Money: Creating Abundance
Although it has come to represent many negative and positive feelings in our society, money, by definition, is nothing more than a medium of exchange and measure of value. It would be great if you lived in a world where you could “work” at doing something you truly love; something that is aligned with your purpose. Many of us would be inspired to give the fruits of our labor more freely if we loved and/or passionately believed in how we spent the majority of our waking hours. This type of economy would lead to more fulfillment than many of us can imagine.
The world we live in cannot yet seem to handle such a system because scarcity of resources is a concept that sets the tone for our entire economic system. As an economics major, a basic assumption that we had to accept in order to study economics, is that there are unlimited wants, but only limited resources. Also, that people will always rationally operate out of their own self-interest. Thus, fear of lack still exists. Thus, greed still exists.
With this pervasive mindset of scarcity and self-interest dictating how cultures' economic systems operate, it is no wonder there are hostile environments all around the world, that stem from the competition of resources. However, thanks to more optimistic, innovative and altruistic people in this world, remedies for the scarcity and hostility are being developed all the time. For example, there were once villages in Africa that had little to no access to clean water, and there was a lot of cultural stress that resulted, until some innovative thinkers came up with Warka Water towers. Regardless of the obstacle, if you approach it with enough optimism and creativity, you will find solutions that keep microcosms and macrocosms all around our globe happily evolving.
In addition, there are many people who do not know, or admit to themselves, what they would love to work at. Have you realized your purpose? Do you believe in it enough, to where you would work freely, doing the work as an end in itself, and not just a means to an end? It takes a lot of courage to approach life this way, but the more people do it, the less frightening it is for other purpose-knowers to join in, which also inspires those who don't yet know their purpose, to figure out what it is they are truly passionate about. The reason I emphasize "they" is because so many people still get caught up in trying to achieve what others find value in, instead of what they find value in.
If you did what you love to do, then you would be less inclined to value your energy to such a degree that encourages you to take more resources than you truly want. It helps eliminate the "because I worked so hard for this" mentality; when you justify a purchase because you performed unfulfilling work in order to earn it, not because it is something you actually want. Realizing this helps mitigate wasteful behavior. How much does that extra bag of groceries or clothes really mean to you, when you already know that most of that extra food will go to waste, or those clothes will not be worn? Give in a way that you feel perpetuates the greatest good, and take in a way that you feel perpetuates the greatest good.
For now, our systems rely on money to assign value to goods and services in order to exchange them. It is a system where supply and demand of labor determines a wage, which incentivizes people via a means to an end (in the form of wages/money), which perpetuates greed by allowing wages to determine your career path and how you spend your precious energy. But, with the persistence of purpose driven and innovative minds, we may be able to eradicate the assumptions of scarcity and self-interest that currently dictate how economic systems operate and are evaluated. We may eventually achieve world economies where you receive abundantly, because everyone finds joy in giving abundantly, rendering money (as a medium of exchange and measure of value) unnecessary.
The world we live in cannot yet seem to handle such a system because scarcity of resources is a concept that sets the tone for our entire economic system. As an economics major, a basic assumption that we had to accept in order to study economics, is that there are unlimited wants, but only limited resources. Also, that people will always rationally operate out of their own self-interest. Thus, fear of lack still exists. Thus, greed still exists.
With this pervasive mindset of scarcity and self-interest dictating how cultures' economic systems operate, it is no wonder there are hostile environments all around the world, that stem from the competition of resources. However, thanks to more optimistic, innovative and altruistic people in this world, remedies for the scarcity and hostility are being developed all the time. For example, there were once villages in Africa that had little to no access to clean water, and there was a lot of cultural stress that resulted, until some innovative thinkers came up with Warka Water towers. Regardless of the obstacle, if you approach it with enough optimism and creativity, you will find solutions that keep microcosms and macrocosms all around our globe happily evolving.
In addition, there are many people who do not know, or admit to themselves, what they would love to work at. Have you realized your purpose? Do you believe in it enough, to where you would work freely, doing the work as an end in itself, and not just a means to an end? It takes a lot of courage to approach life this way, but the more people do it, the less frightening it is for other purpose-knowers to join in, which also inspires those who don't yet know their purpose, to figure out what it is they are truly passionate about. The reason I emphasize "they" is because so many people still get caught up in trying to achieve what others find value in, instead of what they find value in.
If you did what you love to do, then you would be less inclined to value your energy to such a degree that encourages you to take more resources than you truly want. It helps eliminate the "because I worked so hard for this" mentality; when you justify a purchase because you performed unfulfilling work in order to earn it, not because it is something you actually want. Realizing this helps mitigate wasteful behavior. How much does that extra bag of groceries or clothes really mean to you, when you already know that most of that extra food will go to waste, or those clothes will not be worn? Give in a way that you feel perpetuates the greatest good, and take in a way that you feel perpetuates the greatest good.
For now, our systems rely on money to assign value to goods and services in order to exchange them. It is a system where supply and demand of labor determines a wage, which incentivizes people via a means to an end (in the form of wages/money), which perpetuates greed by allowing wages to determine your career path and how you spend your precious energy. But, with the persistence of purpose driven and innovative minds, we may be able to eradicate the assumptions of scarcity and self-interest that currently dictate how economic systems operate and are evaluated. We may eventually achieve world economies where you receive abundantly, because everyone finds joy in giving abundantly, rendering money (as a medium of exchange and measure of value) unnecessary.