A World Without Money. Can You Imagine?

For well over a decade, I've had these visions of a society where everybody has their basic needs met and provided for: food, shelter, clothing, education, health care, water. Such needs being provided for while income/money not being a factor. I've seen homes built into the hills and mountains. Homes that are in symbiosis with nature.

Lately, I've been thinking about the possibility of such a society without the need for money or credit. That's right. No banks. No wall street. Imagine that? Refreshing. But likely causing you to pause. Possibly even cringing or dismissing the idea as nonsense, even foolish. Perhaps even unamerican. That's understandable. We've all been conditioned to believe we NEED money. We NEED the banks. Competition is good. People have to PROVE their worth. Gotta EARN our keep. Survival of the fittest.

As we look around our society, what's causing this crisis?

Money. Credit. And the lack of it being distributed.

We still have the means to produce the goods and services, and yet jobs are still disappearing.

People are losing their homes to banks, but the homes are still there, waiting for someone to occupy them all the while homelessness increases.

And yet, it is those controlling the money and the credit that is STOPPING the job creation, the production of goods and services and the homes from being foreclosed upon.

In short, the resources are there. The will is there. The man/woman power is there.

It's the money and credit distribution that's, er, being sequestered, if you will.

There is a movement afoot that I stumbled upon. The Venus Project. A movement that looks to create a resource-based society instead of a monetary-based society. I cannot possibly begin to cover it all in this one post. I still have questions of my own. But I do know this: The monetary system creates lack and scarcity. It creates an ongoing fear that resides within us all. On a planet that has the means to provide us with unlimited resources if we choose to utilize them responsibly, there is NO REASON why we must continue on with this old archaic means of living.

No reason.

Of course, as mentioned previously, all of this is threatening to the current system supporters and creators. It's threatening to those who have benefited by the system, either through honest or dishonest means. It's threatening to every person who places a higher value on money than on people. And it is indeed time for us to wake up to this, for we have all supported this system in one way or another. We have all, knowingly or unknowingly, continued to place more importance and value on money than we have on basic human worth and value.

Hopefully when we become fully aware of this, we can begin to be open to the idea of something new.

This idea isn't perfect. Those behind it attest to that. But, as I heard the founder of the Venus Project say, "we have to start somewhere".

Indeed, we do.

We have to ask the tough question.

What's most important? Truly important in our hearts.

The well-being of people or money. ?

For we simply cannot have a money-based system AND put the importance of human value as number one. We can't. Sooner or later, money interferes and begins to take precedence. I've seen it in my own life. Certainly I see it every time I turn on the television and am in direct contact with the outside world.

A money-based society, as I said, creates lack and scarcity. It says there's only so much to go around. It says you are worth this and I am worth that. And tragically, this has created a system where we are always focused more on how to make money, will it be enough, how will I pay my bills, will I lose my job, what if I lose my job, do I have enough this week to provide for my family. Even for those who are ultra wealthy, they're still focused on their money. Is it working for them. What if they lose it. Is it in a safe place. Is it invested wisely.

Money is the center of our universe, people. And it doesn't have to be that way. There is always room for something new. Imagine working less. Imagine having more time to do the things you truly WANT to do. Imagine more time with those you love. Imagine not ever once again having to worry about money. Can you do that? I'd say there's likely a "yes" somewhere within you.

I invite you to contemplate what I have written and check out a couple of websites. The Zeitgeist Movement. The Venus Project. Give them a visit. Take your time as your read through the material. While I am not saying to run out and join these folks, it is certainly worth your time to talk about with these concepts with others. Start your own world. Create your own reality, your own system, with other like-minded folks.

As open as I am to such a new way of living, the information I read challenged some of my own beliefs. But it did something else as well. It gave me reason to embrace the notion of something new.

And clearly what we have created and been supporting is certainly not working.

I am so so so ready for something new. Are you? If so, let's begin talking! I believe, to the depths of who I am, that there is no greater, no more important topic for us to be talking about.