The Story of Stuff

Yeah, they are supposedly playing this in schools across the country... Fox News has labeled it as "Teaching Socialism"...

Warning.... if you don't like political stuff, don't continue.


Yea, I know it is a little bit lefty and filled with environmentalist propaganda, but I just thought it was a little interesting. It has some good points. There is also a guy critiquing it on you tube from the extreme right side. He pretty much glorifies capitalism and the free market system.

I think they are both wrong. To me, money is the root of all evil and what is causing most of the worlds problems because it can cause such a differential in status, power, and influence. Making a resource artificially scarce, ex. the hoarding of oil, drives up prices and make rich people richer and poor people poorer. Money causes corruption....

I'll admit, I am slightly left winged.... but I think any type of governing system based in the monetary system is doomed to fail... socialism doesn't work because there is always an all powerful dictator that determines what every one is allowed. And this person also seems to believe he is entitled to more than everyone else leaving the populace poor and destitute while he lives in his ivory tower.

Democracy fails because it is run in a free market system. This is highlighted in the Story of Stuff video.

Me, I am a personal fan of a resource based economy. I think we need to put our faith in technology and abolish money, cause face it.... we are slaves to it. We just have this illusion that we are supporting ourselves when it is nothing more than voluntary slavery. We waste a minimum of a third of our lives trying to obtain it and for what? Money is created out of nothing... if you think about it.... it has no real value. Every time the economy hits a slump we just print more, driving up inflation. This can't last forever. People could spend their time doing much more important things if they didn't have to work... for ex. raising their own children instead of paying someone else to do it or expecting the school system to. They could spend time creating, and enjoying life.

Some people argue, well where is the incentive? We don't need incentive such as money. Did Einstein or Tesla have the incentive of money? Their contributions were never for money. Is a mother's incentive money? Even recording artists.... the true great ones don't do it for the money and the ones that do, you can tell.

I've been following Jacques Fresco and the Venus Project for quite some time and I think this is the way of the future. Definitely better than what we have now.

http://www.thevenusproject.com/
http://www.zeitgeistmovie.com/
http://thezeitgeistmovement.com/

Sorry for the rant.... I know how some of you feel about this. I just feel real strongly about this. Not trying to pollute the board... Hope I didn't offend anyone.

I agree as far as money goes... Definitely the root of all evil, but it makes the world go round...

But is there really a way to live without money??? In order to get rid of money you would have to give everyone the same thing regardless of their position in life and what they do... At what age would those equal rights become available to you??? And who would decide what is equal and fair for everyone??? Would a family of 4 get more than a family of 3??? And does the guy who does nothing deserve as much as the guy who builds buildings??? If it were possible to give Everyone jobs then it would be done already and we wouldn't have over 10 million jobless in this country alone...

It's just too hard to live without currency of some kind... I'm not hurting for money like some people I know, but I still hate it... I'd be first to sign up if there was a way to do away with it...

Democracy works, provided you don't have corruption and lets face it, you can't get rid of corruption without getting rid of money and power... As for DC, they forgot long ago why they are in those offices and we need an entire rehab of the government system... Some of these people have been there for over 30 years and they still aren't accomplishing anything... It's also too big, over 400 members of the House alone and there are people asking to double it... That would make almost 1,000 people still doing nothing but passing laws they feel are needed, they no longer ask the People what they want or need...

Billions spent to help out the banks which they should have let fail... Companies fail all the time, other companies step up to pick up their slack and the world keeps turning... Those billions could have been spent to get the 4 million homeless people off the streets, those billions would have put them in apartments for years, more than enough time for them to get themselves together try to give to society...
But no, it was nothing more than Fat Cats helping Fat Cats...

Politics will always be corrupt because the politicians will always believe they have power... And from a quote I'm sure we all know, "Absolute Power, Corrupts Absolutely"...

We need to remind the politicians that we the people hold the power...

Check out the Venus Project site.

There's a lot of info on there. As far as who gets what, if we focused on technology and automatic most of the jobs, we could create an abundance of things, so everyone would have access to what they wanted.

A lot of people fear technology because it creates job loss.... no money, and automating most things would mean a lot of jobs would not be needed to be performed by people and frees up a lot of time for everyone.

If you are curious, that site has all the info you would need to know.

No I understand that, but at the same time you still need people to do some things... So who decided who Has to work and who gets to enjoy themselves??? While I understand Automation and am in favor of it, if it were to lead to what you are saying and what that website suggests, I there is still need for the Human Factor somewhere...

While I don't think I would mind personally if I'm sitting some where for several hours making sure this and that is going right, while you on the other hand get to spend the entire day with your family doing whatever you want because money is no longer an object, I'm sure there are people that would have a problem with that, especially if they are one of the ones who have to work instead of being able to lounge...

What would you do, make it a Mandatory Work Force, kind of like the Chinese Army??? Once you reach a certain age you are required to work X amount of years??? I could probably see that, but depending on how automated you take the world, will there be enough for all those people in that age group to do??? If not, again, who decides who is made work???

For example lets say you make it age 25 to 35, a 10 year Mandatory Work Duty... There are millions of people in that age range, will there be enough jobs with all the automation???
Then there are the 3rd world country like in Africa that still have Tribes and don't want technology, how are those people calculated into the world population???

There are a great many variables to be worked out for something like... Also you know what people would say, "There isn't enough money to go automated like that"... lol

There is a movie about the the Venus project. It is called Future by Design.

The other movie is the 1.5 hr orientation movie. This is just a power point presentation with Peter Joseph talking over top of it.

It is very dry and not as entertaining as Zeitgeist Addendum, but it is the most completely informative. You want to know the whole idea, watch this and future by design.

You can find them on you tube.
Future by design might be a bit harder to find.... that may be on google video too or you may have to torrent it.

It covers how to solve the people working issue.
Watch it and let me know. I think you would find it enjoyable.

I'll look for it, an hour and half is a long time to sit here... lol I got stuff to do man...


Those in power though don't want to give it up and that is the only way we could go automated... They are the ones in charge and they want to keep it that way... We might say things like "Every Man Is Created Equal", but we all know that ain't true...
I've used my influence to get things I've wanted before, so I'm not much better... Granted I'm not a world tycoon or a politician, but it ain't no different really... I also don't use it constantly or to alter people's lives either... Just to get things like better service for this or that or maybe a better table at a nice restaurant...

Everyone seems to think that the people in charge are in power.

They aren't. That is what most people don't realize. Should everyone band together, then the masses have power, not the select few in government.

Watch those couple movies. Hey if you got time to sit and watch a regular movie, you got time for this =P j/k

Trust me, I know you'll find it interesting.

Actually I'm usually doing Paperwork of some kind when I pop a movie in... lol

I realize that the Masses would have the power, but to create the amount of Masses we would need, it's just unlikely to happen... So until we can cause a revolution, those in Charge will have the Power...
Even in Masses someone {or a small group} still need to be in charge to organize and lead... If everyone in the Masses did as they wanted it wouldn't be any better than Anarchy...

I understand the basics of what is most likely on those films, I've seen documentaries about the these very things... There just aren't enough people willing to give up the concept of Money/Currency to create the revolution needed to move us into the future...



Those films have been put on my list, I don't want you to feel I'm blowing you off... I agree with basically everything you've said... I just have a good understanding that we aren't likely to see these types of changes anytime soon, quite possibly not even in our own life times...
I think it would take a World Disaster such as a Nuclear War or something in order to get people to step in that direction...

I always thought another depression would do it.

One that we can't recover from.

The only chance of a worldly depression would be a 3rd World War, which is true, we could never recover once all is said and done and would definitely need to find another way to live...

Have you seen WALL-E? That project reminds me an aweful lot of that movie. The humans all just get fat and lazy while everything is automated. Nobody had to work for anything.

I just don't like how freely the word socialism is thrown around. It seems that everyone not 100% supportive of capitalism (even to the minor extent of pointing out small flaws) they are labeled as 100% socialists. That my friends is what we call fascism!

-Cub. =o)

Have you seen WALL-E? That project reminds me an aweful lot of that movie. The humans all just get fat and lazy while everything is automated. Nobody had to work for anything.

Yea, I thought of that at first too. I don't think everyone will end up obese. The people who exercise do it because they enjoy it. I think people will have much more time to be active. In fact, people will not really have a viable excuse not to be. I don't have any time won't really work in that case.

I just don't like how freely the word socialism is thrown around. It seems that everyone not 100% supportive of capitalism (even to the minor extent of pointing out small flaws) they are labeled as 100% socialists. That my friends is what we call fascism!

-Cub. =o)

Thanks Cub.

I feel the same way. First people were labeled as communists and now they are labeled as socialists.

Is everyone here forgetting that both these systems of government revolve around a monetary system?? There are certain aspects of socialism that are good.... not all obviously. I think the main problem with it is a single governing entity and money. I am by no means a socialist though.... I support democracy... but again... the problem with this system is people think they have power when they vote but clearly don't. Once the government is in... they pretty much do what they want, so long as the senate/house agrees. Too many governments are just concerned about self interest, as too many members have deep pockets... way too deep.

Anyway, that's my 2 cents. Sorry if I offended anyone.