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

'The board considered the two main investment projects on today's
agenda:
· A 300-year nature restoration project of the Southern Himalayan
watershed.
· A 500-year reforestation project of the sub-Sahara desert
The board decided unanimously to implement the 500-year sub-
Sahara project, given that the Internal Rate of Return on the project is
clearly superior. The chairman added that the contribution of this
project to overall global climate stability has been an additional
incentive for his own vote for this project.
Most business decisions today are made with horizons of less than
five years, if not from one quarter to the next. Even the 'long bond',
the longest- term conservative investment available today in dollars,
has a maximum horizon of 30 years. Under contemporary financial
criteria, a decision like the one above is unthinkable.
A pragmatic currency system will be presented later that would
make decisions of this kind not only possible, but completely logical.
Under such a money system, long-term concerns would be the norm,
the spontaneous response. These concerns would be not only
compatible with financial self- interest, but driven by it. No
regulations or artificial tax incentives would be required to motivate
corporations and individuals to think and act with the proverbial
'seventh generation' in mind.
There have been at least two civilizations which had embedded in
their monetary systems a key feature that made it 'profitable' for
people to make investments for the very long term. These two
historical precedents are Pharaonic Egypt and the 'Age of the