Economic policies that result in unintended consequences are caused by our contradictions. We have made counting money important. When counting and applying value cognitive dissonance begins to emerge. We teach 2+2=4 in math class, and teach 2+2=5 in business class. False mathematical equations are contradictions. The amount of profit depends upon the percentage applied. Percentages are used in many areas, not just business. Government taxes and banking interest are also percentages.
The tension over opposite ideas comes to a head in the political process, which is primarily a debate over multiple versions of false economic theory. We have to decide which math is true: 2+2=4 or 2+2=5? They cannot coexist.
Dissonance: Thought, Emotion, Physical by Steve Consilvio
When experiencing cognitive dissonance, one is unsure which ideas to change or jettison or merge. Our power of abstraction gives us doubts about our certainty, especially after our plans have failed. The clinically schizophrenic succeed in denial of doubt while maintaining incompatible ideas. Attackers, like Timothy McVeigh in Oklahoma, or Jared Loughner in Arizona, are convinced of the superiority of their contradictions. Their extremism, however, is an incremental extension of common contradictions. Their anger stemmed from a belief about money and trade.
The angst, anger and delirious pleasure that money generates indicates that something is amiss. Paper money was intended to make life and trade easier, but history reveals that it made things more difficult, too. Volatility and emotional extremes indicate a lack of proper understanding and management.
Money is the most poorly engineered system on the planet, especially in modern times. Compare the abundant art of renaissance Florence, Italy that was created for pleasure, to the drab urgency of a tollbooth building that forces motorists to wait in an unnecessary bottleneck. We have more kinds of money, more people, more productive capacity, more knowledge and seemingly less common sense. We have excess, yet lack art, peace, and economic security. This is not a random occurrence, but the inevitable result of cause and effect fueled by conscious choices. We lack the mathematical appreciation for how we arrive at unintended and unwanted consequences.
Money as an Object of Trade
Animals are enslaved by their physical instincts, man, in contrast, are enslaved by both physical needs and abstract beliefs. The most powerful idea is the validity of money as a mode of exchange. Money is an object that may change shape or size or color. It can be colored dirt or colored paper. It can have different numbers and pictures printed on it, but somewhere, somehow, there is a valuation that is applied to money that is widely accepted, at least temporarily. This is an important clue to diagnosing the problem.
The alleged ability to make a judgment regarding the value of different objects as fair or unfair when trading with one another is at the center of every exchange. You can buy a chicken with money, or you can buy an egg. The great question is not, "Which came first, the chicken or the egg?' The great question is "How many eggs are worth one chicken?'
Trade and cooperation are vital to human existence. Primitive of tribes have a social structure made up of differing families contributing to the needs of the whole. Despite size and technology , we are still the tribe on mankind. Roles get divided by age, gender and skill within the social contract. Divisions of labor are a natural event, and part of a group effort of mutual responsibility towards the common goal of survival. Commonwealth is the natural state of man. Slavery and fascism are unnatural.
Within the social contract, the younger and the elder consume without producing. Production falls to those in mid-life, roughly from 20 to 65 years old. We are all part of a dynamic life, both giving and taking.
The proper purpose of money is for the good of all the people. As a practical matter, the system needs to produce and distribute the wealth of society. One sign of a wise and successful society is that neither the young nor the old are expendable, and no subgroup is burdened disproportionately. Everyone should have the opportunity to participate and share the results. Many hands make light work.
Money is a bridge between the long and short term, the near and far, the slow and fast, the weak and strong, the young and old. The bridges between money and value and purpose are collapsing. We must repair them.
(Note: You can view every article as one long page if you sign up as an Advocate Member, or higher).
