Bernard Lietaer - The Future of Money - Full Book

2020: The girl in the nightmare on Haight Street gets her initiation tattoo Among the plausible futures, the two described so far are neither the worst nor the most favourable. We shah now have a brief look at two more extreme possibilities. They will be called ‘Hell on Earth' and 'Sustainable Abundance’.

Hell on Earth The seed bed for 'Hell on Earth' is a similar combination of breakdowns as in 'Careful Communities'. The main difference in 'Hell on Earth' is that instead of people Organising themselves in selfcontained communities, a highly individualistic 'free for all' ensues. It is the world that would result if enough people believed that the solution to any breakdown was to buy more bullets for their guns.

In contrast with the fictitious people described in the previous two scenarios, in 'Hell on Earth' everybody is real, actually existing in 1996. The lives of Red, Sean, Addison, Todd and Jeremy are described in the words of my friend Katherine who, at 15, was the youngest member of the audience on which I tested the ideas presented in this book during a series of conferences about the 'Future Of Money'. What we learn from her is that 'Hell on Earth' is already happening. And it is less than half an hour's drive from the wealthiest counties and the fastest-growing economy in the US. 'Hell on Earth' is happening in the backyard of the world's only superpower and most advanced technological innovator. It is happening during one of the longest economic boom periods on record, during a year when the Dow Jones has broken its record high 43 times.

Katherine’s friends