The ultimate pyramid

When it comes to demand, there is one driver above all else,

I want what you have.

 
This is more than just keeping up with the Jones' though, this goes all the way to the top, literally. It is this system that allows a very small minority to control nearly all resources and, the only reason they don't control all resources is because if they did, the system would fail as there is no way to continue feeding it.

It is a pyramid scheme

Essentially, we are hardwired to want more, to achieve and have been socialized to compete with those around us. Some of this is natural like the competition for the best mates. However, a lot of the wiring has been hijacked and what used to be points to compete on (skills), have become things to compete for (goods). We have been trained to believe that what we can buy is the measure of our value.

To climb the social ladder, we need to be able to signal that we are successful and that means to be able to buy the indicators of success. The brands and labels, the tech, the cars, the houses, helicopters, planes and islands. Do you see the ramping up effect there? To go to the next level requires the purchase of another indicator which essentially means to get what those above already possess.

This system means that there is always more to get and even if you are competing in a single class, there is a very wide range of products and services that allow you to compete with those around you. A car brand will offer a large range of models with incremental changes to ensure that there is a version for just about every pocket.

But of course, it doesn't just end at earning the money required to buy our way to glory as there is another mechanism that allows us the resources to fake it til we make it. Debt. We can borrow our way to glory too. Buy now, pay later, terms with a little bit of interest and it is here that there is a printing press of money to be made.

A lender doesn't need the actual money to lend, just some of it and at one point, it was as low as ~4% in some countries or in other words, their held capital could be loaned out 25 times. What this means is that a bank is able to loan 100 dollars to 25 people who will then buy their desires and pay interest. This means that if the interest rate on the loan is 4% per annum, the bank will double its money in a year. However, the rates on small loans are usually much higher and some credit cards are over 20%. This means a bank could effectively get a 500% return on the money they loan.

But, it doesn't end there of course because now there is 2500 dollars in the system where only 100 exited prior and that money hasn't been earned yet. This is 25 times the demand on goods and services than the money supply actually allows. Talk about an inflation mechanism. It is unnatural demand from a fiscal perspective.

But, it doesn't end does it? This is a debt cycle and this means that over time, people find it harder and harder to make ends meet because of interest repayments on the loans they have taken. This pushes them into doing work they do not necessarily want to do and buying from large conglomerates. You know, the ones that are able to crush supply chains by making poor people do work that they do not want to do for a salary that is not enough to cover their debts because they were encouraged to compete for status on good and services that are provided by the same banks and conglomerates?

This is the why the pyramid works, it convinces people that in order to be successful, it is necessary to be able to purchase increasingly upward on the consumer hierarchy and then it encourages to enter into debt to do so. As much as people don't want to admit it perhaps, fashion is made by kings and queens. literally in some cases.

The English royal family observed that what they did in the house, would soon appear on the streets and realized that the servants were spreading the trends. A servant working with the royals would have been a good position and would hold a glory by association status. The habit of putting the small finger out while drinking tea was potentially started as a joke to see how quickly it would spread from servant to the common folk. Supposedly quite quickly and looking at how fast people are willing to copy the fashion of modern day stars, the story whether true or not is corroborated by behavior.

What this indicates is another driver for the system, social proof, where 'better people' endorse products and drive the masses to get close to them by having similar. Rarely is this a bottom up system, it is nearly always a trickle down approach. The elite woman wears a 10,000 dollar dress, the middle-class woman clutches a 500 dollar bag, the lower end has 20 dollar underwear; all by the same designer.

The entire system however is designed in order to push wealth up to the top, to create money from nothing and then, say that people owe interest on that created money. It is a cycle that is unsustainable as eventually, it will eat itself like any pyramid scheme will as the resources pulled from the bottom levels no longer are able to satisfy the demands at the top.

The solution is of course to break away from this cycle but, it is of such an insidious nature that even those who 'claim' to understand how it all works and are fighting for freedom from debt, holler from the roof tops , "Lambo!" You know who I am talking about, don't you? Yes, many of us. We too keep buying into this system and keep driving for what those above us have and inspiring those below us to get a bit of what we have too.

If the cycle were to break however, it would cause absolute turmoil as for literally 1000 years or more, the entire global monetary system has been structured to do exactly what it is doing now, make rich richer. It is working so well that the top 8 richest people in the world hold the same value as the bottom 3.5 billion. It is not their fault though is it? It is ours.

It is us who buy into it, us who rather than work out what is beneficial to do and possess we outsource our wants to be driven by people who do not even know we exist. Do you feel like 'Queen Beyonce' wearing her perfume while you live in abject poverty? Do you feel like an OG listening to gangster rap about diamonds, honies and phat stacks while you struggle to pay the electricity bill?

Ah, this happens at all levels though doesn't it? You feel good getting into your Audi A4 only to have an R8 pull up next to you at the lights and while you look at it longingly you say, "One day."

We are lied to about what has value in this world for the purpose of control but, the control isn't over us as individuals although that is what it amounts to in practice, it is about resources. We are just tools to control the resources. They don't care about us, no matter what status you think you hold. We are all expendable in this system, all disposable.

You think you know what you want from this world, think again.

Taraz
[ a Steem original ]