ECONOMICS TO ECONOMIES
Today, a professor of mine talked about an economic concept that I had previously been very familiar with. However, this time, when he talked of it, I looked at it from a spiritual and slightly objective perspective. I looked at it through a new lens. What I learned was that we are engrained with these ideals and things we consider to be “fact,” but take little time to consider alternatives, or even the opposite as potentially true.
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The line that struck me in particular was, “finite resources and infinite wants.” This is a fundamental principal in all economics; it is literally how we govern our societies, how we set up institutions and mainly the cause for all of these things to form in the first place. In past academic scenarios, I would dismiss this as true. However, today, it got me to thinking. Is that really the truth? Or is it that way because we look at it that way? Through my thought process, I realized that wants are not infinite at all. At their core, they stem from the same values we, as humans, desire to possess. These desires, summed up, are love, happiness and security. As humans, the way we look at security is mainly in terms of monetary or material possessions. We then attribute these things to our degree of happiness, as well as our ability to love. We “bless” people with monetary or material things in order to fulfill them with happiness, and to receive some of that happiness on the other side. But if we really analyze this, we can see that this is a very superficial way of living. Our wants are not the things that are infinite.
Yes, the list of human desires can go on forever, but at their core, they all revolve around the same properties, and that makes them finite.
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Resources, on the contrary are not finite at all. Evolution is the driving factor of this planet. Everything is always evolving. Even if we wouldn’t be here to see it, to witness it with our miniscule amount of sight, it would still continue to grow and prosper; probably even more-so. Resources are everlasting. They may change, but the earth will always provide for us, just as a mother provides for its child. It is the circle of life.
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Economists believe that eventually, resources will run out. But what has happened every time something has “run out” before? Innovation. Evolution. They are two aspects of the same whole! We make it work, because our mother wouldn’t let us go down like that. Our economies revolve around this sort of backwards way of thinking because we have long programed ourselves to believe this as true. WE have done this to ourselves. What economists lack is this idea that love and even further, abundance is present to us everywhere! Instead, we are too busy trying to exploit the “finite” amount of resources left on this planet, making us miss out on what is actually present. But I’m sure, if we took a long hard look and let the universe do its thing, we would miraculously be able to survive, not only with less, but with more prosperity; more abundance of everything, including love, happiness and security.
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In ancient and even tribal communities, they worshipped the earth and its “gods.” It’s not to say that these “gods” were physical entities, but powers and forces beyond our scope of knowledge and beliefs, that could actually help us. Imagine, we are put here with guidance! Instead of opening up our minds to this possibility, though, we are stuck trying to figure out how we are going to get more. We are stuck in this circle of doubt and lack of trust, that only increases those aspects in our economies and our everyday lives.
We have been conditioned to believe that these current economic systems are better than those of ancient times because they are more “advanced” and technological. How is it then, that those same ancient societies were able to not only withstand more, but live more meaningful lives, in shorter amounts of time and with “less?” Well, it could potentially be because less really is more. Less control leads to more dynamic and fulfilling societies.
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Another point that my professor brought up was this idea that economic models were created in order to maintain human needs. Within this category of human needs comes the idea of physical safety and security, as well as dignity, which then leads to growth and variety.
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In order to have physical safety and security, we must have efficiency and stability (in terms of a capitalist system). This means that the system must provide its inhabitants with these two factors, creating an environment where there is little to no wasting of resources and little to no (big) fluctuations. But efficiency is the earth’s natural state, right? So why are we trying so hard to fight against it. Fluctuations come with efficiency. It is part of the same. With one, you must always have the other. Not only are the two important together, but efficiency is a natural phenomenon that would occur if we just let it happen; but instead, we desire the control, which will ultimately give us a miniscule amount of stability. Fluctuations cause change; another natural phenomenon that occurs. We have learned so much about these two aspects, but we have yet to understand how to correlate them with the already existing natural systems in the universe; the cosmos, the oceans, the seasons, etc. Instead, we try and fight these things; we try to fight nature, and we are ultimately left at a loss. While creating the tiniest amount of stability, we disrupt the natural cycle of our earth and eliminate the majority of the potential stability and efficiency we could actually acquire.
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Dignity, another human need, revolves around fairness and the ability of a system to replicate this across the board. The funny thing is the way that humans decide to look at fairness. We think of fairness as “the same”; everyone should be the same, act the same, have the same things, the same opportunities and that is what constitutes a fair society. In class, we discussed this idea of equal opportunity vs. equal output. Equal output is the idea that a society should live in accord with one another, that wealth should be redistributed through taxes and used to create a “fair” society. In America, we live in an equal opportunity environment, which means that everyone has the same opportunities, but not the same resources to start out. The comical aspect, in my opinion, is derived from this idea that without resources, you are able to have the same opportunities. We all know that without monetary wealth, many Americans are forced to live in underwhelming ways, leaving them at a loss to the same opportunities that the top one percent have open to them. This idea of fairness has suddenly become something that has to be given or earned or even redistributed. But isn’t it an innate right of living? Shouldn’t fairness be a fundamental aspect of life? And is fairness ever really the same? We all know that we have individualistic qualities that make us unique, and that is often what drives or shies us away, but if we look at it fundamentally, fairness is given to us from birth. Not fairness in the sense of “the same,” but fairness in the sense that we all have qualities that separate us from the whole. We are all unique. We all have something to bring to the table. That is what makes life fair.
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My point is that we have tried to contract out these human rights to companies and corporations and we’ve tried to give them a monetary value, when in reality, they cannot be measured in any way. They just are, and they are important. We all know that. But instead of trying to create them ourselves, we’ve essentially tried to subcontract them to institutions, so that we aren’t to blame if they were to fail. We have given up our own right to humanity.
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Growth and variety are the last of the basic human needs we spoke about in class. These aspects are supposed to build on safety, security and fairness and their goal is to promote freedom. The thing is, growth and variety is, again (surprise), another natural phenomenon. Darwin’s theory of evolution is proof of this. It will happen naturally and in divine timing. The problem with humans is we have become so detached from our environment, that we feel we need to create new systems and govern and control these systems to our standards because they are fact. In fact, if we were to let the natural systems do their job, we would probably witness more growth and variety on the planet. The truth is, we have control of nothing. And the more we try to control it, the more chaotic it seems. Why is this? We are going against the flow of nature. If we were to take a step back, stop and study, we would realize that everything we need has already been given to us. We don’t need to create anything; it is all here for the taking; it has already existed. It is ours. We are just so scared that it makes us blind to what is really in front of us: serenity, peace and pure existence – the power to create worlds.
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Our desires are merely a myriad of our own minds; they don’t really exist, but because we feed them, because we think that they are true and because we believe we have to look to the outside world to fulfil them, they will never cease. The ultimate truth is, though, that they never existed in the first place. We make this world so complicated, but it’s a system just as those we try to create, we just spend too much time trying to create new ones that we don’t realize our existing one is already in perfect harmony with the whole; something we have not yet achieved. Something that is possible, but something we inhibit due to our own ignorance.
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