THE FUTURE OF MONEY Bernard A. Lietaer - library.uniteddiversity ...

This chapter starts with a brief status report on both the positive
achievements of the Industrial Age and its negative impact on
'Biosphere Earth'. This balance sheet makes clear the relevance of the
question identified above.
Next, the limits of being able to convince business to do things
which are not financially motivated are identified ('Three Tools of
Persuasion').
Then I'll show the direct relationship between one particular feature
of the official national currency system namely interest and the
phenomenon of short-term vision of the business world and Western
society at large. A solution to the dilemma is then proposed both as a
metaphor ('Far-Seeing Glasses') and as a sound technical possibility.
Long-term sustainability
There is a growing consensus that our current path is
unsustainable. It has become unsustainable ecologically, socially and
politically.
After a lifetime of study of the causes of the demise of civilisations,
the historian Arnold Toynbee concluded that only two common
causes explain the collapse of 21 past civilisations: extreme
concentration of wealth and inflexibility in the face of changing
conditions. Over the past decades our civilisation seems to have
embarked on a path combining both those causes of collapse. But
before looking at the role of the money system in these issues, one
should first look at the positive side of the ledger.
Positive results of the modern money system