THE FUTURE OF MONEY Bernard A. Lietaer - library.uniteddiversity ...

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