Money Is Going to Fundamentally Alter in the Next 2 Years: Inclusion, Access & Equality Are Coming
Jack Dorsey has figured out the biggest problem with money and he’s fixing it.
The biggest problem with money is it’s racist.
Society goes crazy over human rights, privacy, a virus, and recessions. Yet, most people don’t say boo about the fact the money system that is currently in use deliberately excludes entire races. It blows my mind.
I had no idea about the problem with money when I worked in a bank. It was only when I started trying to serve customers in different parts of Asia Pacific that my eyes were opened.
31% of the world doesn’t have access to a bank account. 59% of the world has access to the internet.
Many poorer countries use their mobile phone account as a way to receive money. The world’s banking system in technologically advanced countries is known as Swift.
Swift enables racism.
Powerful nations can screw over smaller emerging nations by denying them access to Swift, thus denying them access to the current money system. If your country isn’t liked it can be switched off like a light, by blocking access to Swift. It has been happening for years. Most people have no idea.
While rich countries like America and Australia (where I live) are complaining about the crunchiness of their beer-battered bread crumbs, many parts of the world dream of having a bank account to receive money from anybody they like, for work they do.
I often tell people how lucky I feel to have access to PayPal. Without money services like PayPal there would be no eCommerce, no online business, and no super cool tech entrepreneurs.
Writing online and earning royalties the way I do would be impossible. I get emails every day from writers who want to write on the three platforms I write on and get paid. They can’t. Their country name isn’t on the list.
Money and the internet enable society, yet so many are still quietly excluded.
Access to a bank account that can receive money equals equality.
Money must do the following:
- Be inclusive to all races.
- Be accessible.
- Promote equality.
Money made no sense to me until I met a guy named Chinedu on LinkedIn. Chinedu lives in Nigeria, West Africa. Like me, he’s a writer.
A few years back we were chatting about writing life and the business side. Chinedu has a number of writing clients all around the world. I was proud to hear how he went from being broke and rejected from a record number of jobs, to starting a writing business and feeding his family.
He told me how much money he made. I was blown away. I assumed he was on his way to buying his first home.
Then he said “you don’t understand. I don’t get to keep all my money.”
Me: “What do you mean you don’t get to keep all your money. You earned it, right?”
“Yes…but when I go to collect my money it’s a different story.”
Nigeria is one of the largest unbanked nations in the world. Getting access to your money is a pain in the ass. My friend explained to me how when you walk into your financial institution to get the money you earned, a large percentage of it is taken away from you.
If you complain, they freeze your funds. The issues for my friend when accessing digital money are bribery, fraud, deception, and fee disclosure & transparency. Imagine every financial transaction is a negotiation with a drug lord. That’s what it’s like to be my friend in Nigeria.
Everyone takes a clip of his money. He gets the scraps.
It’s not how much money you earn; it’s how much you take home.
A Quiet Genius Enters the Room
Money needs to change and it is. Access to the internet and new ways to receive money are required.
Twitter co-founder, Jack Dorsey, is a quiet genius who intends to help solve the issue. In 2019 he announced his Africa plans. Jack owns a financial services company called Square.
Rather than taking the dinosaur swift system and trying to make it not see the color of one’s skin, Jack and his company are using cryptocurrencies like bitcoin to solve the problem.
Anybody with a mobile phone can access cryptocurrency and Jack understood how it could help those who don’t have access to banking, early on.
While the traditional financial services companies are doing nothing about making access to money equal, Jack is building the future. Technologies like Ethereum are helping to build the future financial plumbing that will power the movement of money, using mobile phones, to anybody in the world.
Credit card issuer, Visa, has announced they will be connecting to Ethereum and enabling their 60 million merchants to access USDC. (A digital currency referred to as a stable coin, which acts like real-world US dollars).
The future of money is being built in front of your eyes. It’s worth paying attention so you can ensure it works for you, not against you.
A Further Problem with Money
Even if you have access to your money via a bank account there is still an even bigger problem: money printing.
Governments are creating currency out of thin air to fund the giant hole left behind by the global pandemic. It’s a form of indirect tax, and it’s also helping paper over the cracks of the 2008 recession for a bit longer.
You might think free money isn’t a problem. Who cares? You should.
When money is printed out of thin air it goes to the ultra-wealthy first. They then put the money into assets like stocks. Those who own the assets have them increase in value. Those who don’t have any (or a lot) of assets become poorer. Money printing creates inequality.
If this is the first time you are hearing of this problem, then think back to 2008. Do you remember the “Occupy Wall Street” movement/protests? Well that enormous movement started because the US banks were given a nice juicy bailout using free money that was mostly printed out of thin air or paid for by taxpayer dollars. In the 2008 recession the fat cats got richer and the Average Joe/Joanne got a lot poorer.
A broken money system is what enables wealth inequality to occur freely, often behind closed doors. The people who suffer the most are the minorities, as demonstrated below by using the US as an example.
Without a financial education a lot of these issues continue to occur. It’s why I give a damn about spreading simple financial education.
The Current Financial System Is Screwed (And It’s Being Rebuilt)
Right in front of your very eyes the world of money is changing.
The International Monetary Fund has called for another Bretton Woods Moment. This just means they are calling for a global reset of how money works. Pretty interesting, huh?
The most influential investor in history, Warren Buffett, nailed it when he said this: “The [US] debt isn’t going to be repaid; it’s going to be refunded.”
There is a movement going on, led by quiet geniuses like Jack Dorsey. In the next two years we will have a different money system. There will be digital currencies storing the wealth of nations. Anybody in the world will be able to receive money using their mobile phone.
What the Transformation of Money Means for You?
- Access to new countries.
- The ability to transact with different people.
- The opportunity to meet new people.
- A fixed supply of money.
- Inflation controlled and set by code, not old dudes in suits.
You work your butt off for money so it pays to understand how it is fundamentally changing. Money is a store of your time that you give up to do work. You spend less time with your family because of money. Having the value of your money eroded away is like stealing family time from you which you can never get back.
Humanity can’t significantly progress until we fix the fundamental issues with money. The good news is that money is changing for the better.
Final Thought
The world will be a better place when money-racism is eliminated. Everybody should be able to create value, and send and receive money. The term “unbanked” should die a horrible death.
The money supply should be controlled by code, not greed-driven humans.
Money will be inclusive, accessible, and promote equality in the near future. Until then, understand the change to your money and support the businesses that are altering the course of humanity through money.
A bank account is a privilege. It should be a human right for all.
This article is for informational purposes only, it should not be considered Financial or Legal Advice. Consult a financial professional before making any major financial decisions.
