The Future of Globalism: A Scenario of Economic Servitude
In the not-so-distant future, a man lives alone in a small apartment. The concept of marriage has been deemed outdated and discriminatory by the State. He would love to have children, but he can't afford them and his annual carbon allowance wouldn't cover another human being.
He doesn't own anything. His living space, furniture, and even his entertainment are all rented. Each month, his digital ID is credited with a certain number of central bank digital currency units. The amount he receives is dependent on his government job's work hours, how much the government values his work, the taxes he pays for using public infrastructure, and how much of his income is redistributed to other citizens in need. After all deductions, he is left with little to no discretionary income.
If he decides to save his income for future investments, he is informed that his central bank digital currency units will vanish within ninety days. If he attempts to buy something that the government has prohibited, he loses his current holdings. If he does something that the government considers detrimental to his well-being, his social credit score decreases, and a portion of his discretionary income is taken away.
Every few weeks, an AI doctor appears on his apartment's video screen, listing all the "unhealthy" things he's done since their last interaction. He is told that some of his temporary savings will be redistributed to healthier citizens. His AI health monitor instructs him to report to the nearest pharmaceutical distribution center for the latest "vaccines." Failure to comply will result in the deactivation of all electronic entertainment devices and a permanent mark on his social credit record.
Global Warming and War
Despite his efforts to find personal meaning by joining the fight against global warming, he remains unhappy. He attends community meetings about "saving the planet" by "owning nothing." He chats with anonymous individuals on the State's social media platform, all agreeing that their sacrifices for the world are worth it. One day, he wakes up to find his social credit score has increased and he's been rewarded with a few extra central bank digital currency units. However, he remains unhappy.
Suddenly, sirens blare, and his apartment monitor flashes with breaking news: the country is at war. He listens intently but can't figure out which foreign nations are attacking. He steps outside his apartment to find other solitary renters talking excitedly about the upcoming battles. He walks back inside to find his AI supervisor informing him that he has been personally selected to protect the homeland from its enemies. For the first time in many years, he feels alive.
Post-War Reality
After boot camp and a six-month deployment overseas, he returns home severely injured and is hailed a hero. He finds breadlines outside the government's genetically engineered food distribution centers and learns that someone else has moved into his old apartment. He is offered a new one, smaller and with fewer furnishings. He realizes that most of his former neighbors never returned from war and that many of the newcomers now living in their apartments resemble those he was told to fight overseas. His injuries torment him. He feels even more lost and lonely than before he went to war. His AI supervisor informs him that he has been added to a list of people considered "potential domestic terrorists." Remaining on this list will make it hard for him to work and live.
One day, his digital doctor asks if he would like some assistance in ending his life peacefully. He is told, "You can save others by permanently reducing your carbon footprint." In agony, he wonders, "How did we get here?"
The Role of Governments and Central Banks
The shortest answer to our future man's question is that governments abandoned sound money. They replaced gold coins with paper currencies. They made it illegal for ordinary citizens to conduct business freely and demanded that government-issued bills be used in economic transactions. They gave private central banks the authority to print these paper bills whenever they deemed it beneficial for the economy.
But whose economy do wealthy central bankers protect — Wall Street's or that of the working class? Central banks, ostensibly tasked with maximizing employment and minimizing inflation, function as market manipulators and money printers for overspending governments. By increasing the supply of paper currency, the price of consumer goods rises, but so does the numerical price of stock market shares. These capital assets do not gain any real value, but their rising prices give the illusion of economic growth. Many bad companies that would never survive in a free market become lucrative investment opportunities in fake markets. Easy money sustains companies that produce no market value. The poorest people, who have no stocks and only limited cash savings, lose the most in this artificial arrangement. They have watched the hundred-dollar bill hidden under their mattresses lose most of its value over the last fifty years.
Neither fiat currencies nor central banks have any functional place in free societies. Governments that manipulate the value of money rig markets and steal from the working poor. The wealthiest end up owning everything, while everyone else tries to balance life precariously on a tightrope of consumer debts, mortgages, long-term loans, and the growing prospect of insolvency. This world that financial and political elites have built is unsustainable. It is also a form of economic slavery.
Because it is unsustainable, those who have benefited most from its creation will do anything they must to survive its collapse. A crashing dollar does not matter if those who control the financial system today control the central bank digital currencies of tomorrow. Gross inequality and rampant poverty do not matter if governments can convince unhappy citizens that climate change, disease, and war require them to own less and sacrifice more. Growing public anger does not matter if those with armies can censor speech, throttle food supplies, foment wars, and imprison dissidents.
Bottom Line
How much of the above story seems foreign, and how much of it seems painfully familiar? Your answer might indicate just how much time we have left. What are your thoughts on this potential future scenario? Share this with your friends and see what they think. Don't forget to sign up for the Daily Briefing, which is every day at 6pm.
