Nagashima Ryujin
About the Author
●A World Without Money --A Short Story--
Humans have devised the tool called money and have been using it for a long time. Nobody can deny that money is convenient. However, it also has factors which arouse desires, confuse people’s minds and create all kinds of problems. You may well say that most of the present day’s troubles are caused by money. How I wish that our world would become moneyless.
On the other hand, everything should have some meaning, so the experience of living in money economies may have been necessary if we are born into such a world at all.
It depends on people and varies greatly by how you face money, how much you get and how you use it in this world. In a conventional economy, you may think that the reason for having a job is to make money or to desire it limitlessly. There will be quite a large range of differences in your ways of thinking about and treating money. You have contact with varieties of people and have all kinds of experiences. This is possible only because you are born into a money economy.
Money economies are far from ideal societies, and it is certain that they are hard to live in. However, you could not have the experience of realizing something and living your life in a money economy if you did not live now. Also, I think there are a lot of things we can learn from money.
The Fundamental Problems of Conventional Economies
●I think the fundamental problems of conventional economies are as follows:
1.The money system is unnatural.
The money we use today does not deteriorate, something which does not occur in nature. Everything in nature will inevitably go bad or perish in time, while money does not. Moreover, it can be limitlessly accumulated in a bank and produce profits. People with a lot of money can be richer and richer. This is a system that makes rich people richer and poor people poorer.
2.Most people believe that it is better to have a lot of money.
Most people want to have a lot of money in such a money system. They believe that it is better to have as much money as possible because they can buy almost anything with money. They also believe that it is better to make their companies bigger and bigger. If they are rich, people will envy them.
3.Competition is accepted as the natural order.
In a conventional economy, it is natural to compete for money. Therefore, survival is the name of the game, and to scramble for money is justified. As a result, in Japan and some other countries, many people work too hard without rest and, as a result, develop physical and mental problems.
4.People need to produce and sell things that are not necessary.
In order to get money, people need to keep working. They need to constantly produce things and sell them. Therefore, they need to sell things that are not necessary and have people throw things away while they are still usable. As a result, resources keep being depleted.
5.As a result, we have an extreme gap between the rich and the poor, and we have environmental destruction.
As a result of money-centered thinking and competition for money, extreme gaps between the rich and the poor are everywhere in the world. Also, as a result of the scramble for resources, forests are cut down, and the oceans and air are polluted. Our environment has been destroyed to the point of criticality.
●How can we solve the problems? Here are my suggestions:
1.Change the money system.
We can change the nature of money so that it deteriorates over time and does not generate profits. If this is too difficult, limits can be set on the amount of money that can be kept in a bank. If rich people were not allowed keep unlimited amounts of money, then money would circulate where it is needed, and extreme poverty could be reduced, even in a conventional economy.
2.Think that just enough money is enough.
If enough people are satisfied with moderate lifestyles and circulate money that is in excess of what they need, more money will go to poor people. Such a way of thinking and living will diminish the gap between the rich and the poor. Also, companies could make only products that we need and would not have to expand out of vanity and the desire for more money.
3.Stop meaningless competition.
Competition can be fun, but there should be no further competition for money. I see no point in making more money than you need while sacrificing your health.
4.Make and sell no wasteful products.
If you do not want to make more money than you need, you do not have to make and sell products that people don’t need and which waste resources. Wouldn’t we have enough resources if we made only the products that we need?
5.Prioritize the happiness of all people and all living things before anything else.
Stop thinking that it does not matter what happens to other people or to other animals and the environment as long as it benefits you. Prioritize the happiness of all people and all living things, living together in harmony before anything else. We are born to live that way.
●Our minds have been duped by conventional economies.
People are naturally anxious living in a society where you cannot live without money. They are trapped in an unnatural system where they scramble for money and are classified as rich or poor. I do not know whether this is because all of us wanted the money system or because some people plotted to bring it about. However, it is doubtless that this manmade system is creating enormous pain and confusion in our minds.
The Path to a Moneyless Society Is Important
I suppose that at present, a certain number of people, including myself, want the world to become moneyless and that more and more people would like to see a moneyless world.
However, I do not want a moneyless world dictated by some super power manipulating people’s thoughts or forcing them into it. I think it would be impossible for people to live happily as the result of such a coercive process.
Not until each of us thinks about the nature of money and the ideal society and comes to understand that it is better to live in a moneyless world that such a world can be realized. The process itself is as important as the goal.
In other words, it is as important to think about and realize the need for change into a moneyless society as it is to make a moneyless society come true. I think that is why we find ourselves in a modern conventional economic society.
Producing No Wasteful Products, Doing No Meaningless Jobs
In a conventional economic society, people cannot live without money, so they work to earn money. If they do not have jobs, they suffer, and that is why jobs are created. There are also many jobs connected to money and finance. It would be better to have no job at all. In a moneyless country, people would work only on things that are truly necessary and would spend the rest of their time developing their character or resting.
*Producing No Wasteful Products
In order to produce goods, you need raw materials and resources. Producing wasteful products means wasting resources. In a conventional economic society, people produce wasteful products in order to make money. As a result, resources are wastefully consumed. If you lived in a moneyless country, you would produce just enough, and resources would not be wasted.
*Working Only on the Truly NecessaryWhat Is the Purpose of Your Work?
If I were to ask you, living as you do in a conventional economic society, what the purpose of your work is, you might answer:
- In order to earn money.
- In order to eat.
- In order to keep living.
- In order to support your family.
- In order to satisfy your customers.
You might often have to do what you do not want to do in order to get money to live. Also, there are many jobs in finance that exist only because of money, and you might be under a lot of stress, having little money or time, or competing with other companies.
If I asked people living in a moneyless country the same question, I think most of them would answer that they work to satisfy their customers. In a moneyless country you would not need to work in order to eat or live, so the purpose of work would be simple.
There may be other reasons for working that are common to both systems, for example, in order to satisfy your inner urges, or in order to be helpful to the society, and so on.People Who Reject the Concept of a Moneyless Country
I have been working for A Moneyless Country for about ten years. About 10 to 20% of the people who have listened to me have praised me, and another 10 to 20% are fairly skeptical about the idea. They say that it is totally impossible. Human societies need money. It is useless to think about an unrealistic idea. People would not work without money. They like money. And some say they are just not interested in the concept of a moneyless country, and so on.It may be impossible to create a country without money. I am not so sure about it myself. Also, I can understand that people cannot or do not want to accept the idea because it is so far removed from the current economic and cultural system. They might even say that all their efforts would be wasted or that they would see no meaning in life if there were no money.
However, there are some among the skeptics who might change their minds. When they see me again after a few years or after they listen to me once again, they say that they understand what I say even though they did not understand it the first time. Such people tend to become positive believers. It may be that they are negatively or positively influenced because they have been thinking seriously about the role of money in their lives.
In a sense, the most troublesome people are those who are neither skeptics nor believers. It seems that these people passively accept any social system that exists in their lives.What Society Do You Aspire to?
Is it possible or impossible to realize a moneyless society?
What is more important is what kind of society you think is better.Do you aspire to a society where people compete for money and are ranked as poor and rich? Or do you agree with a moneyless society where everybody is equal?
If you like a moneyless society where everybody is equal, imagine such a society and create realistic images of such a society in your mind.
It does not matter what other people may think about it.
It does not matter whether it comes true or not.What matters is what kind of society you think best for mankind.
Jobs in a Money Society Are Exploitation
Jobs in a money-based society are exploitation. That is because when you produce a product to sell, you set the price of the product a little higher than the cost in order to secure profit. The added amount is for the labor of producing and selling the product. The higher you set your profit, the more you exploit your customers.The goal in a conventional economic society is to maximize profits. Those who are good at exploiting people can make a lot of money.
Because it is a zero-sum game, if there are rich people, there have to be poor people as well. If you are one of the winners, you have made someone else poorer on the other side of the world. Therefore, you are responsible for them.
To begin with, if you have enough money to live, you do not need more than that. It may be better to spend the extra money to buy unnecessary goods or to enjoy yourself extravagantly in order to stimulate the economy than just to accumulate it. However, it is a wasteful use of resources.
Therefore, what is important for the rich is how they spend their extra money. If they spend their extra money not on themselves but on the poor, then that money is well spent. I think the rich in a conventional economic society should use their extra money for the betterment of society. There is a test of character there.If You Think Everything Is Yours
In a moneyless country, everything is free of charge. You get what you need in a store for free. If that is the case, how does your idea of goods change?In the money-based society, goods are not yours until you pay for them. However, everything is free in a moneyless country and you may think everything is yours to begin with.
Once, Mr. Takagi of the Network Global Village said to his audience in one of his lectures, “When you buy a carton of milk in a supermarket, do you take an old one or a new one?” I suppose many would take a new one. Then he said, “OK then. If you have an old carton and a new carton in your fridge, which do you take first?” There was laughter in the audience. I am sure that many thought of taking the old one first.
Why is your behavior different in a supermarket from what it is in your home? When you are in a supermarket, you think it better to buy the freshest possible milk to store at home. However, if all of you think so and take the freshest milk, the old milk may be left on the store shelf and it is a problem.
Obviously, you think the milk in a supermarket is not yours and the milk in your fridge is yours. And you think, more or less, that you are not responsible for goods that are not yours.
If you think everything is yours, as it would be in a moneyless country, you would take the older milk first, wouldn't you?
Of course, milk is not the only thing that matters. If you thought that nature and its resources and everything in the world were yours, you would take good care of them and not destroy them, and you would feel responsible for everything, wouldn’t you?Do Not Make Decisions with Money as Your Criterion
Do not make decisions with money as your criterion. You will make bad decisions if money is your criterion.However, in a conventional economic society, most things are decided with money as the criterion, so many bad decisions are made.
You work for money. You take risks for money. You destroy nature for money. You fight for money. And you kill people for money.
Imagine if the world were a moneyless country. Then you would see what really mattered, and you know how to make good decisions.
What really matters does not change regardless of whether money is involved or not.If a Moneyless Country Could Be Actualized
“In a moneyless country, everything would be free, right?”
“Yes, it would. It would sound strange though to say free of charge because there would be no money and therefore no charges.”
“I could go to a department store and get anything there without paying.”
“If you like.”
“What? You wouldn’t do that?”
“No. You would not have to keep them at home because anytime you needed something you could get it.”
“You are right. Keeping lots of things at home would reduce your living space.”“OK. Then, I would go to a supermarket and get a bunch of food.”
“You might do that if you wanted to eat it all quickly or all at once. But isn’t there a limit as to how much you can eat at one time?”
“I would put the extra food in a fridge or a freezer.”
“The fridge would be full and it would get stale.”
“I see. It would be better to get food as we need it, wouldn’t it?”“You wouldn’t have any property in a moneyless country, would you?”
“No. There would be no notion of possessions.”
“I am a little worried about that.”
“Ha-ha. You might think you don’t have any property. But you might also think that everything is yours.”
“You are right. You could get anything you needed anytime.”
“Right. Everything in every store would be yours.”“I would take good care of things if I knew that everything would be mine.”
“Yes. That is what it would be like in a moneyless country.”
“I would think so. I would use things very carefully, making as little waste as possible.”
“It would not just affect goods in stores. It would affect everything, wouldn’t it?”
“Yes. It would affect everything. All the resources on earth and nature as well.”
“You would take good care of all of the earth because you would think everything is yours, wouldn’t you?”What Is Important Is to Create Heaven in Our Minds
You may think it is useless to think about a moneyless country because it is unrealistic. I agree that it will be difficult to make it come true.However, I wonder if it is meaningless to imagine a moneyless country. If you never imagine, even the smallest possibility will not be realized. Also, I think that if we can imagine something such as a moneyless country, we do not necessarily have to create it.
What I think most important is the creation of a moneyless country in our minds, or the creation of an ideal society or of heaven in our minds. We should create a world in our minds where people do not use money, where there is no war, and where everyone and every living thing is happy.
Once you are able to create such a world in your mind, you can live, taking the long view, no matter what your life is like, without being unduly influenced by the culture of the conventional society in which you live.
Once you have created a heaven in your mind, you are free to do what you want to do. You can start farming, you can build an eco-village, or you can remain in the conventional economic society. It does not matter much.
When enough people have created a heaven in their minds, society will change in due course. Then, you may one day find yourself in a moneyless country. It would be best if it happened that way, and there may be no other way to actualize a moneyless country.
Odd Ideas Commonly Held in Conventional Economic Societies
In conventional economic societies, it is common sense for the employer to pay the employee and for the employee to say, “Thank you.”When you go to a restaurant and pay after a meal, the restaurant employees say, “Thank you.” It seems better for those who ate to say “Thank you” to those who served them. The act of paying and receiving money affects our behavior toward each other.
In conventional economic societies, people work for money, and this makes employers seem more important than they actually are. In a moneyless society, you would not consider employers to be more important than employees.
Jobs would not exist if there were neither employers nor employees. When working, we should express gratitude both ways and say, “Thank you for doing the job.” “Thank you for letting me do the job.”
People Who Cannot Imagine a Moneyless Country
In a conventional economic society, many people will think that a moneyless country is unrealistic and absurd. I agree that it would be difficult to create one in a short time. You may say that it is sheer nonsense, and you may be right.
There are two reasons why people reject the concept of a moneyless country:
1. People need money. A moneyless country is not an ideal society.
2. A moneyless country may be an ideal society, but it is useless to think about it because it is impractical.It will be difficult for people who embrace reason A to imagine a moneyless country because they think that conventional society is the best, or if it is not the best then there is no other society that could replace conventional society. However, if you adhere to reason B, I would challenge you to imagine a moneyless country because you think it might be better than conventional society.
This works not only with the idea of a moneyless country. The blue arrows in the diagram represent the thought patterns of people who have little imagination. Such people can think only within the boundaries of conventional society, and their creative thoughts will bounce off the wall of reality of the conventional world. On the other hand, the power of imagination can break through the wall of reality like the red arrows shown in the diagram.
Thoughts must break through the wall of reality first; otherwise there will be no creative imagination. Without creative imagination, there will be no creation. All inventions and theories come from imagination.
The Conventional Economic System Should Be Changed
If we aspire to a society where there is no rich or poor and everyone can be happy, while continuing to use money, we need to change the conventional economic system.Entropy is a law of nature. Everything goes bad, gets damaged, gets old or falls out of use in time. However, the face value of money does not deteriorate. If prices go up, the value of money goes down accordingly, but the face value of a one hundred dollar note stays the same through the years. It appears to be natural, but actually it is very unnatural.
Money and the system of money is a human invention. Contrary to the law of nature, the face value of money does not deteriorate, and such money can be accumulated without limit, something that is impossible in nature. And when the money system was invented, banks were naturally invented also. You got interest when you deposited money and you paid interest when you loaned money. Because money does not deteriorate and because you get interest if you are rich enough to deposit your money in the bank, your money just keeps increasing without any effort on your part. Since the money system is a zero-sum game, if someone becomes rich, somebody else has to be poor on the other side of the world. A society, once immersed in the money system, cannot escape the competition for money.
The conventional money system has created the differences between the rich and the poor, and has caused huge economic gaps among nations as well as the destruction of the earth as a result of many years of unfair business dealings between the rich and the poor.
If we were to solve this problem of the money system, we would need to change the nature of money so that it’s value deteriorated over time. For example, a one hundred dollar note would be worth ninety-five dollars after one year. If the value of money declined over time, people would use it quickly, and the economy would be vitalized. This actually happened. Once in a town in Australia, such money was issued in the form of community money and was a big success. However, the central bank of Australia soon put a stop to it.
Alternatively, we might assign minus interest to deposited money. If we took a small sum of money from the rich, debts could diminish in time, and the gap between the rich and the poor would shrink.
All these proposals might sound like jokes. However, if we are to reduce the gap between the rich and the poor and aspire to a truly equitable world, we need to discuss such a monetary system and make serious efforts to actualize such a system.
We Are Not Born to Compete for Money
You have to work for money in a conventional economic society. This cannot be helped because you need money in order to live in such a society. However, if you think the purpose of your work is money, you are making a big mistake.People work hard to make a living, for their family and in order to advance the society. It is not wrong to work diligently. However, if your reason for working is to make limitless profits or for the limitless expansion of your business, you are heading for the destruction of the earth and of mankind.
Jobs can be problematic in themselves. In a conventional economy, the interests of the client or the company often take first priority over an employee’s own judgment. If you are ordered to do something you know is bad or dangerous, you have to do it whether you agree or not. Also, doing something that might seem good at the time can cause an opposite result.
You may not think it matters if you and your company make a profit or consume as many resources as you want. However, the critical environmental state of the earth and an extremely unbalanced society is the result of everyone thinking and acting in such a manner.
Such shortsighted visions and decisions have caused critical damage to the earth and have compromised the future of humanity. The idea of making more money, living a better life and beating our rivals has escalated to the point where nobody is able to stop or even slow the destruction of the planet.
If we want humanity to survive, we must first use all resources within renewable boundaries. Now is the time when all humans must think globally and take action. It is high time we stopped thinking only of our own companies or the development of our countries’ economic development. If nothing changes, the collapse of human civilization or the total extinction of all living things on earth is almost certain.
Money, Material, And Resources
If we printed a lot of money and distributed it, would everyone become rich?
Money is a substitute for goods or services. It has no value until it is exchanged for something. If we assume that having many possessions equals wealth, we need to produce lots of goods and provide many services.
In order to produce things, we need resources. However, resources are limited, and if we consume resources beyond renewable limits, those resources are depleted and cannot be replaced. They cannot be renewed no matter how much money is printed.
Through history, we, humans, have changed resources into goods, consumed them and then disposed of them as waste. The diagram shows how resources have been turned into goods and are depleting.
To begin with, resources must not be wasted and must be consumed within renewable boundaries. A lot of money does not mean that we are rich. What we have been doing – consuming and depleting resources for money – is putting the cart before the horse.
The Process of Creating a Moneyless Country
I have thought of a process that can be used to create a moneyless country. It is as follows:
- More people think about what money is. In doing so, they will see that money is a tool invented by humans. Originally, it was not essential to human life like air or water. Also, people should not be forced to work only for money. In a conventional economy, the competition for more money creates the gap between the rich and the poor.
- They imagine a moneyless world. This helps them think about the values, ways of life, and social systems of a moneyless world where everyone can live happily.
- The way people use money changes and money begins to flow more equitably. When this happens, people do not accumulate more money than necessary, and they begin to spend more money for social improvements.
- The gap between the rich and the poor disappears, and there is no more destruction in the environment. Then, hunger and poverty disappear, and excessive luxury, meaningless work, and the destruction of nature disappear as well.
- Money becomes a substitute, and money is used only as a medium of exchange and a substitute for goods.
- Money disappears. As a consequence, people stop exchanging goods, and this leads to the end of the use of money.
I personally think the fifth stage is especially important in realizing a moneyless world. At this stage, there will be changes in monetary systems. The conventional unnatural system that is advantageous solely to the rich in which deposited money accumulates interest, will be abolished. After this stage of the process has fully matured, the transition to a moneyless society will be easy.
And, at the sixth stage, the idea of exchange fades, and people just give. Finally, a moneyless country exists.
Pyramid Finance Schemes
The phrase ‘pyramid finance scheme’ means different things to different people. Basically though, it is a kind of multilevel marketing and is different from so-called Ponzi schemes which are illegal.Such schemes involve the risk of creating problems like those of Ponzi schemes if you are not careful enough. So, I think you should not simply presume that these schemes are good or bad but should do some research and make your decision on a case-by-case basis.
The other day, I went to a sales presentation given by a company employing a pyramid finance scheme. A friend of mine is a member and wanted me to join the scheme. I became a temporary member because their products do not destroy nature, are attractive and require membership to purchase them.
Later, that friend of mine told me, in brief, that half of the price is for the material costs, developing costs and operating costs. The other half is the commission for the sales persons who are part of the pyramid.
In the case of companies that do not employ pyramid schemes, half of the price of the product goes to advertising costs instead of commissions, so there is not much difference in prices. The difference in the two kinds of businesses is where half the price goes – to advertising or to commissions.
I work for an advertising agency, and we would be out of business if nobody advertised. I think there should be varieties of business styles.
In the case of a pyramid finance scheme, there is a pyramid-like ranking of sales persons, and those on the top get the most. I suppose that if people in such schemes were only interested in achieving a higher position in the pyramid and increasing the number of members they bring in to make more money, there might be problems.
In conventional economic systems, you need more and more consumers in order to generate more income. In the case of a pyramid finance scheme, a member introduces his or her friends to the products and tries to get them to join so that they will purchase more and more products. The higher you are in the pyramid, the more income you get. The members do not just multiply. The more members there are, the more bottom members you need.
There may be no problem if you join the scheme fully understanding the system. However, if you think you can make money from the scheme or if you tell your friends something misleading, you will have problems.
Also, I do not really agree with a system where a few people can make quite a lot of money while most make very little. It is a good idea to make beneficial products popular among people. However, if making money is the priority, I think that is putting the cart before the horse.
In my case, I purchased several products from the scheme, but I do not plan to buy any more now, nor to introduce the products to any of my friends. It is not because I do not like the products any longer but because they do not have what I need, and I also like products of other companies.
I have a favorite shampoo and I have been using it for years now. It contains a lot of amino acids, and a little of it goes a long way. I usually use it to wash my whole body as well as my hair.
The company that sells this shampoo does so by mail order only. They do not spend any money on advertising, and it is not a pyramid finance scheme. They use buzz marketing, and more than 90% of buyers become repeat customers. These tactics seem to be increasing their sales. I often recommend this product to people and give it to my family as a gift.
You have to drive yourself hard to make money in a conventional money economy. However, if you think it is sufficient to make just enough to live, you might not have to advertise widely, and it may be ideal if your business goes with buzz marketing alone.
Self-Sufficiency And a Moneyless Country
I am occasionally asked if living self-sufficiently would mean having to give up the modern conveniences we enjoy today and having to go back to a primitive way of life if a moneyless country were created. Before we draw any conclusions, let’s think about sustainability as it refers to human history on the planet.
The earth provides an environment in which all the animals and plants can sustain life. Humans, a kind of animal that evolved on the earth, first gathered fruit and nuts from trees and caught fish and killed small animals for food. Obtaining food was their work. They also invented varieties of tools for dining and hunting.
Next, they learned agriculture and began to grow and eat agricultural products. They might have formed societies where they lived cooperatively. They had various kinds of tools that they needed for their lifestyle. All adults were engaged either in agriculture or in making such tools, I suppose.
This is the most fundamental stage of self-sufficiency. Self-sufficiency here means that you mainly get or grow your own food in order to sustain your life. It also means that you make your own clothes, houses, and tools.
Then role-sharing began and humans began to specialize. In role-sharing, they needed to exchange things or give things each other. A man who specialized in making tools would have been in trouble if nobody had wanted to exchange some food for his tools or just give him some food. Mutual reliance among people is essential in a specialized role-sharing society.
Role-sharing societies developed self-sufficiency from personal to small group and finally to community self-sufficiency. As the populations of such societies grew, the areas in which they lived expanded.
In a moneyless society, the world and all humans would share roles and would be self-sufficient in a sense. There would be many who engaged in agriculture, but humans would not live like cavemen, nor would they have to give up modern civilization.
By the way, the raw materials for what humans make are the resources of the earth. If you do not think of yourself as separate from others, it is logical to think that the human race has lived self-sufficiently on the planet. You can say that we still do now, although I admit that long distance transportation of goods is really wasteful and unfair.
In the course of social development, the existence of money has made specialization of roles easier and facilitated the development of civilization. The desire for more money has accelerated the speed of this development.
I would never say that role-sharing is wrong, because it is efficient. However, the speed of social development in a conventional money economy is too fast, and the natural environment and human capacity cannot keep up with it causing reliance among people to deteriorate and become unstable and risky.
The food self-sufficiency rate of Japan is extremely low. Role-sharing is indeed efficient, but Japan is a strange country which relies on other countries for most of its vital food supplies, which produces goods that its people cannot eat and which believes that it will always be able to get much of its food from other countries. Money turns to worthless scraps of paper when economies collapse. It is impossible to believe that countries that export food to Japan would continue to do so in case of economic collapse.
The Purpose of My Advocacy for a Moneyless Country
I have been giving lectures on A Moneyless Country and exchanging ideas with a lot of people on the Internet for several years. People’s responses vary widely.
In a lecture, for example, the response depends on the makeup of the audience, but if there are ten people there, it might be like this:
One or two people highly praise the idea and say that a moneyless country is possible and that they want to create one soon.
Four or five people are interested and hope that a moneyless country will be created.
Two or three people are not sure about it and say that though a moneyless country may be ideal, it is probably impossible.
One or two people reject the practicality of a moneyless country and say that no society can exist without money.Of course it is perfectly all right to have a wide variety of opinions, and that is the reality of society. I myself do not think that a moneyless country can be easily created. It may be practically impossible.
However, the reason why I take time to advocate for A Moneyless Country is that I do not think conventional economic society is what human society should be like, so I would like people to imagine what an ideal society could be like.
You will not be even slightly interested in the concept of a moneyless country if you are completely satisfied with conventional economic societies. However, I cannot help thinking that those who believe A Moneyless Country is impractical tend to feel that conventional economic society is imperfect but that no other kind of society is achievable.
They say it will never be created as long as there are people with evil thoughts, as long as there are people who are greedy, as long as there are people who love to control others and as long as there are people who steal from others. I may be one of the aforementioned kinds of people myself.
However, the thing is that we should first commit ourselves to avoiding the vices listed above, and we should try to live lives worthy of residents of A Moneyless Country. That is probably what we were meant to try to accomplish in this world, and people who achieve it will be allowed to live in a moneyless world in their next lives.
The Three Golden Rules for Conventional Economic Society
If we were to manage our conventional economic society ethically, the following three rules would be essential:
*Do not make more profit than is necessary.
*Do not buy more than is necessary.
*Give your surplus money to those who are in need.
- DO NOT MAKE MORE PROFIT THAN IS NECESSARY
As a rule, money is a zero-sum game. Therefore, if it is saved, its natural flow is impeded, and this causes the differences between the rich and the poor. If you do not try to make more profit than is necessary, you will not produce or sell wasteful products, and you will not hoard your money. You will price your products according to their real value so that you will not make unnecessary profits.
- DO NOT BUY MORE THAN IS NECESSARY
If you buy more than is necessary, for example, luxury goods, simply because you have money to do so, you consume the extra resources, labor, and energy needed to produce and sell the products you buy. If you did not buy more than is necessary, you would not have to earn more than is necessary, and unnecessary products would not be produced.
- GIVE YOUR SURPLUS MONEY TO THOSE IN NEED
If you have made more money more than is necessary, you should give it to those in need instead of buying products that are not necessary. If money were to flow from those who have a surplus to those who have a deficit, the difference between the rich and the poor would shrink. You would have to think about to whom and how you should give your money. You need not spend all your money simply because you earned it.
This may sound just the opposite of what conventional economic society tells us to do. The idea as to what is necessary and what is surplus varies from person to person. However, I can say that no one who claims to be a moral or ethical person can justify living an extravagant life while millions of people are dying of hunger throughout the world. If we really want to change this world where there is a huge gap between the rich and the poor, where resources are being depleted, and where environmental problems abound, it seems to me that every one of us needs to follow these three rules.
On the Exchange of Products for Money
Let’s think about the exchange of products for money. If we just give people things we have and they need, there is no need for money to be involved and there should be no problem with the transaction. However, in a conventional society, the economy is based on the exchange of products for money.
Diagrams A, B and C show three different cases of a seller and a buyer exchanging products for money.
Diagram A shows a case in which the seller properly prices his or her product and exchanges it for the buyer’s money. This is called an exchange of equivalents.
Diagram B shows a case in which the seller prices his or her product higher than its real value. In this case, the seller makes a profit.
Diagram C shows a case in which the seller prices his or her product lower than its real value. In this case, the seller suffers a loss.
Ideally, exchanges should be equivalent, and in that sense, case A would be right. However, in conventional economies where profit making is the goal, businesses following the models presented in cases A and C cannot survive. Only businesses following the model in case B will profit and survive.
Once sellers receive money, they, in turn, become buyers. Conventional economic societies continue to function normally when people change roles from sellers to buyers.
If everyone were to spend all the money they made, money would circulate instead of lying idle. However, because money does not deteriorate and because people feel safer when they have more money, they tend to accumulate it. They rack their brains to find the best way to make the most profit with the least time and energy. The conventional economic society is, in a sense, a competition for money, and many people and companies work with the goal of wealth in mind.
As a rule, money is a zero-sum game, and if somebody becomes rich, there will be poverty somewhere else. From a global point of view, the advanced countries have followed the model in case C with respect to developing countries. As a result, the extreme gap between the rich countries and the poor countries was created, and priceless resources such as forests were depleted or destroyed.
If we were to manage a conventional economy ethically and morally, we would act in accordance with the model in case A so that nobody gains or loses. However, it seems to me originally unnatural to price goods and labor. It might be next to impossible to price products or labor properly if you were to take everything into consideration.
At any rate, because people wish to accumulate money and because they continue to do business according to the model in case B, the conventional economy is bound to collapse sooner or later.
The Lives of People in a Moneyless Country
People in a moneyless country …
- They do not exchange. They just give what they can give and what people around them need. They receive only what they need.
- They do not fight. They share what they need.
- They do not compete except in games.
- They do not compare themselves with others. They just appreciate each other’s personality.
- They do not have non-essential items. They have only what they need at the time.
- They do not get angry. They just take pity and recognize facts.
- They do not eat too much. They eat only what is necessary.
- They do not control others. They help each other to live.
- They do not force themselves to do things. They just do what they can do.
- They do not expect things. They live life as it comes.
They do not have the concept of possessions, nor do they create rules. A moneyless country cannot survive unless people practice these concepts naturally, without stress and without thinking them. In that sense, it may be impossible to create a moneyless country in this world. However, I imagine more people will think these concepts to be natural once a moneyless country is created and our sense of values is reversed.
In the beginning, there was no such thing as money. There were no rules. It is highly doubtful that we cannot live without things that did not exist in the past.
Human beings, an animal species, should be able to live if there is air, water, food and shelter. Everything else is not essential to human survival.
It is said that the history of human economic life began with bartering. In the beginning, humans bartered for food and tools. However, because food did not last long and your opposite party did not always have things you wanted to barter, they began to use seashells, stones and cloth in place of those goods. Later, they began to use metal tokens. This is how they began to use money.
Monetary systems have always been used. Money was used for buying and selling and also in exchange for labor. As a result, in time some people collected a lot of money and became rich, and others became poor. Eventually, it was discovered that everyone was competing with everyone else for money.
With progress in civilization, humans’ understanding of navigation advanced and means of transportation such as ships and airplanes were devised and developed. This enabled trade on a global scale. Various kinds of resources and agricultural products were transported in great bulk. This gave birth to serious environmental problems such as depletion of forests or global warming as a result of the increase in the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.
At one time, there were countries with money and food in abundance, and countries without enough food to eat. In spite of this, once they started, humans could not stop the competition for money, and the gap between the rich and the poor just kept growing. Today, in poor countries, tens of thousands of people die of hunger every day.
I cannot believe that all humans wanted the extreme gap between the rich and the poor to grow to the point it has reached today. I do not know what has caused the present global state of affairs. Are there fundamental problems in the economic system, or is human greed the cause? At any rate, the monetary system seems to have a fundamental fault.
I think that the fault lies in the idea of exchange, the idea of give and take. Originally, that which you take should not exceed that which you give. In conventional economic societies, people compete to make greater profits by exploiting the difference between the take and the give, and it is thus natural that in such a system there will be rich people and poor people.
Also, the basic rule from the age of barter, i.e., that you take from the party to whom you give is a fundamental error. Originally, you would just give to those in need and be given to as you needed. We should take into account all the people of the earth and not just person-to-person transactions, shouldn’t we?
Originally and naturally, people to whom you give and people from whom you take were different. It was a mistake to create money as a substitute for goods and to begin to conduct seemingly fair transactions with it. Money that people could accumulate and was convenient has brought about immeasurable suffering and tragedy.
It may be that the bartering and the conduct of give and take transactions have been necessary for humans to evolve. However, I think that the only way to save the human species and solve environmental problems is for all of us to realize the fallacy of money, to stop employing the concept of exchanging goods and services for money and finally to create a moneyless society.
Can You Put up with Other People’s Pain for Three Years?
Have you heard the saying that you can put up with other people’s pain for three years? Interestingly, these words tell us something about human nature.
You might wish to take the pain of a much loved person if that person is suffering enormously. However, you cannot take the pain for them, and most people would not want to have pain if they could avoid it. Regardless of the cause, physical or mental pain can be thought of as a trial for the person suffering from it.
People around the suffering person can try to understand their pain and help them relieve the pain. If the remedy is too easy and unwise, it can hurt the suffering person even more. However, I think we should try to put ourselves in the suffering person’s shoes as much as possible.
There are many people who are suffering from economical problems. Some suffer from problems caused by living in a powerful economy. Others suffer from poverty with little food to eat. The conventional economy is designed to enlarge the gap between the rich and the poor. It also works to enlarge the gap between the rich countries and the poor ones.
We are born into a money economy where we are driven to compete for more money. If you were lucky enough to become very rich, you might realize that you had created a large number of poor people as a result. Globally, large economies have developed, and many poor countries have become their prey. This is the result of a culture which believes that economic growth is the primary goal and that those who have made more money are winners.
You may think that you deserve to be rich because you have exerted much effort. However, I wonder how we can turn our backs on suffering people if we do not suffer ourselves. While we are enjoying an abundance of food, worrying about putting on weight and wasting a lot of food, there are a lot of children dying of hunger. Unless we realize the fallacy of the conventional economy and begin to change the world, the tragedy will just continue to grow.
I think we humans are not naturally able to endure other people’s pain. If the conventional economic system cannot change in a short time, there are ways to relieve the pain of economic problems. I suggest that the major economic powers should realize the problems inherent in conventional economies and work together to save the world and the environment, beginning as soon as possible.
The Contradictions of the Conventional Economy
In the conventional economy where you need money to keep you alive, you have the concept of working in order to get money. Having no job means having no money, and that means having problems. In most cases, having a job and having money are inseparable.
Originally, if you had no job, you could just rest. Having nothing to do is not a problem, though it is tiring to have no job for a long time. In the conventional economy, having no job is a matter of life or death, and this gives rise to all kinds of contradictions, forcing the creation of jobs in order to make money.
In many cases, the production of a product depends not on what society needs but on whether it will increase sales. If we produce wasteful products, we waste resources and labor. If we produce only things that we need, we can save resources and labor, and people will feel more at ease, both physically and mentally, which is only beneficial. However, inherent in the conventional economy is the contradiction that you have to produce things that you do not need in order to create jobs that are not really necessary to keep the society running.
In agriculture, you have to dump your products if the harvest is too good and it is not economical to package and ship all of your products. On the other hand, farmers cannot survive if they have unusual weather or disasters and have a poor harvest. In a moneyless world, you would distribute as much as you can harvest, and if you had a poor harvest, you would not suffer from it.
Many of the jobs that volunteers are engaged in now are important jobs that a lot more people should be engaged in. I wonder if we could create a world where everyone could genuinely engage in jobs that are truly necessary for people in need. That we cannot do what is naturally necessary creates all kinds of problems.
It is a virtue to have a job in Japan. However, as long as jobs are tied to money, it seems to me that the true meaning of work can be understood only superficially. When you imagine a moneyless society, you can see more clearly the meaning of having a job.
In a money economy, in many cases, your work will be tied to money. Many people think that the reason for having a job is to make money. Therefore, calling a job ‘a way to make money’ would be more truthful than calling it a job.
It is only natural to want to get a job that will enable you to make money as efficiently as possible. It is difficult to want a job that you genuinely want to do while at the same time thinking of your job only as a means of making money. We can better understand people who plot fraud or burglary if the most important thing in choosing a job were the amount of money you could make.
Originally, having a job meant doing something for somebody and for society, utilizing your talent and feeling a sense of worth. However, it becomes more difficult to see this if you think making money is the most important thing, and your motives for working become impure. It is a tragedy to have to do a job that you do not want or like simply to make money, but this is the result of a money economy.
Humans have caused all kinds of trouble by creating money which we originally devised to make our lives more convenient. We have lost our knowledge of the true meaning of a job because of this tool called money. It is about time that we let go of this drug that is killing the human race, isn’t it?
The Song of a Moneyless Country
If a moneyless country came,
You could do what you want to do.
So let’s find what you can do
To help someone in the world.If a moneyless country came,
You would have only what you want to have.
‘cause everybody could have anything,
It’d be pointless just to have something.If a moneyless country came,
You would not have to save more than you need.
‘cause you could get anything anytime,
You’d only need what you need at the time.If a moneyless country came,
You would not throw away what you can still use.
You would give things away when you do not need them
And repair them when they are broken.If a moneyless country came,
You would not have to compete meaninglessly.
For you would not have to scramble for things
And you could share them with people.If a moneyless country came,
You would not have to give and take money gifts.
‘cause you could not express your feelings with money,
Your genuine feelings would reach your friends.On the Song of a Moneyless Country (1)
If a moneyless country came,
You could do what you want to do.
So let’s find what we can do
To help someone in the world.In a conventional money economy, most jobs are regarded as actions to earn money as a reward. However, in a moneyless country, everything that is good for somebody or something would be regarded as a job of equal value.
For example, volunteer work, home choirs and raising children would naturally be recognized as authentic jobs. However, because they do not earn money in the money economy, they are regarded as different from other jobs that earn money.
In fact, people can do these non-profit jobs without income because they have another job with income, or because they live with somebody else who has income, or because they have a fortune to live on. I think these non-profit jobs are just as valuable as or even more valuable than for-profit jobs and should be valued as equal to jobs that bring you money.
I think that in a moneyless society, such actions that do not bring money in the conventional economy, such as volunteer work, home choirs, raising children, etc., would be a lot more widely recognized as authentic jobs. People would find what they could do for the society and make it their jobs. It would be a society based on people’s common idea that each and every person genuinely wants to contribute to it.
There would be no line between professionals and amateurs. You would not have to lament that you could not utilize your talent or give up using it in your job as you might in the conventional economy. However, because people would ask for and take on jobs on a truly meaningful basis, jobs that are not valued and wanted would disappear.
There would be no difference in income among different professions. You would work in accordance with your talent, ability, and character, and all kinds of jobs would be valued as equal. Also, you could stop working for a while but still make a living because people would serve you unconditionally.
You would not have to do jobs that you did not want to do. You would be able to choose a job that you found worthwhile and you could be proud of. You may think that there would be too many people for too few jobs. However, I think there would be actually a good number of people for all jobs.
Anyway, a moneyless society would not be possible unless everyone thought that they would like to devote themselves to the society and genuinely work for the people of the society. This seems hard to be realized, but I think quite a good number of people would find it comfortable to live in such a society.
On the Song of a Moneyless Country (2)
If a moneyless country came,
You would have only what you want to have.
‘cause everybody could have anything,
It’d be pointless just to have something.In a moneyless society, it would be meaningless just to possess something. Just possessing something would not make you more important than others. It would be essential that the possession of something benefits you or you really need it.
Because people lived in a moneyless society, they would have more sense of guilt in wasting goods and resources. It is an illusion if you feel permitted to waste something of worth by paying money for it. It is totally a mistake.
In other words, it is not permitted to waste resources in a conventional society as well, though it is no problem and up to the person to waste as much money as he or she earned. Money is a substitute for goods, and it circulates among people. However, resources are limited and precious.
In order for us to save resources, it is advisable to think of a life of subsistence. For example, speaking of clothing, food and housing, what clothing do you need, what and how much do you need to eat and what kind of house are you satisfied living in? It is my personal view that Japanese people have gone crazy about clothing, food and housing, compared to other countries.
They are snatching up brand products, being particular about gourmet treats, dieting to lose weight from overeating and trying to build their homes on a narrow patch of land by borrowing a large amount of money. And in order to earn the large sum of money, they overwork, burn themselves out and die young. What on earth are they working for?
It may be only because you live in a conventional money economy that you want to live in luxury. In a moneyless society, you would feel much more satisfied with the same standard of life, be more thankful for your belongings and treasure them. You would acquire, in due time, a balanced state of mind that has few wants.
In a moneyless society, people would have plenty of room, physical and spiritual, and the standard of living would eventually become quite high. Free research development would facilitate development in technology. And when people wanted to possess the minimum they really need, developers would devise high-efficiency models that were free from waste.
On the Song of a Moneyless Country (3)
If a moneyless country came,
You would not have to save more than you need.
‘cause you could get anything anytime,
You’d only need what you need at the time.In a conventional economy, many people think of saving some money. It can be a deposit in a bank, a stock, or real estate such as houses and land. They find in them economic value, durability, and cashability in an emergency.
Why do people think so? It may be out of ostentation. However, the biggest reason is that people can hardly feel secure without having some property because they cannot live without money in a conventional economy.
But it is often the case that you cannot earn enough money to save some. And because there is no standard as to how much money you should save and because of social inequity and greed, more money goes to the rich, making the gap between the rich and the poor greater. Also, if you save some money in the bank, you have to worry about losing it, so people live with worries about money more or less in any situation in a conventional economy.
In a moneyless society, you could get what you need any time without paying money, so you would not have to save more than you need. It would not be necessary to save money for emergency nor would it be necessary to take out insurance. You would not have to worry about money even if something should happen to you or your family.
Economic worries seem to exert a significant pressure upon people in a conventional society. In a moneyless society, without worries about money, which accounts for half of human worries, people would be much more mild and healthy.
On the Song of a Moneyless Country (4)
If a moneyless country came,
You would not throw away what you can still use.
You would give things away when you do not need them
And repair them when they are broken.In a conventional society, making profits from selling goods, for example, is regarded as the primary purpose of jobs. This very idea is the cause of people’s asking for trouble. For example, companies operate their businesses with profit making as their primary aim.
Company managers try to develop their businesses by putting a lot of pressure on employees, with the goal of selling more than they did the previous year. As a result, there will be more work than necessary, which makes employees busier and tires them out physically and mentally.
In order to sell more products, it is not enough just to make good products. They have to produce new products endlessly and kindle consumers’ desires. On the other hand, they stop producing parts for older models or set repair charges high and as a result people have to buy new models when old ones break down.
When you cannot repair something, all you can do is to throw it away. Nowadays, recycling is much advocated and implemented. However, this problem cannot not be solved fundamentally unless we stop producing unnecessary products.
In a moneyless society, fewer jobs would be more desirable. Though it is meaningful to work if it is really necessary, people would think it better to abolish useless jobs and take a break if they could afford to.
People would give things away to people in need of them when those things became unnecessary. Repairing and recycling would a matter of course, and goods that were as good as new would circulate in the society. There would be much less need of mining new resources and nature would not be destroyed.
On the Song of a Moneyless Country (5)
If a moneyless country came,
You would not have to compete meaninglessly.
For you would not have to scramble for things
And you could share them with people.The conventional society systematically forces you to constantly compete with others. At school, you are forced to compete with your friends in studies, sports and arts. Much of the aim of education is concerned with determining who is a better person or grading students, and as a result, as they go on to higher levels of education, they have to learn things that they will never use in their lives.
Actually, learning should be free and everybody should be able to acquire knowledge that they want. I agree with compulsory education to some extent, but I do not think it has to be enforced on everybody. Enforcing standardized education on everybody brings about inconsistencies and causes school violence.
I wonder if the reason why so many people want to go on to higher levels of education now is that they want to work for companies that pay more, or they want to move into high-income occupations after they graduate from school. I disagree with studies that are directed only toward making money.
After getting a job, if you achieve good results in sales competitions with your fellow workers, you will be promoted and, in many cases, get a higher salary. It depends on your conscious mind and your work style, but you will inevitably be put in constant competition for decades after you begin working for the company.
I agree that competition sometimes has its merits. And it is desirable to compete if each party improves through good rivalries. However, because competition is basically designed to decide winners and losers, it brings about all kinds of pain as well. In conventional economies, many people become worn out and ruin their physical and mental health because of competition.
If a moneyless society came, how would it change? You would not have to study to insure your future income. Students would try to find their abilities and personalities from an early age instead of going crazy trying to get into more prestigious schools or memorizing useless information for entrance examinations.
Schools would open their doors to anyone who wanted to study. There might be entrance examinations, but no student with sufficient aptitude would fail in the exams because the school could just increase admissions.
Employees would not have to drag each other down, and companies would not have to work against each other. Everybody would genuinely work for some people and some thing. Positions at work would not have anything to do with people’s incomes, and they would be regarded as role-sharing in accordance with the members’ aptitudes.
There would be no wars if the world became moneyless. I understand that the material desire to possess is the cause of war. The resources of the earth would become all humankind’s property and nobody’s personal property, and only people who needed them would use them thankfully. If that were the case, there would eventually be no borders.
On the Song of a Moneyless Country (6)
If a moneyless country came,
You would not have to give and take money gifts.
‘cause you could not express your feelings with money,
Your genuine feelings would reach your friends.In Japan, people often give and accept money gifts to express their feelings. They give money on ceremonial occasions such as coming of age, marriage, funerals and ancestor worship. Also, in celebration of a birth, entering school, and getting a job or even just visiting somebody in a hospital, they often make a money gift to express their feelings.
Companies give cash bonuses to workers who achieved great results, share profits with employees when business is booming and give farewell money gifts on the occasion of transfers and retirements. Nobody is offended when given a money gift, and it is a convenient and easily understood way of expressing one’s feelings about or recognition of the person.
Being used to this custom, you might think you would not be able to express your feelings in a moneyless society. However, you would think of other ways to do so and your genuine feelings would reach your friends better than they do now. I think that the giving and receiving of money gifts brings about a lot of trouble and vanity rather than convenience.
In the long run, the amount of money that an individual give and receives will be about the same. People return due gifts on ceremonial occasions for coming of age, marriages, funerals and ancestor worship. If you were only receiving gifts, you would feel inferior and uncomfortable. You might think of stopping this giving and receiving of money, but that is actually very difficult to do.
As a penalty, money is also used to express regrets. Paying the victim can tentatively relieve the injured party’s feelings. However, paying the penalty does not mean that the offence had not occurred, and it is a strange way of solving the problem. There will be no real solution other than a thorough investigation into the cause and heartfelt remorse of the individual at fault.
In Japan, not only money gifts but also gifts of goods are frequently exchanged. Gifts on birthdays, anniversaries, presents to cerebrate happy occasions, mid-year and year-end gifts are widely and variably given and received when money gifts do not seem appropriate and when senders want to place a special meaning on their gifts.
Unlike money gifts, gifts of goods are appropriate when the gift is not available where the receiver lives. There would be such exchanges of gifts of goods in a moneyless society as well. However, in a moneyless society, you would not be able to evaluate a gift in terms of money.
In a moneyless society, you would not be able to say that a gift was valuable because it cost a lot of money, so people would not be moved by an expensive gift as in a conventional economy. The reason why the sender gave the gift would be most important.
In a moneyless society, because there would be no meaning in itself for exchanging gifts, there would be no giving and receiving of gifts based on formality. There would be no need of giving and receiving articles that anyone can get, and there would be no bad or awkward feelings between the giver and receiver due to one party not reciprocating.
A moneyless society, such a simple one, is my ideal society.
We can imagine that in primitive society humans made their living by hunting, fishing, and gathering plants and fruit. When they began to barter – for example trading animals they had killed for fruit or plants that others had gathered – they were able to eat a much wider range of food. They may also have bartered tools that they made for food.
I do not know how money came into the world. When money was devised, it was used as a substitute for bartered goods. Money is very convenient. Unlike food, which spoils over time, money can be stored and used to buy whatever is wanted whenever it is wanted. If you are able to save money, you feel secure in knowing that you have a reserve for emergencies. The more money you have, the greater your security, and so people want to accumulate as much as they can because it makes them feel safe.
I do not know very much about economics, but I think that the idea of saving money is the root cause of the tragedies caused by conventional economics. When some people have a lot of money, it means that there are people elsewhere who have little money. When people compete for limited resources, it is natural that there will be those who have and those who have not. In society differences in position and profession have probably helped to create the inequalities in the possession of money.
In the conventional economy, we can do almost nothing without money. I suppose that many people share the view that they want to have as much money as possible in order to live without worries and that we work in order to earn money. They also tend to compare themselves with others and want to become richer and take more advantageous positions in society.
When everybody thinks this way, you cannot help thinking about how you can earn money more efficiently or how you can sell more of your products. And when this idea goes so far, you may think about forcing people to buy unnecessary products or making your products easy to break so that people will buy them repeatedly. In the extreme, it is easier and quicker to rob people of money.
This is, of course, losing sight of the original meaning of work. To work means to serve the public. Originally, the job was to get food for the community. In the course of history, we have created all kinds of jobs so that we can make use of our talents and serve each other as we built civilizations such as the one we live in today.
I think that money, a tool for a life of convenience, has been necessary in the course of the development of our society. However, it is only a substitute for real things and has no real value in itself. It is human vanity and the social structure which makes you worry if you have no money that drive you to want to have more money. It is meaningless to have money that you do not need to use. It is also pointless to live in luxury because of having extra money, only to waste our limited resources and create unnecessary jobs.
It will be difficult to rid the world of this convenient tool in a short of time. However, I think that the time has come when we should realize the true meaning of money and work, free ourselves from the slavery of money, make use of our talents in our jobs and together think about how we can create a truly happy society.
The Value Judgment in a Moneyless Country
In a conventional economy, people tend to judge the value of things by their prices. They say, “This bag must be good because it is expensive.” “This person is great because he or she makes this much.” “That person gave me such an expensive gift,” and so on. Many people seem to believe that high-priced things have more value, and so they long to be rich.
In a moneyless country, as a matter of course, the value of something cannot be judged by its price. The value of something is judged by the thing itself. For example, a bag is good because its material is strong, or because the color and the design are cool, or because it suits your taste but never because it is expensive.
Also, because there will be no income, the value of your work will be judged by what you do and not by how much money you earned from it. You may choose your job because the pay is good in the conventional economy. However, in a moneyless country you can choose to do what you want to do, but you will be asked what you are really capable of doing.
What you possess will not decide your status. In a moneyless country, you can possess anything, but it will be pointless to possess things that you do not need. People will not envy you simply for possessing things. It will be clear that it is nonsense to store precious works of art whose value you cannot judge or to waste food and resources because you can pay for them.
It will also be questionable to express your feelings by giving gifts to people. It will be meaningless to give and receive gifts that you can buy anywhere. Money gifts for ceremonial occasions will be abolished. You may wonder how you could express your feelings then. I think it is not until such customs are abolished that you will know what you should give as a gift and the receiver will know your true feelings.
I suppose you have variety of things – your assets, such as money, house, car, furniture and so on. You also have daily commodities such as tools, clothes and tableware. Socially, you have your name, a title, or perhaps even an honor as well. You may not be able to say that you possess your family or children, but you may say that you possess your pets. You may also say that you possess your own body.
Well, what do they mean to you? What does it mean you possess something? Possession can only make sense when there is an owner. Therefore, your possession cannot be your owner. Who is the owner of your body if your body is a possession?
Money is gone when it is used. Consumables and materials deteriorate over time. Our body is matter and will deteriorate as well. Material possessions do not exist forever. If you think your body is yourself, it will be your end when your body dies, and there may be no need to think further about possession. But if you think your true self does not seem to be your physical body, let us continue thinking a little more about possession.
If we think our true self is not our physical body but our spirit or our soul, our physical body can be considered another possession. In that case, we might think that all material possessions, including our physical bodies, are borrowed. All material things, whether they are yours or others’, are borrowed and not a part of our true selves.
What we possess in this world is what we borrow from nature, what we make using natural resources in order to make our lives easier, and what we someday have to return to nature. Because what we possess cannot be ourselves, it is senseless to cling to our possessions without reason. Everything in this world, including our bodies, will eventually be useless and, when that time comes, should be returned to nature with gratitude.
Next, let’s think about possession of non-material things, for example, our names. Our names are given to us by our parents or someone around us soon after our birth. It seems that some mystical power that presides over our fortune is responsible for our names. But let it go at that. Our souls do not have names to begin with. It may be wise to know that our names are only tools to help us through life in our society. It seems to me that it goes against the course of nature to go all out to have children in order to continue a family name or cling to a family grave. I think that the best way to a peaceful life is to let things come and go as the almighty wishes. Because all our acts are bound by the law of causation, we cannot be too careful about intentionally handling the death or life of a human being.
It can be said that your title is a social possession. However high a position you may achieve, you should accept it as a role in society and think and act for the good of society rather than for your own personal interest. If you wallow in your past glory, you cannot make progress within yourself. The test of a person is what he or she thinks and does at the moment, regardless of the title or fame that they possess.
After all, what we possess is only what we borrow, for example our names or titles. We will be bound by and troubled by our possessions if we put too much value on them.
In the conventional economy, it seems as if money has enormous power. What is just paper and metal should not have more power than the original material. However, many people want to have more money, and some people seem to mistakenly believe that they are great when they have a lot of money. Others cling to money, suffer, hurt each other and ruin their lives.
Money is a tool that we devised in order to live lives of convenience and ease. Barter has its limitations while money enables us to store the value of what we produce or the value of our labor. We can get anything we like anytime in exchange for money.
It may be natural for you to want to save as much money as possible in order to get what you want whenever you like. Many people come to think it nice to get as much money as possible as efficiently as possible. Recently, it has been socially acceptable to use one’s talents to make a lot of money as long as one does not act illegally.
On the other hand, it has become difficult to make a living for those who haven’t had the chance of making money in one way or another. Unless you grow your own food, you cannot get food without money in a conventional economic society. It seems difficult even for those who have some extra money to give money to others because the concept of possession is so strong. Also, poverty will not disappear simply by giving money to anyone who needs it. The birth of money has naturally brought about the gap between the rich and the poor.
The way you use your money seems to show your character. We can tell a person’s character or personality from how he or she makes use of their money. Some people cannot help using all the money they get. Others borrow too much money and cannot return it. Still others go gambling to get rich quick. And others just desperately keep saving money without any goal. All happiness and pain from money seems to come from thoughts and actions.
When you use your money for somebody, it is advisable to consider his or her situation and economic condition and think of a balanced use of money. It is easy to use money for yourself. However, when it comes to using it for other people, you cannot be too careful about your use of money because it shows your character, and you will be judged by the way you use your money. Stingy people are avoided, but it is not advisable to make yourself look too generous.
It’s better to think that we use money because we need to use money rather than because we have money. It depends on the person as to when and how you use your money. However, it is a waste of resources to go extremes of luxury simply because you can afford to even if it is true that the economy will not function well unless rich people use their money.
No matter how much your income, you will have enough money if you reduce what you want. I cannot deny the pleasure of shopping, and it is all right to buy things within your capacity. However, there is no end to material desire if you do not put an end to it somewhere. It is necessary to be satisfied with what you have if you want to have peace of mind.
One of the reasons why people want to get more money than they need in the conventional economy is that they worry about their old age. If a sufficient living standard is guaranteed, you do not have to save a lot of money in the bank for your old age. Except for those who plan to lead a life of luxury in their old age, you cannot help but save some money for your old age because you live in a society where everybody has to worry about their future.
Regardless of your income, it is desirable for everyone to be satisfied with a sufficient life. After all, there is not so much difference in what we eat and drink and what we need in life. You cannot eat twice or three times as much as others because you are rich, and if you live in a huge house, it will be only a lot of trouble to maintain it.
I think that if we could devise a system in which your extra money automatically flows to people in need after you have used what you need, there would be no one in the world who could not live because they did not have enough money. Impossible as it may sound, if we want to create such a society, we will have to eliminate our extra desires and achieve a state of mind where we can feel satisfied with what we already have. Actually, I think that if such society were to come about, most people would be able to live more decently than they do now.