If you really want to understand the basic equation of all the problems that we, our communities, our country and the world has, it is this:
We value money more than we value people, our humanity and a good existence or life.
OK, so there are plenty of ways that we tell and convince ourselves that we live and experience good lives. But have you noticed how pretty much 99.9% of the time, our happiness or how we feel about something or an experience we are having, all comes down to using something that has been paid for or bought?
The money obsession or conditioning that we all have, means we place a financial value on everything.
We look at every part of life in terms of what the direct or indirect material value of everything is. The only exception to this is the relationships that we have with people we genuinely care about and what those relationships mean to us.
We are, in effect, completely absorbed in the way that we now live and how we perceive everything. This means that we are blinded to the alternative way of life that exists, which would be better for us all, in every healthy, balanced, fair and just way that is imaginable.
We don’t see that money or the lack of money, is the common factor with all the problems that we, our communities, the country and the world has. That there is never enough of it. And as more is created, the disparity between those with less and those with more gets wider and wider as the value that either rich or poor possesses also gets further and further apart.
For as long as material wealth continues to be the value set or benchmark that makes this world work, because of the belief that we all place in it, the number of problems that society has will continue to grow. There will be fewer and fewer solutions available to solve the growing number of problems that society has.
The alternative to this system and the hurt that it is causing those who believe they benefit in some way, is the complete rejection of the money based order and The System as we know it.
The solution to all our problems is the adoption of a people first economy, that places the value on people, humanity, community, our environment, the legacy and the responsibility that we have to all others, above money either being a benchmark for life, or being considered in any way to be and be valued as a ‘thing’.
The way this will be achieved is through the adoption, implementation and assurance of The Basic Living Standard.
The Basic Living Standard equation or formula is this:
All individuals will be able to support themselves fully on the equivalent of the lowest paid weekly wage, in a basic and healthy way, without debt or the need of support or help from any 3rd Party.
All laws, regulations, administrative and business practices shall reflect this basic requirement that underlines the basis of a truly just, fair and balanced society, and how it will operate and thrive.
The reaction that you may have might be that ‘This is impossible’. ‘This isn’t the way that the world works’. ‘You are suggesting we go backwards and live in what we understand to be feudal times’.
But this is not the case.
What you are hearing from that excitable voice from within, is the resistance to change of a system that you have been convinced is still serving you well.
But The System isn’t serving you well. The System isn’t serving any of us well.
The System is serving money and everything to do with money very well indeed. And the cost to us as individuals, as communities, as a country and as a world, is much greater than anything that the lie which is money can buy.
Few will see or be able to visualise the shift that will exist once the transition from a money obsessed way of living, to one that is truly people-centric in every way, until it actually exists. And as we walk forward into the uncertainties that lie in 2023 and the years that lie ahead, this is indeed the biggest problem and the biggest obstacle to better lives, good health and the real happiness that so few of us consciously recognise as being what we are missing from our lives and that we so desperately want.
The choice, as always, is yours. Together, it is ours.
This is about people and values. Our abuse of people and values is what all the challenges we are now facing are about. This is the outcome that all the difficulties we must now experience are for.
Adam Tugwell 