This quote is from the World Bank website:
“What is poverty?
Poverty is hunger. Poverty is lack of shelter. Poverty is being sick and not
being able to see a doctor. Poverty is not having access to school and
not knowing how to read. Poverty is not having a job, is fear for the
future, living one day at a time. Poverty is losing a child to illness
brought about by unclean water. Poverty is powerlessness, lack of
representation and freedom.
Poverty is a call to action — for the poor and the wealthy alike — a call to change
the world so that many more may have enough to eat, adequate shelter, access to education
and health, protection from violence, and a voice in what happens in
their communities.” (World Bank)
To address the problem, the World Bank set out a Poverty Goal, which is the following:
“The poverty goal calls for reducing by half the proportion of people living
on less than a dollar a day by 2015. A reduction from 28 percent in
1990 to 12.7 percent in 2015, would reduce the number of extreme poor
by 363 million.” (World Bank)
What is actually being said here?
What they’re saying is they are going to ‘make sure’ that 363 million
more people will be able to ‘live’ on 1 dollar a day, instead of less
than 1 dollar a day?
By their own statistics more than 3 billion people (almost half the world population)
is currently living on less than 2,5 dollars a day! (Globalissues)
They continue:
“While there has been great progress in reducing poverty, it has been far from
even, and the global picture masks large regional differences.
Poverty in East Asia—the world’s poorest region in 1981—has fallen from nearly
80 percent of the population living on less than $1.25 a day in 1981 to
18 percent in 2005 (about 340 million), largely owing to dramatic
progress in poverty reduction in China. The goal of halving extreme
poverty between 1990 and 2015 has already been achieved in East Asia.
Between 1981 and 2005, the number of people in poverty has fallen by around 600
million in China alone. In the developing world outside China, the
poverty rate has fallen from 40 to 29 percent over 1981-2005, although
the total number of poor has remained unchanged at around 1.2 billion.
$1.25 a day poverty rate in South Asia has also fallen, from 60 percent to 40
percent over 1981-2005, but this has not been enough to bring down the
region’s total number of poor, which stood at about 600 million in 2005.
In Sub-Saharan Africa, the $1.25 a day poverty rate has shown no sustained
decline over the whole period since 1981, starting and ending at around
50 percent. In absolute terms, the number of poor people has nearly
doubled, from 200 million in 1981 to 380 million in 2005. However,
there have been signs of recent progress; the poverty rate fell from
58% in 1996 to 50% in 2005.
In middle-income countries, the median poverty line for the developing world
—$2 a day in 2005 prices—is more relevant. By this standard, the poverty rate
has fallen since 1981 in Latin America and the Middle East & North Africa, but
not enough to reduce the total number of poor.
The $2 a day poverty rate has risen in Eastern Europe and Central Asia since 1981,
though with signs of progress since the late 1990s.”
It’s obvious the World Bank is unable to solve the problem and is merely playing on
numbers to cover things up.
How is one supposed to eat and drink and have shelter and education
with 1 or 2 dollars a day?
The Economic System
What if the World Bank, and the economic system it represents were
actually part of the problem?
In the current system inequality is in fact a requirement for the system
to be able to function. Specifically: poverty, unemployment and
starvation are required, because people existing in such conditions are
the ones that can be exploited for profit, having no choice but to
surrender themselves to the working-conditions set out by the employer.
They are unable to make any demands, because if they don’t accept the
conditions and do the job, someone else will and they’ll simply be left
to starve. Human beings have become irrelevant numbers. When so many
people are forced to accept such debased conditions (here are the World
Banks 1,25 and 2 dollars a day) – this will put pressure on all the
wages of everyone in the world. So the more extreme poverty exists, the
more extreme exploitation can be maintained.
The way we’ve organized our world is based on the premise that one must be able to
buy one’s right to exist, because only through money can one support
oneself to live. Parents buy that right for their children – and social
welfare is exactly the same principle. What we’re implying through this
agreement is that Life is worthless and merely a recourse to be
exploited by the system.
Never do we consider that it doesn’t have to be this way and that we have to power
to change the system into a world where life is actually valued.
But how?
In this world the issuance of debt-money ensures that inequality is always
perpetuated: all money that is placed in circulation is a loan of some kind
– this means there is already created interest – as an Added non-existent value
to the existing amount of money.
To use a simple example:
If I’m a banker and I give 2 people each 2 dollars as a loan, and i charge
each 50% interest – that means that for both to be able to pay off
their loan there must be a total amount of at least 6 dollar in
circulation. Because each one has to pay me 2+1 dollar. But I put only
a total amount of 4 dollars in circulation, as the very loans I made –
this means one of both is not going to able to pay off his debt, which
will force one of both to steal from the other leading to violence. On
a larger scale this results in one group having everything and the
other group having NOTHING. This is in a nutshell why in the current
money-system there cannot possibly exist basic Equality – you can
actually do the math. Yet none of this is being thought to the children
in any schools, leading them to believe we have a ‘fair’ system and to
grow up blindly accepting the limitations of the system as if it was
ordained by God.
There is no denying possible this system has to stop – It was never
designed in the consideration of what’s best for the whole, but merely
to enslave and exploit people. Because people believe there must be
a reason why such atrocities exist in the world.
No, there isn’t! There is no purpose to the 20.000 children dying of
starvation each day – the only reason why this is happening is because
we are CREATING it this way as a direct result of the money system.
We require a new system of money-creation that is beneficial to all –
where the value of the money is agreed upon to be ‘real one on one
value’ that cannot be manipulated. We need a totally new money and
labor system, where everyone is given an equal chance. That’s basic
common sense!
Currently the only answer the system has to the greed and inequality –
that is creating an increase in exploitation and abuse – is more greed
and inequality, which is expressed through the act of adding more and
more debt-money and credit to the pool – without even looking at the
structural point of where the inequality originates: in the creation
of money itself!
In this an institution like the World bank is merely perpetuating the problem, by
administering loans to countries that seek economic assistance – which
only causes more poverty, exploitation and starvation. (Globalissues)
The money-system is not sustainable for the World
At the moment in the West the money-system still seems to ‘work’ to some
degree. People can still ‘earn money’ and live comfortably. Yet with
where the system is currently headed, this will not be able to
continue, because through the debt-system all the material wealth is
continuously being transferred to the wealthiest minorities, slowly but
surely. So the majority of the people in the Western countries, which
is the middle class, will see their wealth disappearing into the hands
of the richer elites. Some of the middle class ‘climbing up’ to the
higher elites, and the rest becoming poor. This will eventually cause
the middle classes to disappear in every country – and you’ll have
third-world situations everywhere. This can go slowly are at a faster
pace, but the outcome is inevitable.
America, which is the spearhead of the financial system, is already starting
to head in that direction with mass-increases in unemployment, poverty
and even people starving.
Since the 1980’s 3/4th of all industrialized nations have in fact been
experiencing a widening gap in incomes between rich and poor. In recent
years with the financial crisis this gap is widening even faster. (Globalissues)
Many people are starting to accept the possibility that the system might
collapse – but they ‘go along’ in the expectation it won’t probably be
in their life-time. Still not realizing that none of it is even
necessary.
The end of the system will start to become more visible as time progress and
many more attempts will be made to ‘save it’ through government bailouts and other
measures. The question that remains is, will we go all the way until it is really too late
– or will we use common sense and direct ourselves to come up with an actual
solution.
Moreover the system is forcing all of humanity into behaviors of greed and self-interest,
as it presents a perception of scarcity and where the system is seen as God as
the only viable solution that can never be questioned. Obviously as the system
collapses, that will be the end of this religion and people will start
to realize there has to be another way.
So what’s the Solution?
The key to the problem is equality. Anything we do has to start there,
because without equality we’ll simply create a new cycle of harm and
abuse. So how do you practically make sure there is equality? Through
guaranteeing there is an equal income for everyone – giving every human
being equal access to the resources that are necessary to be able to
live a dignified life in the physical world.
As I’ve said the only reason why poverty, starvation, exploitation and slavery
exist is because we are tacitly agreeing to it – through agreeing on the
money-system. Therefore what must be understood is that we have the
power to change this reality.
For a change to take place all that is currently required is that we understand
what we are creating through the current system, that we agree that it must stop and we
agree that a new money and labor system is required. If there are
enough that agree on this, than political action becomes possible and
we can get real practical.
The Equal Money system that is currently being designed is to show that it is
possible to create a new system that breaks with the old, where practical
implementation in space and time is taken into consideration and where
the goal is to take the shortest route to a situation that is best for
all.
So, check out the research that is being done.
www.desteni-money.net
www.equal-money-for-all.ning.com
www.desteni.co.za
Gabriel Zamora Moreno