Originally Posted by Noivad
When everone stops in business, when everyone stops going to work, when everyone makes no money to be taxed, I wonder how will socialism work.
When there is no money, no jobs ----
Maybe people will start businesses, go to work making and growing stuff, and give everything they make to everyone for free, and no one will want more then their share.
Everyone, will have everything, that everone else has, so everyone will be happy.
And the world will be as one.
France is just ahead of everyone else in Europe socially. It is just evolving into the next level.
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On the 7th day, God created money. Right? Wait no, money is a man-made construct. People existed before money. We can do better, too.
Regardless of whether there is money to pay anyone, the means of production already exist in France. Reorganizing society so that everyone has a right to a home, a job, food, clothing, communication, education (that includes internet access), and providing non-transferable Labor Credits to everyone who works or goes to school (domestic housework counts as work) would get rid of the need for money within France. At that point, currency would be used for trading with other countries, or people could exchange their Labor Credits for currency of a country they want to travel to or buy from. And if someone refuses to work or receive education, they just don't get Labor Credits, but they still have a right to everything else.
Now I also want to remind everyone how the current economic crisis in America (and around the world) happened, of which there are many contributing factors.
-First off, wage stagnation since 1968, where wages (as measured by minimum wage) were the highest relative to their buying power. Since then, inflation has increased, consumer price index has increased, and wages did not increase proportionally to this. This means the value of the money people earned since 1968 has decreased, quite significantly in fact.
-Second, that made room for credit to be appealing. The "greatest nation in the world" mentality that everyone can have a car, a home, and a family, became a pressure felt by later generations. As a result of being paid less because of wage stagnation, credit arose as a way to let people buy things they want to buy without having the money to pay for it immediately. Over time, people got paid less, and borrowed more as a result.
-Credit was a major boon for corporations. Seeking ever-increasing profits as mandated by business law in America, they were able to pay the workers less, and save that money to put it in the bank. Corporations extract wealth from the workers, put it in the bank, and the bank loans it to people. This creates a negative spiral for the working class.
-As the banks became more powerful, they lobbied and paid off politicians to get their way in doing business. Making up low-quality, fraudulent, even criminal deals, they managed to imagine a bunch of money that didn't exist and make everyone else believe it was real. As all the bad deals came down, as everyone from individuals to entire countries suffer under the pressure of the bank catastrophe, the banks are still living large, still not being held accountable for any of this. Even though they are bloated, the banks are refusing to loan money.
And that is where we are right now. The workers got screwed, businesses got screwed, nations got screwed, and the banks got bailed out. It seems like money is quite a problem here in America. Maybe we should think of switching to a better system?