Is Money the Source of Evil? Part3

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Here is the thing; even if we do all those good things with money, we are still part of the financial system that gives money an evil look when we use legal currencies.

 

What are we supposed to do then?

 

One of the options we have is to stop making money and turn to local currencies or a batter trade system where we exchange goods and services. Many eco-villages do that.

 

However, while that is a great idea, there are areas we can’t be completely independent from the regular system. For example, you can’t use local currency to pay for utilities or pay for your house rent. You will need a legal currency, which takes me back to the question I had in chapter 1 of my book Zen and a Way of Sustainable Prosperity. (You can read it, if you click the free preview icon at the bottom of this page.) Can you break free from the legal currency?

 

Most of our societies use legal currency and operate in the regular system; this means the world will continue even if a small percentage of people decided to stop using money. The reality is, people who make millions every day will continue making that kind of money, and they will choose to invest in businesses that destroy the earth with or without us participating in the regular system.

 

That reminds me of this analogy. Some people say that we, the people who lead sustainable lifestyles, should close our accounts from banks that support the weapon’s industry; this is a good suggestion. However, the question is how much money do we have in those bank accounts? Those banks get millions of dollars from other people’s accounts and thus, they don’t give a damn if we close our account.

 

What we need to do is look at the reality by measuring our progress to see if it works or not. Our approach for the longest time has been to break free from the regular system of using legal currency to reduce social injustices. Since we took that route, has something changed? The answer is not a lot. That means our current approach doesn’t work and we are due for a new one.

 

An alternative approach is to create a positive change in society by using our money for good. We can also continue using local currency and the bartering system. It is a double strategy. One reason why the local currency approach failed is that it wasn’t big enough to create a massive impact on society. By combining it with the method of using our money to create positive changes in society, our chances of influencing society increase.

 

In order to spend money on positive things, we first need to earn money. To do it, we need to change our perception of money.

 

Money in itself isn’t bad; what is usually problematic is people, more so how humans use money. Let me break it down to you. The financial system based on interest wasn’t created by money; people created it; people also made the decision to prioritize profit over doing the right thing. Money has nothing to do with it and it hasn’t been fair for us to accuse it of all those acts.