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Today’s system-relevant addictions

Shortly after the crash of the Wall Street in New York (1929) Bertolt Brecht found the right words in the Three penny Opera: “What is robbing a bank compared to founding one?” Thus, he demonstrated visionary instinct. Because of the government debt, every Germans have a calculated debt with the financial system of more than 29,000 €; every US citizen even more than $ 57,000 – inclusive all babies and retirees. At the same time, some people call the classical financial institutes as system-relevant and support therefore the banks. As a result, their losses are continuously socialized and profits privatized. With it the moment is reached to take a look at today’s grown system-relevant addictions.

Just as a drug dealer makes the junkie slowly addicted to the drug, the banks have built up over a long time the following system. The result is the same as in a casino – the bank always wins.

  • Pay little interest and take lots of interest
    Already the easy-to-understand idea of charging interest rates for lending money required early on the regulation of the money business in order to prevent usury – sometimes better, sometimes worse. At the same time the banks took over the service of securely storing the money that one did not need, paid for it a certain interest rate and lent the money for a higher interest rate to borrowers, who needed money. The differences created the profits of the bank. The management of this exchange is systemically relevant – the neutral broker creates more occasions.
  • Encourage consumption on tick
    Loans served to finance kingdoms, states, and eventually businesses. With the emergence of the consumer society, there discovered also the consumer loans: for housebuilding, car purchasing, and holiday trips and meanwhile for all areas of consumption. By enabling such loans, the banks encouraged the economy that in turn created jobs. This offer of consumer loans has system relevancy- at least in a world of consumption.
  • Fees on everything (account, credit cards, balance, transactions)
    In addition to the interest rates, the banks eventually discovered the approach of getting paid for any service. An overseas transfer has always cost a lot (additionally to the rate of the currency exchange). In the meantime, the banks start charging all areas: for all kinds of money cards as well as account, transfer fees inclusively for personal transfers at a bank counter. Particularly clever is the idea to offer customers a membership card that provides some of the old services for free – of course with some pre-requisites beneficial for the bank. Since regular payments (like the rent, the telephone bill, and loans) are transacted via the own bank account, the bank strengthens as a middleman its system relevancy.
  • Reduce and possibly eliminate cash
    Since banks offer less and less “physical” services, it becomes important to close the back door of an account, the cash. For this purpose it will be abolished successively. Without cash, the values only exist in the banks’ data storages. Thus, after the abandonment of the gold standard, we reach the zenith of the virtualization of the financial values. Our wealth is now subject to fluctuating courses, which are constantly changing. So, if the cash itself has no more material value, you can also get rid of it. As soon as only the data storages of the banks represent our monetary possessions, the last person should be clear about the system relevancy of banks.
  • What is still to come?
    In the future, ALL money actions will be chargeable. The highest fees will be asked by those banks that can not change themselves as fast as the other players. The Internet enables new business models – from Linden Dollars, Bitcoins to microfinancing, crowdfunding or private loans. These transformations mean the end for classical financial institutes, which believe that they can finance themselves through excessive fees and do not adapt to the new circumstances. The last convulsions will demand a lot of the system. This means for the customers to find a way out of the systematically defined dependency from the banks – the account, the saving interests, the standing orders, the transfers, the money investments, etc. The insistence on the apparent system relevancy will shift the system – away from the classical financial institutions.

Bottom line: For millennia’s, the economy worked without system-relevant banks. Today, the banks are in a deadlock. The current efforts to find new income sources will exploit the meanwhile established dependencies, until the customers get broken. The credit system, the consumption, the services, the cash, and all that is called system-relevant, will be replaced by new providers with new business models, like microfinancing, crowdfunding or private loans. The basis of the economy, the money that is only based on faith, will be replaced by new means of payment – no matter how, main thing is getting out of the system-relevant addictions of today.

Flat rate for the sensory world?

Our sensory perception takes place in each individual mind. Nevertheless, we all have apparently similar impressions. Enterprises make efforts for their advantage, in order to protect these fundamental feelings. The core worth protection aspect is the design that is originally developed by the enterprises – the font, the logo, the product, the packaging. However, the consumer world nowadays is more defined by the brand management than by differences in the quality of the products. For this reason the price is calculated with the manufacturing costs plus the brand value. Do colors of the standardized color palettes now become also worth of protecting? Are natural sounds worth a license? Can anybody protect our gestures and our haptics? Is the smell of a perfume worth of protecting? Can the taste of an apple be covered by a use license? In the course of the economization of all areas of everyday life, perhaps we are close to the next stage – a flat rate for the sensory world.

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Originally the trademark protection was limited to the original products. Step-by-step enterprises aim with patents and the brand protection for also protecting parts of our sense world.

  • With open eyes
    The actual image that is created by an image designer, is already protected since a long time. In the mean time similar images are already a breach of the rights of an author. Even colors of the natural spectrum are treated as property of an enterprise – examples are Milka purple, Aral blue or Tele magenta of Telekom.
  • With open ears
    The original recording of a sound painter is already protected. In case of music, even the concept of a piece of music, the composition, is protected until 70 years after the death of the composer. How long will it take to license not only the original recordings, but also general sounds – the cry of any bird or the well-known noise of the sea? A good example is the heart beat at the end of an Audi advertisement „Duk du k “or the tone of the German Telekom „Da Da Da Dee Da “.
  • With conscious touch
    The original object with its surface and its material and the associated program code are protected. However, as soon as we get similar stimuli, the law cases begin. If Apple tries to protect its sliding gesture for unlocking the smartphone. Or Verizon would like to forbid a touch screen Haptics to others. Will the feeling of natural surfaces, like leathers, wood or the skin of a horse, become trademarked?
  • With critical tongue
    The genuine recipe of food or beverage is already protected. But as soon as someone is able to release similar stimuli, the question arises, whether this is permitted. In the end, we will ask ourselves, whether the taste of an apple can be protected.
  • With sensitive nose
    The mixture that produces a certain smell, results from the proportion and the quality of the individual components. Such elements may be used today only after appropriate licensing. Let us however imagine someone is able to create the same effect as of Chanel No.5 with completely different ingredients. And what about the many natural scents – the smell of lemons, roses, flowers or hay? Are these worth a protection?

As long as nobody appeals, the enterprises can slowly occupy these areas of our perception in order to own and to demand fees for their perception any time in the future. With water, we already have this problem. The exploitation of water at the upper flows of the rivers leads already to crises in the further course of the river. This could lead one day also to the fact that the air that we breathe or a sunrise has to be paid.

Bottom line: The economization of more and more areas of everyday life limits the common. This development could only be stopped at an early stage. Perhaps now is the moment to resist a flat rate for our sensory world.