A reflection on Ann Pettifor’s Just Money (Chapter 1+2)

A reflection on Ann Pettifor’s Just Money (Chapter 1+2)

I have previously encountered the above named book in one of my other modules. It was then that I properly understood this idea of money being a social construct and based on trust. I had previously encountered this idea when it was vaguely explained to me that ‘paper money’ came as a form of receipts for the gold which people owned but gave to someone for safekeeping. The receipt would play a sort of ‘tangible’ promise role that one owned a certain amount gold. Except that those who were trusted to keep the gold and be honest realised that they could give out more receipt than they had in gold.

I greatly appreciate Ann Pettifor’s attempts at explaining how money is not a commodity, and how it’s problematic to be thought of as such … Money is not for which we exchange but rather by which we exchange.

At this point I feel that I’m summarising what Ann said in the first 2 chapters and not exactly reflecting on what she said, I will move on…

The part which made me really think was the mention of the possibility of a fair and just world if the financial (monetary based) system that is currently in place were to be run and monitored by institutions which were widely recognised as fair and just (see 1, 2 for Ann’s phrasing). Reflecting on this; I expected a little less naive (is that the right word) view on how the system could be made right. My concern with this is that you can’t make right something that is made from wrong… The whole idea of monetary based system is wrong. Economies, I feel should not be based on stuff that can ‘be generated through a few key strokes’. Even if I were to put this fundamental flaw aside, and consider what Ann says in 1+2; What’s stoping someone from coming in to power and either pursuing their own interests or being bullied into making decisions that harm the common good.

I would try to argue that a “resource” based economic is the solution. As the name suggests, it is  system based the resources a state has, and the worth of these recourses to other states.

1-This can only be achieved through regulation based on society's widely shared values of honest and fair dealing, and on the institutions based on those values. (p.22)

2-But if the banking svstem is properly managed by public authorities there need never be a shortage of finance … (p.29)