Lectures / 15/04/2009 7:30 pm

Money rules the world – to its last gasp?

Money rules the world. For many people this is self-evident and more and more people have been voicing their concern – not only in view of the current banking crisis – that this development is seriously getting out of hand at the beginning of the 21st century. The globalized economy does nothing to prevent 26,000 people from starving to death every day. Tax evasion, social problems and subsidies are all symptoms of a financial redistribution away from the poor to the more affluent sectors of society; this is more and more the case also in Western affluent societies. Ballooning national debts result in severely reducing the  options available to governments and in making them dependent in their decisions on corporations and financiers. Democracy is being reduced to an empty shell in that the financial constraints overrule the people’s will. The only way out of this dilemma is high growth rates, yet quantitative growth endangers the globe’s climate and destroys our environment, the very foundation of our existence. So is the fact that money rules the world responsible not only for the demise of democracy but for a massive threat to our very survival on this planet? Are there any alternatives?