Almost one hundred trillion dollars exchange hands every day.
In this bustling market, energy, mining, fracking, and extraction intertwine, leading to pollution, wars, and even genocide. The demand from the service sector ensures that the footprint of these materials is global, affecting every corner of our lives.
As John Maynard Keynes noted in "The General Theory of Employment, Interest, and Money," the complex interplay of various sectors is essential to understanding market dynamics.
Central banks and militaries are the linchpins of this system.
We're caught in a contractual chokehold — educated and perhaps employed, yet bound by a system where military might equal economic stability, and our taxes perpetuate this cycle. Milton Friedman's "Capitalism and Freedom" provides insight into the intricate relationship between economic and political freedom in this context.
In the realm of high finance and technology, major corporations thrive.
Riding the wave of an exponentially growing economy, these giants leverage their might to stay ahead. Our survival, meeting our basic needs, hinges on a system that could be at odds with the biosphere we depend on. This is a drama of societal constructs, much like The Great Gatsby and other stories depicted by Fitzgerald.
Money, a mere token for value, lacks intrinsic worth.
Yet, it opens doors, offering game theory choices — a route to influence, power, and change. Its value lies in its fluidity, its ability to morph into whatever we desire: status, clout, or even the power to shift paradigms.
Adam Smith's "The Wealth of Nations" reminds us that money is a social contract, essential but not absolute.
However, as life nears its twilight, the precious things defy quantification.
In a world of eight billion souls, the quest for monetary gain drives us, spurring innovation and optimizing life. Money, like oxygen, is vital yet insufficient to capture the essence of a life well-lived.
Counterfeiting debases the currency, just as ignoring the real value of goods and services can erode economic stability.
Money is more than currency; it's a token of possibility, a means to an end, whether for investment, purchase, or influence. The relentless pursuit of interest necessitates perpetual growth, but this clashes with our planet's finite resources and the needs of its 8 billion inhabitants. David Ricardo highlights this in "Principles of Political Economy and Taxation".
As we brace for the rise of AI and visionaries like Sam Altman returning to OpenAI, the future seems an unfathomable departure from our past.
Like a rogue AI, the global market operates with a cold, calculating efficiency, sometimes at odds with human values. Yet, this 'mega machine' is not devoid of human influence. It is our actions that fuel it, our decisions that shape it.
We stand at a crossroads, facing the challenge of creating a financial system that ensures economic viability and aligns with the ethos of human longevity, and remembering the complicity of the weak with the wicked is what allows the evils of this world to happen.
We must actively shape our desired future, lest we face a stark reality: a conflict not with nations, but against our own creation - AGI, perhaps embodied in super-intelligent machines.