I can’t promise you any answers, but here’s some food for thought.

Money is a symbol of worth that facilitates trade between people. It allows us to buy the food we eat (or the means to grow our own food), the clothes we wear (or the cloth to make our own), and all of the other things we require. BUT, in, and of, itself has no value -it is merely a symbol -a means to an end. You can’t eat currency.

We have got into a huge mess, and we are all paying for it whether we acknowledge our part in it or not, by thinking that “money can make money”. Money can’t make anything, it isn’t real. People make things. And things (goods) and services are the only things with the intrinsic worth to command a “cash price”.

And, because we think that money is a “good” we save it up and expect it to grow or at least still be there when we need it. Except that, now, money is not coins of gold which can be stored and expected to last; now, it is binary numbers stored in the computer networks of the world. As if it needed to be made any clearer that of itself it is nothing…

And, because we think that making more money is going to solve all our problems and make us happy we have bought into the continual growth model of economics -which if pursued to it’s logical conclusion must end in the annihilation of all life on this planet.

Don’t get me wrong here -I don’t think we are responsible for climate change. (Though I have a sneaking suspicion we can affect local weather with our concentrated emotional energy –call me crazy). That’s just another means to keep the economic ball rolling, as it were. Universal energies have more impact on our planet’s climate than we ever could; the best we can do is try to mitigate the consequences for ourselves and our fellow creatures.

Our unrelenting pursuit of economic growth leads to exhaustion of natural resources, pollution of the air, land, and water, chronic fatigue syndrome of planet-wide proportions. So, while on the one hand we are being told “Be Green” to save the planet, on the other we are urged to pursue the “more is better” path to material success. How can we not be insane?

Can’t we, with our “big brains”, think of another way to operate our trading system so that everyone has enough? The fact that some people are rich and some people are poor says nothing, intrinsically, about their value as people. Every life situation is different (for the lessons that it brings); but, we could all have enough if we were better “sharers” and didn’t keep our riches stockpiled beyond what any short-term future need could warrant. Less to worry about -isn’t that what “universal superannuation” was all about?

Our lives are full of worries, aren’t they? Does it make us more “productive” worrying about feeding our children, paying the mortgage, not-getting-sick, whether our jobs are secure? No. Creativity, in work and play, comes from a peaceful place inside you -after you have given up worrying the problem to death.

Accepting that we have got beyond the need to “peg” our symbolic money to a tangible commodity and moving beyond a greed-driven, excess-extolling economic mind-set, there is the possibility of visualizing a “universal benefit” given to every child born, so that they may not worry about today’s needs. The incentive to produce is not taken away, for there is joy in seeing the product of your work, your creations, being used and appreciated.

In order for this “universal benefit” to come about we would need to create a “new world order” but of a different order to the one that has been ruling us for hundreds of years. Unity of purpose, in this world, has never before been so possible. It is up to us to envision the future we want and to daily do what small thing we can to make this future real for us.

Cheers for stopping by,

All the best

Synergy