Break through the COMBI-Complex with cryptocurrencies from 2local and a cashback for local and sustainable products.
In the neoliberal economy, governments, international banks and multinationals are too closely intertwined. I call this Combination of governments, Multinationals and Banks that operate Internationally the COMBI-Complex! This leads to an unstable economy with unfair competition worldwide and results in continuing inequality and unrecoverable environmental and climate damage. We are currently dealing with social, environmental and climate crises, depletion of natural resources, hunger, malnutrition and poverty, exceptionally high rents and house prices and rising healthcare costs. These challenges seem very different in nature, but they are all due to the malfunctioning economic and monetary systems of neo-liberalism and governments that do not respond adequately. In the COMBI-complex governments, multinationals and international banks protect each other, but they also have a stranglehold on each other. Solutions will not come from these parties. We have to get to work ourselves and shape the world ourselves. So, take the initiative into your own hands, together with the platform 2local.
Multinationals
Large companies operate internationally. They hardly invest in productive activities, but instead buy their own shares and swallow up small promising companies or prevent them from entering the market. It kills healthy competition. Major players disrupt the production of local entrepreneurs. In this process, they apply different tactics. People are constantly seduced by convincing advertisements to consume more for as little money as possible. The market power of the large companies suffocates. A handful of large companies control most of the world trade, with many unnecessary shipments around the world creating environmental and climate disadvantages. There is no longer any question of free trade. Multinationals are mainly about the value of their shares, not about the value for consumers or their employees. These large companies, with offices in many countries, source raw materials where they are cheapest. They strategically locate where they will most benefit from material supply, infrastructure, labor costs, resource availability and legal aspects. This creates a constant pressure to produce more and do it cheaply, with more resource depletion, waste and environmental pollution. The standards and rules of large companies are mainly aimed at strengthening their position. They do not hesitate to switch to deception, corruption, cruelty, shamelessness, money laundering and tax avoidance. For example, multinationals, such as Shell and Philips, can enjoy public goodwill by insisting on effective climate policies while ensuring that this does not happen, by engaging in activities such as hiring 75 lobbyists through the European Chemical Industry Council (ECIC), as Ewald Engelen writes in the Groene Amsterdammer of 9 October 2018. To bring the head quarters of Unilever to the Netherlands, politicians promised dividend recipients an insane amount and defended the move without arguments. Because shareholders did not like the move to the Netherlands, a phone call from the top Unilever boss to the prime minister was enough to stop the move plans and politicians were accused of deliberately damaging the b
International Banks
The global monetary system facilitates this undesirable state of affairs, creating even more mega companies and mega banks with less diversity. Money is created because individuals or companies are in debt with a bank. Money creation and payment transactions are public tasks, but are carried out by commercial internationally operating banks. They can take too much risk and overshoot. Then the system crashes, as we saw in 2008. This leads to an unstable economy. Since money can be created from nothing, more money is created, which reduces the value of money. Inflation is taking place, prices are rising and more must be paid to buy products and services. In this way people are deprived of their wealth. Banks, as well as companies such as KLM, are becoming “too big to fail” and lobby for low taxes, low interest rates and high subsidies. The financial sector is increasingly dominating the economy. The 2008 monetary crisis, for example, has sharply exposed the imbalance of the financial world. The shareholders of the banks did not pay for the deficits — the taxpayers did. After the 2009 financial crisis, radical changes were expected, but none came. The ‘oversized’ banks were not broken up. They have even grown in many countries. Central banks are also at fault. They stuffed the banks with free money. The ECB buys government bonds from banks, resulting in lower interest rates and larger money supply. Hundreds of billions are bought. That will be on the ECB’s balance account. These debts must be repaid with tax revenues. This leads to huge imbalances within Europe. The South of Europe is in debt and the North has money left over. A democracy must be able to exercise power over money, otherwise it is a faked democracy. The interest has been extremely low for 7 years, with adverse consequences for pension funds, among others. Low interest rates make high debt more bearable in the short run, but exacerbate the long-term problem. Under this model, consumers have no problem with taking on higher debts, but that high debt will persist when interest rates rise again.
The interest to be paid on all debts eventually leads to a transfer from the lowest 95% of the population to the top 5%, who use it again to invest, which increases inequality. In fact, Credit Suisse reports in the 2016 Global Wealth Databook that the richest 1% has more wealth than the rest of the world. The rich take care of each other — they continuously scratch each other’s backs and keep their “closed” networks. Eight people together now have more wealth than the poorest half of the world. Due to increasing income inequality, wages are lagging and more people are “excluded” from participation in society. The growing income inequality makes the rich richer and the poor poorer. People become desperate and choose “me first” to survive. The feeling of powerlessness has become a mass movement that feeds and maintains the crises. This also means that people retreat to their “safe” environment and stand up for the interests of their “own” groups. Both the rich and the poor protect themselves from other groups.
Governments
Multinationals and international banks are using their dominant position and putting pressure on governments by enforcing to leave the country where they are located. They threaten to leave the Netherlands if they don’t get their way, like ING, who, according to De Volkskrant of 2 November 2007, pressurized to leave the Netherlands if the business climate did not improve. On the other hand, they knocked on the door of the Dutch government when things went wrong, as did ING in 2008. Multinationals divide operating income and costs between countries, to ensure that they pay little or no tax. The authorities are involved in keeping the establishment of these companies within national borders. Companies such as Shell and Philips do not pay corporate tax in the Netherlands. 71 economists argued for a CO2 tax (Jan 2019), but that tax was not discussed at the industrial tables of the climate agreement. The banking world is involved in money laundering and various other legal violations, including Libor. The government must keep these mechanisms under control by setting rules. But that hardly ever happens. Governments release the financial sector, focus on growth, ignore the necessary climate impact and show a preference for free trade. Governments measure their success by the number of large companies that set up within their borders. That is why they have a low income tax. In a European context, large companies are encouraged to grow so big that they dominate European markets (economic nationalism) and can thus measure up to Chinese state capitalism. At this level, competition is fierce: US authorities are tackling European car manufacturers, while European authorities are tackling US technology companies. Everything big is getting bigger and regulators and legislators are on a leash with those bigger companies.
Solution: take the initiative into your own hands, together with the platform 2local
It is often argued that the government must ‘adjust’ the failures of the malfunctioning economic and monetary systems. As discussed earlier, this solution will not come from the government. We have to get to work ourselves. We have to shape the world ourselves. That was also the conclusion of the first episode of “The Philosophical Quintet” of June 28, 2020 on the theme “Power, Media and Manipulation”. Take the initiative yourself, together with the 2local platform:
1.2local works with its own cryptocurrency, based on its own blockchain, with which mutual payments can be made easily, cheaply, digitally and quickly, also internationally. It is ensured that the cryptocurrency steadily increases in value. The (international) banks will therefore have less influence. The new cryptocurrency — L2L — will in practice act as a local currency, while maintaining a global connection. With the new system, local operations are connected to the entire world while benefiting from the benefits of proximity, sustainable transportation and better short-chain control. With the introduction of 2local, we are removing the ease with which banks exercise their monopoly position. In fact, they are no longer indispensable in society. The system requires a minimal contribution from all all people who pay with L2L coins. On the other hand, 2local provides periodic payments of L2L coins up to a certain maximum to all people who have purchased goods and / or services from local companies. This way everyone has access to a certain package of coins. Cryptocurrencies can be issued outside of government or other agencies to help the people who need them. No intermediaries are needed, as is the case with other initiatives. That is why cryptocurrencies even pose a threat to the banks and the financial sector. That’s why banks want to prevent the introduction of cryptocurrencies. Several local currency systems have been developed in the past to counteract the disadvantages of the global financial system outlined above, such as LETs. The cryptocurrencies will do much better in this regard.
2. 2local facilitates local and sustainable initiatives by setting up a digital Marketplace where producers and consumers can meet. The power of multinationals will lose considerably as a result. Dissatisfaction with the disproportionate power of large companies is increasing. 2local wants to change this situation by supporting smaller companies, consumers and individuals in their economic and financial decisions and transactions, giving them more control over their lives. Many authors seeking to resolve the crises we are currently facing point to a bottom-up approach that focuses on the local level. For example, the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) says, “To transform the global food system and sustainably feed the world, you have to start at the local level.” By placing the local concept in a global perspective and linking it to elements of a type of basic income, we want to realize a new world. This implies a shift to smaller, localized production and distribution of goods and services. It means more personal cohesion between people, less polluting transport around the world and easier quality controls (via short chains instead of long global chains that are not transparent). People who are struggling and have little money, but buy local products, receive compensation. This stimulates everyone’s involvement in the local economy.
3. By introducing a cashback for local and sustainable products, people with less money also have access to sustainable products. This will increase sustainability and prosperity in the world. Check the 2local website — https://2local.io/ — and sign up.
Harry Donkers
July 5, 2020
