What would happen if everyone on the planet was a billionaire?

The concept of ‘Money’ is the most fantastic creation of the human mind. It is artificial, and holds up only because we all allow it to.

It has helped speed up a lot of our daily lives, due to easy understanding of transactions. This much we all know, agree with, and love, as none would like to prefer using the alternative - bartering.

So what this amazing invention called ‘money’ has done is to reduce every product, experience, service and interaction to a common scale - the value scale - measured through a certain currency (convertible to another, or most of the rest). That this ‘money’ is physical or virtual, convertible or non-convertible, means little in the bigger scheme of things (unless, of course, you are a crook or a cyber-thief siphoning off central banks’ monies! Or North Korea.)

“Value” is what underlies everything. It defines how much money we are willing to part with, or earn through hard labour, and also why shining objects called the iPhones can keep commanding ridiculous sums of money to get owned, despite equally good or even better products available at much lower ‘prices’.

Value is, because you have more of what can measure it, and I have less of it (or vice versa). Value (created through human effort) and the dissimilar amounts of moneys that can exchange it, creates the required ‘potential difference’ that keeps economies moving.

So, when you give a sum of, say, $ 1 billion to every human on Earth,

Sums of money with everyone = Equal, huge, equally huge!
Potential Difference needed to create meaningful flows of value = Nil
Value of the “money” we hold = Equal, hence very low!
Worth of what we hold = drastically down
Prices of nearly all products and services = sky high (worth down)
Welcome to hyperinflation, and the breakdown of monetary systems.
Government’s response? Reset the monetary system. Create new potential differences.

As an extension of this thought, it is amazing to visualise mankind’s future. If machine-use speeds up drastically and possible infinite energy sources like cold fusion etc. really come into being, we have a perennial and super-abundant future. Money will become meaningless in the glut-economy, and bingo! We would have created a truly communist society! Ha, ha.

I have tried to analyse the whole idea of money is a series of lectures, the first of which can be viewed by clicking below.

The Concept of Money

Thank you for reading.
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How can you tell a person is rich just by looking at him / her?

I will tell you six tricks I use. Allow me to use a personal definition of "being wealthy".

FIRST - Look at the contentment on the man's face. It usually cannot be faked. A man who is content in the moment now, is Alexander the Mighty!

SECOND - Look at the number of brands the man is wearing and using. The more the number and the more blatant the good(s), the poorer the person is. He needs a lot of external support to project his personality - a frail, weak, hollow individual. Remember the Naga sadhus - naked, all powerful, one with the divine. (OK, that was an extreme one!)

Find the light - it's not too difficult

THIRD - Look at his company. Family, Friends, Kids, Acquaintances. The more crooked and twisted they are, the poorer the guy is. The more simple and loving that group is, the richer the guy is. They are both reflecting upon each other. A man is known by the company he keeps.

FOURTH - Look at his typical day. If reading a variety of stuff and forming informed opinions on multiple issues is a core part of his life, you are staring at a very rich person, who can add immense intellectual value to everyone around. I think, therefore I am.

FIFTH, find out what diseases he is suffering from. If he was born perfectly healthy with no defective genetic baggage, and has managed to pile up loads of beautiful diseases with big names and bigger bills, oooh! A poor man. The treadmill he couldn't slow down enough.

and FINALLY, try finding how he feels about the poor, the destitute and the needy. If he is moved from within and wants to help them even with a bare minimum to spare, you are looking at the richest man in the world. Man - human - humanity.

For, of what use are the billions stashed away in those tax havens when you are crooked, jealous, stingy, diseased, can't laugh, are full of hate and envy and useless for mankind at large? Human life is a speck, practically meaningless, in the vast expanse of this time-space. Make it meaningful.
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Panama Paper leak, and Indians

What does the Panama Paper Leak mean to Indians?

TLDR - Many of the super-rich Indians, first generation or otherwise, decided they'll have nothing or little to do with the regular taxation system back home, as that would be too tiresome, unfair and extortionist. They decided to siphon their wealth, or a large part of it, outside India to places like BVI, Cayman Islands, or Panama, where it'd be safe from the prying eyes of the taxmen, to be enjoyed at leisure later. Sadly, some pure soul in Panama decided to take some load off itself and brought a few lac documents to public attention worldwide! So we have yet another proof of what everyone suspected always.

BUT - If you look closely, it is not just about India, or Indians. The real issue is the Mega-Rich versus The Rest of Humanity.

Sample this -

• An Oxfam report indicates that 62 individuals now have as much wealth as half the humanity. That's a cool 320,00,00,000 people (3.2 billion / 320 crores). [ 62 Super-rich ]
• It is almost acknowledged that there are maybe a few thousand individuals (5000?) holding most of the power in the world, with the rest being mere inconsequential cogs in the giant wheel
• The Elite versus Non-Elite division was never so stark, anywhere, including the great land of equality - the USA. Hence the protests.  [ We are the 99% ]

We are the world, we are the children

In this backdrop, it is not surprising that there are two parallel financial systems running in this globalised world. One is for the 90% plus majority of the 7.3 billion people alive today. The other is for the rest who do not wish to share their riches (as taxes).

Can global inequality continue its present course?

Shocking reports of wealth concentration are emerging from various sources. Just a few individuals hoard wealth that's more than half the humanity's worth.

It is now well-accepted that the world has become a dangerously skewed place, and the promise of trickle-down has turned so hollow that politicians and economist alike have stopped using it.

Someone asked - Why are the socialists / communists so quiet about it? Yes, that's a good question. Here's my answer.

Socialism (and its extreme version - Communism) is about challenging societal inequality, essentially wealth-inequalities. Given that, the biggest surprise of Indian politics (and in general, world politics) is that the mainstream Communist Parties seem to have worked especially hard to lose all relevance, just when the conditions for their relevance are strikingly present everywhere! The world is more unequal than ever, and with technology taken over entire industries, inequality is about to touch historic levels.

Here is the crux of the latest Global Wealth Report.

The Richest 1% of the World (that's a royal 62 individuals) today hold the wealth equal to the poorest 50% of the world. So, 62 = 360,00,00,000 !

Source - 62 people own same as half world – Oxfam | Press releases | Oxfam GB