Saturday 4 June 2011

Money is power but power is not limited to money


What if we created a system where we handed out power units (called a Pu, pronounced pyoo) for those who can't access money? Would we develop a currency based on relationship to one another instead of a system that has become so complex and remote from social needs, even the experts no longer understand it? The world of finance seems to have been taken over by tricksters and magicians and their theories work like spells over banks. But the gap between haves and have-nots is getting so wide that the fissure in our future puts even the haves at risk.

Please feel free to download this image and print as many times as you like. Hand it out to your friends and family, the local baker, the grocer. The point is you exchange it for what you want - a carrot, a paper clip, tomato seedling, oatmeal cookie. You will have to negotiate with the vendor as you both decide how many Pu's a carrot is worth - but at least this exercise will bring currency out of the locked boardrooms and into the commons. Of course you could not force anyone to take a Pu. Any time power leads to force it loses its worth (its a fact that many on this planet haven't noticed yet). Also it is not recommended for use in the illegal drug trade, human trafficking or pornography.

Ideally, a Pu should be used for necessities: food, water, love, understanding, music and art. But you could try paying your taxes with it as an exercise in creative protest. Or, if you think this whole idea is just plain silly, don't use it at all.

You can, instead, give away your help and services, without asking anything in return. Give a neighbour a lift to the library, drop off vegetables from your garden to the food bank, send encouraging letters to politicians and public service employees, fill in the comments sections of surveys. The options are endless.

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