A Moneyless Country
"Oh, Where am I?
This is a very beautiful place for a downtown area.
Wow! What a cloudless blue sky!
People from many countries are here. It's very international!
They are chatting pleasantly, but I wonder how they communicate
with each other.
By the way, why I am here?"
"Excuse me, are you all right?"
"It looks like I have lost my way."
"Well, you must be in a bit of a jam. Where are you heading
for?"
"I don't have any particular place to head for. But, where
am I?"
"You are on the planet earth."
"I know I am on the earth, but am I in Japan?"
"Japan? Well, I've heard that people use to call this place
'Japan' in the past."
"In the past?"
"Yah, I think it was long time ago. We don't have such an
idea of separating
countries any more. The earth is the earth."
"What is the year now?"
"It is 2505."
"2505!? I was in 2005!"
"Then I suppose you have traveled from 500 years ago."
"Well, maybe you are right."
"How interesting! Well, I'd like you to have a rest for a
while and then tell me all about your trip."
"All right."
"What would you like to have?"
"A coffee for me."
"Two coffees, please."
"Certainly."
"Oh, the prices are not indicated on the menu."
"Prices?"
"Yah, usually there are prices written on the menu."
"Are there?"
"If you don't know the prices, you may have trouble when
you pay the money."
"Money . . . ? Money . . ."
"Here you are. Enjoy your coffees."
"Oh, I remember money. I've learned about it in history
classes."
"In history classes?"
"Yah, I learned that the first Japanese money was called
'wadokaichin.' There were other terms, such as the yen,
dollar, and euro."
"(The yen is lumped together with wadokaichin?!)
Don't tell me that you don't use money now?"
"No, we don't. We don't need to."
"How can you live without money?"
"Why do you ask such a silly question?"
"Well, this is what money looks like."
"Really? What can those dirty pieces of paper and the bits
of metal be used for?"
"Well, let me tell you a few things about money."
"Please."
"We get money if we do some work.
There is a price for everything. We use the money to buy things
at shops or to eat something at restaurants.
Well, 'to buy' means that you get something in exchange for the
money. You have to pay money to get something.
No one can live without money.
People live on the money they've earned from their work.
If you work hard, you'll get a lot of money, and then you can
have an affluent lifestyle.
Although it is true that there is some unfairness and there are
a few crafty people who earn a lot of money without working, most
people live on the money they earn themselves.
So you can see that money is an essential part of our life."
"You mean that people cannot control their desires without
money?"
"Maybe you are right, but if you can get anything without
paying money, you don't have to work at all and you can just live
it up everyday."
"If everyone keeps living it up all the time, there will
be nothing you can get because there will be no one who makes
and provides products."
"If people don't have to work for their living, I guess there
must be some people who keep having fun without doing any work."
"(Laugh) There is no one who thinks like that.
I suppose you associate money with working too much."
"I live in a culture in which people are supposed to work
in order to earn money."
"Working is a service for society, and everyone should work
for the world, for other people, and for oneself to make the world
function even if you don't get money for the work.
Society will provide you what you need for your life without charging
you any money. Our world is functioning in this way."
"You know, if you have money and you don't use it soon, you
can put it in a savings account. A savings account is a place
in a bank where you can keep the money you've saved. You can withdraw
and use the money wherever you want.
If you save a lot of money, you can lead an extravagant lifestyle,
which is great!"
"What does extravagant lifestyle mean?"
"Well, it's a lifestyle where you can buy anything and eat
a lot of delicious food."
"In this world, we can have anything we need without paying
money."
"I don't call it extravagant if you can only have what you
need?
An extravagant lifestyle is one where you can have very expensive
things and much more than you need."
"(Laugh) Oh, excuse me.
Why would you want to have more things than you need?
There will be no end if you try to fulfill such a depthless desire."
"But you know, if you keep saving the money you earn, you
won't have to worry about your life after you retire from your
work."
"You know, we happily give anything to people who physically
cannot work. Do such people also have to work to get things they
need in your time?"
"Are there any thieves now? A thief is someone who steals
money. Well, since there is no money existing now, do thieves
still the things that belong to others?"
"No one steals other people's belongings because everyone
can get anything at shops. There is no reason for stealing from
others. If there happens to be people who want to have the things
that I've made, I'm pleased to give it to them."
"You know, much of the work we do is associated with money,
such as making estimates of products or going through payment
procedures.
I wonder what happens to banks and insurance companies when there
is no money. People working for those companies must have lost
their jobs when money disappeared from the world."
"Wait a moment. There were many words I've never heard of,
but I think I understand what you mean. Are you afraid that when
money disappears from the world, people who engage in work associated
with money or who deal with money will lose their jobs?
I guess in your world, people spent so much time and effort just
circulating the money. In other words, people were doing unnecessary
work for unnecessary things."
"But I can't see how world will function properly without
money."
"I know, but no one eats the pieces of paper or the metal
things or actually uses them to make something.
After all, the money is just a common scale for everyone to recognize
the value of things.
Therefore, even if all the money disappears at the same time,
the world will keep functioning if people don't stop working.
Please imagine what happens when the people who deal with money
are released from all their work and start using their time and
efforts for helping the world.
I know dealing with money was an important job in the monetary
system you had in the past, but imagine what happens when people
use their time for serving society. The world becomes much richer
spiritually.
You know, the world has enough affluence to keep everyone's life
going, even when all the people dealing with money quit their
jobs at the same time. If you consider that the world kept functioning
even when people spent so much time and effort doing such useless
things, you can imagine that everyone's life will be much richer
when they start using that time and efforts for something more
useful for their society."
"I see. When money disappears from our world, all of the
money-related troubles such as tax evasion, suicides for too much
debt, bank robberies, and the contradiction of "work for
money" will all disappear too.
The disappearance of money will help save people who are suffering
from hunger and poverty around the world."
"However, I still cannot believe the world will keep functioning
if money disappears.
I think everyone will stop working and the world will be ruined."
"(Laugh). It's funny you think the world will be ruined because
of some pieces of paper and bits of metal.
You don't have to worry about it,
As you see, there is a world free from money existing in your
future."