Monetary Reform - Need and Method (excerpt 2 (1941)) con't

bearing in mind the tremendous all-embracing importance of money in our National Economy, it is incredible that the complete control of its issue and volume should be vested in privately-owned, profit-taking institutions -- the universal "licence to live" has been made the exclusive prerogative of privately-owned banks, and utilized solely for profit-making purposes, with little or no regard for the needs of the people or the good of the country -- consider well the POWER this confers upon them - a power actually superior, in matters economic, to the power of Government - the entire situation is preposterous and constitutes a scathing indictment of our collective intelligence, because from this situation has been born the accursed paradox of, "poverty amidst plenty" - financial poverty amidst potential physical abundance -- the present system is impractical because it produces unpayable debt - it is established that all money is created by banks - it all bears interest; therefore, the public is supposed to pay back to the banks a greater sum of money than was originally created and issued by the banks, (the principal, plus the interest) - obviously an impossibility as the public cannot manufacture money - actually, what really happens is that the public (as a whole) goes back to the banks to borrow more money to pay the interest on the money they borrowed before [control, continuity] - it is a never ending vicious spiral that piles up unthinkable figures of utterly unpayable debt, (as witness our national debt today). -- [Monetary Reform - Need and Method (excerpt 2 (1941)) based on/excerpt: British-Israel-World Federation (Canada) Pamphlet, September, 1941]