Producer,
The reason there is a glut of oil is because there is a shortage of cheap oil.
The highest price the economy can afford is lower than the well head
price price of the more expensive (tight shale) oil.

So demand has reduced to match the affordable mix for those who MUST
pay a little more. The rest economise.

As I said Goldilocks is dead !

Shadow Minister, you said:

“Money was invented thousands of years ago to overcome the serious deficiencies of the barter system. Getting rid of money is simply the stupidest idea I have ever heard, and would reduce everyone to penury.”

I said:

“I argue that money is the driver of inequity and disproportionality because it enables non-productive individuals to accrue a disproportionate share of productive wealth. A barter system which is based on productivity could not do this.”

Even with a very long bow one could not claim I said we should get rid of money and return to a system of barter, I agree this would be stupid. The barter system would not reduce everyone to penury as you claim, because the productive elements would do well, as they produce real things.

What I did say clearly was; “that money is the driver of inequity and disproportionality because it enables non-productive individuals to accrue a disproportionate share of productive wealth.” I then made the statement that this phenomenon could not occur within the barter system.

You would have to agree that the monetary system has in its current metamorphose, managed to reduce 80% of the global population to penury with less than 1% enjoying obese parasitic wealth.

I put to you that there is a strong case for a revaluation of the current monetary system in order to enable proportionate equity that favours the wealth makers, not the wealth takers.

Producer is one of the few who questions this system and seeks a better one.See the story behind 'The Wonderful Wizard of Oz'. Best doco on money ever.http://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=secret%20of%20oz&FORM=VIRE1#view=detail&mid=04310695EF508536889A04310695EF508536889A

No Arjay, Producer thinks the economy is working under the old rules.
That is why he thinks the distribution between rich and poor has gone wrong. He is not on his own, most economists have not realised that it
all changed when expensive oil replaced declining cheap crude oil.

He is right in that the distribution has gone wrong but not for the
reasons he thinks.
The US, where these things usually start earlier than elsewhere, is
suffering the problem of the middle class becoming poor.
I believe we are now experiencing that here, with rising housing
costs and salaries staying fairly static.
We are a bit like the frog in the sausepan, we really
have not yet noticed the rising temperature.

It is failing because GDP is falling and energy costs are eating into
the residual funds.

Producer,

The reality is that in the 50s nearly 70% of the world lived on the poverty line, whereas today that is less than 30%.

This is due to scientific progress and the growth of democracy.

The phenomenon of unequal control of profit is just as easy or more so under the barter system and the feudal system it promotes.

Shadow minister no doubt you have been following the Hans Rosling statistics which clearly support your claim. But you forget there are damn lies and statistics. Absolute poverty has fallen and will no doubt continue to fall. However, relative poverty is increasing and continuing to increase. For Australia we can trace this back to the seventies - up to about 1974 the gap between rich and poor remained much the same - we all improved at much the same rate. Since 1974 the majority of Australians have relied on increasing their debt to maintain their lifestyle. So we get the illusion of being well off but it takes just a tiny hiccup and we discover how illusory our lifestyle is.