Barbara K said (January 31, 2015):

A basic problem with the current economic situation is that people got too accustomed to buying on credit, instead of saving a bit along the way until they could actually pay for things. And, along with this, they got used to buying what they WANT instead of just what they NEED.

Many years ago (I am in my 80's), i was driving the '41 Plymouth I bought from my great-uncle for $300. I looked at cars just to see what was available and the sales person tried to get me to buy one on "time". I told him I would buy another car when I could pay cash and he said that they would go out of business if people did that ... it would mess up the entire system. I have paid cash for every car I have owned and I have paid off mortgages as quickly as possible, and that has paid off for me.

When I was very young, I put aside 10% of what I earned along the way, getting used to getting by on what I had left. Because of that, I was able to handle emergencies and also to save. I see young people now, just starting out, who have to have all the bells and whistles, the brand new appliances and brand new furniture, definitely the newest cell phones. And Heaven forbid ... gotta have a really fancy wedding and reception! These are WANTS, not NEEDS, and following that pattern has been disastrous for this society.

One would hope that living during a recession such as we have experienced would have taught people better, but the concept of Discipline seems to be lost. Things are in such a mess now that most people in low-paying jobs really do have a terrible time making a go of it ... however, I know several who DO manage and are happy.

David said (January 31, 2015):

Social credit as presented here is no solution to the economic woes that plague us. It is merely a band-aid type of solution that does not address the fundamental flaws in this system of things. It is just another method of preserving the system of the elites while trying to plug up a loophole.

This system is one that was designed for control and domination of others. It was not created for the awakening of the human potential or for proper human evolution. You work and earn as a cog in the system, and you suffer materially if you don't, or if you deviate. God gave us his bounties free of charge but the pretend-owners of earth have decided that we have to play ball with them...and not evolve our own paradigm for fulfillment.

We spend our lives slaving for worthless paper if we can find a niche that delivers. The system is based on scarcity but that is now proving to be a myth. It is gambling in the commodity markets that determines supply....and price, hence affordability. We cannot ever have enough of the array of things and experiences available, but the money-printers and elites can. Economic theory is just a set of lies. The Banker bailout taught us about the hidden hand, and about who cares about who.

For mankind to really evolve, the current 'what is' must be dumped. Freedom must be given from economic and other forms of control. Then the collective can take care of the individual as he strives to evolve. Giving up Occult control is absolutely necessary!

Stephen C said (January 30, 2015):

Fascinating subject. I see many similarities with the Hamiltonian banking system, bank for the people and by the people. This is the first time I have heard of this so I really can't make any comments, but just wondering how Social Credit would handle large infrastructure projects such as roads, rail and dams? How would it deal with speculation?

I would welcome change and the elimination of poverty world wide. It is my hope that Social Credit or something similar and fair will replace the moribund economic system we have today.

David said (January 29, 2015):

Any economic system would be preferable to the fascistic fractional reserve central banking cartel we have been cursed with for the last century. All the money in circulation today represents a loan at interest from a private bank that is paid back by impoverishing the American people at the expense of the 1%, who are only out the cost of the ink and paper to print the currency on. And once the people have been strip-mined of everything of real value to pay back this phony "national debt", that's when another world war gets cranked up. We are there now.

Ben F said (January 29, 2015):

Excellent article. It identifies the real problems, recommends the correct solutions and hits all of the proper targets that need to be de-throned, de-toothed and made to fall into their proper and smaller place in the economy.

Systems were made for Man, not Man for Systems.

Wallace K said (January 29, 2015):

Oliver Heydorn has made an excellent presentation of the Social Credit case in a nutshell. The central issue is who owns the credit which the banks create against the community’s real wealth. Banks perform a vital function in creating and issuing new credit as loans allowing producers to activate the real, physical and psychological, credit or productive capacity of a nation.

The problem is not that they create financial credit, as some amateur “monetary reformers” are so wont to claim. The evil of modern banking is that the banks claim the ownership of the credit which they create in monetizing the community’s wealth and thereby appropriate the communal capital to control the accumulated Cultural Heritage of mankind. Because of the conventions of modern cost accounting this results in a growing deficiency of consumer income relative to costs and prices. The banks are creating new buying power all the time but as a debt owing to themselves. There is no reason why we cannot create the required additional purchasing-pwoer without leaving a trail of debt as a growing mortgage on future incomes.

According to the conventions of modern accountancy industry must recover its costs via the consumer. New “money” created as debt by the banks as at present or by Social Credit “debt-free” will in either case be recovered in prices and cancelled as effective purchasing-power when business repays its production loan from the bank or places such funds to reserve. The real cost of production, i.e., the required human energy and materials has been fully provided or paid when a product has been completed.

There should be no need for any overall consumer financial debt whatsoever. The new Social Credit “consumption” credits would provide a growing unconditional income to all citizens and continuously falling “Compensated” retail prices. Social Credit may present some intellectual challenges but the main historical objection and impediment has been the irrational and indefensible Puritanical pseudo-morality that insists, essentially, that all incomes must be “earned" although human “labour” input to production processes is rapidly being replaced by non-human factors, i.e., “solar” energy, automation and artificial intelligence.

Nishit said (January 29, 2015):

The article has good logic but a major flaw in my opinion. The flaw is that it proposes a solution called social credit or debt free money. Everyone proposes a solution that in turn is another system that must be controlled and regulated. In my opinion the solution is not another monetary system but understanding to break free from the system. This can only be done by individual effort, not by group think. When a person is conscious and is not a slave to the money banking system or any other system, then the person can easily adopt to whatever system that is in place, do his duty of work and feed his family. I think the flaw of most good hearted people is that they propose a system, instead of simply understanding of how the system, matrix works.

As Bruce Lee says, "Man, the living creature, the creating individual, is always more important than any established style or system" and "....To me a system (martial arts/ money system) that clings to one small aspect of combat is actually in bondage."

Dean said (January 28, 2015):

What does Social Credit look like for the man in the street? If you consider that the Canadian GDP (i.e. the realized price of everything sold that year) is about $1.2 Trillion and the US GDP is about $14T and then consider that the statistics organizations of both countries report total incomes (i.e. effective demand money with which to meet the price) of $770 Billion and $8T respectively, that is a gap in purchasing power of 43%. How does this relate to us all as individuals? It is an annual per-capita shortage of purchasing power amounting to about $17,000. This means that every adult over 18 could be given a guaranteed income of $2000/month and retail goods merchants could give consumers a 20% sales credit at the cash register; all this while causing neither inflation nor deflation. How do you pay for this? You make it up out of thin air – just like bankers do! In the US Constitution, Article 1, Section 8 specifically provides for it. The not-so-subtle difference between how our economy works now and how it would work under Social Credit? There would be no interest debt tied to this new money and thus no need for repayment of either principle or interest. This would effectively dismantle the welfare state and radically lower taxes and this would put even more money in the pockets of consumers. It would also loosen the hold that big money holds over our political system with their lobbying and campaign contribution “bribes” that corrupts and undermines our political democracy.

For those who presume that this debt-free issue of money would result in inflation, consider this. Producers need to borrow their capital costs so the loaned money is effectively the creation of money. As production is sold, the first place producers apply this revenue is to settle the loans as they impact profitability; but the loaned money is destroyed the instant the bank receives it.

Consequently the economy becomes short-circuited by exactly this amount – principal and interest. The debt-free issue of money in the form of guaranteed-income dividends and sales-credit compensated price fills the gap caused by this short circuit. The bottom line is that this is a FUNDAMENTAL FLAW in our cost accounting systems that must be recognized and fixed. Social Credit is the easiest fix. There have been others proposed though. Consider Nobel Lauriat Professor Fredrick Soddy and his National Economy proposals that also recognize this gap and offers a less equitable and effective remedy. Bill Still, who ran as Libertarian Party Presidential candidate in the last US election is an advocate of Soddy’s method.

If this – i.e. prosperity and less government control over our lives - is something you the reader would like to see happen in your lifetime, maybe it is not only in your best interests to learn more about Social Credit, but it is your duty to yourself and your family.

JG said (January 28, 2015):

Loans can only thrive in a fiat financed economy for so long before the rubber meets the road and that day of reckoning is coming soon for the world economy.

The American economy is run more by debt now than anytime in it's history.

1) Inflated Home mortgages that will never be paid back

2) College loans to the tune of 100,000 dollars that will never be paid back

3) An UNAFFORDABLE HEALTH CARE PLAN that most people don't have the money to buy

4) And then more loans from the banks to the investment firms based on "derivatives" from an inflated asset held as collateral that won't be paid back either

This is all the result of an economy functioning on debt

When debts can no longer be paid back the economy will collapse because debt will eventually make the real money that does exist scarce thereby producing deflation. It's already happening right now.

Robert K said (January 28, 2015):

The real basis of personal freedom is economic autonomy. The Age of Robotics contains the potential to bring this condition to every person, and our (currently perverted) money system is ideally suited to be adapted to this end. What is commonly called "democracy"--i.e., Political Democracy, the right to cast a vote in elections--is a sham so long as Economic Democracy--the power to command economic policy as consumers--is attenuated. In the context of the most astounding productive capacity in history, such phenomena as economic insecurity and government austerity policies are anomalies that must shock and repel any thinking individual.