The Natural Use Of Money.

Money---we need it to live in our modern culture.  But what happens when need is replaced with want, and how do we discern the difference?  Gluttony is usually associated with eating and drinking.  The word gluttony in and of itself effects people negatively. 

Access, however, seems to have become a sign of success.  The concept of gluttony can be transferred to almost anything, including material acquisition and competition. 

The natural use of money seems to be to provide the lifestyle that satisfies the needs of the family or individual.  While the family is contemplating the use of money, it would be wise to remember the government is manipulating money and positioning people for the good of what is currently described as “the economy”.

Many of us will remember a time when a healthy economy connoted a close-to-full employment rate, and people accumulating a nest egg for the future.  Some children went to college, some didn’t; the prerequisite fell on the personality of the child.

While we are told we live in a so-called free market economy, the truth is more complicated.  The government does now and has always manipulated the interest rate to encourage economic flow in one direction or another, as suits their inclination.  Our representatives may have been more in tune to considering the comfort and health of their constituents in the past.  Maybe the constituents were more engaged.  At the very least, a healthy U. S. economy seemed to be the goal.

Recent experience suggests this may not be the case any longer.  It is obvious that outsourcing, which can be mitigated through legislation, has been allowed under the guise of market freedom.  It is indeed free. However, when that same free market ran into financial difficulties, it was bailed out using taxpayer cash.

The free market became ever more self-interested, and the manifestation of this fact isn’t only outsourcing, but also the high unemployment rates and new legislation that brought rights of corporations to an equality with human rights and environmental rights. 

The mainstay of middle-class stability, homeownership, was impacted when the free market injected venture capital into the housing market.  Most of us know how this influx of institutional cash into the housing market harmed many homeowners.  But why was this the case?

One explanation may be that it wasn’t only the influx of venture capital that was a problem.  At the same time, the so-called free market actively encouraged middle-class homeowners to, as they said, take cash out of their homes to finance material acquisition.  We all know that when the bubble burst, homeowners were left with huge mortgage debt on houses that had lost their value.

Regardless of the monetary policy of the government, how could an individual or family avoid this cynical result?   Reality is a great place to start.  Many of us, and with the help of advertisement, forgot that money is a tool, not an end.  Just as the over-mortgaged house wasn’t really a source of cash, but rather a shelter, money isn’t really one’s life. 

Experience suggests each individual and family has its own interests and personalities.  Genius blossoms in each person, and the joy of life is to nourish that inspiration.  When we start accumulating money, which is a most healthy instinct, security may be the best reason.  Certainly material acquisition doesn’t enhance personal growth.  In fact, a case can be made that material acquisition deadens the appetite for growth of human potential in the same manner a diet of fast food can deaden the appetite for truly nutritious food.

Just as drug addiction and alcoholism tragically expands in a persons life until the inspirational inclinations are crowded out, does the preoccupation with material acquisition crowd out the inclination for the meaningful human activities.

More tragic than the loss of security when money becomes the object rather than the tool of one’s life, is the loss of life potential when it is replaced with alcohol misuse or preoccupation with status. 

Money is a simple and meaningful concept.  One’s life potential is far more important.

 

Natural Imagination Energy-Zero Population Growth.

How fast are you dancing? Is it enough to keep up? We’re informed by our politicians that the most important issue is the economy. The family who is trying to heat their home and put food on the table, in a spare moment out of a busy day, considering this statement, agrees.

And so we chase progress, which seems to be ever-expanding growth. As this occurs, people’s homes are crowded out to make way for industrialization, if they aren’t actually absorbed through eminent domain. Industrialization generally brings pollution, and health suffers. And so we build more hospitals in order to care for sick people in our effusive benevolence.

Politicians cut ribbons at business and institutional openings. They are grinning at their constituents as they add up the new tax income in their head.

Industrial farming is in demand to “feed the hungry”. The treatment of animals is obscene, but what can you do? Shipment of crops to distant populations may result in food contamination. Chemical companies are legislating to allow greater market participation for them, regardless of the result to people and the environment. And when did corporations get to legislate---and yet they are.

And we say, “oh, well, that’s just the way it is”. Indeed it is not.

Why haven’t we a national discussion on the subject of Zero Population Growth? This concept has been around a while. The brutal fact is, Earth cannot sustain unending human growth. I’m not talking about not having a child if one wants a child.

Since ZPG was discussed in the ‘70’s, an uprising has occurred that is euphemistically called “family values”. This seems to imply Mom and Dad producing the largest number of children possible in their family. So who does this benefit?

Some say it is mandated in the Bible. I find that suspicious. Who can fly in the face of the wisdom of the Bible? Perhaps starving children can. How about the children enduring diabetes and heart disease brought on by bad food, even in our so-called advanced nation? What about the high rate of cancer, quite often the result of pollution and chemicals?

In our progress-blinded culture, the divorce rate is skyrocketing at the same time we cling to the family values label. What’s up with that? Brain-washing could be one reason we are deeply in denial.

So who benefits from family values and to whom is it truly beneficial? Capitalism doesn’t work without resources. That is what progress as defined by our society is. Churning resources into products to sell in order to enhance profits.

We are destroying our world by using natural resources to be transformed into product in order that industry can be profitable. Government, which at one time was For the People and By the People, is now about keeping business happy.

Well, here’s the thing. Human beings are natural resources. The Supreme Court has decided corporations and humans are the same. They can determine that as often as they want, the fact is human beings and environment are aligned. People can’t live without environment. We are environment. And, cynically, we are being grown and harvested just like any other crop to feed progress.

Capitalism doesn’t work without consumers and workers. That’s what we are folks. Most of our problems could be handle-able if ZPG became a fad in the same manner so-called family values has become a fad.

I’m not talking about population control. We need informed discussion on the subject of responsibility. When a girl’s self-esteem is healthy, she may wish to pursue activities that giving birth to a number of children she couldn’t care for, would impede.

If a boy could find manhood in values rather than impregnating a girl, perhaps he would consider developing a healthy life-partnership.

When a couple in a healthy life-partnership chooses to have children, the two partners can thoughtfully consider whether they want one child or 15. If considered in a stable and mature life-partnership, the decision is theirs alone.

Currently, it seems rather random and children are often born before personal issues are worked out. Society encourages this aimless procreation because bodies are needed to sustain what we now call progress.

ZPG ideals, if made popular in the same manner as has been made family values, may work for many families.

We need to discuss the heck-bent rush toward ever more people. Redefining progress as justice, responsibility, and clarity can actually create healthier families. Redefining progress in terms of ethics and morality will result in immense progress for human beings, rather than corporations.

We must redefine progress in value-related ways instead of profits. Children must be precious souls who are born to responsible parents who are themselves stable. We must stop using people, environment, and animals as the natural resources that will make money for Capitalism