it

1287
01:08:31,170 --> 01:08:33,075
as opposed to sitting in some parking lot

1288
01:08:33,212 --> 01:08:36,908
wasting time and space for likely 80% of its time.

1289
01:08:37,057 --> 01:08:39,991
This is what we do now. It's because we have

1290
01:08:40,142 --> 01:08:42,338
built our systems around this kind of ownership

1291
01:08:42,475 --> 01:08:45,577
that we actually have.  Individual access is a lot less.

1292
01:08:45,721 --> 01:08:47,973
We must realize how many resources will be saved

1293
01:08:48,117 --> 01:08:51,926
enabling access, abundance for all when we stop this destructive idea

1294
01:08:52,063 --> 01:08:54,014
of everyone owning one of everything.

1295
01:08:54,158 --> 01:08:56,104
Remember, property is this out-growth of scarcity.

1296
01:08:56,248 --> 01:09:00,143
The only reason we own things is because there might not be enough to go around.

1297
01:09:00,287 --> 01:09:02,928
In fact, if you think about it, property is a huge burden.

1298
01:09:03,072 --> 01:09:05,240
No longer will a person need to live in one place.

1299
01:09:05,377 --> 01:09:07,960
One could travel the world constantly

1300
01:09:08,104 --> 01:09:09,962
getting what one needs as one moves along.

1301
01:09:10,106 --> 01:09:12,405
Anything needed is obtained without restriction.

1302
01:09:12,537 --> 01:09:17,065
We hoard things in our current system because (we have houses full of junk)

1303
01:09:17,208 --> 01:09:19,404
we're afraid to get rid of it because we know

1304
01:09:19,542 --> 01:09:21,772
that they have some kind of monetary value.

1305
01:09:21,916 --> 01:09:23,864
And again, there is no reason for this kind of

1306
01:09:24,008 --> 01:09:26,067
abuse, for there is nothing to gain.

1307
01:09:26,204 --> 01:09:28,285
You can't steal things in a society

1308
01:09:28,443 --> 01:09:30,161
where there is open access to everything.

1309
01:09:30,652 --> 01:09:34,555
Perhaps you think that surpassing the monetary system is too radical.

1310
01:09:34,698 --> 01:09:37,572
That it's pie in the sky. It's too futuristic.

1311
01:09:37,716 --> 01:09:40,531
You know what I think is radical? Designing and presiding

1312
01:09:40,669 --> 01:09:42,626
over a system based on infinite growth

1313
01:09:42,770 --> 01:09:45,457
and which relies upon inefficiency and duplicated effort

1314
01:09:45,595 --> 01:09:48,897
and inferior throw-away products in a finite world.

1315
01:09:49,039 --> 01:09:52,066
We have to sell more, buy more, accrue more debt and produce more and more

1316
01:09:52,203 --> 01:09:54,538
tons of waste in order for this system to function.

1317
01:09:54,669 --> 01:09:57,102
Not only that, the successful function of the current system

1318
01:09:57,245 --> 01:10:02,229
inherently means the few getting richer while the many get poor.

1319
01:10:02,404 --> 01:10:06,515
Who will buy your products when there is so little work

1320
01:10:06,659 --> 01:10:08,386
that the majority of humanity is unemployed?

1321
01:10:08,544 --> 01:10:11,944
Who will use your services when most of us are starving?

1322
01:10:12,095 --> 01:10:14,983
Yet we cannot keep producing more and more in a world

1323
01:10:15,127 --> 01:10:17,926
with ever-shrinking resources and limited societal development

1324
01:10:18,054 --> 01:10:20,062
development hamstrung by the need for every institution

1325
01:10:20,187 --> 01:10:22,184
to preserve its status quo to begin with.

1326
01:10:22,321 --> 01:10:24,407
That's the most radical thing I have ever heard of.

1327
01:10:24,551 --> 01:10:28,228
It is demonstrably unsustainable. It is inhuman.

1328
01:10:28,366 --> 01:10:31,415
In fact, it is anti-human.

1329
01:10:31,703 --> 01:10:34,237
And while we hear this word "unsustainable" a lot

1330
01:10:34,381 --> 01:10:36,664
it's over-used again and again by the media. Let me remind you again

1331
01:10:36,801 --> 01:10:40,668
what it means exactly. It means in our global society

1332
01:10:40,812 --> 01:10:43,055
based on deliberate inefficiency, waste, pollution

1333
01:10:43,193 --> 01:10:46,851
and massive social stratification, the things we do right now

1334
01:10:47,008 --> 01:10:49,202
will reach a point where it will not support

1335
01:10:49,346 --> 01:10:51,203
human life the way we need it to.

1336
01:10:51,353 --> 01:10:53,749
We must re-orientate our structures to support

1337
01:10:53,887 --> 01:10:57,529
the population we have already, and which we are about to have.

1338
01:10:57,667 --> 01:11:02,039
We are only successful in society if we take a hard look at the only thing

1339
01:11:02,164 --> 01:11:04,103
which has ever been important and that is the survival

1340
01:11:04,226 --> 01:11:07,442
of the entire species as a whole and to align our operations

1341
01:11:07,586 --> 01:11:10,666
within the necessary laws and balances that our nature requires.

1342
01:11:10,817 --> 01:11:15,542
That's the true meaning of evolution. I refuse to live in a society like this.

1343
01:11:15,680 --> 01:11:20,541
I refuse to sit on top of the 10% of this world

1344
01:11:20,679 --> 01:11:24,441
standing by while billions of mirror images of myself suffer and die

1345
01:11:24,585 --> 01:11:27,947
for no good reason other than profit and artificial boundaries.

1346
01:11:28,084 --> 01:11:31,468
No longer will I like to quietly tolerate the suffering

1347
01:11:31,606 --> 01:11:34,411
of almost all of the only race I am a member of

1348
01:11:34,555 --> 01:11:38,477
on the only planet in the known universe that I can presently inhabit.

1349
01:11:38,627 --> 01:11:41,353
I do not accept that this is as good as it gets.

1350
01:11:41,497 --> 01:11:43,584
This is as bad as it gets.

1351
01:11:43,722 --> 01:11:46,594
We need to roundly reject this paralyzing, limiting, divisional

1352
01:11:46,732 --> 01:11:49,958
fraudulent mess we laughingly refer to as economics.

1353
01:11:50,096 --> 01:11:52,950
It is irrelevant and in direct opposition

1354
01:11:53,094 --> 01:11:56,582
to our survival, and it is stunting to our staggering

1355
01:11:56,737 --> 01:11:59,483
and subtle, fantastic unlimited potential.

1356
01:11:59,627 --> 01:12:02,271
I'm sorry. It'll have to go.

1357
01:12:02,963 --> 01:12:05,038
You know, if you consider yourself forward-thinking

1358
01:12:05,177 --> 01:12:07,572
you'll have learned to be able to look back

1359
01:12:07,715 --> 01:12:09,877
at the present from the future.

1360
01:12:10,015 --> 01:12:12,752
The future population of this earth can look back one day

1361
01:12:12,896 --> 01:12:15,821
at our present tense and see one of two things.

1362
01:12:15,975 --> 01:12:18,285
They could see that we recklessly destroyed ourselves

1363
01:12:18,429 --> 01:12:20,312
and each other, or they can see that we made it.

1364
01:12:20,455 --> 01:12:22,983
In the future they are already looking at our living group.

1365
01:12:23,133 --> 01:12:25,821
And I want them to see that we did make it.

1366
01:12:25,971 --> 01:12:28,148
We have to make it. Thank you.

1367
01:12:28,292 --> 01:12:30,649
The Zeitgeist Movement

1368
01:12:30,804 --> 01:12:32,635
The Future of Economics

1369
01:12:32,774 --> 01:12:34,570
Ben McLeish

1370
01:12:34,714 --> 01:12:37,198
London, June 5th, 2010