Many of us still neither realise nor appreciate that the arrival of the internet and the functionality that it has offered us, has never been governed or regulated by governments and those that govern on our behalf in the way that it should.

The internet and the online world that is developing with it is and always has been a two-edged sword. It has brought as many downsides or dark aspects with it as the positive or good aspects that it has given us – and potentially a lot more.

Many of the social problems that we experience today can be attributed to behaviour that was deemed acceptable online before it then found its way into the real world or the mainstream.

From early on, people and businesses using the internet – whatever the purpose may have been – didn’t recognise the same social etiquette, politeness, manners, morals, standards or behaviour that we considered to be the cultural norm in ‘real life’ outside. Principally, because there was never any real system of governance in place and so none of those same rules appeared to exist.

The rate of behavioral change in social conditioning from locality to online has been confined to within what might only be one generation. Young people today take all of their social cues and conditioning from the world online, rather than from the young people, adults and community figures around them. The effect has been massively profound.

Today, upcoming generations and those above them who follow common narratives take these social cues into ‘real life’ without realising the parallel universe or pretend world that the internet or online world offers, is dictating or rather destroying rules and the remaining values for life. It is helping to dehumanise every aspect of life that we experience as it does.

Like all technology, the value of the internet and all things online cannot be understated – so long as it is used and operated within a framework, with rules and restrictions that are always based upon and maintained for the common good.

Artificial Intelligence (AI) and all online technology will only be bad for humanity if it is programmed, created and driven by motives and designs that are in the interests of the few, rather than being in the best interests of all mankind.

The internet is a tool. It must be respected as such. It must always reflect or mirror the rules and practices that we use in real life, rather than having the ability to completely reset life and every agenda, as it and all the technology that feeds into it, does right now.

It would be foolish to not recognise the value of the advances in technology that humanity has experienced throughout the industrial age.

They have increased exponentially as we have picked up speed through the digital age, with advances that we have now, already providing us with the opportunity to look at life in a very different way.

Technology has always had the power to do much good. To improve life in many ways and to remove all kinds of risks from the workplace for everyone who may be involved.

However, technology and its development has also been increasingly abused, with advancements being used by industry to increase profits and as being seen as a way to reduce the numbers of people employed to work, without any due regard for the impact on individuals, communities, entire countries and the industries that are involved.

It is true that no business or organisation exists purely to employ people. Employment and the need to employ people to carry out any function that the development of a business or organisation and the products or services that it delivers has and always should be a happy consequence of organic growth from the provision of goods and services of a quality that are essential to life and which people and communities genuinely need.

Profit should always be a happy consequence of good delivery and management. Never the primary aim.

The power of good in technology rests in its ability to be used to improve and enhance working practices and quality of life. Not to make work or employment unnecessary for anyone, or to be used as a functional device to control or restrict people or humanity in any way.

There are and always will be negative consequences when technology of any kind is used and harnessed for purposes other than to improve life or working conditions.

Those who lose out will always lose out badly. Whilst those who believe they are using technology to benefit themselves or their business will only every experience a pyrrhic win.

In a people centric or people-first economy and World, technology will always be used to improve the experience of everyone, not as a tool that can only ever benefit the few.

Money isn’t real. Yet we have been conditioned to believe that it is.

Money is a unit of exchange. Yet we have been conditioned to believe that money is a thing, that it holds value of its own, and that the value that money holds is variable in its own right – well beyond the basic principles necessary for currency exchange.

Money has become the benchmark which dictates the value of life and the value of every individuals existence.

For as long as this money-based order, reality or culture continues to exist, the values that underpin humanity and human existence will matter less and less.

Money and currencies of any kind are useful to us, as long as they are only used as the medium of exchange that they are, rather than being believed to be or considered to be an accumulation of material wealth in itself – as it is today.

For as long as we continue to allow the value of anything and everything to be determined by the value of money, which itself can then vary from day to day, the power of any individual, business or community to regulate, manage and sustain healthy lives will be compromised.

Until 1971 when neoliberalism fully took over, the value of the money that existed was always pinned or anchored to the value of gold. ‘The Gold Standard’ was far from being a perfect system or system that was balanced, fair and just in itself – as any good study of economic history will demonstrate. But what its existence did demonstrate was the benefit of having the value of money restricted which meant that there was considerably less opportunity for the system to be ‘played’ – as it has been, to our considerable cost, ever since.

A fair, balanced and just economic system that puts People First, must rest its economic base upon the people that exist within that system, along with the fundamental value we can associate with what those people then put in or take out of it.

That value may indeed be translated into money or a form of currency or digital currency of some kind. But there is no requirement or need for that value to ever be variable in a system that puts People First and doesn’t believe that non-essential or basic goods that it cannot itself produce must be secured no matter the price.

The value of existence and the value of the work or effort that any individual puts into the system must be the benchmark which everything to do with monetary exchange and value must be pinned.

For life to be valued and for that value of life to be maintained as it should always be, money or currencies of any kind must always be a unit of exchange that hold no value of their own that can be bought, sold or exchanged.

Whilst it is the money system and the way that money creation and circulation are managed that are the fundamental problem with the way that the worldwide economy works today, this mismanagement itself has encouraged a cultural mindset that focuses on saving costs and making more profit – not as a consequence of what the business does; not because there is some kind of rule requiring them to do so; not because circumstances demand it of them. But because they can.

We have reached a stage where businesses that we could argue have a legitimate involvement in supply chains, such as supermarkets, already use every excuse that sounds plausible to convince retail customers that prices need to keep rising. Meanwhile, they push producers and growers at the other end of the supply chain to sell at prices where they can barely continue to exist (and increasingly don’t).

But the problem reaches way beyond businesses such as those we would recognise as having a legitimate role in production and supply to play.

There are also many other companies, ‘agents’, speculators, and other ‘interests’, who buy and sell raw materials, components, ingredients, fuels, minerals and even currencies, who do nothing to add value to the product or whatever it is they are buying and selling. But as they do so, they add and take a fee for themselves.

That profit, made without adding value – when adding value could be refining, making an engine out of components, or even selling to the customer at the end of the ‘chain’, raises the costs of all of these goods and even services unnecessarily. In every circumstance where this happens, it makes it more expensive for everyone to live.

There should always be a reward for input, whether that be growing, mining, processing, refining, delivering or selling. But nobody and no business should be able to take a reward, just because they can afford to insert themselves into any part of any supply chain that exists or may be under discussion ahead of time – pushing up prices as they do so, and then selling on at a profit which pushed those prices up further – and by so doing, almost guarantees that other 3^rd parties with no positive role to play, will then become involved.

Regrettably, the historic greed of growers, producers and all the different companies that in some cases also carry out unnecessary cost-raising activities or roles, has surrendered the ability of whole industries to take back control of their own marketplace and choose to supply or play a role in what are the necessary supply chains that are needed, rather than being wanted by 3^rd parties, because of the way that money has become involved.

Supply chains must be as short as it is possible for them to be, and no unnecessary business, agent or entity of any kind can be allowed to be involved in the growing, production, manufacturing, storing, transport or selling of foods, goods and services that are essential to life – of any kind.

Of those businesses or entities that have involvement at any stage of any supply chain, they MUST add value to the chain with whatever it is they do. No other interests other than those that are adding value to the chain should ever become involved.

Speculation or ‘futures’ must be prohibited for any raw materials, foods or goods that are part of any supply chain that provides essential goods, services or supplies that are essential to basic life.

Speculation and ‘futures’ selling or handling is nothing more than gambling and no one has the right to gamble with anyone else’s life.

You shouldn’t trust what you cannot physically experience, if it physically exists somewhere else.

Just as we should all avoid foods that don’t resemble their basic, raw form – unless the processing used is simple, such as was traditionally undertaken by hand (e.g. Bread, Butter, Cheese), we should avoid and distrust the processes of growing, manufacturing and production that are not accessible or cannot be accessed, viewed and assessed by people who are known to us and that we can trust.

The world today has abused the trust that so many of us have placed in it by exploiting the rationale that out of sight is out of mind. So that if we cannot see it, we do not care about it, we are not interested in it, we will take the provenance and care for our best interests that go into it for granted.

Corruption is not only a term that relates to financial payments, favours and backhanders that skew decisions that should always be impartial and fair. Processes of all kinds have become corrupted by the self-interest and profiteering that drives them.

There is no reason why the basic goods, foods and services that we all need for life cannot be grown, produced, manufactured or supplied locally – IF we are putting people and a values-based way of living first.

Yes, there may always be a need to trade local goods that exist in excess, for those that cannot be locally produced, or to create a regulated currency for the purposes of exchange that can do the same.

But if we work locally, with local people, in the interests of the locality and the local community, a balance for this will always exist. It is only when greed and the self-interest of the few enter the equation that the process begins where balance, fairness and justice is lost, and it all begins to go wrong.

Local Businesses must always prioritise local suppliers for their services, raw materials and goods.

Quality and experience are always the key, and by chasing profit or by attempting to avoid rules that achieve the same, transparency, provenance, authenticity and everything good will always be lost.