Money out of Thin Air
I often feel that the driving force of our market economy that emphasizes free competition, is not free competition and its protection, so that each one of us would even theoretically have a similar starting point. Instead of producing products and services more important seems to be the creation of money from nothing, building cash machines, putting one’s hand to other people’s pocket and to access more generous circles.
It is silly that some people always want to channel money through as many twists as possible. It starts so that governments can not print money by themselves, but printing of money is a privilege of private banks and governments, like everybody else, are borrowing it for an interest. This is the same, as if governments would have given away their right for taxation, as the right to collect interests is in principle the same thing.
Its topsy-turvy that usury of private banks is considered normal, although they are unwilling even to provide a bankcard for their poorest customers without pressure from the government. At the same time, the most disadvantaged people are forced to acquire their credits from dubious sources and pay yearly interest rates between tens or even hundreds percent. Always, when money is transferred, there is a middleman that charges some percentage from a transaction.
Collection agencies in Finland have made their business to a new art form. They are able to raise the insignificant amount of 49 cents (€ 0.49) with a few premeditated moves to disproportional value.
Debt Recovery Procedure (Click to open)
Korko – Interest 4.12.2014-3.8.2015 – 0,03
Kulut – Expenses – 77,00
Korko – Interest 19.7.2012-3.8.2015 – 17,93
Oikeudenkäyntikulut – Court Costs – 214,00
Korko – Interest 19.7.2012-3.8.2015 – 49,83
Ulosottomaksu – Cost for debt recovery procedure – 56,00
Yhteensä eräpäivänä – Payable on Due Date – 415,28
Economic Freedom
When people speak about economic freedom, it is usually meant in a way that you do not need any subsidizing and social benefits, and when you can earn your living, you are free to buy or do whatever you want, or to travel wherever you want.
That definition excludes me immediately, as after I became disabled my main income has been pension. During my studies in Germany I felt, as if I was a professional beggar, as I was gathering money to fund my studies, because the government support for students did not cover my studies abroad.
My prospects for own labour income are limited, but I want to be economically as free as possible. For me it means that my income covers my expenses and I can concentrate on doing things and fulfilling myself.
I believe that for most of the people economic freedom means this. None of us is economically independent. Most wealthy people usually have most economic dependencies and obligations. For all of us economic freedom depends mainly on political decisions: That is to say, what kind of economic structures policy makers create.
Increase of Available Income
First mean to increase earned income and thus economic freedom is considered employment and cutting of income tax. For me and many other people with small income, decisions concerning employment or taxation do not have the slightest effect. Worst thing that weakens my purchasing power are additional costs caused by money circulation, interests and account fees. One thing would improve my situation considerably: That I would receive the income of three months, six months or even a year at the same time. In that case I would not need to pay any interest and my income would be fully available for me.
I believe that most people plan their life in at least three month periods. In some things you have to look even further. Purchases are not made only for one month, but for longer time periods. The situation is problematic, when income covers only purchases of one month. If people would get income for three months purchases at one go, even small income would be sufficient. One would have the greatest benefit from discounts. When ordering from webshops it is best to combine your orders to save shipping costs. It would save people’s nerves and for the next three months one could fully concentrate on own projects. In addition to personal savings, it would decrease bureaucratic work and its expenses.
Free International Money Transfer
Operation of the European Union has received so much negative attention that most of us do not even think about the positive achievements of the EU. From the perspective of an ordinary citizen the greatest benefit of the EU is Euro, the shared currency, which makes travelling inside the Union easier. In my opinion even greater accomplishment than Euro has been the launching of the International Bank Account Numbers (IBAN), because it makes free international transactions possible. Unfortunately the potential of IBAN system has been mostly ignored, although the system is already in use in 70 countries.
This matter was circling on my mind a year ago, when I tried to create a simple webshop for digital products on my website. I thought that it should work as straightforward as domestic webshops, on which in the best case after choosing what I need, I click the pay-button, and the system forwards me to the log in page of my own bank. After logging in and confirming the payment, no other moves are needed.
When I started to build the webshop, I had an image on my mind, what kind of plugins I needed for it. First I had to buy the actual download-shop plugin and make required modifications. Then I needed payment gateways, which also cost something. On top of that each transaction had additional charges. All global payment gateways are based on credit cards.
I registered two different payment gateway accounts, on which I was required to give my basic information and also to answer a multitude of questions. I swore several times, how complicated things were made.
After I had created the payment gateway – accounts, I received a notification that my application was rejected. For some reason one payment gateway application did not accept my website, even though I had paid for it. The developer of the application returned my money, but I was annoyed for how much time is wasted to this kind of rigmarole.
After I was ready with the payment gateways, my website required encryption and several plugins, which did not support multilingual websites. Or should I say that my multilingual website did not support those plugins. When I was unable to run the webshop in a way I wanted, I removed it completely. I thought that it would be best to keep everything as simple as possible.
Global payment gateway based on IBAN account numbers would make things a lot easier. In addition to that it would increase people’s financial resources by billions of dollars worldwide, because all middlemen and extra chargers would be left out. Principally one could make the IBAN payment gateway work like netbank transaction on Finnish webshops.
Read also:
Wikipedia: International Bank Account Number (IBAN)
Video:
All Wars Are Bankers’ Wars