A Time to Imagine, a Time to Change

The response to the coronavirus threat has been one of fear, helping of others, and heroism. Fear is natural. We are collectively and individually protecting ourselves from an attack. It is an instinctual reaction. We also can react consciously by trusting that all is as the Universe designs. We must seek to protect ourselves from the threat, but without reacting with fear.

We’ve tied governing to the marketplace with a hierarchical distribution of resources based on the perceived value of the role one performs within the defined group, our society. The recent debate about how much and to who emergency funds should be distributed based upon our collective response to the viral threat has me imagining a different world.

“Imagine no possessions, I wonder if you can” John Lennon

An ideal world would be one in which there are no lines separating us as peoples. We are one in a global citizenship. Each adult has an amount that would allow him or her to live comfortably and stress free, but not in exorbitant luxury. The amount would not be tied to performance. We alter our collective perspective and redefine what is valuable. People would be free to contribute to society however their talents, explorations, and desires led them. What the collective had would be divided equally and would require effort to ensure there was enough to distribute. If there was not enough, all would feel the lack. So, to have, one must contribute. The people charged with distributing goods and services would not be compensated as more valuable than any other person.

Photo byElaine CasaponUnsplash

However, the focus of providing for oneself and one’s family would be at the local level. What one and one’s community can grow, build, and create right where one resides. We help our neighbors, and they help us, naturally. We are not baby birds in a nest with our mouths open waiting for a mother bird to regurgitate food into our mouths. We provide for ourselves.

Currently, over-dependence on resources depletes them and harms our world. The ways we “earn” our living are no longer tied to our local communities, and a large percentage of us feed large global corporations with our labor in return for crumbs of bare sustenance. Large corporations provide goods and services, some more essential than others. Corporate objectives are to earn a profit, not to support its workers. We feed these machines when we continue to purchase from them. Yet, a global boycott would cause the short-term effect of workers losing jobs, similar to the pandemonium caused by the coronavirus, except it would be man-created. The boycotts i.e. boycotters would be blamed and not the corporations. It would take unity, courage, and faith. I imagine a world where corporations, if they exist, are solely to provide a living for the workers and not to earn a profit.

We, as a collective, could embrace minimalism as the most admirable way to live versus today’s opulence. We must change our mindset of what is of value, where serving another is seen as more valuable than earning money for yourself. A collection of money and what it can purchase is not the objective of life, helping another along our journey is.

Other potential perspective shifts we could make:

· Base are exchanges on something other than gold or precious gems.

· Living a minimalist life is the capstone. Who needs to earn more than $250,000 per year? I have lived a comfortable life, making less than $30,000 per year. I would like to add an earnings cap, but I don’t believe in legislating morality. It would be ideal if people embraced a perspective shift and not have it thrust upon them. If one is exclusively motivated by the dollar and not by a job well done and to help another, we have created this mindset.

· Those who have assets greater than $500,000, share to the collective. Why should one have so much, while others have not enough? Share of your abundance until it starts to hurt and then share some more.

· Close all tax loopholes and transition to a flat % tax of earnings, with a simpler definition of earnings. I imagine a future where there are no taxes as we work together to repair and sustain what is needed.

· Put monies toward sustainable resources. Work with nature and not against Her.

· Evolve where cooperation is perceived as much healthier, including in the marketplace, than competition.