Money is the name of game
Jazz is a music genre which is ubiquitous in late 90’s and early 20`s in US and Europe. I got into listening this music genre just two years back through suggestion of a friend and of course movie “La La Land” had some influence too. As a most common music listener, I don`t know its history or jargon of it at that time. Tell me how many of us saw Kuchipudi or Bharatanatyam and amazed by the sheer beauty or pleasantness but still clueless of its meaning. When it comes to the Art “The ignorant loves the mystery and savant savor the reality.” I had even attended the International Jazz Fest at Mumbai NCPA theater for the last two years in the curiosity of unveiling the jazz mystery. I had to agree still I am as naive in understanding jazz as I am two years back. One day during daily commute to the office just like a common citizen of Mumbai, I was cursing the traffic with headphones on the ears. brilliant song was starting played from an estranged playlist “Buster Benton — Money is the Name of the Game”
“Buster Benton — Money is the Name of the Game”
The striking but simple lyrics had kept lingering in my head for days……
It’s a pity …Low down and dirty shame…Lord its A pity, Low down and dirty shame
Tell me how can a poor man make it …I say when money is the name of the game
I used to have to a best credit …Every place in town …I sign my name no money down
Things am not tough y ’all and old Buster leads on
Now my name won’t even buy me …A piece of bubblegum
It’s a pity Low down dirty shame
Then I started to ask questions myself and tried to find the answers not only out of curiosity but in search of end to this GAME.
Why money is a game? And Why not a Meta-Tool to simplify the life of humans?
Imagine yourself a person lost in middle of a jungle, hungry and dire need of the food to keep yourself alive…
Suddenly someone with the vast amount of food come travelling through it and stopped seeing you……
In the era of dark ages…You might have attacked him to get the food
In the middle age of human development…. you might have offered yourself as a slave.
If it is now….…. you might have offered him to pay money later.
It suggests money made us more civilized.
But it’s an illusion we are living in ………
Proof was that according to a study by Yale university, around 150 million homeless people around the world are living without food in our contemporary concrete jungle……. this time nobody even cares or listens to them in return of something.
It’s a game because it is more of amusement or fun rather than a necessity. Do you know earning money generates same hormone in your brain same as when you take drugs? It’s no longer an essential to any of us but rather an addiction.
What did we expecting from this currency as a human until now ? / What we need to expect from its replacement?
To understand this question, I had asked diverse people a simple question.
What does money cannot have bought in a human life?
(The reason for selecting this question is my favorite Bob Marley’s last word to his son, “Money can’t buy happiness son”.to avoid belief bias,I always take a reasonable sample of people and do conducts thought experiment)
Out of all answers like happiness, freewill, love etc. an Auto driver had given me a surprising answer …. Thoughts/Beliefs…he is very convinced that everything from organs to the self-respect can be allowed to bought (we discussed for 30 minutes on different options).
the truth is our current economic systems does the opposite to his beliefs. the reason we converged developing currency to the point where we it runs on our imagination of future rather than reality is our uncontrolled proclivity to trade on imagination.
(can you imagine yourself buying a gift to your GF/BF/DH/DW/any relation without expecting a hug/kiss/gratitude/at least smile).
We want currency to buy our whims like physical objects like luxury cars, luxury phones, gold, exorbitant practices of marriage and other religious practices to satiate our mental urge to validate our thoughts/beliefs.
A tool which need to be replaced with currency need to do one thing “Stop trading imaginations to satiate our thoughts and beliefs instead meets our basic needs”.
We need to create another tool for our whims to isolate and remove the innate problem in our system. This helps us to discern “what we need and what we can”.
Why currencies didn’t solve the income inequality and so many other problems? /Why we still want to stick to that failure?
If you know a businessman…. Ask him/her “What profit is equitable?”
They make profits on your imagination but not the real value of goods and equitable profit
If you know states person/central bank personnel……Ask him/her “What security they had against their promise on currency note?
According to IMF study, Global debt has reached an all-time high of $184 trillion in nominal terms, the equivalent of 225 percent of GDP.
If you know a police personnel ……Ask him/her “How can you trace the motive of a crime?
Most of the times tracking the money trail will give you the motive.
Our bet on growth is what running us.our past and present riches are gamblers who bet on future. People think problem is not with money so called game but with security and choices gamer can have. They always talk about the “Empowerment, decentralization of power, availability, trade balance, exchange stability”.
Currency cannot solve the problems because of its design. Our great institutions, societies always blame the people’s ignorance and their thinking as a hindrance to revamp their faulty structure and believes they are too big to fail.
Buddhist monks never stay at one place for the more time and they always travel from place to place because they believe attachment and comfort they possess in that place can obfuscate their senses.
We have grown more attached to our current economic model that obfuscates even its purpose.
what opportunity we have now?
We may fear that change is impossible by seeing the numbers “7.6 billion people and 195 countries diverse ethnics, religions, languages, beliefs.”
I believe we can change the systems because “I am still alive”.
We had achieved capabilities of completely destroying ourselves few decades back by going to nuclear war but sill we are alive.
Fear, Trade, balance of power can be seen outside but it’s our conviction to live is the reason we are still here.
People love science fiction movies with heroes saving the world doing unimaginable things but we need science fiction movies based on economics because people forgot it’s a science too.
Have you ever wondered why IRCTC (Indian railways) never sell fixed number of tickets against General Compartment finite number of seats?
We can say “lack of infrastructure is the reason” but the problem is reason being unchanged in seven decades of independent India.
To initiate this replacement tool, it will be like out of world experience. Imagine stalling a country for a day to understand what is needed and how much is needed exactly to live?
Health, Shelter, Food, clothing, physical security and whatever baseline you fix for a dignified life…Allocate all your resources to build it first. it’s not tough because so many millennial’s and working age people thinking of moving to places to earn money. If we are giving them a meaning they are going to buy it. I know it sounds audacious but it’s what we needed in this hour. Government must be a link between people and they must be responsible for their own actions. RACI(Responsible,Accountable,Consulted,Informed)matrix can’t be filled solely by the government.
We have to live in a society where farmer’s protests for safety shoes instead of minimum price for a crop or loan waivers.
We have to live in a community where old people asking for sport stadium rather than a mercy killing.
We have to live in a society where we can really think more of what we need rather than what we must do to live?
We have to live in a society where people don’t kill dreams, relations and even their own tribe for money.
To be in that fictional world our next generations need to work like a jazz band….
In Jazz, sometimes a guitarist takes a lead. Sometimes pianist or drummer …Sometimes other instrument player but they always stay together complementing each other, competing with each other, bolstering each other and having fun together.
Our societies need to nurture that relation…
we need financial tool like a notes on a music band which reminds us that we are on same page but not any game like money which thrives on our differences.
