Freespace - Chasing money or chasing debts?

SPEAKING to my hairstylist recently, I discovered that one of the going rates for hairstylists is RM5 per hour, with maybe RM10 commission a day. I was shocked. Many domestic workers get paid much more than that. Taking into consideration travel costs and food, there isn't much to take home. And what about credit card and car loans?
I have recently become disenchanted with money. The thing is, when the economy is going well, nobody complains or even thinks about money. Businesses don't close down because of GST and men don't sit on the street crying because of toll hikes. But when the economy is bad, that is when people despair, turn to crime, or some people, like me, do research.
Money does not exist. As I mentioned in my previous column, it is a concept that we either have chosen to accept or is so part of our culture that we have accepted (read: socially engineered to accept). How money is created is by way of a debt. The bank does not have the money (how can you have something that does not exist?). How money is created is when, say a stall owner who wants to start a business selling meehoon soup, goes into a bank and asks for a loan. If all goes well, he gets the loan, say RM100,000. This RM100,000 did not exist before his application. But once the loan is approved, magically the money exists, now in his bank account.
We might think that money is something we derive from our labour, but in actual fact, if someone somewhere does not take out a loan, or swipe her credit card, we would not be paid anything. Those pieces of paper in your wallet or purse are physical manifestations of debt.
One problem that arises from this is that the principal loan amount was created from thin air. What about the interest that we are charged in addition to the principal? The answer is the interest represents other people's future loans. Interest representing future loans is a loaded gun. If you have never thought about it, it means your children are in debt from the get-go.
Let's go a little further. Let's assume I am some millionaire's son. I have RM1.5 million I have no idea what to do with. So I go to a bank and take a fixed deposit at 3.2% a year. If the bank never has any money, where does this 3.2% come from? Other people's interest on loans, maybe that meehoon stall owner I mentioned earlier. So if you think about it, those who have money will always keep on having money and those without will always keep on having to chase loan repayments. Sounds familiar?
The monetary system we live in requires more money loaned out than in the previous year, so that debtors (ie everyone) can keep up with the compounding interest payments. This in turn means that the amount of money owed must always be greater than the amount of existing money. As an illustration, one of the world's leading economies, the United States, has US$1.3 trillion in circulation, but is US$18 trillion in debt. I don't think I am the only one who now thinks that a sustainable monetary system must have money that is not sourced from debt. Our world is slowly realising this, with the advent of systems such as LETS and Bitcoin. Again, if we ourselves lose faith in money, it becomes worthless. As Greece is showing us, in bad times money grows faster in abstraction than nature has the ability to replenish. It is literally impossible to pay it all back.
I spoke about barter in my previous column. There are other non-monetary systems that exist, like gifting economies or self-sufficiency. At the end of the day though, these can only supplement what we have. We do need money. But we need to re-think the concept. To me, it is an eroding concept.
Daniel freelances in writing and fitness training, and has a deep passion for health, fitness, sleep and travel. Comments: letters@thesundaily.com