Open Money Manifesto

There are some concepts on which our societies are based today, such as democracy, human rights and freedom. Suppressors of these values run the risk of being condemned by the international community while NGOs and other advocates are likely to receive supports all over the world.

The Open Money Manifesto is a good application of what the modern world has achieved so far onto the economic realm. It begins with some quotations from The Universal Declaration of Human Rights, adopted in 1948 at United Nations, raising questions about the authenticity of our current monetary system.

• Not democratically managed: money is a tool everybody needs, but currently it’s managed by private banks as they decide who can make loans = start projects.
• Costly: lenders of money are obliged to pay the compound interest on top of the principal while profits go into only pockets of a few hands.
• Hoardable: bearers of money can withdraw their money as long as they like, stagnating its circulation and bothering those who are really in need for it.
• Unfair: the very existence of compound interest increases wealthy people’s asset at the sacrifice of the vast majority of the poor(see Kennedy for details)
• Unsustainable: our current monetary system is destined to go bankrupt sooner or later because it requires an exponential growth forever(see ibid.).

In short, our monetary system is undemocratic and does not take human rights or freedom into account.

It is important for us to remember that the monetary system is not a natural law but a convention which was and still can be arranged for human needs. Therefore we should revise it if we want out means of exchange to serve for our values…