Core Tenet # 2 - Sufficient Knowledge

Part One: We need big (better) government again.

Reorganising communities, businesses and government on the basis of our true human spirit is just the start of the change.

Recognising the essential and special role of a robust, well resourced government is vital.

There is no way we will adequately address the challenges of the climate crisis, and other crises this century, without a bigger role for good government.

So, sorry to Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher but big (and better) government is essential again. Leaving it up to the market has comprehensively failed us.

A democratically elected government remains one of the strongest and most just large-scale organising models we have at our disposal to respond to the scale of the crises.

Part Two: Governments with sovereign money status have special powers we must use to our advantage to address the crises.

The Federal Governments of Australia, United States of America, United Kingdom, Japan and many others have sovereign money status. This means these governments exert full control over their money and spending - they in effect have monopoly powers over their own currency.

Crucially, when these governments spend money they in fact create money in that instant, since the money can come from nowhere else. They spend money into existence and then collect taxes later, which not only helps to curb inflation (which could occur if money creation carried on unchecked) but which critically provides the demand and legitimacy for the government's money. Citizens of these countries have no power but to pay the taxes imposed upon them by their government in the currency that the same government issues.

We witness governments use this power most clearly in major crises — in response to COVID, and to World War Two. Where did all the extra money come from? Not from real borrowing or from major tax increases. They simply spent the money into existence.

If this information is new to you, then it is highly likely you have many questions - we certainly did when we first started learning! Two great resources to look at include the film 'Finding The Money' available to rent or buy over Vimeo, and the book 'Deficit Myth' by Professor Stephanie Kelton.

We must carefully harness this special power for the climate crisis. “How will we pay for it?”

That part is easy! We can find the money. We must carefully invest it into the real resources we need — humans, minerals, materials etc. — while avoiding harmful inflation.

Having this special power and refusing to use it to tackle the climate crisis is like leaving your star player sitting on the sidelines. Except this isn’t a game. And we won’t get a second chance.

Only larger-sized governments, using the special money powers that many posses, will support freedom and prosperity — support us to survive and thrive — this century.

Smaller-spending governments, and ‘leaving it up to the market’, have been totally insufficient to respond to the crises we face.