Bartertown | Digger Barr

(Golden Age of Gaia)

by Digger Barr

https://tinyurl.com/4dfd9f8n

I found myself engaged in a conversation about the new financial system.
The other party was adamant that they knew everything about how it was going to happen.
I could not help but play the skeptic.
How could any of us know that?
There are two stories that come to mind that illuminate my skepticism.

The first is a story about my child as a 2nd grader.
I picked him up from school and fastened him into the backseat child safety device.
As we pulled into traffic, his sweet voice asked me, How are those black holes?
Startled, but not really, that he would ask this question, I looked into the rearview mirror.
I was also taken back because I had just watched a NOVA presentation the night before.
I knew how to answer his question.
How did he know to ask?
My reply: Well we know enough about them to know we know nothing about them.
And if someone claims to know something about it, they actually know nothing about it.
If you say you know nothing then you are actually beginning to have an understanding.
I then asked him; Do you understand?
He replied; NO. But I could see his face in the mirror and saw the answer was yes.
I smiled and said ‘perfect’.
He looked out the window as we rode in silence.

The next story is really more of a reflection on my upbringing.
I was raised in a Trading post on an Indian reservation.
I lived through the cultural introduction of money to a people that had no historical concept of how to use this system.
There were no wallets, bank accounts or bookkeeping 101 passed along from parent to child.
There were no bank cards, no credit histories, no concept of worth or value, no stock market, derivatives or flex rates.
The results were somewhat a disaster. And then again a bit comical.
Car dealers offered contracts and people signed with an X and made up information.
People drove off in new trucks that the dealers never saw again because the repo men had no way of finding a buyer that had no address.
The rez is a very easy place in which to get lost.
My observation here is that when the reverse process occurs. People will not know how to deal with it.
It will happen eventually but let’s not assume we know how it will happen completely.

In my conversation my counterpart introduced that we would be moving into trade and barter.
I said knowingly, oh really?
The explanation that followed needs to be said out loud.
I was told that the Indians used glass beads.
Stop the gravy train.
This person apparently knows nothing about history or my background so grace is hereby granted.
But….
Let it be highlighted here.
WORST TRADE EVER!
This opens a whole other bag of worms but let me just summarize this idea with a comment and a pocket full of patience.

Knowing how to conduct ourselves and our business will be difficult.
The system we have been using is pure usury and yet it is so ingrained that we will have difficulty leaving it.
Simply moving into trade and barter is not enough.
There needs to be honesty and integrity.
There cannot be any more trade of lands filled with valuable resources, clean water and rivers loaded with salmon, for a few shiny beads.
And no more driving away with shiny new trucks exchanged for a false name.

I believe the developers of the new system understand this and are checking the pulse of every nation.
We need to be responsible as a society in order to be successful with the least amount of disruption.
Oh sure, we can have more big brother overreach as the QFS is based upon.
But consider this: it is not about how much money you have.
It is about how much value your word carries.
Are you good to your word?
Do you speak with honor?
If you are and you do, you will prosper.



I am a firm believer in trade, farmers markets and small local businesses.
It is about making a fair deal no matter what you are using for exchange.
Be it chickens, eggs, butter, soap or silver.
Be it coins, paper or products.
These are the tangible elements.
Without integrity none of these survive.

Love as the currency; your word is the delivery.
In my humble observation this will be the new financial system.
I wish us all the best of luck in this transition.

Digger 2023