A question I received: Do you really believe in a world without money?

As an answer, I’ll post a letter from my long-time American student, Tasha:

I work in a financial company, which, until recently, was one of the pillars of the financial world, but now is grabbing on to every last dollar trying to stay afloat. Only a year ago, there wasn’t a single vacant position in the company, but now, a year later, less than a third of the positions are occupied. There are layoffs happening every month and everyone is waiting their turn, hoping to postpone what is inevitable and trying to solve the question of how to feed their families.

So what happened? Why did everything fall apart? We are taught that we lived and worked for “virtual” money. But we still worked, and we gave others an opportunity to work and feed their families. So what changed?

The material world did not change, but offices are empty, flights are canceled, and no one is vacationing at resorts. Instead people are joining the lines for unemployment benefits. Why is everyone on the planet suddenly seeing a surreal world? Why isn’t the “established” system, where everyone received from each other, no longer working? The universal economic system has shattered.

Even if money flows into the system, the system won’t work properly since banks and businesses don’t trust each other. Businesses don’t receive credit from the banks, and therefore they don’t trust them with their money. As a result, everything closes down. In other words, right from the start, the system was based on trust (on the perspective of a profit) rather than on money.

But if there is no money at all, then I have to work “out of the goodness of my heart” (without receiving any money), take what I need from the store (without giving any money), and the store will receive goods from a supplier (without giving any money), which I have produced (for which I did not receive any money). Will such a system work, where everyone works out of the goodness of their hearts and receives what is necessary? It would be heaven on earth.

But how can we even attempt to work “out of the goodness of our hearts” if everyone around us will immediately begin to use us and there’s no guarantee that we will get back at least some of what we need? In other words, such a system will only function normally under the condition that all the participants will agree to work for free, putting in the maximum for society’s survival and receiving the bare necessities. This is how all living, natural system operate, where the parts of the whole live for the sake of the whole organism’s existence. And if the crisis continues to develop, this will remain the only workable solution.

So the real question here is: how exactly can we all curb our egoism and begin to live by helping and caring for each other, instead of exploiting each other? What is the reason that people are ready to step on each other in order to snatch up more money? What’s the importance of how many zeros we have in our bank accounts? What’s the difference between an infinitely large amount and a complete absence of money?

A large sum of money gives a person one thing: confidence that he and his family will always have what is necessary, that his children will receive an education, and he will be provided for in old age and receive the best medical aid whenever he needs it. So if there was a way to give people the confidence that the society will provide them with all the essentials, how much money would each of us need? We wouldn’t need any money, since, as it’s now becoming clear, everything that exceeds the necessities is only to our detriment.

The necessary amount is, of course, subjective. For one person, it is a second pair of socks, and for another, it is a third Mercedes Benz. However, if humanity will reach the point where the only way for it to survive is by consuming the minimum, then everyone will view what is necessary for them only as an opportunity to bring the most benefit to the society. So where is that magical force that can switch our essence from consumption to bestowal, from using everyone to caring about everyone?

It does not exist inside us. We can only place our hopes in the force that created us, this whole world, and every plant and living creature, with such immense wisdom. It is the force that’s pushing humanity to develop toward a qualitatively new level, still unperceived by us. We need Light in our darkness. It is the Light that will correct us and bring us into a new world, with new relationships.

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