Entries in the 'Economy' Category

Everyone Is For Unification, But How Can It Be Done?

Dr. Michael LaitmanOpinion: (Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, Prime Minister of the Kingdom Of Spain, International Economic Forum 2011): “If at various times one or another country faces challenges, the other countries support it. It’s a cooperative project; it’s just like living in the same country. This won’t lead to a universal system ruled by competition between countries….

“To be united and supportive. And the past teaches us that we must definitely change the future together….

“History teaches that as long as we are united, we can find better solutions to our problems, can maintain proper levels of prosperity, and can guarantee greater security for our future generations. These are the current conditions in Europe.”

Opinion: (Tarja Halonen, President of the Republic Of Finland, International Economic Forum 2011): “Every country has to do their own homework but together, Europeans are strong. And that is very important.

And that is why I said that I am very, very sure – I am convinced – that we will have the view and we will have the resources to do that. Because we know that in the future, European countries need each other. Only together can we be a global actor.”

Opinion: (Reuters, George Soros, billionaire investor): “The chances of positively resolving Europe’s serious debt problems are decreasing from day to day as authorities focus on ‘buying more time,’ not solving problems, billionaire Investor George Soros said in Tuesday.

‘You have a very serious problem in Europe, the over-indebtedness of some countries: Greece, Portugal and Ireland,’ Soros told an economic conference.

‘The authorities are not providing a solution but basically buying time.’”

My comment: Of course, the development of egoism in us will reveal a general system crisis: the discrepancy between our egoistic relationships and the integral system of nature that we are involuntary “driving into.” But to drive into it in a carriage instead of a hearse, we have to transform ourselves from egoists to altruists, from individualists to brethren. We hope that people will understand: We must unite, and only our egoism prevents us from doing this.

That is, the solution to the crisis is not on the economic level, but in education and the correction of human nature. However, even if they suspect this, still, they will not be able to find the solution to how to correct our egoism in each person so that we unite into a single system. This is realized through Kabbalah. Therefore, it is waiting for its application.
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Money Cannot Buy Happiness

Dr. Michael LaitmanOpinion (Robert Skidelsky, a member of the British House of Lords, Professor Emeritus of Political Economy at Warwick University, english.aljazeera.net): Western civilization is increasingly unsatisfying, saddled with a system of incentives that are essential for accumulating wealth, but that undermine our capacity to enjoy it. Capitalism may be close to exhausting its potential to create a better life – at least in the world’s rich countries….

“Material gains may continue, though evidence shows that they no longer make people happier….

“This is not to denigrate capitalism. It was, and is, a superb system for overcoming scarcity. By organizing production efficiently, and directing it to the pursuit of welfare rather than power, it has lifted a large part of the world out of poverty.

Yet what happens to such a system when scarcity has been turned to plenty? Does it just go on producing more of the same, stimulating jaded appetites with new gadgets, thrills, and excitements? How much longer can this continue?…

“This inspired the American way of life, where money always talks. The end of capitalism means simply the end of the urge to listen to it. People would start to enjoy what they have, instead of always wanting more….

“Financial services would shrink, because the rich would not always want to become richer….

“The dishonoring of greed is likely only in those countries whose citizens already have more than they need. And even there, many people still have less than they need. The evidence suggests that economies would be more stable and citizens happier if wealth and income were more evenly distributed.”

My comment: No one predicted that our nature, egoism, would not develop forever, and suddenly, for the first time in history, it would begin to change and turn from individual egoism into egoism that is general, integral, and globally dependent, and people would feel emptiness in past individual egoistic fulfillment. Those who still rush for “money = happiness” quickly realize that the previous methods of achieving this “happiness” do not work because the world has become integral and global.
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Tents On The Streets

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: Over the last few days couples in Israel began a protest against the housing crisis. They are starting up tent cities in public places to protest against the skyrocketing housing prices. Will this lead to correction?

Answer: This is a good thing. However, what can our poor government do for them? We ascribe great capabilities to it, thinking, “They’ll decide something today and will carry it out tomorrow.” But that’s not so. Didn’t the government know about these problems? Don’t the ministers just want to get together for a conference and make a decision so that starting tomorrow, new, cheap houses will start being built?

This can’t happen because we are dealing with a great complex of interconnected social problems, and this is just one of them. We cannot correct any one of them unless we correct the connection between the people in the country. No one will be able to help: not the prime minister or the government, not the parliamentarians, and not the people who are sitting in tents on city streets.

It’s good that they are sitting there, and it’s good that the Prime Minster is concerned. It’s good that he’s afraid and they are making demands of him. Maybe this will finally push them to reach the right conclusion: that correction will not come from the Prime Minister. And even money won’t solve anything. There is a bigger problem concealed here. Even if there will be enough money in the country, the authorities won’t be able to make any useful decision.

We have to understand that in our times there are no separate, problematic situations. Now, when nature has closed us inside of an integral net, everything depends only on the connection between people. There is not one social problem, not even the smallest one, that could be solved without a social interconnection, without a connection within the nation and within the world. Without resorting to this means, you won’t be able to do anything.

The task might seem secondary or purely technical, “What’s so hard about it, really? Just give out an order, free up some land for construction, and let them start building.” But they cannot do that because they will come up against insurmountable barriers on the inside. That would be the same as demanding pure bestowal from a person when he is simply incapable of it. He just can’t do it.

So know this: Today there is just one solution to any problem: mutual guarantee. If there is no mutual guarantee, there is no solution. This is exactly what we have to bring to the people’s understanding. We can be sure that we will attain success and will overcome all the problems only by means of the force of the mutual guarantee.
From the 5th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/17/11, “Arvut

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America And Europe Are Sinking Together

Dr. Michael LaitmanIn the News (from the Financial Times):In Washington they are arguing about a debt ceiling; in Brussels they are staring into a debt abyss. But the basic problem is the same. Both the US and the European Union have public finances that are out of control and political systems that are too dysfunctional to fix the problem. America and Europe are in the same sinking boat….

“The idea that Europe and the US represent two faces of the same crisis has been slow to sink in because, for many years, elites on either side of the Atlantic have stressed the differences between US and European models….

“Yet the similarities between the two regions’ dilemmas are now more striking than the differences – mounting debt, a weak economy, an increasingly expensive and unreformable welfare state, fear for the future and political gridlock are the common points….

“In Europe, the idea that tax rises might be part of the solution to soaring debts is uncontroversial. In America, Republican opposition to the very notion of tax increases is at the centre of the political argument.

“Fixated by their own problems and differences, Americans and Europeans have been slow to see the connections between their twin crises. But analysts in the rest of the world are much more likely to spot the common trend. Among Chinese leaders and intellectuals, it is now standard practice to suggest that westerners of all sorts should stop trying to ‘teach China lessons’ – given the depth of their own political and economic problems….

“If the western illness worsens, there will be a temptation to try new and more radical cures. Those may include a drive towards protectionism and capital controls. If globalisation goes into reverse then China may experience its very own economic and political crisis.”

My comment: Finally! The idea of complete interdependence and total deadlock is beginning to sink in. But those who are thinking according to an old scheme don’t know what to do next. Yet, the recognition of this fact is a step forward. Further, there is a path toward a war and a new world or directly toward a new world.
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News From Toronto

A letter I received: The Toronto Group spent an incredible weekend full of love and unity in the Canadian wilderness. There are no words to describe the sensations experienced by all. What we can say for sure is that there is a strong sensation of advancement toward our common goal and lots of fuel in our tank to begin preparations for the Toronto Convention!


Excerpt from a letter of one of the participants:
“We were sitting at night and singing, the mood was festive and warm, the fire was burning, the men were standing together, hugging—they looked so identical, reliable, and solid, like a rank of solders.

Suddenly, a feeling came over me that I’m sitting here with my spiritual nation which has never fallen from spirituality, and this is the life that never ends….”
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When Problems Aren’t Solved One At A Time

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: When a person starts listening to us, he naturally starts asking: What should I do?

Answer: You have to receive more and more information about the fact that the world’s well-being depends on the good connection between people. And it depends on that absolutely. Money, your place of work, pension, vacation, health, ecology, weather, education, marital relations – and anything you can only imagine cannot be built or corrected “head on.”

What seems to be the problem? If we have a financial crisis, then we’ll print more money and will give it out to whomever we have to. There’s a problem with Libya? Then let’s put pressure on Libya. This is nonsense, but not the kind we can laugh at. It is very bitter nonsense.

No matter what the problem is, today it is impossible to solve it head on, directly, even though this is precisely how we acted in the past. How easy everything used to be: Something happened here so we corrected it here, something happened there so we corrected it there. But that won’t work anymore. Now this is impossible.

We have ended up in a closed system, and while you are fixing one of its parts, another part breaks down. Today you have to know the whole system. Today you have to include it inside of yourself, think globally the way it does, and sense it globally. That is the only way you can achieve success.

Why are the G7, 8 or 20 meetings useless? Why doesn’t a single government program to come out of the crisis work? This is the whole reason.

We have to understand that mutual guarantee is the solution and the right approach to any problem.
From the 5th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/14/11, Arvut

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Experts, Speak Out!

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: It is very difficult to explain to people that the solution to the burning problems lies in the interconnection between people.

Answer: No, it’s not. After all, we are supported by many specialists—not just theoretical physicists, but scientists who research nature and current problems, including economists, politicians, sociologists, psychologists, bankers, and representatives of large companies.

Today everyone is talking about the economy because it is a connection between us: how much do you owe me and how much to I owe you. This is not culture or art, religion or ethics. It is money, a precise measuring device of our mutual bestowal. This is a net of the correct, egoistic, healthy, solid connection between us. We have ruined it with our “bubbles,” but by itself it was surprisingly adequate.

And so, we have to explain to people that this network is no longer working. And this has to be explained by the experts whom we will attract—thousands of people who stand at the head of the world: bank directors, corporate analysts, and so on. Let them talk while we will stand on the sidelines. After them the word will be passed over to the scientists, and then to representatives of the education system. Go ahead—take others and use them.

That is how I see it happening today.

Question: The average person will be curious to hear them out in his free time, but this is still far away from his personal cares and the troubles he encounters in life.

Answer: There is no other solution. We have to give time for the initial phase to transpire, until we convince man that this is where the problem lies. In order to understand the world’s troubles, it is necessary to study what is happening. It’s like a sick person who “plows” through the internet searching for information about his illness and the means to cure it. Thus, we only have to give people a “link,” a connecting cord between what is happening now and the solution.

This task is incumbent on scientists, and we have to act in this direction without any further delay. We will implant and disseminate their, not our, explanations, which are weighty and well-founded. In principle, we have to become an “advertising machine” that quickly brings the rush of information from the experts to the masses. Without mentioning ourselves, we will raise them in the ratings, publish them on sites, and promote them on networks.

We don’t even need our own portal. We don’t want to “win people over” to it from the territory they are used to. This is real work on dissemination.

Question: What should a small person understand from this who does not understand anything and eats whatever he is fed? Is it enough to give him the message that together is good and apart is bad?

Answer: Yes. And a “big person” also has to understand just this. You’re not really planning to tell him about the altruistic intention Lishma, are you? He is not ripe for this on the inside yet. It is written, “Raise a lad in his own way.”

Question: Does this mean that similar to the people who used Facebook as a means to force manufacturers to lower prices on their products, we should simply push governments to unite?

Answer: Yes. We are looking for experts, those who not only understand the idea, but are able to put together a working action and then to make it happen. There are several million people in the world who would like to and are able to join this work that will have to be carried out. This “army” only needs to be organized to carry out the task.

In the meantime, we will remain behind the scenes. Today we don’t need the television anymore. After all, all of humanity is on the internet already. That is the only way we will be able to organize ourselves and that is what our dissemination enterprise will be doing as well. These are the changes we have to start making now, without any further delay.
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From the 5th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/13/11, “Arvut

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Americans Fear Another Great Depression

In the News (from huffingtonpost.com): “Approximately 48 percent of Americans say they think that a Great Depression is either very or somewhat likely to occur within the year according to a CNN Opinion Research Poll, the highest percentage of respondents that have stated that level of certainty since CNN first started asking the question in October 2008. Respondents’ fear that they would soon become unemployed also spiked to an all-time high of 30 percent….”

“‘That’s not just economic pessimism,’ CNN polling director Keating Holling told CNN, reflecting on the polling results, ‘that’s economic fatalism.'”

The nation’s overall unemployment rate sits at 8.8 percent and the rate among white Americans is at 7.9 percent. 15.5 percent of African Americans are out of work and still looking for a job.

During the global recession (1929-1939), later called the Great Depression, the highest level of unemployment rose to 23.6% in the USA.
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Humanity’s Global Problems

Opinion: (M. Delyagin, Director of Research, Institute of Globalization Studies (IPROG), kapital-rus.ru): The world financial crisis is merely an external manifestation of humanity’s integral transformation toward a radically new structure of human society.

Information processing technologies gave rise to a small group of managing elite. Consequently, 70% of the population are unneeded and have to be utilized either physically or socially. Global communication has created the most profitable business: shaping public opinion. This qualitatively changes the character of human development: While previously, over the entire course of human history, humanity grew by reforming the natural environment, today it is beginning to feel the necessity to change itself in order to survive.

Therefore, all previously developed sciences existing up to this day not only will be unable to assist us in our subsequent evolvement, but rather will hamper it, as pertains to the whole humanity. In fact, today it isn’t the world that needs to be changed but man himself, which signifies dismissal of science and technical revolution.

Simplified communications erode the system of government. The world’s civil society is called to constrain the world’s government. Global advertisement has imposed on humankind the desire to strive for high-grade consumption, which resulted in tension, terror, and migration.

The depth of the world financial crisis is underestimated due to the lack of understanding that the old paradigm of global evolution has run its course. A qualitatively new world financial system is due. Humanity’s integration has surpassed the capacity for controlling it and it demands to be stepped back and restored to manageability by simplifying the process of its development.

We are called to intellectual revolution, to form a new type of consciousness, which will bring humanity out of stalemate not by extinguishing its part, but rather by facilitating collective progress.

In the new era of human development it is necessary to do the following:

  1. Comprehend the essence of the new stage of humanity’s evolution;
  2. Define the model of the forth-coming human development;
  3. Identify major issues (challenges) requiring a solution, which will shape the progress of human society within the parameters of this model;
  4. Work out specific guidelines and rules for international organizations, governments, and businesses;
  5. Form and aim public opinion and that of the elite toward harmonizing human development in the new evolutionary setting.

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Are We On The Verge Of Collapse Or At The Threshold Of A New Stage?

Dr. Michael LaitmanOpinion: (Billionaire investor George Soros): “There’s no arrangement for any countries leaving the euro, which in current circumstances is probably inevitable.” The eurozone should develop an escape mechanism for the debts of its most indebted members. “We are on the verge of an economic collapse which starts, let’s say, in Greece, but it could easily spread…The financial system remains extremely vulnerable.”

“I think most of us actually agree that Europe’s crisis is actually centered around the euro… It’s a kind of financial crisis that is really developing. It’s foreseen.”

“We are on the edge of collapse and that is the time to recognize the need for change.” Soros called the survival of the European Union a “vital interest to all” and said the EU needed structural changes to ward off disintegration. The euro had a basic flaw from the start in that the currency was not backed by political union or a joint treasury. “The euro had no provision for correction.”

Comment: That was precisely the miscalculation. No one thought about it in the beginning, and no one is thinking about it now. Egoism has to develop to its full exhaustion as the driving force of human society, civilization, and life in general—until the realization of evil.

Then due to the realization of evil and to the extent of our sensing it, we will be able to turn to its correction because we will feel that the only vital goal is precisely the transformation of egoism into altruism. In other words, we have to experience the rule of “I created the evil inclination, and I created the Torah as a spice” to its full measure.

However, the realization of evil can be accelerated and softened by wisdom because knowledge helps us to predict far-off consequences, to avoid the unnecessary and harmful, and to choose the correct path.

That is why we have been given Kabbalah: It enables us to alleviate and accelerate the achievement of the goal: the transition from egoism to altruism. Then, fundamentally correct alliances will be formed, which will consider common political and economic objectives, meaning that they will be based on the full cooperation of the entire humanity.
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