I know. That headline contradicts a post I wrote recently. Here me out. It’s important.
Among most people’s dreams is one of being rich. There’s a reason for this. When they dream of being rich, people don’t consider the pain in the ass it is actually having millions of dollars. Riches bring a lot of troubles, including managing the fear that someday you’re going to lose it all.
Most people consider being rich desirable because being rich equates to being free. With only a few millions of dollars you can do just about anything you want to do. Everything becomes affordable. Nothing is too expensive.
With great wealth come great desires. There are plenty of things many rich people can’t do. Some can’t afford to own a plane, particularly the kind requiring two pilots. Some can’t afford a yacht, especially a big one. They often need crews to operate. People are expensive. For the most part though, being rich does come with a new level of freedom.
Tons of money is freedom where what you want costs money. Tons of money is freedom in a condition where what you need costs money. Money, secular defined*, is limited. Therefore, where money is needed to obtain things you want and need, there is bound to be lack experience. Not everyone can be rich in societies governed by money. Where there is lack experience a whole host of problems arise. Most can be grouped under the header “human behavior we’d prefer not to experience.” That is why Copiosis is considered a moral econo my: it eliminates or at least minimizes in the extreme those behaviors, while gently persuading people to act out “human behavior we’d prefer to experience.” Not through laws and enforcement, but by making everyone free.
We don’t make everyone free by providing everyone with money. We redesign the system by removing money all together, thereby uncovering everyone’s natural freedom. A freedom that was there all along.
I’d love to hear your opinion on freedom = money idea. It’s causing me to think a lot about it.
*Some spiritual beliefs hold that beliefs about money rather than the nature of money is what causes some people to have a lot of money, some to have some, and others to have none. The idea is if one can hold onto positive thoughts and beliefs about having money, money naturally flows into one’s life. I believe this. But for everyone to experience what I experience, everyone must believe the way I do. I don’t believe everyone should believe the way I do. Rather, I hold the positive thought and belief that life is better when supported by societies where people are unbounded by affordability. From there I can create a reality where everyone is free without requiring that everyone think like me.
I don’t think money is a problem, but rather the attachment we have to it when it should just be used as a tool for motivating behavior. We could lessen this attachment by giving money an expiration date.
It’s interesting Soal. I used to think that too. But then someone clued me in on some things about money I hadn’t thought of. Money, in its current form has a lot of problems, no matter how you might look at is (as a tool, without attachment, etc.):
1. It is amoral, which means you can use money to do things that are great, but you can use it to do things (or get others to do things) that are terrible
2. It is physical, which means it can be taken from you against your will, i.e. stolen, appropriated (through taxes, fines, fees)
3. It creates a zero-sum game simulation where people feel as though there is not enough for everyone and if one person gets a lot of something (money for example) there won’t be enough for others.
I get what you’re saying because I used to be there. But I can see how the nature of money (as described by the three points above) creates a psychology where human beings often – though not always – fail to be kind to one another. I believe human kindness is at the heart of all human beings. Money often gets in the way of that. What do you think?
I think saying that our beliefs about money rather than nature of money is what causes some people to have it and others not to have it is simplistic. Whatis the difference between saying that and saying that a person’s belief about solitary confinement rather than the nature of solitary confinement is what causes some people to wind up in s.c.? Or insert “slavery” or insert “getting shot the back, or killed by a drone?”
Now I do beleive we are all connected and that my thoughts about solitary confinement, slavery getting killed by drones, and about money…are important because thoughts lead to actions. and the thoughts I hold determine the actions I take, and in some mysterious way, they also seem to be related to “conincidences” “luck” and such. Holding all of that close to my heart, leads me to investigate the nature of things, including money, slavery, oppression, joy, peace, etc. And to be mindful how I think about those things. i don’t think any of that necessarily means I get money or I don’t get money. I don’t see it as a 1:1 correspondence because I simply can’t know that which I don’t know.
I know that each moment is a fresh new moment, supposedly completely separate from the prior moment. And such is the nature and delusion of time. I say supposedly because I can’t say honestly that I experience that on a daily basis. However, i do experience our connectedness — that makes both rational and intuitive sense to me. And maybe that is the only thing that is true. That we (and all of Life) are connected completely to each other. So one man’s millions = another’s man’s poverty. and this hurts. Because if we are ONE, then your hurt is my hurt, just as your joy is my joy.
And that’s what has led me to be so interested in Copiosis. I see it as a way to help us demonetize and as you said, find the freedom within that which we are, interdepend and independent beings. Something like that. Thanks ! Y