The world is overdue for change

Economics were invented by our ancestors a very long time ago to facilitate means of exchange. This suited the world when our numbers were counted in millions. But today we exist in billions and our economic system is characterised by indescribable wealth for the very rich and extreme poverty among the masses.

The global economy is driven by competition to the extent that human creativity is being tailored to suit the needs of the ultrarich and ruling classes, and of course, in addition to a couple of billion people suffering unnecessarily, our planet is suffering as we continue to exploit its rapidly diminishing resources.

A great many intelligent people are concerned that we humans are on the edge of extinction, in part because we have plundered the resources of the world to the extent we will soon be unable to maintain our technologies and, we are certainly not doing what we need in order to adapt to our rapidly changing climate.

Our current economic system has served to put most of the world in debt, driven by greed and corruption the global economy is unfixable and the countries who promote what are essentially capitalist economics carry the most debt. All debt of course becomes the property of the people but given the nature of the system that has run amok, there is never likely to be any resolution in terms of eliminating debt.

It is the world’s debt that influences or political thinking and our politicians seem so committed to it that you would think that money was a god to be worshipped. But money is just a means of exchange and has outlived its usefulness. India has led the way by digitising money which to a certain extent has levelled the playing field and limited outright criminal activity which is perhaps a first step towards a needs-based economy.

So what is a needs-based economy?

It’s about meeting human needs as opposed to the current system of meeting want’s. If you think about, many of the things we take for granted we actually need and are happy to work towards despite the cost involved. Most obviously we need food and shelter but to be healthy which is another need, we also need time to think and to dream, we need to understand our environment.

Some people want our countrymen to walk on the moon for glorification but others see this is a need to further our understanding of the universe and acquire resources with which to maintain our technology which has evolved tremendously over the past few hundred years, but most of the cost was paid by the so-called Third World.

A needs-based economy addresses what we need to live comfortably, to be happy and healthy. Those needs include a continuity of scientific research, the maintenance of our current level of technology, the ability to travel and communicate with each other though we don’t necessarily need private motor cars even though modern economics has made them so necessary for so many.

All communities need to be self-sufficient in food production, all children need to be educated, we need to have good health systems but also we need to treat the cause of disease and not make a business of treating the symptoms. We have had so many needs yet we are fully capable of meeting them if we set our hearts and minds to doing so.

We need for our governments to we need our governments to respond and work towards the needs of the population before those needs become disasters. In that regard, we also need to understand and work with our increasingly volatile climate and transition to other localised means of producing our food, perhaps taking the advice of ancient cultures and having ample food storage for emergencies.

We need to restore our forests and ecosystems including those of the ocean which may mean consuming less meat and fish. It has been proved that we don’t need meat-based diets so by reducing meat consumption we would need to keep less livestock and restore farmland to forest which would help to reduce global warming and in other ways restore the ecological balance.

Modern economics is a system of want addressing human greed to the neglect of what people actually need causing the conflict we see today but one of the important leads that you consider is that we all need peace of mind.

Peace of mind comes from being okay not knowing the truth of everything, of not knowing what this universe we live in is or even our place within nature but it is clear we are not supposed to be production units. Peace of mind comes not from any belief in an afterlife or any higher power, it comes from doing the everyday things that facilitate the happiness of ourselves and others.

Instead of thinking along the lines of ‘thou shalt not’, we should be thinking along the lines of how we relate, what we can do for others and clarify whether we are acting out of want or actual need. Ancient India led in this manner by example, its culture has existed for many thousands of years and the key to its success is because for the most part they had a needs-based economy.

The governments of the modern world simply throw money at what they think maybe the solutions to without understanding root causes so these solutions are temporary at best. Governments need to dig deep and remember that they are elected to serve the needs of the people to ensure their safety and welfare.

How the modern world arrives at a needs-based economy would begin with teaching all communities how to become self-sufficient in food production and housing which would require some innovation and a relaxation of the regulations that in terms of housing in general absorbs about one third of all building costs.

In terms of travel and communication we need to maintain what we have though over time with the population having found a great deal of happiness within themselves, they will have to travel less and perhaps need for smart phones will be reduced to one for every household?

It is abundantly clear the economic system we have now is failing, not only failing in its functionality but it is failing in its usefulness and it is time for a change. If we turn away from this system, there would be few outward changes, you would still own your home but without any mortgage, people would need to agree and for things to happen, perhaps what is known as the panchayat system would suffice that communities could actually shape themselves which means that government bureaucracy would be reduced.

As citizens we tend to do what our government tells us because of the end of the day we have little choice. To be truly free to choose their own destiny we need to be free of bureaucracy and imposed rules yet we also need to commit to living is fully as we can while supporting and nurturing others and our environment.

The Indian needs-based economic system is referred to as Sanatana Dharma which has become almost impossible to understand but is held together because so many people continue to meditate and perform yoga and this is the key to understanding a needs-based economy and finding peace of mind enabling an inclusive, coexistent lifestyle.

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