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

We should start by acknowledging that the modern monetary
system has played a key role in the extraordinary achievements of the
Industrial Age.
If you want to industrialise, you need to concentrate enough
resources for industry. Steel plants are not built on a small scale in a
backyard the Chinese tried and failed as late as the 1970s. And to
concentrate resources to paraphrase Churchill's quip about
democracy - competition among private players is the wont system,
with the exception of all others. Would you prefer to buy your next
car, meal, or computer from non-competing producers?
This system has been highly effective in instigating and
propagating the Industrial Age around the world.
The truly exceptional achievements of the Industrial Age can best
be appreciated by observing its impact on our species as a whole.
Human life has been totally transformed by the process of
industrialisation. Just to bring into perspective what is so unique
about the last two and a half centuries, consider Figure 8.1.
The human population remained below the level of400 million for
many thousands of years. There were several periods with significant
population decreases: for instance in the period between roughly
10000 to 8000 Be; and at the end of the Middle Ages, when the Black
Death killed at least 75 million people (including about a quarter of
the European population). Human population grew to one billion for
the first time during the first half of the 19th century. Then it took off.
We reached the second billion in 1925, the third in 1962, the fourth
in 1975, the fifth in 1986, and the sixth in 1999. At this point it is
clearly good news that the rate of growth has started to taper off.
Most experts forecast that we are now doubling for the last time. We
should attain the seventh billion in 2009 and the eighth billion in