Money: The Biggest Religion of Our Era. 

What is money and where does it comes from? These two questions seem easy to answer, but, do we really understand how money mechanics work? Zeitgeist Addemdum is a 2008 documentary that explains how the U.S creates and distributes money all around its territory. The ultimate truth that this documentary uncovers is that the whole monetary system is in crisis. Why? Because it creates money out of thin air. Out of thin air? Yes, U.S economic system is designed to create money out of very minimum reserves in order to "satisfy" the economic needs of its citizens. But this system only creates more and more problems, not only in the economic ambit but in the social and cultural sectors. When the government considers that there is a need for more money, it ask the Federal Reserve to create more of it. You may wonder, What do they need to have in order to create more money? Have some sort of equivalency of it in gold or some other material? Well, the answer is no. They only need to have a reserve of 10% of the total amount of money desired. Then, money is created.

But so far money is no more than a simple number in a computer screen. In fact, only 3% of all of the U.S is actual printed paper. The governments sends this money to a determined bank. So far, the government acquires a debt with the Federal Reserve that it promise to pay, not only entirely, but with interests. We'll get back to this topic. When the bank obtains this recently created money, that bank is able to lend tons and tons of money. Law allows banks to only keep 10% of their total capital and lend all of the rest. The problem of this is that banks take the money they actually have and use it as the 10% the need to keep in reserve. Therefore, every time someone borrows money from a bank, more of it is created out of thin air. Citizens do exactly the same as the government does. They promise to pay their debt entirely plus some interests. And they the move their money from one bank onto the next one and the cycle repeats. In the end money is nothing more than your debt, or someone's debt, or the bank's debt, or the government's debt. Money is debt. Every time more capital is created, the debt of the U.S government grows. The first and direct effect of this is inflation. This system is inflationary. As more money is created, the acquisitive power of it decreases. If you cannot buy the same amount of things with the same amount of money as time goes by, then depreciation happens.

But the real issue is the social dilemma created out of it. If there is only a certain amount of money in the U.S, how can interests be payed? Interests are the direct implication for citizens in this system. By increasing debt, this system is able to control the most important aspects of its citizens' lives. Individuals work for obtaining more money to pay their debts that continuously increase. This is a system of modern form of slavery. Our needs depend on whether we have the money, or ability to acquire more debt, in order to contribute to this incredible unfair system in which only a few ones receive all of the benefits from it. Poor individuals continue to get poorer and poorer as rich individuals get richer. We are no longer individuals, we are interests and money that moves around the world. This system is designed to eliminate all of our humanity, focusing on the better, faster, now. In the end, one day, we will realize that money does not really exists, that money can not be eaten or cultivated. That day, however, will be the brightest day for humanity.

Graph taken from the web page electromontis.net

Joseph, Peter. "Zeitgeist Addendum." (2008) Gentle Machine Productions. Film.