WARNING: DO NOT attempt to read this article if you are:
1.) Incapable of understanding the term: “hypothetical”
2.) Employed somewhere in the financial services industry, really, really like your job and can’t stand to see it invalidated…hypothetically
3.) Illiterate.
This month I would like to pose a hypothetical question to all TNNW readers in light of recent global events…
…what would the world be like if all money became worthless?
Our Current Economy
We live in a world where money (or as I call it, “Financial Capital” or FC) is the standard unit of measurement for determining how goods and services are exchanged between individuals, communities, the country and the world. It should be noted that this is true for the so-called “civilized world”, as there are other cultures that do not rely upon such “civilized” means of exchange, yet they continue to exist, many of them, as they have for centuries, if not millennia.
Currently, we are being forced to question the value of money as we face one of the world’s worst financial crises since the 1930’s.
1.) Just how “civilized” is our current global economic system?
2.) How is our money really valued?
3.) Why are we relying upon (and rewarding) the same people to “fix” the situation that got us here to begin with?
The Never-Ending Game
Games, whether they’re board games, video games, educational games, sporting games, role-playing games, etc. are a fantastic opportunity for us to interact with others (a great networking event), possibly get some exercise and learn about ourselves. The good thing about games, whether they’re played competitively or cooperatively is that they all come to a logical conclusion, are reset and can be played again. The nice thing about this is that any competitive advantages gained in previous games, are wiped clean with all sides equal.
Imagine if this wasn’t the case. How interesting would it be for spectators if the two competing sides in a sporting match to begin the game with points that are the cumulative total of all past matches that they’ve played as opposed to zero? If this was the case, competitive advantage would be given to:
1.) The team that won the most, provided that both teams have been playing for the same amount of time, or
2.) The longest running (if not the “winningest” team).
Would you even choose to play a game if you had no chance of winning or hitting “the reset button” at the end? Most people would say no.
Unfortunately for many, our current FC-based economy is a game that all must play if they are to survive and there is no reset button. In fact, we are penalized for losing – banks and other institutions charge us extra money that we don’t have in the form of late charges, administrative fees, etc., regardless of the reason, especially if we do not have the proper relationship with the right person at the institution. If we want the privilege of a college education, owning a car or home and we don’t have the money, we must borrow and hope to pay it back and on time.
We call this “reality” and we accept it as such…for better or for worse, no matter how harsh.
We also protect our kids from this harsh reality. In fact the Millennial generation (a.k.a., “Generation Y”), has been so well-protected from such realities through child-protection laws of the 80’s and 90’s, the innovation and infiltration of high-technology and the proliferation of positive role models in media specifically formulated for their viewing.
The good news: we have created a reality for them in which they learn by playing games with reset buttons, they know that they are truly capable of accomplishing anything they want and they come ready to face our “civilized reality” with a sense of self-entitlement and a view of FC that is completely different from previous generations (see my May, 2007 article: “Networking With the Millennials: The End of the World as we Know It?”)
The bad news: at some point in their lives, they realize that the childhood reality in which they have been brought up is radically different from the “civilized reality” that awaits them…that we have created, maintained, fought countless wars over and have lost millions of lives over.
The ugly news: this is self-destructive and not a move towards sustainability that many of us espouse that we want.
The question becomes: with the shrinking number of winners and growing number of losers of this never-ending game, do we need a major upheaval to hit the reset button or can we figure this out before hand like rational human beings?
What does it take to realize that we’ve created our own illusory glass ceiling by externalizing value and giving it the power it currently has over us? Must we be doomed to repeat our Senior Year of Secondary School over and over, despite the passing grades of the majority? Haven’t we earned the right to graduate?
Of Star Trek and Penguins
While I am not the biggest “Trekkie” out there, I was one of the millions of people who appreciated the ground-breaking science fiction show and its spin-offs as it presented real human issues in a futuristic setting. There was one particular episode that I remember (I don’t remember which of the shows, nor the episode, nor the character who stated it) where it was mentioned as an aside that money in their world had been eliminated – there was no need for it.
Gene Roddenberry, the creative mastermind behind the series introduced such “heretical” and “unrealistic” concepts as transporters, food replicators, phasers, communicators, holodecks and people of diverse races, nationalities and even planets working together to seek knowledge in the 1960’s before there was a man on the moon, the internet, the Cold War, racial equality and mobile phones. And while the majority of such “far-fetched” ideas still remain as “science fiction” thanks to the defenders of “civilized reality”, some ideas have leaked through to become part of our reality today. Could a world without money be next?
It certainly exists virtually. In our world of “civilized reality”, networking face-to-face often requires going to events or even joining organizations. This typically requires a fee, but online there is no limit to the amount of organizations with which one can join and interact. While there is no exchange of FC, there are record levels of exchange of both Intellectual Capital (IC) and Relationship Capital (RC).
I have often mentioned that my sons love to visit Disney’s Club Penguin, an online social network for kids in which they take on the persona of a penguin (which they can customize) and interact with other members (penguins as well) and explore a snow-covered virtual world full of cafes, pirate ships, stores and dance parties. While there is a fee for premium levels of membership, basic membership is absolutely free. Even with basic membership, all penguins get their own igloo (yes…where else can you find free shelter?...no mortgage crisis here). All penguins get the right to earn coins to buy things like items of clothing, costumes (needed for certain jobs), bigger igloos, furnishings for said igloos and pets called “puffles”.
Unlike our “civilized reality”, in the world of penguins, coins and other privileges are earned not by climbing corporate ladders or waiting on unemployment lines, but through involvement. Involvement in Club Penguin means playing games, agreeing to take on the responsibility of being a tour guide (they show new penguins around the virtual town), snow plowers or even agents (deputized penguins who help Disney monitor and report bad penguin behavior to the appropriate authorities). All puffle owners must be responsible for taking care of the health of their pets or run the risk of losing them.
In the world of Club Penguin, there is no shortage of money…wealth is created through involvement and by being in service to others. There is no mortgage crisis or unemployment; no red tape, no hierarchy…all penguins are created equal, even though they may come in different colors, wear soccer or ice cream scooping uniforms or even funny hats.
Is there something we can learn here?
The Hypothetical Part
So what would you do without money in our current society? Let’s just say you were in a foreign country and your wallet and passport were stolen. What would you do?
If friends or relations were nearby, you could leverage your relationship with them, but if not, there are other options. In the CBS reality-show The Amazing Race, teams without sufficient funds have begged for money. Begging is a way in which one works to leverage Relationship Capital into Financial Capital and it actually worked – the kindness of strangers prevailed.
Others without money might “work for it”, especially those with particular talents like with a street performer – juggling, playing and instrument, dancing, etc. is a way by which many performers earn a living. In this case the combination of know-how (Intellectual Capital) combined with one’s ability to connect with the audience (Relationship Capital), is leveraged into Financial Capital.
In a start-up entrepreneurial concern looking to secure funding, the principals court potential investors by selling them on their team (Relationship Capital), their experience and their plan to show stability, sustainability and eventual profitability (Intellectual Capital).
Again…the Ninth Law of Relationship Capital holds true.
Up to now, we have assumed a situation where one party in an interaction does not have Financial Capital and the other does, but what if neither party did?
Here’s the reality…if Financial Capital was taken away from all of us, we would still know things and know people as well.
In a world without money, we would continue to exchange goods and services. We would continue to apply who we know and what we know to get them. Our word, our reputation and our know-how would be our lifelines to sustainability. Our current technology would even allow us to monitor and measure such things for verification. We could turn our efforts to developing an economy based upon methods of evaluation of who and what we know.
The difference would be that we wouldn’t have need to store any wealth, because we would take it with us every day – we would all be wealth generators and be capable of supplying limitless amounts when applied correctly towards being of service to humanity and working towards sustainability. Therefore, we would be rid of the burden of fear of loss of such things. What does this mean?
Everything changes.
If we no longer had fear of loss of wealth, we wouldn’t need safes, safe deposit boxes, banks or financial vehicles. Many types of insurance would become obsolete. Think of the money we would save! (wink wink)
Banking and other financial institutions would evolve into monitoring agencies for Relationship and Intellectual Capital. Other such professions, such as financial advisors, might begin to take on roles as relationship, membership or career advisors, linking individuals to resources to allow them to build, develop, grow and leverage their Relationship and Intellectual Capital portfolios.
Many types of crime would go away as well. What motivates someone to rob a bank, steal someone’s purse or swindle an innocent? The fear that they cannot generate their own wealth on their own…this would go away.
Many of the things we’re used to will remain. We will still have need for food and clothing and shelter and energy. We will have need for medical treatment from time to time…some more than others. We will have the need to explore, build knowledge as a human race and improve upon sustainability, with emphasis on education and knowledge transfer and again…sustainability.
How about jobs?
Since we are all wealth generators, we would work doing the things we want to do and where we feel we can make a difference. Gone would be the days of sitting in a job we don’t want, waiting in quiet desperation for things to change. Yes…the ambitious will accrue more wealth and work to get more rewards from their hard work, but even those who just want a less hectic lifestyle would still be able to survive.
What about finite amounts of jobs? Who gets those?
Those who have the most merit will continue to get “harder to find” jobs, yet since there is always more work to be done and things left to learn, there will always be something for people, regardless of skill to do. Wealth will be earned by doing service to humanity, no matter the job.
It won’t all be “unicorns, rainbows, and standing around campfires in drum circles singing ‘kumbaya’”; there will still be issues, debates, challenges and the like, but perhaps it might be nice to finally graduate from outdated systems that keep us enslaved. Gee…wouldn’t it be need to go to College already?
And what of our kids? Should we continue to tell them at an early age that they can do whatever they want until they become adults and then tell them that it’s all a lie – welcome to our “civilized reality” or can we work to adopt a world that looks more like theirs in which we really can have it all if we apply ourselves? It’s certainly what the “American dream” was based upon.
It is time to press the “reset” button. It will be less painful now than later. Our future and that of our children and generations to come depends upon it.
The Emergence of the Relationship Economy
Relationship Capital is the cornerstone of the Relationship Economy, which RNIA defines as “a measurement assigned to individual and organizational entities based on the relationship interactions between them, and the interactions they have internally.” I am proud to have contributed discussion of the Ten Laws of Relationships Capital to the upcoming book The Emergence of the Relationship Economy, now out as an eBook and in hardcopy. With a forward written by Doc Searls (of Cluetrain Manifesto fame), it is being considered a “must read” for anyone responsible for the strategic direction of their business. If you would like to purchase your own copy of The Emergence of the Relationship Economy, please click here.
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HEADLINE: A World Without Money
The Handshake Club with J.D. Gershbein
J.D. Gershbein is the President of Owlish Communications, an Internet Marketing firm based in the Chicago, Illinois suburb of Vernon Hills. When he’s not helping his clients shine on LinkedIn, J.D. creates business cartoons and comic strips that brand businesses and make them memorable. He is also the creator of The Handshake Club. Follow Will Banter, Brandy Share and the other wacky inhabitants of The Handshake Club as they network their way into your heart and psyche.
