Poverty

Poverty is the absence of wealth. Wealth comes in three forms; Natural Capital, Built Capital and Promised Capital; as in a growing tree, sawn lumber and an IOU for wood. We've not kept track of the conversion of the first and second into the third; as a result our world is poorer in Nature and Artifice, yet richer in Finance, in paper wealth. We're so rich overall, financially, that there's not enough natural or built reality to keep those promises with. Furthermore, this financial wealth keeps sloshing around the world's banking system to receive the maximum financial return.

So, what's the problem? Can we fix this if I put it on my credit card? <cough> So what's to be done? One small step we can take is to discourage the sloshing with a financial transaction tax, by applying sales tax to financial sales. Another is to recognize piracy and theft for what it is.

Finance that reproduces itself at the cost of nature or artificial value is not just an imaginary gain, it is a real loss. If you chop down a cherry tree, then break the axe, but get a paper promise of ten cherry trees, you didn't really gain much. If most people get their cherry trees chopped, and their axes broken, but a few get handfuls of cherry tree certificates, we haven't succeeeded in managing our affairs well. We can do better.