The major economies of the past 100 years
failed in solving the global problems
Capitalism – property and moneyRead More
Socialism: money and no propertyRead More
THE NEW ECONOMIC ORDER:
Property and no moneyRead More
Need for a new economic order
Our current economic order, the market economy, is based on an idea by Adam Smith. Adam Smith lived 250 years ago, in a time of hunger, hardship, and ignorance. He invented competition and it generated growth. That led us to today’s prosperity. Read More
The market economy dates back to the 18th century and was made for hardship and deficiency, not for abundance. We need a completely different economic system that can do without growth.
We need a new way of looking at society and the economy that takes into account our current level of knowledge and our current technical capabilities.
A new economy, the gift-economy
The air you breathe is a gift from nature. It doesn’t cost anything. Water is also something that the earth gives us. Likewise the oil, the grain and many other things.
We give these things an artificial value, buy them and so they belong to us and we do what we want with them. This in turn gives us the right to bottle the water and sell it at high prices. And when we get tired of things, we just throw them away. Disposal is regulated by law.
It is nonsensical to rate things with work, it’s like trying to rate an apple by loudness.
Because things have value, politics influence us to consume far too many of these things just to keep the gross national product growing. This consumption ultimately leads to the melting of the polar ice caps, pollution of the oceans with microplastics and a cruel decrease in biodiversity.
But actually it contradicts all natural laws. The iron from which the sheet metal of the car is made is a gift from the earth. The grain that has grown in the field is harvested, ground and baked into bread. According to the law of the conservation of mass, it did not multiply. The same amount of electrical energy that our coffee machine consumes has also come from the earth free of charge with natural gas or taken from the wind or sunlight for free. The material or the energy have not increased in “quantity”, that is not possible at all. The amount of everything has stayed the same, it has only been changed by human labour.
The treasures of the earth are free, so they cannot be bought and therefore they do not belong to us. They are part of the natural cycle. We can take what we need to live, but no more.
We could easily restore a reasonable world order by separating work from things, and then all things are free again.
If things don’t cost anything, then of course the work can’t cost anything either. So let’s get rid of the money.
The work will then just be done. This also eliminates the paradox that the work that is done inside your own apartment or garden is free and the work outside must be paid for. Or the paradox that the work you spend on caring for relatives or raising children is worthless in contrast to the working hours you spend at your desk.
Just as we keep our apartment clean today, take away the rubbish and take care of food and clothing for our relatives, we later ensure that the city is clean and that the production of goods and daily supplies are assured. We do this because we feel responsible for it and not because we are paid for one and not for the other.
What are the advantages of the new social order?
Since we are no longer encouraged to consume through advertising, much less is consumed. This conserves our natural resources and generates less CO2. If we are given everything for free, we perceive it as a gift from nature and we will want to protect nature much better.
Care work is the same as previously paid work. This will finally eliminate injustice between the genders. We can now voluntarily do anything we dreamed of. Starting with the support of our relatives and the care of our children, artistic activities, even up to large projects like the reforestation of the rainforests, as we do not have to pay attention to the financial aspects.
The health care and retirement provision of all people on earth is assured and since we do not have to work for recreational consumption as we do today, the work is probably done three days a week. With secure old-age provision, the world population will shrink significantly within one or two generations.
So nothing stands in the way of a new social order without money.
Brussels, May 2021, Eberhard Licht
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