Unbanking the banked

in #thoughts5 years ago

When I was young, my mother got into selling Amway for a little while, this was back in the early 80s and it is a driect marketing business model that worked much like a cult that relied on leveraging friends and family to join. If you don't know what it is, you can have a look here, but sometimes I feel a little like crypto is following the same model, or at least, I feel a little bit like I am a recruiter for the cult. The difference is that I am not at least directly benefiting from their buy-in, nor am I selling them a product. Rather, there is a discussion that tends to be more philosophical in nature but is tied to very practical considerations that affect us all.

For essentially our entire history as humans, we have relied on centralized governance of one sort or another and have chosen leaders based on attributes that best satisfy our needs of the time, but that hasn't been the case for centuries. The tribal arrangements have been replaced by much less transparent and much more manipulative mechanisms that can be used across economic and social aspects to rig the game in a way that increasingly favors those who are already winning.

Through this manipulation applied over time, we have come to believe that not only is this the only way it can be, this is the best for us, and this is especially true for those who feel they are "winning" at the life game. Winningness is of course applied to comparisons against those who are losing at life's game, even though the view of the "real winners" is opaque.

We all have heard that something like the 8 richest people in the world are worth the same as the poorest 50% but, it doesn't matter if it is 8, 80 or 800 - that kind of imbalance is unsustainable and will eventually create economic pressures that break mechanisms. The trick for the top is to return enough wealth to the bottom that makes them feel like they are winning, have a chance or surviving, while leaching a little more out. This keeps the game going longer as people become accustomed to the slow crush downward and are satisfied with less and less.

One of my students before was saying about the new Finnish government being able to affect some change by giving more to the poorer demographic, but in my view, this kind of redistribution is unlikely to make a difference long term, it just keeps the game going a bit longer.

The reason is that the government money comes from taxpayers up the chain and when distributed downward, the increased buying capabilities of the poor gets pushed into product and service consumption that are owned by the sharp top end, but degrade in value. With the increase in demand, the investors with money invest into where that value is going to fall and make more money. This process actually increases the pool of the poor as it sucks value from the higher reaches downward only to push it directly to the very top. Then, the gains at the top are then reinvested into other investments that will go up in value via the same process.

Essentially, the only way to stop value being pushed to the top is by not borrowing in the form of debt and stop consuming from the top points unless they are distributing the value they gain back into the ecosystem, something companies can't really do because they have to compete, which means also offering a competitive return for investors.

This is the problem with the pyramid type structure of Amway as the only way to make money from it is for each layer to consume from the top and sell to the layers below. Eventually, the very wide bottom areas have no one to sell too as all of their friends are already in the game buying from the top and trying to sell themselves. The issues is that all along the supply chain of the product, people don't actually own anything, they don't add anything of value into the process and all products and services are distributed from a centralized warehouse. while those at the top can become extremely wealthy from the pyramid they build below them, the richest of all will always be the owners, not the agents.

Owning is the only way to become wealthy sustainably as if one relies on a constant paycheck, it is going to eventually be lost, one way or another. But of course, if only a few own, there is not enough economic distribution to make that ownership worth much and most of it will be wasted. What do you do with 130 billion dollars? Whatever you want, but it is unlikely to ever be used anywhere near to efficiently or effectively and for the majority of the time, it will just sit there doing nothing. No, that is not true is it? I does not sit there "doing nothing", it is actively used to invest into various mechanisms to make more, and that more comes from those who have less.

While the mechanisms are often highly well-protected and complex in nature, the process itself is relatively simple to understand once looked at somewhat visually. Explaining it to people is not the easiest task however as most have come to rely on the system, even if they are suffering and complaining within it. It is difficult to tell a person who is living in poverty to "own more" without appearing like a complete douche, yet that is essentially what has to happen to both raise the economic mass in the lowest reaches and, trim the enormous economic mass at the top of the mountain.

For the first time in human history, we have a chance to organize ourselves at a global level and increasingly reduce the reliance on the products and services that drive value up the supply chain and instead, consume across the supply network. With such a high level of economic inequality, this does take a fair amount of time but, the only way to get there is to become more savvy consumers, which means better understanding the supply chains and the value flows upon them. The technology to do this part exists today, we are using it now -but it doesn't benefit us if it is used against us to make the process of wealth accumulation at the top more efficient.

Currently, we are a long way from having enough economic participants in the industry to make much of a dent but the process is slowly distributing. What needs to happen to stop the economic crush is for us as users to increasingly integrate the systems into our lives using mechanisms that empower us, while disintegrating the connections to the opaque and manipulative mechanisms that continually disenfranchise us.

While everyone might want to be a nomad who owns nothing, that isn't going to be the reality of the world unless there are very drastic changes in world population that allows us to wander or, we give everything to a centralized system and trust they will look after us. Do you trust that authority to distribute to you adequately? No? Better start owning something then. Almost anything will do.

Ownership is just a token gesture - eventually all of us have nothing in death.

Taraz
[ a Steem original ]

Sort:  

Ownership is just a token gesture - eventually all of us have nothing in death.

My dad likes to say, You own nothing. You have five minute leases renewed with each heartbeat.

Use each heartbeat wisely.

I know this too much! My daughter often tells me why I own the different properties we do and I have to remind her that the bank really owns them. At least they will ultimately be hers clean and free, I hope!

Posted using Partiko iOS

Who knows what will change between now and then in Finland, but the way things are going, I don't think the economic situation is going to hold firm.

The more businesses will accept Steem, the more real-life scenarios we will have to keep it in the loop and disconnecting from fiat and centralized way of life. But for this to happen a major shift in our minds has to happen. As you say we need to start operating with the ownership mentality.

It isn't too different at how entrepreneurs operate. So in a way, we all need to become self-reliant entrepreneurs. Or solopreneurs to be more precise.

Posted using Partiko Android

It isn't too different at how entrepreneurs operate. So in a way, we all need to become self-reliant entrepreneurs. Or solopreneurs to be more precise.

It is a funny way to look at it but essentially, we are all entrepreneurs in this life as we all make economic decisions for ourselves and try to improve our position. Not many try from a business sense, even fewer are successful.

I gave my nieces and nephews precious metals for Christmas last year along with a one page essay on wealth accumulation, complete with a chart showing the flat lining of real wages and soaring of investment profits since Reagan. It is a fact of history that assets can create wealth and income can hopefully buy you assets, but is unlikely to ever lead to financial security in the absence of asset acquisition. Of course, one could always consider financial security to be delusional, and so just live in a tent on a tropical beach. Not sure how you’d get food and water though, and hopefully you’d at least own the tent.

Posted using Partiko iOS

Economic literacy is a must to learn in this world I think, as is the decision-making theory to the point it can be practically applied. I wish I owned a tent even :D

Das sind sehr gute Ansichten von Dir.
Leider werden es nicht viele Menschen verstehen, bzw. in ihrem Verhalten etwas ändern.
Die Mechanismen sind so gut aufgebaut, dass auch weiterhinz. B.:

Die Wollnys
Bauer sucht Frau
Adam und Eva im...
Das wollen wir im Fernsehen genießen, oder?

Sicherlich sind das blöde Beispiele, aber es regiert ja auch die Blödheit bei den Menschen.
Beziehungsweise korrigiere ich das dahingehend, dass, wieder zum Beispiel, die Frauen nie, aber auch wirklich nie aufhören werden, sich Schminke etc. ins Gesicht zu schmieren und sich damit ihre Haut zu zerstören.

Konkurrenz-denken ist die absolute Pest für uns Menschen.

Schneller, höher, breiter, mehr, mehr, mehr...

Es gibt Hunderte von Beispielen, die uns das täglich vor Augen halten, deutlich machen, welchen falschen Idealen wir hinterher laufen.

Was aber wird geändert?
Nichts!!!

Noch einen schönen Tag.

Der Filosof

Few people change in this world. A few people change the world.

Hahaha my parents got into amway also.

Nice analysis and it amazes me how many people don’t see the potential. Right now distribution is an issue like most new items but when it does go mainstream, look out.

Do you have any family friends left? :)

Distribution is changing, I hope a few more sell and many more buy.

My brother called yesterday. That’s one
Friends aaaahhhhhhhhh does steemians count. Hahahahahaha

exactly. :D

Decentralization is freedom.

Thanks!

You got a 36.23% upvote from @ocdb courtesy of @tarazkp! :)

@ocdb is a non-profit bidbot for whitelisted Steemians, current max bid is 20 SBD and the equivalent amount in STEEM.
Check our website https://thegoodwhales.io/ for the whitelist, queue and delegation info. Join our Discord channel for more information.

If you like what @ocd does, consider voting for ocd-witness through SteemConnect or on the Steemit Witnesses page. :)

Coin Marketplace

STEEM 0.35
TRX 0.12
JST 0.040
BTC 70391.42
ETH 3572.68
USDT 1.00
SBD 4.74