To transcend these limitations, we must work toward a worldwide, resource-based economy, in which the planetary resources are held as the common heritage of all the earth's inhabitants. The current practice of rationing resources through monetary methods is irrelevant, counter-productive, and falls far short of meeting humanity’s needs.
Simply stated, a resource-based economy utilizes existing resources - rather than money - to provide an equitable method of distribution in the most humane and efficient manner. It is a system in which all goods and services are available to everyone without the use of money, credits, barter, or any other form of debt or servitude.
To better understand a resource-based economy, consider this. If all the money in the world disappeared overnight, as long as topsoil, factories, personnel and other resources were left intact, we could build anything we needed to fulfill most human needs. It is not money that people require, but rather free access to most of their needs without worrying about financial security or having to appeal to a government bureaucracy. In a resource-based economy of abundance, money will become irrelevant.
We have arrived at a time when new innovations in science and technology can easily provide abundance to all of the world’s people. It is no longer necessary to perpetuate the conscious withdrawal of efficiency by planned obsolescence, perpetuated by our old and outworn profit system. If we are genuinely concerned about the environment and our fellow human beings, if we really want to end territorial disputes, war, crime, poverty and hunger, we must consciously reconsider the social processes that led us to a world where these factors are common. Like it or not, it is our social processes – political practices, belief systems, profit-based economy, our culture-driven behavioral norms – that lead to and support hunger, war, disease and environmental damage.
The aim of this new social design is to encourage an incentive system no longer directed toward the shallow and self-centered goals of wealth, property, and power. These new incentives would encourage people toward self-fulfillment and creativity, both materially and spiritually.
Now the problems with money
There are many disadvantages to using this old method of exchange for goods and services. We will consider just a few here and let you add to this list on your own.
1. Money is just an interference between what one needs and what one is able to get. It is not money that people need, it is access to resources.
2. The use of money results in social stratification and elitism based primarily on economic disparity.
3. People are not equal without equal purchasing power.
4. Most people are slaves to jobs they do not like because they need the money.
5. There is tremendous corruption, greed, crime, embezzlement, and more caused by the need for money.
6. Most laws are enacted for the benefit of corporations, which have enough money to lobby, bribe, or persuade government officials to make laws that serve their interests.
7. Those who control purchasing power have greater influence.
8. Money is used to control the behavior of those with limited purchasing power.
9. Goods such as foods are sometimes destroyed to keep prices up; when things are scarce prices increase.
10. There is tremendous waste of material and strain on available resources from superficial design changes for the newest and latest fads each year in order to create continuous markets for manufacturers.
11. There is tremendous environmental degradation due to the high cost of better methods of waste disposal.
12. The Earth is being plundered for profit.
13. The benefits of technology are only distributed to those with sufficient purchasing power.
14. Most important, when the corporation’s bottom line is profit, decisions in all areas are made not for the benefit of people and the environment, but primarily for the acquisition of wealth, property, and power.
writen by Jacque Fresco
Simply stated, a resource-based economy utilizes existing resources - rather than money - to provide an equitable method of distribution in the most humane and efficient manner. It is a system in which all goods and services are available to everyone without the use of money, credits, barter, or any other form of debt or servitude.
To better understand a resource-based economy, consider this. If all the money in the world disappeared overnight, as long as topsoil, factories, personnel and other resources were left intact, we could build anything we needed to fulfill most human needs. It is not money that people require, but rather free access to most of their needs without worrying about financial security or having to appeal to a government bureaucracy. In a resource-based economy of abundance, money will become irrelevant.
We have arrived at a time when new innovations in science and technology can easily provide abundance to all of the world’s people. It is no longer necessary to perpetuate the conscious withdrawal of efficiency by planned obsolescence, perpetuated by our old and outworn profit system. If we are genuinely concerned about the environment and our fellow human beings, if we really want to end territorial disputes, war, crime, poverty and hunger, we must consciously reconsider the social processes that led us to a world where these factors are common. Like it or not, it is our social processes – political practices, belief systems, profit-based economy, our culture-driven behavioral norms – that lead to and support hunger, war, disease and environmental damage.
The aim of this new social design is to encourage an incentive system no longer directed toward the shallow and self-centered goals of wealth, property, and power. These new incentives would encourage people toward self-fulfillment and creativity, both materially and spiritually.
Now the problems with money
There are many disadvantages to using this old method of exchange for goods and services. We will consider just a few here and let you add to this list on your own.
1. Money is just an interference between what one needs and what one is able to get. It is not money that people need, it is access to resources.
2. The use of money results in social stratification and elitism based primarily on economic disparity.
3. People are not equal without equal purchasing power.
4. Most people are slaves to jobs they do not like because they need the money.
5. There is tremendous corruption, greed, crime, embezzlement, and more caused by the need for money.
6. Most laws are enacted for the benefit of corporations, which have enough money to lobby, bribe, or persuade government officials to make laws that serve their interests.
7. Those who control purchasing power have greater influence.
8. Money is used to control the behavior of those with limited purchasing power.
9. Goods such as foods are sometimes destroyed to keep prices up; when things are scarce prices increase.
10. There is tremendous waste of material and strain on available resources from superficial design changes for the newest and latest fads each year in order to create continuous markets for manufacturers.
11. There is tremendous environmental degradation due to the high cost of better methods of waste disposal.
12. The Earth is being plundered for profit.
13. The benefits of technology are only distributed to those with sufficient purchasing power.
14. Most important, when the corporation’s bottom line is profit, decisions in all areas are made not for the benefit of people and the environment, but primarily for the acquisition of wealth, property, and power.
writen by Jacque Fresco