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Posted by The purpose of this article is to summarize the societal impact of the changes associated with the introduction of visible money from a global perspective.
Visible money is a project that aims to make people’s coexistence more effective by creating a new means of exchanging values – a banking system that contains most of the society’s cash flows and assets and can be viewed for the most part by every member of society. It envisages a full transparency of assets and cash flows. In this text I’ll try to summarize the impact of the introduction of such a system from a global perspective.
Fundamentals
First of all, we should say that humanity as a whole is far from performing to the max in politics. The fact that we have no single world government in the age of the Internet – let alone a single currency universally accepted and interchangeable around the world (save for the cryptocurrencies) – is quite asymmetric compared to the growth of technology. But that’s the way the world goes round. Politics is lagging far behind technology. Therefore, I see enormous potential for growth in this area.
Visible money is a huge opportunity – with a single currency that is transparent and has all the benefits mentioned above, there will be no reason for such a system not to spread throughout the world. The underlying ideas of visible money are universal and acceptable to all living beings interested in playing according to legitimate rules and drawing from the benefits that result from the new organization of relationships. When visible money proves effective, for example in a smaller country or region, the system can spread at a rate that is directly proportional to the number of problems it can help us solve. Political entities may emerge whose main agenda will be to introduce visible money.
Systems such as visible money can become the pivotal planetary element around which political structures can grow with the aim to unify humanity and create a global unified government that can equally and fairly address every single region of the world, be it New York or a village in Central Africa. Such a unified government would play an unprecedented role in leveling out the regional disparities and resolving the problems in a fair sequence from a global perspective.
Dictatorships
If visible money brings about the envisaged changes in these regions, people in the rest of the world will too begin to wonder why couldn’t reap the benefits of visible money when all they need to do is to switch their economic lives to the visible money banking system. This grassroots pressure will make the dictators deal with visible money in some way. It is possible that in such countries the switch to visible money will occur through some form of amnesty for illegally accumulated assets.
Instant political system – the most perfect so far
Visible money will be a problem-free solution in those countries where liberal democracy doesn’t have a strong enough history and roots to follow the classic path. I still remember the many hardships and pitfalls in the Slovak Republic in an effort to build civil society after the fall of communism, and it is more than clear to me that the classic path is not the best and foolproof solution. For countries such as Venezuela or Central Africa, visible money will be a redemption from the historical trauma they would otherwise have to go through. Do you have a corrupt leader? Start using visible money – all you have to do is give smartphones to the people and ensure they are connected to the Internet. Visible money will show you the financial flows of politicians – all you need to do is to monitor them closely. Problem solved.
The emerging social and technological dictatorship in China
I included this chapter for a reason: in my opinion, it is a great example that the idea of visible money is correct and foolproof even against such excesses as an informationaly asymmetrical dictatorship. China collects data on its population, however, the benefits of such a system are used asymmetrically by the government to stay in power. Visible money balances such an unjust and freedom-threatening asymmetry. The data will be available to all. What’s more, such a model will be much more economically viable because people in the system will suddenly understand where the weaknesses of value creation are. The few Chinese communists who are abusing the system will not make an economic boom.
An objective social policy
I opine that the account balance hunt will end relatively soon after the introduction of visible money. Technology progresses in quantum leaps and things like an 8-hour shift in a factory to foot the bills will end relatively soon. The introduction of visible money will further strengthen this trend. The necessary minimum amount of money is simply credited to those who are destitute for objective reasons. When money becomes transparent, no one will object to such a procedure or criteria for this kind of direct support, as it will result from the objective financial flows of the person supported. This is simply not possible before visible money is introduced.
Economic boom linked to transparent finance
The fact that money will be largely visible will cause a revolution in streamlining the economy similar to the industrial revolution. Imagine you operate a small butcher shop in your village. You have a competitor in the neighboring village. When analyzing his financial flows, you see he buys his meat cheaper from a supplier you both know. Nothing can stop you from renegotiating the prices. I understand that when people with a standard economic mindset read these texts, it provokes resistance in them. However, the changes described herein will not occur overnight. It will take some time for the new mindset – transparency, the new economic driving force – to be instilled in the minds of the population the same way as the capitalist mantra – my business, my prices, my castle. I hold that such thinking is much more wrong than the idea of a transparency-driven economy. Nevertheless, people adopted it because it worked best in liberal capitalism. But with the advent of visible money, that too changes. People will be able to reassess whether the price is fair or not.
When you break away from the micro-perspective of the individual, and when everyone starts to follow the new transparency rules, the economy will be dug from the ground up for the better. Those who had large margins will face a surge of competition. On the contrary, those who have barely survived will be able to ask for higher prices. This trading is much more fair than the one we have now.
A much better solution: existence of a central clearing house in society – climate change
The existence of a clearing house in society through which all the transactions flow (this will most likely never happen, but the idea is better illustrated using such an example) would then allow us to do things that are not possible today in the economy. For example, imagine that a substance used in the manufacture of plastics is found to be a major contributor to climate change. It will be possible to introduce high taxes on all products containing this substance from the very get go. The substance will be completely replaced by a safe alternative within days. In today’s world, the introduction of such a measure would take years. Society running on visible money would simply be much more action-oriented and adaptable against the pitfalls that potentially await it.
Solution of problems with uncontrollable technological development
Financial transparency can also prove crucial in managing the risks that are not addressed at all by liberal capitalism – on the contrary, through economic incentives, technological progress is driven to unprecedented levels without any guarantees against its misuse. If money were visible and we notice that our neighbor’s girlfriend has just left him – a talented biochemist – and he is now shopping online for some laboratory supplies for the use of CRISPR (the question of to what level of detail would his economic transactions be visible is parameterizable), you might wonder whether the boy is up for something stupid.
Extremism
The same with extremism. If someone in your area planned to radicalize after a stay in Syria and shopped for some Islamist literature, you would be immediately on the lookout. Transparent finance would make it possible to turn all of humanity into one big family, where everybody would know everything and everything would be solved in time.
Refugee crises
Imagine a refugee camp would be planned in your city. All residents in the area would be given the right to look at the deepest financial flows of every single refugee. And as soon as the migrant buys a pellet from the gun store, he has some explaining to do. An immediate deportation upon early signs of undesirable behavior. I guarantee that the people raised in this way would be the best migrants in the world.
Joint and equitable management of the planet’s natural resources
When you give a pack of candies to a child in a group, they immediately share it with others. I don’t understand why this is not the case with natural resources. The fact that someone has oil in the backyard cannot be a reason for them not to move a finger and live by oil revenues only. And others work on them. This behavior is mega stupid, short-sighted and unfair. In visible money, all natural resources on the planet will be covered by an organization created for this purpose and the proceeds of such activities will be shared equally among all. And, of course, transparently, so no one can object to the injustice of such a process.
Conclusion
This article included a description of the changes related to the introduction of visible money at the global level. For better illustration, I mostly counted on the examples of a world where visible money is fully established and no other forms of money exist. In such a setup, the positive changes would be most pronounced. However, such an assumption is unrealistic. The system is likely to be implemented gradually with all the advantages and disadvantages that result from this procedure. First, it will be the people who have nothing to hide and are thrilled by the idea. As the community grows and politicians join in, people will notice that those who are transparent make less of a mess than the rest. There will certainly be cases of people gaming the system. However, all abuse will be recorded and abusers will lose their reputation once and for all, which will effectively disqualify them in many ways. Having a good reputation in visible money will be of greater value than money itself. Eventually, it may turn out that correct behavior is so valuable that it can be rewarded economically.
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Thank you,
Peter Boško
Project Author
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