Economic Discrimination

June 19, 2024

When truth becomes the casualty, people need to stand up for what they want.

There is nothing wrong with our economic system, except that there is no defined and protected value placed on Humanity and Nature, making them easy targets for exploitation. What we are encouraged to identify as racial discrimination is simply economic discrimination, (made possible because human value and values assigned to nature are subjective and never constant). Economic discrimination is Worldwide, hiding like a wolf in sheep's clothing, limiting the conversation to them vs us, rich vs poor, my color vs yours, my lifestyle vs yours, my country vs yours. The real conversation should be much more insightful. We are all being influenced and formed by the economics that has evolved to this present age. A kind of bullying is taking advantage of the adverse effects of modern economic stresses, limiting our understanding. These bullys protect their elite status by asserting that social and economic stresses can all be traced to racism and nationalism. Making whole groups and countries into scapegoats for our frustrations and anger. We are all blended now and a part of the same conversations, thanks to the internet. There is no “them or us”. Division is enforced with lies, an old trick that distracts and confuses. It is important to keep in mind amidst all the talk, that the most powerful force affecting and influencing modern life is economics and economic discrimination keeps us apart.

What are we going to do about it? It doesn't take much convincing to persuade people that we are creatures of the money system and its advantages and disadvantages. Let's consider what money can buy: education, food, shelter, healthcare, power, influential jobs, etc. Then consider, lack of money: it causes starvation, no shelter, no healthcare, or educational opportunities, no living wage jobs. Economic discrimination is the most powerful kind of discrimination,(made possible through withholding the means to live), is much more effective than racial discrimination which comes after economic discrimination has done its work, weakening and enslaving whole masses of society.

How did we get here? What are we going to do about it? First, we need a general understanding about what money is. We are not meant to be its slaves, it is meant to be our slave, a way to efficiently exchange goods and services, not a tool for bullies to consolidate power and control populations. Racism and nationalism are the little brothers of economic discrimination. They are symptoms that arise from economic inequality.

A short history of money. Approx 1,173 years ago people were considering ideas of wealth and whether it should be held privately or shared… The refinement of those decisions, that we live with now, have evolved into a form of Worldwide Capitalism, which can be defined as industrial capitalism, (the development of the factory system of manufacturing and division of labor). This kind of money distribution system has created the very rich and the very poor and the middle class has slowly been eroding away. Multitudes are cut off from acquiring the most basic needs of survival.

What is money? It is a shared belief system that assigns value, subjectively.

It can be modified and added on to, as it has been historically. The strict division created by capitalism has been forming for more than 100 years. This is not a long time but it has influenced the lives of almost two generations. The institutional knowledge of times before has been lost to the general public and remains alive only for historians and in history books. The main thing to understand is that money systems evolve. There have been different systems before and there will be different systems in the future.

How do we want the money system of the future to function? What do we want its impact to look like? What is missing from the present economics? We can get answers by going back to what is not protected in the present dominant economic system, arguably the most important things, Humanity and Nature. A minority of countries that did include protections for people and nature in their societal/economic structure are still benefiting. But they cannot help being influenced and changed by the dominant economics.

How do we protect humanity and nature from economic exploitation? This can be done by making sure everyone has access to the basic needs that sustain life, from birth to death. The human possession of basic needs, food, shelter, education and healthcare must be the base equivalency of human value within economics. When the basic needs of dignified survival are met, nature benefits also. Exploitation of nature caused by human desperation will eventually end.

How do we proceed? We don't need to get rid of everything that we have already developed. We need to add to what we have and that addition will help the present system evolve. A parallel currency can be added to the existing currencies, Worldwide. A currency dedicated only to basic needs. It cannot be used for anything else and this currency cannot be saved or invested and is destroyed when it reaches a bank. I have described this parallel currency, (often referred to as Energy Currency), in detail in other blogs and will not go into it here. (Link to the blog, Why Energy Currency?)

We are a human collective and can be prophets of a future economic system. Governments will not propose a parallel currency for basic needs. They cannot innovate but they can respond. Each of us is an agent of change. Our conversations with each other can influence not only other individuals but governments. We are the ones that have the potential of applying our collective intelligence to creating a form of economics that makes possible new communities of living, preservation of human dignity and protection of nature.

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Sydney Australia to New Zealand

March 12, 2026

The most important thing we have to do, now that we have re boarded our ship in downtown Sydney, is to increase the number of pages in our passports. Most countries will stamp a whole page and sometimes two. Our passports, though new, only had twenty eight pages. This will not be enough to get us around the world! So we made an appointment with the US Embassy, along with 50 other passengers, to address this issue by purchasing larger passport books which have 52 pages. The Embassy was new and modern, the employees good natured and efficient, considering that we descended on them all at once. We conducted our business in an orderly manner under the watchful eyes of the US President, Vice President and Secretary of State, whose framed photographs dominated the far wall.

Hospital, Sydney, Australia

February 23, 2026

After all our planning for Jeff's next operation and waiting out the days till we arrived in Cairns, Australia, we finally flew to the Sydney airport. It was evening when we got there and both of us were exhausted. We both thought why call an Uber, there are a bunch of taxis hanging around, just take one of them to the motel. That was a mistake. We ended up paying $100 for a 20 minute trip in no traffic. Uber would have been half, I found out later. Since then we have taken several Uber rides in electric cars. And they have been excellent experiences. Australia has been importing Chinese made electric cars. We got to ride in a BYD and Uber drivers like to talk. We conversed with a Japanese driver and an Indian driver, both men. Both had been in Australia about 15 years. They seemed to like being in the big city. Both agreed it is generally too expensive. The driver from Japan, his wife works in the hospital and they have children, he likes the flexibility of the job so he can be involved with school and activities. The Indian driver has a son and would like to return to India so his son can experience his homeland. We are resting at our motel and I am outside watching the wild cockatiels.

Sea days

February 11, 2026

We have several sea days before we arrive again in Cairns, Australia. This means we will not see land for a while. The rhythm of sea days is very different from shore days. There are a variety of activities you can participate in. Almost anything you can imagine is being invented as a result of the variety of people onboard, some of whom want to duplicate the entertainments they enjoyed where they used to live. This is a residential cruise ship so a lot of the passengers are onboard long-term, meaning many months or years or the rest of their lives. The longest stay, if you “buy” your cabin, is 15 years. When Jeff and I bought our cabin that was all that was offered. Now you can buy a cabin for 5 years. Each circumnavigation takes about three and one half years. We are going to try to stay onboard for at least one circumnavigation. Before the sea days began, we visited two of the islands of Tonga. At the first stop, people scuba dived over a reef right next to our ship

French Polynesia, the islands

January 27, 2026

The float of cloud drifts and encircles a mountain leaving just the very top, a pointed witches cap poking through. These islands have the most magnificent mountains. They brood around the harbors, snagging the clouds that pass. No doubt they have inspired fantastic stories. The cloud shadows create chameleon-like changes on mountain surfaces, making them even more expressive than oceans that amuse themselves by hiding what they contain; mountains are hysterical by contrast. Always looking for attention. “Look. Look again!, what about this?” They may hold a pose for a while seeming docile, then you look up and they have disappeared. White mist covers just a grey suggestion, then suddenly black silhouettes like broken giant teeth rise defiantly. So much animation, millions of years after volcanic upheavals shook these mountains from the sea depths.

Notes from Fiji hospital, Oceana Hospital system and Denareau private hospital

January 13, 2026

Medical emergencies all have a similar feeling. Intensity, urgency, a changed perception of time; only events and human encounters progress, time seems warped, unimportant. After several sleepless nights because Jeff was having difficulty peeing and he was beginning to have pain, he went to the onboard clinic to get catheterized. There were three attempts with successively larger catheters. This was painful and distressing for him, though he kept joking about it, “this is not good sex!” The attempts were unsuccessful. He was given pain killers and an ambulance met us at the dock for a 10 minute ambulance ride to the hospital. Jeff is an 80 year old man with an enlarged prostate so he normally has trouble peeing. But this time it stopped altogether and there was blood. We are waiting at the hospital for the urologist. Nurses and a general practitioner have spoken to us in English. Very kind, polite, casual and patient. The urologist arrives and talks with Jeff. He is going to get the operating room ready and put Jeff out. Then he can do the operation. We wait in our curtained off cubicle Jeff is lying on a bed. A woman who came with her husband, who has high blood pressure, is behind the curtain to the left of us. He had collapsed. She is reciting the Lord's Prayer and Hail Marys over and over in an emotional whisper. She is crying. A young man is in the cubicle to our right. He seems to have broken his arm. It is all wrapped up in white gauze. Earlier a man had been stung by something and ointment was applied. A pregnant woman has come in. This is a modest hospital, very basic, two floors. They have what they need. A few flies buzz lazily around, but most are killed by the electric device on the wall. A very slight smell of urine is in the air. We arrived here about 8:30. It is now 2:00. Jeff has had an ultrasound, blood pressure checks and an EKG. Now he is in a wheelchair waiting for the nurse to take him to an operating room. The waiting room has about 10 people waiting. About 50 chairs in all. Not terribly busy for a Saturday. Light and darker coffee colored skin, attractive, rounded features and large expressive eyes set apart the native population. They are only a little curious about us. There is no rushing here.

Economic Discrimination

Sydney Australia to New Zealand

Hospital, Sydney, Australia

Sea days

French Polynesia, the islands

Notes from Fiji hospital, Oceana Hospital system and Denareau private hospital

Ch 17, South Pacific Countries, islands

Palau

Indonesia

Yap Stone Money, CH 15

Philippines, reflections