Money by Pink Floyd is going round and round in my head as I write this. Money is a tough topic for a lot of people and it’s all too easy to understand why. The implementation of money, the way it’s used, causes so many problems in the world right now. A major problem for many people is that they worry about having enough money and how they will carry on making sure that they have enough, that’s assuming that they do have enough.
The pains people will go to for money is tragic to watch. In the pursuit of money people sacrifice their relationships. People sacrifice their physical health. People also sacrifice their mental and emotional health. People play hideous zero-sum games with one another for money. Some people will even take the life of their fellow human being just to make ends meet. Money, and how it’s used, fuels some incredibly narcissistic and dangerous behaviours.
The way that money is used currently is the cause of a profound and deeply traumatic wound for humanity in the form of scarcity. I want to place emphasis on the use of money as opposed to money itself. Money is an inanimate object. Money came into use when humans moved from being hunter gathers to being an agricultural species. With that came the rise of property ownership.
Being a spiritual person, I have read about the law of attraction when it comes to money, and I’ve certainly tried it. All that happened was that I realised that deep down I find money to be hassle. I realised that it was never the money that I wanted, but the things that I could do and have with it. I see so many people using the law of attraction for things like money, relationships, etc. I also see the use of things like affirmations and visualising. I see it hardly ever working for anyone. My theory is that the majority of people feel just like I do. Right now we live in a world where the cost of living costs more than the money earned to live. I think most people wonder what the point in any of it is and I don’t blame them.
Not too long ago I put myself through many stresses and pains to pay to live and to have things that I thought I wanted. I ended up leaving my soul-destroying desk job just over two years ago now due to a mental breakdown caused by, but not limited to, chasing after £££. When I left my job the irony was that I wasn’t really any worse off on Universal Credit for a few months before moving in with my boyfriend. My job paid quite well for what I was doing. How’s that for a kick in the teeth? Every now and then I toy with the idea of getting a part time job to help relieve some financial pressure on myself and the relationship. It’s in that moment that I realise that I hate having my life dictated to me in terms of where to be, at what time, how long for and what to do during that time all for a construct that I’ve since realised that I find to be a royal pain in the arse. You could say that my current situation leaves me very financially vulnerable. What it’s done is it has taught me a lot about the generosity and kindness of others, and being brave enough as well as humble enough to let others step in and help me. That’s something pre-pandemic me, a once ‘strong independent woman’, would never have stood for.
The generosity of others astounds me and leaves me feeling dizzy and light-headed with relief and joy. My boyfriend is my rock in terms of overall support in my day-to-day. His generosity made it so, and makes it so that, I can relentlessly pursue my dreams. His mother had also stepped in on more than one occasion and helped too. If I can’t afford to meet up with friends they nearly always offer to pay. Accepting help has made it so that many free things have come into my life. Things life free writing courses, free books, free holidays, a free pair of sunglasses to replace the pair that I lost, free pots and planters for gardening along with some free compost, a free paper shredder, a free slow cooker, free days out, the list is longer than this, but I’ll stop for now. If something wasn’t for free then it certainly was cheap in a way that I could afford easily enough. In saying this I think the way in which we use money has a detrimental effect on the overall generosity, kindness and goodwill that people so often love to demonstrate. Do you know what I got for when I didn’t used to accept help? Debt. Credit card debt. That’s what I got. By all standards it’s not actually that bad, but it’s unwelcome, nonetheless. Debt is my lesson in accepting help in all areas of my life.
In light of talking about the generosity of others and accepting help I want to propose an extreme idea. I want to propose the eradication of money. I want to propose living on the generosity of others and passing on the goodwill and acts of kindness. I want to propose a world where we all live without the fear of the roofs over our heads being taken because we can’t afford it. I want to propose a world where everyone always knew where the next meal would be coming from and good quality wholesome food would be available to one and all. I want to propose a world where people offer what skills they can and are willing to share with others for the benefit of all instead of having their souls eroded away by shitty corporations.
I’ll give a brief example using myself. In my last job I worked for a container shipping company in the exports department. I checked documentation for hazardous cargo prior to it being loaded onto the vessel. Let’s now remove money and the obligation society makes towards it. Money made that job a stress-riddled cesspit for me. Without the worry of money I turn on the computer when I’m ready and I go about my day giving only what I realistically have got to give. I check documentation for containers bound for all over the globe. These containers have provisions and goods for the benefit of people in places far away from where I am in England. None of it is about making a profit, simply mutual exchange, in turn we also receive products that benefit us. Everything is done because people can and are willing to, no one does it because they feel like they’re a wage slave stuck in a system with no way out other than death. I’m not terrified of making enough money to pay the rent and bills because these things don’t exist because it’s not in good taste to make people go without when there was always plenty to go around. I need food so I drive to the local food place and simply pick up what I need and go. There’s more than enough for everyone so no one goes hungry. I grow vegetables in my garden so what I have in surplus I give to the food place so that these veggies can go to other people. As I head back home rather than see the stressed and exhausted faces that we’re all used to right now I see people with a lot more time and energy for each other. The carpark where I left my car no longer charges an hourly rate for parking because the council doesn’t need the money. There’s also a lot less traffic on the roads because people are no longer time poor due to needing to be in several places at once. Public transport is now free for all just like everything else. Active travel is also a much more popular option than it once was. All in all, removing money from the picture made people realise that there’s another way to live, a way of sharing being caring. It took people a while to learn it, none of this happened overnight, but once people got the hang of it everyone felt so much better for it. They felt a lot calmer, a lot healthier and like they really counted for something. Like they had a precious gift to give the earth and its inhabitants. Money had been eradicated and scarcity along with it.
I appreciate the above is very idealistic. As we are as a society right now it would be impossible to do such a thing, it would have to start with very small baby steps. I’m sure if you head over to your local page on Facebook you’ll find what looks to be the beginning of such a thing. I know that’s been the case for me. I don’t blame people for behaving the way that they do because of money. We’ve all been conditioned to believe that money is the only way and that you can never have enough of it. This causes so much suffering. It also cuts us off from the compassionate social species that we are deep down. We need one another to thrive, you can’t put a price on that. I’m going to leave you with a quote from Patrick Stewart’s character Captain Jean-Luc Picard from Star Trek.
BTW, human society doesn’t use money in Star Trek, nor do the vast majority of the alien ones. Thank you for taking the time to read this.