Up to now our economy depends on capital. The German industrial representative, Mr. Schleyer, once said fittingly: "Capital must be served!" But in the new monetary system capital would be designed to serve the needs of the economy. It would have to offer itself to avoid penalty, i.e., it must serve us!
FARMERS Because of the devastating effects of interest on our agricultural system, farming provides a particularly good case for a new money system. Agriculture is an industry based on ecology. In general, ecological processes follow a natural growth curve (Curve A in Figure 1) Industrial processes must follow the exponential growth curve of interest and compound interest, at present (Curve C in Figure 1). Since nature cannot be made to increase like capital, the industrialization of agriculture has created threatening problems for our survival. In the first phase of industrialization, farmers bought bigger and better machinery. Then bigger farmers bought up smaller farms to become even larger, with the help of government subsidies and tax incentives. Then the signs of sickness began to appear and multiply: the depletion and pollution of water supplies; fertile soils becoming like dried-out and compacted deserts; the loss of more than 50% of all species; the overproduction of special items which could only be sold with more government subsidies; hybrid produce which is tasteless and poisonous; total reliance on oil for transportation, artificial fertilizers, insecticides, pesticides; vanishing rainforest to supply packaging materials for long hauls between the places of production, storage, processing, selling and consuming. While interest is only one factor contributing to this development, introduction of an interest-free money system would be of particular importance for this societal sector which secures our survival. Interestfree loans, combined with land and tax reforms (see Chapter 2), might allow a larger number of people than presently expected to return to the land. Together with new methods of sustainable agriculture, we may witness the evolution of a different lifestyle, combining work and leisure, hand and "brain" work, high and low technology, to serve a more holistic approach to individual, agricultural and social development.
ECOLOGISTS AND ARTISTS When we talk about economic growth, measured in the percentage increase of the GNP and compared to previous years, we usually forget that this increase is related to a larger amount every year. Thus, 2.5 % growth today is, in fact, four times as much as 2.5% growth during the 1950s (Figure 16).
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