The world is experiencing a period of deep social, environmental and economic change. This is an exciting time of transition during which the structural flaws inherent in our century-old industrial society have become blatantly apparent.
New Zealand is not immune to these changes, displaying evidence of significant shifts in family life, in business, in technology, culture and values. We are experiencing a major transformation in the way we work, play, think, and live.
New Zealand’s, and the world’s, leaders are grappling and fumbling with the issues thrown up by such fundamental shifts, and many nations are looking to the United States to show the vision and leadership essential to making a smooth transition to a 21st century society. Unfortunately, the actions taken by the US in response to the crisis of the financial system on which last century’s “prosperity” was based, indicate a lack of vision and leadership by that country’s leaders. Instead of rising to meet the challenge with imagination and courage, the US government has fought tooth and nail to prop up the failing debt-based financial system. After all, it is a system which has generated unimaginable wealth for a lucky few. By 25 September 2009, stimulus pledges amounted to a terrifying US$ 11.6 trillion. The injection of such vast sums over a 19 month period must surely be the most rapid expansion of debt ever. This course of action will not prove to have been a recipe for success.
Contrary to recent claims that the recession is over, the Bank of International Settlements, which is the central bank for the world’s central banks, issued a warning in its quarterly statement released last month that the economic recovery is an illusion and we can expect future crises. No surprises there. Ultimately, efforts to restore and preserve an unworkable past represent a rear-guard action which will only serve to postpone the inevitable collapse of an unsustainable system.
The global financial crisis offers a real opportunity for creative restructuring. The case for introducing monetary reform has never been stronger because it is increasingly understood, worldwide, that nothing can truly change until the financial system is changed. There exists an understanding that it is socially and morally unacceptable for any sovereign nation’s financial system to be owned and operated by overseas interests. Democrats for Social Credit advocates public ownership of the institution with the power to create, issue and cancel New Zealand’s money supply, in the public interest, to serve the public good, as the only sustainable way to deliver economic democracy, and social and environmental justice.
Social credit monetary reformers in New Zealand can, and must, lead the way towards the establishment of a vibrant, diverse, dynamic, robustly democratic society. The DSC is a distinctive political presence with recognisable alternatives and clearly-expressed solutions. New Zealand’s future is ours to invent.
‘The agony of letting go of the past is outweighed by the promise of the future’ – Alvin Toffler