How to Challenge the Status Quo

Creating a movement that can make our economy work for all

The issues facing civil society seem to get bigger and more urgent with every election cycle and polls show that the number one issue for most of the electorate, regardless of political affiliation, regardless of which party is in power, is the economy. What about the economy that makes it an issue? The answer unequivocally is money. People don’t have enough money to pay for the things they and their family need to maintain a decent quality of life; food, shelter, transportation, healthcare and enough money to pay their debts so as not to default on their loans and lose what they have. People are not concerned about inflation if they have enough money. No solution to the problem of poverty has ever been so effective as providing income to the poor, income is by far the best antidote for deprivation. An economy in depression is an economy with not enough money in circulation, a policy of austerity only makes it worse. The truth is that nothing denies a person liberty more than the absence of money and no truth has ever spawned more ingenious evasion than that. If the lack of money is the problem, then a political party that wants to win must offer a viable solution to that problem. Why is it that 80% of the population is struggling for lack of money? Over 60% could not cover a $400 emergency.

People can see that the economy is not designed to serve most people. "The rich get richer, and the poor get poorer" is an aphorism that has been popularly repeated since long before the civil war. We have an economic system that steadily transfers wealth to the super-rich. People have felt powerless as their government bails out the big banks and spends trillions on corporate subsidies and foreign wars. The COVID-19 pandemic accelerated this process as 8 million more Americans slid into poverty, a 100 million world-around, and100,000 small businesses, responsible for creating two out of every three new jobs in the U.S. economy, closed their doors permanently. At the same time the world's billionaires increased their wealth to a record $10.2 trillion.

This is where we are, what some call “late-stage capitalism” is an unleashed neoliberal crime fest as private equity firms pillage any company that has value, now even targeting retirement savings and healthcare. The result is increased economic suffering, homelessness, and increasing oppression to keep it going that way. Our elections and public policy are controlled by money. All the regulatory agencies are captured by the industries they are supposed to regulate, and the military industrial complex takes the lion’s share of discretionary spending year after year as interest payments on the federal debt blow past a trillion dollars per year. These are the reasons that trust in the two major political parties and our national institutions has fallen to a record low. There have been calls for a new political party to pick up the pieces and champion the American people. A party that can effectively tie economic justice to monetary reform can galvanize 80% of the population, farmers, working-class and small business Americans, to challenge elite power and present a credible alternative to establishment politics. The Green Party has the platform and infrastructure to be that party. What it lacks is vision.

Can there be any doubt that money rules the roost? That being the case it behooves us to look at the money system we have since it is not taught in any of our schools and has long been kept shrouded in mystery. It is our nation’s privatized monetary system that creates and allocates the money. There have been numerous calls for monetary reform over the last 240 years, but most people are unaware of them as the systemic solution has always been drowned out by debates over polarizing issues.

Why Monetary Reform?

If the Green Party stands unconditionally for constitutional rule and an economy that is focused on the long-term needs of citizens, it can build a broad coalition of the disaffected who are disgusted with the constant betrayals of the duopoly. The Green Party could transform itself into the most powerful political movement in the United States since the anti-slavery movement of the 1850s, and do so in a short period of time, if it vows to return the United States to the citizens and to wrest away control of government from the multinational corporations and banks, and the billionaires who lurk behind them. The reason the major political parties will not pursue a solution to the economic woes of Americans is because of corruption. Money selects and elects our representatives and buys public policy that benefits the private moneyed interests. Monetary reform is the systemic solution they most fear because it would put an end to this very profitable scam.

Frederick Douglass famously said, "Power concedes nothing without a demand." However, power has conceded nothing regardless of demands and controls public policy to maximize profits for themselves at the expense of everyone else. Thus, we must demand that they concede the power!

Money isn’t just an economic tool; it’s a cultural artifact. It influences how people interact, what they value, and even how they define success. Conversely, culture dictates how money is created, spent, and discussed. Understanding this relationship helps explain everything from spending habits to global economic disparities.

The current culture drives poverty, ignorance, depopulation, and barbarism; we want a culture that increases wealth, comfort and intelligence for all. The current culture drives universal war; we want universal peace. The current global monetary system is based on 'fear of there not being enough to go around' which creates problematic psychological issues. These can be reversed by changing the money from being issued as interest-bearing debt for personal gain to being issued as a permanently circulating asset for public care, the common good. This will eliminate the oppressive nature of debt and eliminate poverty. It can both elevate and free humanity.

Monetary reform is crucial for nations world-around because the current financial system perpetuates war, poverty, instability, and unsustainable economic practices. This is why the economy is the number one issue for most people. It is especially important for the United States because it is a global military empire and controls the dominant currency. Reforming how money is created, distributed, and managed can solve every major issue humanity is facing today.

Monetary Reform refers to a systemic change in a nation's money creation and distribution processes, aiming to shift control from private profit-oriented banks, issuing the nation’s money supply as interest-bearing debt, to control by democratic public institutions issuing the nation's money supply as a debt-free permanently circulating asset and ensuring that the first use of all new money serves the public interest rather than private profit. That is what the Greenback did. It does not refer to changing monetary policy to work within the current system, rather, it is a historically grounded and radical alternative whose time has come.