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Greed and competition are not a result of immutable human temperament... greed and fear of scarcity are in fact being continuously created and amplified as a direct result of the kind of money we are using. For example, we can produce more than enough food to feed everybody, and there is definitely enough work for everybody in the world, but there is clearly not enough money to pay for it all. The scarcity is in our national currencies. In fact, the job of central banks is to create and maintain that currency scarcity. The direct consequence is that we have to fight with each other in order to survive.

— Bernard Lietaer on Money

What It Means

This is a placeholder explanation generated by the low-overhead model. It interprets "Greed and competition are not a result of immutable human temperament... greed and fear of scarcity are in fact being continuously created and amplified as a direct result of the kind of money we are using. For example, we can produce more than enough food to feed everybody, and there is definitely enough work for everybody in the world, but there is clearly not enough money to pay for it all. The scarcity is in our national currencies. In fact, the job of central banks is to create and maintain that currency scarcity. The direct consequence is that we have to fight with each other in order to survive." in the context of "Bernard Lietaer quoted in Beyond Greed and Scarcity, Interview YES! A Journal of Positive Futures, (Spring 1997)" to mean that wisdom is timeless.

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Source: Wikiquote: "Money" (L) The 'What it means' explanation text was generated by Google Gemini Flash (accessed January 18, 2026). https://gemini.google.com/app
Bernard Lietaer

About Bernard Lietaer

Bernard Lietaer (7 February 1942 – 4 February 2019) was a civil engineer, economist, author, professor and philosopher who studied monetary systems and promoted the idea that communities can benefit from creating their own local or complementary currency, which circulate parallel with national currencies.