by Rob Higgin To many who read my articles in the spring about Powell River Mutual Fund and Local Currency, I must seem archaic. My model of finance hails from a simpler time before the invention of modern “financial products.”
An acquaintance in Calgary once boasted to me that he only paid $50,000 in hard cash for his $5 million mansion. I do understand a little of how that is possible, but all I can think is “Buddy, you’re a thief—you’ve stolen at least $2 million in labour and materials.” Perhaps it was only a little from here and a little from there, but in the long run, it’s people who give honest value for their paycheques that are the ones who pay for his privileges.
There’s no such thing as a money tree, and if it does come out of thin air, it’s honest labour, sooner or later, that backs every dollar. You wouldn’t bother with the stuff if you couldn’t get people to give you real value for it.
Financial magicians find many ways to skim from the great rivers of cash, but because they give nothing of value in return, it’s plunder.
So what? Hasn’t it always been this way? The short answer is yes, and the existence of privilege is a hallmark of freedom. But a longer look shows cyclical patterns. These patterns are based in the primary motivations of the greatest number and relative strength of the people involved. When the strongest objectives show a sense of community, exercised either individually or governed by common sense common law, the whole can achieve a measure of tensioned stability. However, when privilege is careless of community, we are in danger of fundamental fracture.
When the state of Rome teetered on the brink of collapse late in the third century, it was due in part because the privileged classes plundered public properties for personal profit. The same was true in France, Russia and America prior to their revolutions. “Après nous, le déluge,” an unfortunately common theme. Today too?
Back to my archaic model of finance. The simpler the relationship between investment and labour, the safer and more stable the community. The more we share a desire for the common good, the more likely we are to be achieving a state of wellness. Certainly, privilege is a powerful motivator and there are distinctions within any community, but the differences can be either divisive or complementary. Your income is either helping something grow or stealing. Gains through honest relationships require more work, but in due diligence we’ll find both satisfaction and stability.
Powell River Mutual Fund and Local Currency can ensure that we are helping good things grow.
They represent an opportunity for everything from micro loans for small business to local ownership of the dams and generators. To be a truly “sustainable” community we need to acquire control, by every legal means, of all the processes that enable us to exist independently.
Rob Higgin lives south of town and can be contacted at 604.487.1119 or through email higginsinn@gmail.com.
