| Thinker : New Society : The Economy of Abundance | |||||
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Where does wealth come from? What is wealth? How much wealth is there today? Tomorrow? 100 years ago? How much per person?
Wealth comes from raw materials—the fruit of the earth, and from labor—the fruit of man, and from ideas—the fruit of creativity, the activity of gods. A thing of wealth is some thing valued by men—tangible, intangible, existing or conjectured or concepted. Labor can be a thing of wealth—to own labor. Raw material can be a thing of wealth. Valuable to me is what is valuable to you as a means to the acquisition of my wants. Valuable to me are the things I want. Money is valuable to me because it is valuable to you. A painting is valuable ot me only because I want it. Beauty is a thing recognized by many, created with great skill of mind and body. Beauty is valuable. Investments of time, patietence and harmoney are valuable. Imagine a multi-family dwelling made within the growth of a large tree. The house is warm, clean and exceedingly comfortable. A large extended family lives there in harmony. Their customs and values fit perfectly with the structure of their tree-house. The house requires certain care and maintenance but never a burdensomely. Absoute freedom of behavior is limited—some actions will hurt the tree and are never done.Things that display lots of effort and human skill are valuable as physical embodiments of other people's work and skill. It is a crystallization of their own life. So possession of highly skilled works means the possession of another's life. Sex is valuable, a thing of value. To acquire sex from another is to acquire their admirations, affection, attention. Domination is valuable. Domination is the command of other's attention, talent, and labor. In an enlightened world, all will realize that domination is a tainted value—a second rate, stale and decayed form of a valuable thing. The ultimate value is the attention, affection and honor from others. The ultimate-ultimate value is the honor of others coming to you from those to whom you offer your own honor of them—mutual admiration. This admiration and honor is well-expressed in sentiments but also in objects—the creation from your hands and mind of things of value. The amount of attention, skill, talent and effort that can be put into any raw material is limitless. Though raw material is limited by physical reality, the amount of value available in the world is forever limitless. There will always be an abundance of wealth and of value. In light of the Rule of Man—that man can always cram more of man into things to create greater wealth—I suspect that the earth will always be capable of sustaining us all, in our multidudinous population explosions given our smart management of our resources. What's the point? We all want wealth. It is the stuff of life. Our scramble for wealth leads to unsafe, unhealthy, unfriendly and uncomfortable lives—toxic waste, traffic jams, selfish behavior on the part of individuals, corporations, small businesses, politicians, military huntas, and super powers. Let us recognize true wealth and separate it from second hand wealth, from rotten and decayed wealth from wealth stolen. Stolen wealth is really no wealth—what good is love demanded? When true wealth is recognized for itself and sought, we shall live as gods. We all want wealth. It is the stuff of life. Our scramble for wealth leads to unsafe, unhealthy, unfriendly and uncomfortable lives—toxic waste, traffic jams, selfish behavior on the part of individuals, corporations, small businesses, politicians, military huntas, and super powers. Let us recognize true wealth and separate it from second hand wealth, from rotten and decayed wealth from wealth stolen. Stolen wealth is really no wealth—what good is love demanded? When true wealth is recognized for itself and sought, we shall live as gods. |
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First written Sun, Apr 5, 1998 Last published Wed, Jun 2, 1999 |
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