we've been running about four years now
we're based uh just down the road from
angel in london
but we have groups around the country
and also another 15 groups
internationally
sister organizations
there are four of us working on this
full-time
other people helping out volunteers
contractors and
all of the local groups and the
international groups who all give their
time for free
so really quite a big base of people who
are trying to make this happen
the issue we have today is that all
money that we use is created
by banks high street banks when they
lend and what that means is that we have
a money system that is based on debt so
if we want more money then we also have
to have more debt and that results in a
whole series of problems
positive money is really about trying to
change the financial system so it works
for society and not against it
we're trying to look at the way that
money is created by the banking system
and the effect that has on debt and
poverty on affordable housing inequality
and the whole range of other social
problems that we're facing at the moment
i'm quite passionate about what positive
money is trying to do because
number one i got caught up in the big
party that was going on before 2007.
everyone's investing in property
borrowing too much money
that happened to me
and i'm now in a position where i owe
far more money than i'd like to and i
think looking back i probably shouldn't
have borrowed it i shouldn't have been
allowed to so i think that's something
flawed in the system
we think this is a big problem
um and we think that actually the power
to create money shouldn't be privately
owned money shouldn't be created as
there i think that actually the price
create money should be returned to the
people essentially the power to create
money to be used in the public interest
uh and the people that create money
should be the bank of england and it
should be done in a democratically
accountable manner and in a transparent
manner
i just feel that it's like
the common denominator of so many
different problems like it's i think one
issue that if we could change it it
would just automatically resolve so many
different
problems that we're facing
today is really about what the
individual
gets out of it themselves how much
effort they've put in is inevitably how
much they've gotten out that's what i've
taken you find some people who are very
pessimistic some people who don't think
things are possible and then you find
people who are flexible who have a
can-do attitude or kind of like oh you
know what oh we can't meet on this day
we can maybe we can do this or oh we're
all geographically dispersed but hey we
can do something about it
i think it's helpful to bring people
together to share ideas what's happening
across the country to meet new people
i've met a few people today that were
very concerned about the issues raised
by positive money in my area that i
didn't even know existed i think it's
important for a number of reasons one is
to retain that momentum from supporters
and and perhaps develop new supporters
as well
to to help those understand the
principles that don't already people
like me are relatively new to the
concepts i think it's also important to
learn lessons from one another and to
think about where to go next and to use
the the
broad range of skills and experiences in
the room today to do that to the to the
best effect
if only positive money could get over
this one idea
money where does it come from and then
the next
point of course is it's our money and
shouldn't we decide what's to be done
with it we know it's a huge change that
we're trying to achieve but the thing is
is that we've already got over 22 000
people on board after only going for a
few years and we're such a radical thing
we're proposing that's really exciting
we've got groups in 19 different
countries that want to try and change
their own money system in their country
and we're all fighting for the same
cause and we can share and help each
other to be able to kind of communicate
what we're trying to do we should be
optimistic because firstly things do
need to change politicians and the
people in charge are running out of
ideas and that there's more and more
discussion in the press and in policy
circles and amongst the general public
about these fundamental problems with
money and that it has changed