Henry Ford Sr was reported to have once said: "It is well enough that people of the nation do not understand our banking and monetary system, for if they did, I believe there would be a revolution before tomorrow morning."
Perhaps the greatest moral failure of the American experiment has been its failure to lead the world in reforming monetary policy, in order to bring an end to systemic poverty and create uniform wealth building within economies.
There is no question as to whether or not America has the power to end poverty and start paying down its debts today, it does. Our political leaders simply need to reshape the way Federal Reserve Banks are allowed to create new money in the world - the way the money supply is expanded.
Specifically, Central Banks around the world must be required to dispense a 'debt free' Universal Basic Income as its primary tool for managing the money supply - rather than relying entirely on fractional reserve banking as the means for creating new money.
This would require an act of congress here in America. No small task, since a majority in congress have no 'real' understanding of current monetary policy and rely on credit card and pay day loan lobbyists, as well as other financial interests, to provide them with their understanding. (Those financial institutions whose greed would be adversely affected by the implementation of a Universal Basic Income)
To progressive thinking economists today It has become preposterous to believe Reserve Banks can adequately manage economies and create access to wealth for everyone simply by giving banks cash made from thin air (Quantitative Easing) along with setting interest and reserve amounts required to lend money.
When all 'new money' is created by incurring 'new debt' (as with the current system) and no 'debt free money' is ever created to pay down that debt, the system quite logically will eventually collapse under its own weight of unpaid debt - culminating, theoretically, with the absurd situation of there not being enough debt free money in existence to pay the interest on all existing debt. This is why progressive economists have begun to call for 'helicopter money' - money dropped out of the sky on the masses. (Quantitative Easing for the masses) The nuclear option.
Current monetary policy has become parasitic malware, which essentially transfers all newly created wealth to the top one percent of the world's population. That newly created wealth is typically then invested in the stock market, which artificially inflates the value of stock, which inevitably leads to market crashes and the destruction of wealth throughout the economy.
Therefore, a Universal Basic Income must be provided at no cost to every adult citizen, as a civil right, through new monetary policy, in order to counteract the defects of the current system.
A Universal Basic income given freely to all citizens through monetary policy reform is the perfect vehicle for breaking the cycle of wealth theft perpetrated by the current system and for creating universal sustainable wealth building for everyone - not just financial elites.
A Universal Basic Income mandated through 'new money creation' addresses the absurdity of the old system by providing the means to pay down existing debt while raising every 'working American' out of poverty and into the middle class while ensuring the basic necessities for the destitute and downtrodden. The benefits of providing a Universal Basic Income to the world in this fashion are beyond counting.
Opponents of UBI offer various absurd arguments against its implementation. The most absurd is the "We can't afford it" argument. This particular argument denies the nature of the money creation process altogether and simply assumes UBI would need to be paid for through new taxation. This argument also ignores the power to pay down existing debt through new money creation dispersed through a UBI.
The second absurd argument against UBI is the claim that people will stop working if a UBI is implemented. This argument is nothing more than a crass insult to the working class, since surveys show that 90 percent of the American work force say they would remain working if a UBI were implemented in order to better their status in life. This false argument is derived primarily from a failure to understand why America's welfare programs of the past trapped many fearful people in generational poverty. If you start working - you lose your welfare benefits - idiocy at its worst. There must be no work requirements for a UBI to be successful and inspire people to progress financially in life.
The last and least potent of the arguments against UBI is the hyper-inflation argument, the uninformed belief that introducing large sums of money into the economy will necessarily create hyper-inflation. All modern day instances of hyper-inflation were the direct result of currency manipulation by financial institutions instigated to topple the governments in power, rather than normal inflationary forces. The argument is absurd.
Not offering a substantial, robust Universal Basic Income is what's wrong with the world today.