It helps to remember that none of this is foreordained. In fact these public systems are relatively immature, at best less than 115 years old (Germany's social security system). In the meantime, we can easily observe the failures of humanity's most aggressive social experiments. Dollars don't seem to do well off-market.
Perhaps it is also helpful to remember that money is about agreements. As Bernard Lietaer, father of the euro, observes, the statement that "There is not enough money for us to..." is the functional equivalent of an architect's complaint that there are insufficient inches to build a home.
Every day, commercial markets determine what works. In the process, they determine what "inches" are for trading purposes. Not so when we use trading currencies within the social/compassion systems. Here consequences are evaluated in decades, then subjected to analytic anarchy, outright error and overt manipulation. There are no natural, efficient correction mechanisms. "It's not fair," is no substitute for objectivity-just grounds for argument.
The argument that we cannot afford social programs is a nonsequitur. Money is a remarkable force. Its very nature bespeaks cooperation and community. We have the inches, but they might be more effective if our agreements re money could be more useful, better designed and more sensitive to the jobs at hand that are necessary for achieving admirable goals.
This might mean reconsidering cultural institutions or constructing new ones. It might mean revising cultural expectations, including miscellaneous cultural sacred cows. The alternatives could be various forms of systemic collapse.
Or they might mean complementary currencies designed to do certain jobs. For example, Japan has experimented with over 300 different versions of "firieu kippu"-currencies designed to attract individuals to provide services to the elderly. Certain communities throughout the world are using "time-dollars" and district currencies to augment cooperative spirit and mutual engagement. In others, specific local currencies encourage local markets and businesses. Still others, using frequent flier miles as examples, promote full utilization of fixed-cost facilities.
Complements could include imaginative uses of existing resources. For true money inspiration, look up Curitaba, Brazil and learn how bus tokens brought flowers to the desert. Demurrage systems emphasize exchange volatility.
The vast worlds of complementary currencies provide genuine alternatives to Midas' dilemma by encouraging human beings to meet human needs through creative uses of money tools. Dollars do not translate these intentions very well, but other money forms are apparently able to do this just fine.
I am not naive. Existing systems are embedded, even if they are relatively new from an historic perspective. However, the dollar's shortcomings are no joke. Whatever might evolve requires honestly grasping strengths, weaknesses and attributes of our dominant trading currencies.
Though Midas could not turn gold into nourishment, it is, nonetheless, food for thought.
Richard B. Wagner, JD, CFP, is the principal of WorthLiving LLC, based in Denver.