It was only as I went out of the door of a local building society that I began to realise that I might have been given at least one powerful message through changes that had been made there!
The changes? Now there was a permanent mini-food bank, a collection bucket for the local food bank and a prominent collecting box for the “Samaritans.”
Previously, every banking place I had ever used only ever had items and notices, etc., to do with direct economics. For the first time, items to do with other aspects of life were there too. No longer was finance being kept separate from ordinary, everyday life, in practice if not in explicit theory. My “bank” was now dealing with socio-economics and so facilitating life-money questions and comments!
Does a bank collecting food and money for local people, in an area with high house prices, especially for sea views, suggests that something may be amiss with our policies for the circulation of money?
The growth of food banks is concrete evidence that some of us are starving.
Are starvation and malnutrition structural parts of current socio-economic policies and practices?
A “yes” answer leads us to question what could be done about it. Some might answer, “Nothing!” Others might answer, “Charity.”
A “no” answer results in the need to seek and apply ways to change our current economic policies so that we do not have starvation etc. as a permanent part of our society.
Answers may depend upon perceptions of “The Market”. Does it function efficiently with minimal to nil government involvement? For whom is it “efficient”?