The time has come for the vast majority of the people of earth to deal once and for all with our oppressors and those responsible for the destruction of our environments. I am not calling for a violent revolt against the governments of the world, that is the only scenario they are prepared for. Instead the governments should be dismissed, ignored, demoralized, and gutted of their former glory and romantic sentiments. Nations and their various apparatus should be boycotted and the most effective way to achieve this is boycotting government currency. Alternative currencies are functioning in many communities around the world and they (and their model) are ready to take over at any moment if/when a global cataclysm occurs.
In cities like Ithaca, New York and Madison, Wisconsin there are alternative currencies based on the "Hours" system. These currencies are widely accepted around their respective communities and have for years been gaining more and more credibility. The concept of "Hours" is an alternative to "Dollars" or "Euros" or any other government backed units of currency. To understand "hours" first one must ask themselves what "dollars" represent? Gold? No, dollars have not represented gold for almost 40 years, and even when they did, who decided how much gold? Dollars and other government currencies represent absolutely nothing, they are nothing more than paper and ink, and now magnetic strips and computer chips. Dollars only have power if we all agree that they do, like tinkerbell, if we just believe.
Hours, however, are based on something very real, one "hour" equals one hour of human labor. Though these hours look like regular paper money, or notes, they are forever pegged to an unwavering standard. It may not seem fair to some that an hour of hard labor, such as building roads, is somehow equal to an hour of light office work, especially for an executive who has secretaries doing most of their work for them. But consider how the dollar works: as it is now the road builder can work full time with no vacation and make less than $50,000 a year while the corporate executive spends little time in the office and receives a $5,000,000 bonus on top of a $600,000 annual salary. Even if we don't soon feel the need to buck off our corporate overlords, wouldn't it be nice if they could make no more than minimum wage? And receive no more bonuses?
With Hours instead of Dollars the current class system could not exist, no person could accumulate wealth greater than the hours they could work in their lifetime. Hours are essentially immune to interest and inflation and the exportation of wealth, and prices and wages rarely need adjustment. The manipulation of government currencies through interest, inflation, and excessive printing have turned our markets into a cruel game in which the winners constantly tinker with the rules so that the game is less and less fair. The ability for one person to accumulate limitless dollars means that for every millionaire their are thousands more people who cannot afford their next meal, for every billionaire their are thousands of people who cannot afford their rent or mortgage payment. The cost of privately held wealth is the destitution of the greater population, a cost too great and a collective burden too heavy to bear.
The truth is that government currency is worthless, it is like an insolvent corporation whose stock went belly up long ago. In fact, governments are really nothing more than corporations and their currencies are the stocks we trade. Our acceptance of government currencies validates not only the currency but the entity, the government, the ultimate limited liability corporation. No matter what you buy with your US dollar you are simultaneously buying the United States federal government, you are not only validating it's existence but in a way you are entering into a contractual agreement completely on it's terms. Essentially every legal entanglement we have with our governments begin to fade as we terminate this contractual relationship, they cannot, even if they wanted to, tax you for any alternative currency you hold because they don't own it.
Once you realize that government is just another greedy corporation destroying our planet a simple solution emerges: Boycott! If you are lucky enough to have an hours based community currency in your area, participate in it as much as possible. If you do not, begin to study these examples and lay the groundwork for this alternative in your community. The day when the almighty dollar is only as valuable as the paper it's printed on is right around the corner, if it's not already worthless. So remeber what you're buying with your US Dollars: The class system, the casino economy, war, global hegemony, torture, etc. If however, you believe that you too will someday be fabulously wealthy, think about all of the people who will have less so you can have more, people just like you.
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