There are basic elements of life that must be met in order to ensure survival. Once these needs are met, then in general, the next things of importance can be embraced, and a sense of fulfillment met.
So how does money fit into this picture?
Before I delve into a bit of philosophy about that, I wanted to take a moment to examine the natural world around us.
In the natural order of things, money plays no part. There is no other species of life that uses it, nor is their a true ecosystem or natural pecking order that revolves around it. But yet, there are hundreds of thousands of species among us that live out their existence without the use of a unit of trade or legal tender to bring amount their means of survival or fulfillment.
From a naturalistic point of view of the world as a whole, the human species does not take precedence or superiority over other species; rather, it fits into the natural balance of the earth’s ecology. In this naturalistic sense, which is essentially non-existent in our civilized world, humans would have an ideal habitat with which to thrive and be fulfilled from the environment around us. There would be no need for money, because everything needed would be at hand, and our instincts would guide our survival, just as is so for every other living organism.
Although I am not an adherent to the overall philosophy of naturalism, I do think there are some very useful things that can be learned by looking at the world through that lens from time to time.
Now the human species is entirely too complex to hypothesize that it would be possible to have a society that does not utilize money; hence, it only makes sense that our civilization requires it to function. But I do feel that at one point, it came to a crossroads where it has went far beyond a locus where money can be viewed as a useful tool, to a place where we have become overly reliant on it, so much so that if it were to become suddenly scarce or lose its value, then we would be left stranded in ruins.
One can only look back to the Great Depression to see the effects of such a scenario.
We have transcended to a point where we have let our creations overcome our true place in nature, and as a result, we are losing touch with the true reality.
Now I’m not saying let’s all take a “let’s get back to our roots” approach to living our daily lives. We are at a given point in time where our society is built how it is built, and all we can do is move forward.
But we can make adjustments in our thinking and behavior that allow for “progress” to take a different direction.
Our economy is built on a model of continued, sustained growth, and if that doesn’t happen, it seems that issues result, as evident by the current economic crisis. But can our civilized world perpetually “grow?”
When it comes to big picture economics in general, like the ones that you learn in Macro- or Microeconomics classes in school, I am certainly no expert. Those concepts seem entirely too complicated for me to comprehend with logic, as I tend to view money in more simplistic terms, so I will leave that up to the experts.
But one thing I can assume is that as an economy grows, so does overall consumption, and the resources needed to support it.
I do feel there is a problem to this model though, in that there is only a limited number of resources to utilize to fuel this consumption and growth.
So should a change in approach be integrated into our society and economies in general, so as to develop a more sustainable and balanced economy that can last for generations? Should we examine natural systems and see what can be learned from them?
There is a lot to be learned from observing the natural world around us. Now it will be far too complex to try to examine this looking at the big picture of the world as a whole in this blog, but what about taking some simple ideas and integrating them into your household philosophy?
Check back soon for a start to this discussion…
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