Poverty of old rich changes the world, not money
Geographical poverty
In the world there are roughly three economic “worlds”, the old rich, the new rich and the poor. These can be seen horizontally per region in the world. The old rich regions speculate with value, the new rich countries create some of the value still through industrial process with cheap labor, and then there are the poor that have nothing but themselves. Meanwhile climate changes and pollution of the rich make the globe more inhabitable affecting the rich in their quest for resources using greed, and the poor who are being robbed of their chances for survival. Some try to get to the rich parts of the world by hazardous migration, others just perish, accepting their destiny in some way as inevitable.
This has always been the case ever since industrialization began and even before. Nowadays the old rich suffer crises because they cannibalize on their own wealth, the new rich do not learn the lessons of the old rich and go into the same direction while the poor remain poor, exploited by the rich, die and don’t know much better by lack of reference. What is “rich” anyway? That your children survive beyond age 2 or 5? That you have a car, a house to live in, two TV sets, a mobile phone and access to the supermarket every day? Peace at home or in the street?
Poverty among the rich
Then there is this other way of looking at the same three worlds but vertically, within the confinement of the rich countries. We find the same mix of poverty, wealthy and rich but within the same region. The difference with the general poverty around the world is that this type of poverty has known what it is like to be rich in material sense and sees it around them all the time. In the area of poverty within rich regions we see three ways that people deal with it:
- Solidarity, meaning that fellow people, families, friends and surroundings help the people out voluntarily for their primary needs. Often people who are being helped just need some support because they thrive to be self supported and need no official help. They are the entrepreneurial types of society that do their best. They normally see their situation as temporary and part of life, trusting to be able to deal with it.
- Social welfare, a government caring system to assist people who have entered in some kind of misery until they can find their way back into the system by themselves or through pressure of the government. Often these are people who have suffered a loss, a divorce or whatever mishap. It can also represent a cultural problem of employment diversity. Social welfare is the social cushion that provides them with rest and material peace of mind for a while.
- Criminality and chaos, is when people do not trust the system or themselves anymore and abuse the system through rebellion acts, criminality and chaos, out of mentality or need.
In new rich countries we see governments trying to deal with the newly growing rich, taxation, equality and old poverty through education programs and welfare creation. In the current old rich societies however we see a general raise of poverty that covers all three situations. Yet the mix tends to alter due to the development of the collapsing richness. The crises that the culture and paradigm suffers develops an explosive situation that eventually will provoke a paradigm shift. It is these poor that upset the old system and introduce new conditions for stable progress, but not before some chaos and collapse is created in the community. It is not the money that will change the world, it is the poverty among the old rich.
The traditional solidarity of local people goes to their own relatives or close ones. Many rich countries have opened up their borders so much for the entry of cheap labor that foreign poverty mixes with local poverty, both with a different mentality around scarcity. The local poor start to believe that the chances are being taken away from them by the foreigners. The newcomers come for work and see the rich society as something to take their chances no matter what. Some come with a genuine interest to take benefit, others with a hit and run opportunistic attitude towards the abundance in the materially rich environment.
Crime rises among all populations groups simply because of the masses in jeopardy, the distrust between locals and foreign groups and the declining “can do” culture in the region. When social security funds dry up as the old rich country cannot keep up the old standards the welfare support is taken away gradually and causes more poverty. The solidarity in the community slows down and finally stops because people lose faith and ask their people to take responsibility. They do that by finding ways to rise against the inequality through marches, protest or attacks, yet they also develop new pre-paradigms and paradigms. The significance of have lived through different worldviews as an individual is key for progress. Poverty then is a way to let go of the old securities that the remaining rich try to defend. But this defense, even with the powerful support of the law, is not enough to withhold the demanding forces of the people who want to introduce change. We have seen this happen in Northern Africa and the Middle East. We will see it happening across the globe.
The following questions arises:
- When, with what proportion of poverty in the mix, does a stable economy of old rich collapse into chaos prior to renewal
- Can a country take precaution before? Eg by allowing social innovation by the poor instead of defending the situation of the rich
- Is social welfare always an adequate cushion? Or should it be limited only to the new rich while the old rich should focus on paradigm shift through social investment rather than protection?
As poverty in the rich countries grows we general see the difference between rich and poor grow too. The speculation at the top end of the social pyramid is showing economic growth while the bottom is reaching a point of starvation. The differences grow and so does the social stress. Yet the new poverty has the insight, knowledge and education to produce change that can move the old rich into a new phase of development through fundamental changes. The growing rich out of the old paradigm will try to influence change negatively. I also referred to this in the blog entry of the route of least resistance. The only problem any country deals with in this situation is its governance. What side does government chose? The conservative rich out of tax interests and their influential lobby? Or the innovative poor understanding the need for social innovation? Can a middle way exist?
Looking forward to your reactions……
Why people avoid Spirituality
From Sept 21 -23 a group of academic and entrepreneurial visionary intellectuals from 14 countries met for the annual conference of EURO-SPES. The topic was “Spirituality & Sustainability” and the gathering took place in Visegrad (Hungary), 40 km north of Budapest. Our organizing host was Prof. Laszlo Zsolnai.
A beautiful weekend in a beautiful place full of history
Spirituality is a word that in the world of hard materialism is being neglected or despised as being soft or religious. This is a huge misconception and a true mental and practical blockage for development of true sustainable progress. Spirituality has various definitions as participating scientists correctly pointed out but the general description of the word is “the inner quest for the true meaning of our existence”. For people who live the simplified life of materialism such quest is of course a scary confrontation with their own consciousness and certainly something to be avoided. The world of the “having” is exactly opposite of the world of the “being”. Both reject each other like poles of a magnet. The transit from a “having” kind of mentality to one in search for identity (being) is usually referred to as a “crisis”. The process is one of letting go (voluntarily or involuntarily) of material securities and trying to find comfort in the new world of inner feelings and meaning.
In such open field of emotions people start reacting in many ways, some aggressive or depressed, others become artists or find unprecedented hidden forces of leadership. During the conference we were enlightened with views in each of these fields of expertise. Academic research is showing the importance of spirituality for humankind to recover from crises and develop sustainable evolutionary progress through the renewal of true meaning. It represents a combination of rationalization of inner search for meaning and putting the growing awareness into practice in experiments around new ways of organizing ourselves, individually and as a community. This is called the pre-paradigm, a phase before, after or within crises, in which alternatives develop to a reigning paradigm that is falling apart. Such pre-paradigms are always confrontational to the one that is being disputed. A pre-paradigm uses the logic of spiritual consciousness and is usually neglected and even denied by those who are unaware, or intentional to uphold the existing paradigm out of personal or institutional interests. The old paradigm has lawful support while the new paradigm has the power of timeless meaningfulness.
It was shown that such human evolutionary patterns of obsolete but reigning paradigm, crisis, pre-paradigm development through spirituality, and the opposition between old and new paradigm, are a natural evolutionary phenomena of a self-aware species. Even the dramatic consequences of a powerful yet obsolete paradigm, that could cause death and destruction, can be seen as a universal natural disaster hitting humankind, forcing ourselves to renew our spiritual awareness and develop a new evolutionary cycle. But this natural phenomena is of course not an excuse for those who are aware of it to let it happen just like that. The force of reasoning and new paradigm development is nowadays, thanks to many modern elements of peaceful reflection, education and opposition, capable of overcoming a forthcoming crisis without the natural need for or potential threat of a mass destruction.
Academic intellectuals, artists and entrepreneurs from 14 countries meet for the paradigm shift
Sustainability was explained from an existential and practical point of view, using also nature as a point of inspirational reference. Various presentations coincided about the forthcoming mayor crash, a melt down of the world order of economics after decades of exponential growth and speculation. For the first time academic financial specialists looked at the broader picture and showed the unsustainable truth of current economic materialism. Not many presentations could pinpoint yet a solution. Some were still tempted to use economic instruments that were contrasted by others, including me, as “decades too late” and at this stage unrealistic and equally obsolete.
Solutions needed to be found in the inner world of reflection, awareness and consciousness, not the external worlds of old material securities. My own practical presentation of sustainocracy was well received. As I was one of the very first to present my case I had three more days left to get some deepening reflection about it with those who connected with the complexity of my line of thinking and my practical proof of concept that already went beyond the phase of pre-paradigm. During the questioning rounds after each presentation the power of my own model of human complexities proved its worth for my own inner guidance for reflection and interaction with the others.
The psychology of change in a paradigm shift is the true transformative challenge of humankind
The complexity of the current global situation was also beautifully shown through expressions of art around the world, presented by academic scientists, and available to create awareness in a difficult world of opposition, apathy, ignorance, commercial over-communication, fear and manipulation. The surprising beauty or challenging intellectual creativity brought forward in all kinds of artistic disciplines was mind blowing. Speakers could pinpoint where the problems were in the unbelievable massiveness of humankind in the world today, but also that solutions were not easily at hand. Humankind was expecting solutions from the external material world while all agreed that the real solutions needed to be found in the inner world of meaning through spirituality and structural renewal of our civilization’s organization around life and evolutionary essentials.
Many presentations therefor referred to the necessary inner quest for reason and meaning, not just as an individual but also as an organization and entire civilization. Many also referred to the powerful explosive potential that spirituality has when it hits the individual and the masses. “Water must flow freely” (biologist and journalist) Janos Vargha stated when he explained his decades of battle against the system of political and economic madness when the Danube was nearly doomed for exploitation with damaging effects beyond repair. He won!
In the red circle the “monster of the Danube”, artificial remains of human institutionalized madness
And so will spirituality as this too must flow freely. The dam that was going to affect natural life, including human’s, in and around the Danube, is now a metaphor for the blocking forces of artificial institutionalized economic and political interests that stand free flow of awareness and reason in the way. Public opposition builds up powerfully and eventually breaks through the dam with force. Right now we are all like Janos in the 80’s, claiming the free flow of meaningful reason and renewal in a peaceful but demanding way, before damage is irreparable. We have time at our side, those who try to uphold their unsustainable power position do not. This personal reflection should give us trust, no matter what happens:
“Spiritual meaning will eventually win as it always has, simply because it has eternity on its side while the temporary power of the self proclaimed mighty dies with those mortals that try to uphold it in their lifetime”.
The encounter was very powerful indeed and finalized with people who found each other in meaning, reasoning and purpose. Friendships were born, alliances too, and solutions were shared that went beyond the stage of experimental pre-paradigm. During that weekend in Visegrad along the Danube bend of Hungary the cultivators of a new human future shared seeds to sow across the world. The new paradigm of sustainable human progress exists and will grow there where true spirituality meets with purpose driven leadership and entrepreneurship.
Good & Bad economies
When we refer to an economy we tend to think only of the amount of money we have to spend for our daily needs and extras. From a larger perspective we can see that economies represent a particular complexity that goes beyond the simple availability of individual cash. It has everything to do with the way we deal with money as a culture. There are even various types of economy, some are all right while others are devastatingly bad. And still, in each of the versions we have cash in our pockets to spend on our daily concerns. Money doesn’t care, do we?
Good economies
A good economy is one based on value creation. It is focused on structural innovation of all elements of society. People contribute to the innovation through creativity, entrepreneurship and labor contribution. Money is an exchangeable value without interest since the true value creation is something else, based on human wellness and social cohesion. Money is just a means, a catalyst to enable value creation and then comes free for another go. Money is also a symbol that represents a value that is saved for a while because it created another value before. For instance in farming people work together on the land and receive money as a token for their labor. This can be exchanged again for primary life support when this is created or harvested. Money circulates and does not grow. What grows is the added value and wellness of the community. Taxation is limited due to the value driven output of the community that requires little bureaucracy and public funding because people address progress themselves and together. These economies don’t grow, their wellness does by investing labor in renewal and modernization. Ownership has no other purpose than usage of property against a negative interest due to deterioration of goods. People are likely to invest in their surrounding to keep it valuable through innovated wellness. Labor is seen valued as social contribution and wellness is the payback.
Bad economy
Such economy is based on consumption of material goods. The distribution and consumption is being taxed to finance the consequences of consumer growth. The investment in distribution, infrastructure, health care and other consequences of such type of organization is huge. The economy tends to grow and endebt itself enormously, making money into a valuable with interest as it does not circulate but flows from debt to institution, relying on more consumption and inflation. Such economy is highly volatile due to its dependence on consumer patterns and speculation with the available resources. Having property is lucrative do to its automatic growth in value on which new debt can be based. Investment is based on structuring the environment for more consumption and affective distribution. Mentality becomes greedy, the having is never enough and landscapes change due to te growing consumer concentration points (cities) and infrastructures to supply them. Inflation is huge due to the continuous needs for more and more while money is the only means to access what people consider valuable when the do not have it and unvaluable when they have it. Such economy is sick. Yet it uses exactly the same money.
Good economies are sustainable and bad ones not. Good economies are not rich in material sense but are trustworthy, bad ones are rich but their currencies have been inflated artificially. Good economies have no real debt as the money that circulates is based on real colatoral. Bad economies have huge debts to account for and pay large amounts of interest over the back of the future inflation on shortages.
Most economies in the world have transformed over the years from good to bad economies. It is not the money that is good or bad but the way we deal with it. Transforming from a good to a bad economy is easy. It is based on human greed. Suddenly the amount of cash in circulation is expanding without any real reason, just due to the perceived value of commodities that are kept in shortage. Populations gradually become lazy and enjoy consumption without having to do very much for it. Investments go towards more and more infrastructure and hardware. People get focused on “having” through materialism and so do institutions. Money and touchable values become the core interest of the consumer and consequence driven culture. Money is a goal for both the consumer world and the world of consequences and both never seem to have enough.
Moving from a bad to a good economy is extremely complex. The greed and perceived abundance of goods is a human quality that does not erradicate that easily. A bad economy deals with massive amounts of money that seems valuable to the general community. Money is money, exactly the same from bad and good economies. The money itself is not the problem, it is the culture around it. The fact that it is based on mainly hot air or a huge debt is not of interest, as long as people have their daily cash. The culture is speculative, not wanting to do real labor for reciprocity, just wanting to deal with financial growth in any way. Money does not circulate but flows just one way, from an overvalued item or debt against overvalued items, to the bank. There is no value creation anymore other than making this hot air ballon grow through more of the same. As the consequences grow so do the needs of a government through tax and pressure on the population.
To break through that culture a severe crisis is needed, often war, depriving people from everything and making them aware again of true values. People do not degrade their perceived financial wealth just by themselves, not even with the best arguments. Hard work for sustainable progress is a dirty word when the alternative is to sit back and watch your properties grow sky high. Criminality, poverty, debt, psychological disorders, health problems, pollution, apathy, etc It all rises, just like the economy of unsustainable growth and mentality. Can it be changed? No, not through intrinsic motivation. Elements can be addressed as long as abundance remains but mentality of greed is persistant especially as institutions also are dominantely based on it.
Is it then possible to create the abundance of a good economy within a bad economy? Undoubtedly to a large extend but then one needs to speculate with talent and innovation instead of materialism and lack of investment. The true good of people is creativity and when we value that in a result driven way we can create abundance through open cooperations. Certain rules should be introduced against interest rates, fractal banking, apathy, etc favoring a proactive code of conduct based on human progress rather then self enrichment.
In a good economy democracy works because people choose for progress and personal involvement, creating their own wealth directly and not depending on others through money systems. In a bad economy democracy does not work because one choses for greed no matter what. Today the world faces a huge transformational need from a bad to a good economy everwhere. It is probably the greatest challenge ever of humankind. Not a challenge against the odds of nature or the quest of knowledge. The challenge is with ourselves and the greed that obsesses us when we get a chance and will not let go until it is forcefully taken from us by disaster. Even wisdom does not help, only maybe the exchange of bad for good value against the awareness of some, especially ourselves.
We face a challenging and confrontational time ahead.
Sustainocracy, the new democracy 