The 'first loan' – how humanity got enslaved.

The money story everyone should know.

Nov 01, 2024

A story about two people and a small loan of money. A story so simple, that it could create a whisper that changes the world.

For me, this story is close to the root of what got humanity into the state it is in today.

The question is, does history repeat for the next civilization? or do we learn from this and create something new?

I encourage you to read it and reflect.

If you are called to do so, share this email, tell the story to people, and discuss its merits and its faults. Because ideas and their discussion, are essential to our future.

Money is about your time, your energy, your creativity, your potential, your purpose. It’s about your very life.

The source
The story was told to me by person called Salvatore. He analyzed and researched banking for over a decade, and this is his insight. He wishes to remain anonymous.

I share it with his permission.

Definitions for clarity
We are focusing on the Finance System: banks and money. Not economics, which is more the surface level politics and ideology. The Finance System, underpins various economic ideologies.

Understand, a loan is ‘yours to someone’ for a period of time. To moral, ethical people – a ‘loan’ implies obligation.

And please give me some latitude in my example below. It is to illustrate the point as simply as I can, not for exact transactional values.

‘The first loan’

Go back in time, to when we traded (bartered) cacao beans, or metals, or some physical item as a form of ‘currency’, to exchange for another item that we want.

e.g. a handful of cacao for some corn, or two hand fulls for steak, or a piece of gold for a horse and cart.

—

We have two characters, Cris and Pat.

Pat has an idea for a business and needs multiple items from many different people around town. Pat does not have enough cacao and gold pieces, to get all the things he needs. (And it also gets confusing for Pat, with multiple items of ‘currency’ to calculate and trade around town.)

Pat casually tells Cris about the dilemma, the desire to start the business, and the need for more cacao and gold, to get the things for the business work. Pat is stuck.

Cris knows everyone in town, is influential, and owns several businesses, selling various goods and services. And Cris, also happens to be a printer.

—

Cris thinks of an idea.

Cris goes off and prints a set of paper notes, all the same size, all with a very specific and detailed design. Each piece of paper has the number, 100 on it.

It looks beautiful, regal, and has a sense of ‘authority’ to it. In reality, it is paper with a nice design, and in of itself, is worthless.

Cris, finds Pat and says: “Hey Pat, here are 10 notes, it’s called ‘money’ and it’s worth 1,000 dollars.”

Pat is a little confused.

Cris explains, that all the businesses he (Cris) owns will accept this ‘money’ instead of cacao and gold, and that he (Cris) will convince other businesses in town to also accept the ‘money’. Guaranteed.

In fact, as long as the money is measured in ‘dollars’ and has Cris’s seal of approval on it, he can barter this ‘money’ with anybody in the entire country.

Pat is still a little confused.

Cris further explains, that he is ‘loaning’ this money to Pat, so that Pat can get all the items he needs to start the business.

—

Pat ‘gets it’ (so Pat thinks), and is super excited.

Cris says, “now this loan of 1000 dollars is worth a lot, and all I ask is that you pay it back within one year, and for my risk in loaning you so much money, all I ask for is 10% interest. So in one year, you will owe me 1100 dollars.”

Cris is very clear that Pat doesn’t have to pay him back in anything other than dollars. No need to pay some or all of it back in gold or cacao beans. All he asks is that he’s paid back in dollars... and only dollars.

Pat contemplates it, figures the business will be up and doing well, and it will not be a problem to pay it back with 10% interest.

Pat is so grateful to Cris. Pat accepts ‘the loan’, says “thank you”, and they go on their way.

That was the story of the first loan, and it explains how humanity has been enslaved by a Ponzi scheme, called finance and banking.

Can you see why? Take a minute and reflect on the situation presented above.

Do you see it? Do you see the trap and how it leads to enslavement?

When you’re ready, scroll down for a brief explanation.

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The trap, and the implications.

The above story:

Money was ‘created’ for the first time.
$1000 was created / printed on paper
$1000 is ALL the money denominated in dollars that exists in the entire world
That $1000 was loaned, with extra interest to be paid
Pat has that $1000 cash
Pat has to repay the loan, plus interest
- i.e. Pat owes $1100 ($1000 loan + $100 interest)

The trap is this:

If only $1000 exists, where is Pat ever going to find $1100?

i.e. Pat will NEVER be able to find the extra $100 interest.
- Why? Because the interest portion of the loan was never created – only the original ‘principal’ amount of $1000 was created!
As it stands, Pat will be looking for $100 forever. He will never find it. Pat will forever be in debt.
- Pat is enslaved by… both a contract and the quiet anxiety of knowing, he is caught in a trap. His spirit knows it. We all do, but we can’t quite figure it out, can’t fully put our finger on it, why or how it happened. But we sense something bad just happened, and we are caught in it.

Liquidity!

“But that is not how it works” I hear you say. “They print more money and then there is ‘liquidity’ in the market, and then Pat can easily find the extra $100 interest.”

Ok, so lets play that out.

The second, third, fourth,… to… the one hundredth loan.

Let’s even say Pat has second thoughts. These dollars and the money system is new. Maybe Pat even realizes that if he’s the only one with dollars, then he won’t be able to come up with more than $1000, and he’ll be $100 short.

So to appease Pat, Cris now calls himself a ‘banker’ and makes another loan for $1000 and 10% interest. (i.e. he prints more pieces of paper, calls it ‘money’ and says “this is worth $1000”)

—

Loan 1: $1000 was printed + $100 extra owed in interest
Loan 2: $1000 was printed + $100 extra owed in interest
Total: $2000 printed + $200 extra owed in interest.

$2000 in printed money exists, and $2200 is owed to the Cris the banker.

—

The extra $200 in interest can never be found, because it does not exist.

Lets keep going, so you see the bigger trap.

—

Lets pretend things are going great. More people want loans, there are more ‘bankers’ and more loans are given with interest to be paid, eventually there are 100 loans of these dollars.

100 Loans: $100,000 printed + $10,000 extra owed in interest

$100,000 in printed money, and $110,000 owed to the bankers.

The extra $10,000 interest can never be found
But…

In this situation, with more and more physical cash flowing around the town, it looks like there is plenty of cash available.

In fact, especially early on in this ‘dollar frenzy,’ the first ‘borrowers’ are successful in repaying their loans – and interest.

Word spreads – This money system, representing dollars, really works!

Everybody accepts them (dollars), they make bartering a lot easier, and it’s easy to ‘make money’ and repay the terrific bankers who create these wonderful dollars.

And again…

If you collected all the cash in existence at this time, it comes to $100,000.
And there is an extra $10,000 in interest to be re-payed.
That $10,000 interest can NEVER be found, because it does not exist.

Under these circumstances, society as a whole, will never be able to repay their loans, even though some people are able to do so.

And the ‘successful’ borrowers will blame the failed borrowers lack of business savvy for their failure.

They’ll never think that maybe there’s a problem with the system itself.

But there is PROFIT!

People have said to me… “but profit will take care of the gap.”

Profit is simply a term for reallocation.

There is no such thing as ‘profit creating money’.

For example:
If your business sells $1000 of goods and services, and all your costs come to $600, you might then say you have $400 profit. But it is still $1000. No new money was created. $1000 just moved from one set of hands, to another set of hands.

A different example:
If you use your finger to paint a picture in the sand, then there is zero cost. So lets say, someone pays you $100 for that picture, and you now have $100.

You might say you made $100 profit on that picture in the sand. Which for accounting purposes might be true. However, no new money was created.

What happened was that $100 just moved from one set of hands to another. There is still only $100.

Implications

The implications for this are many and flow into all corners of society. It is all worthy of a detailed discussion, with friends, family and community. Then eventually with governments.

My suggestion is that before reading the short list of implications below, just step back to look at your life and even society as a whole. What do you see?

For example, step back and imagine you’re looking at this whole society in some form of big fish tank or cage. As best you can, objectively look at the whole lot, over a period of time and imagine what happens when all the people in this tank / cage are all chasing the ‘money interest’ that does not exist.

—

This is what you might see:

Its like musical chairs. Some will get a seat, and some wont.
- As long as money is ‘loaned’ into existence, with interest, people and entire societies will be part of what you might call the banking Ponzi scheme. i.e. the illusion has to get maintained by more and more money being loaned. There will be some that escape, and some that lose everything.
  - The people that lose, are those in debt.
The Ponzi scheme requires ‘growth’ to keep it fueled and hidden.
The vast majority of people working in retail banks, investment banks and finance, don’t see this. They don’t know. Don’t blame them. The average person doesn’t know either.
The finance and banking system is kept deliberately complicated, to confuse people and keep them lost in complexity, and to keep the power with the very few that know, who are right at the top.
When growth stalls, the pyramid collapses a bit and gets ‘reset’.
- every financial crisis is a re-set of this scheme.
Banks always seem happy to loan people money that can’t afford it.
- Even when you’re ‘credit score’ is bad, they will loan you money.
  - ‘Credit card‘ – Another deceptive term, as part of the illusion and trap. It is really a ‘debt card’.
Society is driven by growth and efficiency, to find that interest, that can never be found.
- It is anxiety inducing that makes people busy, busy, busy.
  - People are so stressed by it, they don’t have the time or space to pause, reflect on whats really going on, and step off the treadmill.
  - That stress and anxiety, induces people to buy, eat and numb which leads to overextension, sickness, meds, etc... which leads to more stress, and so it continues until their entire life is extracted from them. Their spirit has been drained. I personally think, it is all by design.
Over the years, buildings have become more efficient to build, uglier, and faster to be torn down. Everything has become more disposable. Again, it is a byproduct of ‘always growth’ to feed the Ponzi scheme, to find that interest (which can never be found).
- Buildings once lasted hundreds of years and were beautiful. What happened to all of that? The skill, the art, the craftsmanship? and why?
Wars have been fought to bring a sovereign nations banks (that were once underwritten by Oil) into the same banking scheme.

In short, we have been enslaved for centuries. (Usury is a sin in the Bible).

I’m sure there are other implications – please feel free to add to the comments.

A related article:

How to defeat The Matrix, and still thrive. here

Life Beyond Thinking®

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