A New Way Of Thinking About Money

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: As Einstein said, we cannot solve our problems on the same plane that we create them. What kind of new thinking must we develop regarding money?

Answer: In the past, people depended on money much more than today. There was no social security, no health or retirement funds, nor any kind of social assistance for single-parent families or those living below the poverty level and so on. In all such cases, people had to have money to cover themselves.

If we were suddenly to refund those sums that were subtracted for the maintenance of schools, kindergartens, and hospitals from a person’s salary, his salary would grow by a third. But he would certainly not keep this money for difficult times. He would waste it, and if something happened to him, he would be the responsibility of society.

We see that our development obliges us to advance in such a direction that money, meaning coverage for all kinds of different expenses, will pass more and more into the hands of society. Clearly, it must be utilized correctly and not for political games.

If we see that people are concerned that their salary is not enough to maintain their home, to pay for services and food, so it could be that we must advance in this direction.

For example, it is necessary to make a general accounting for a city’s inhabitants as to how much is necessary to pay for water, gas, and electricity for everyone. The problem is that we will need to educate people to plan economically for every need, since without education there could be many more expenses than today.

But regarding the basket of commodities, we absolutely can do this. By allocating a particular sum from everyone’s salary, we can supply everyone with coupons with which they will be able to use at a store to get whatever groceries they need for a month. We could even organize a weekly delivery.

In addition, I would also suggest creating storage facilities for various things. Instead of people keeping things in their attic and throwing them away later, it is worthwhile to provide them for general use by others. When you need something, you would come and take, if not yours, then goods that belonged to someone else. This relates to clothing, children’s toys, and other things, even kitchenware.

In this manner, we could utilize not only household items, but also our professional services. For example, we could organize various systems for offering services to each other that we cannot pay for by ourselves. Once a week, every professional would work voluntarily for a number of hours and everyone would be aware of this. We would not need to pay for these services with money even though it is available. It follows that we would receive a meaningful addition to our salary.

Comment: In the meantime we believe that money gives us independence and we don’t want to depend on each other that much.

Answer: Home economics realistically demonstrates how much water, electricity, gas, and fuel I need, how much I can allocate for renovations, how much will be left for food, clothing, etc. If we write down all of these items, then a person will be convinced that he will always remain in a deficit (minus). Is this called living with money? He simply has pictures in his hands with which children play. If we explain all of this logically, basically people will move away from independence like this.
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From the program “A New Life” 9/02/14

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