Competition in the Workplace and the Human Condition

Do you notice where you find yourself competing with your other fellow employees, because you can’t all ‘win’, you can’t all get the bonuses, and this puts you in a position where you’re against each other, instead of working together toward the common goal, you’re now working in separation for ‘potential rewards’. And the only reason this competition exists, is because there are these possibilities/opportunities to get more money, but not for everyone. That means, very simply, it’s either ‘You or Them’. So now your focus is distracted from the task at hand, and now focused on ‘beating everyone else’ to get to that prize. And for many people, this is not something that sits well, as most people don’t want to be against one another, but would much rather get along well and work together on things, but find oneself torn now between one’s own personal well-being/income and everyone else’s. In this, one will have to find whatever way one can to cope with or justify having to compete against one’s fellow man, like coming up with reasons like ‘why I deserve it more and they don’t’ and ‘I have to look out for myself/my family’.

What hasn’t been considered within this is the simple solution of giving to all equally, and giving enough that each and every individual can have a dignified life, the best quality life possible, where there is no worrying whether you will be able to get the healthcare you need, or the food you need, or adequate housing, education, etc.

If everyone gets the same support, competition will cease, because you won’t have to compete with others to get what you need and to have a dignified life. Then we can really focus on the tasks at hand and the productivity of humanity will not diminish, but will be of a higher quality, as when we work together on things, we are capable of so much more than when we’re all ‘on our own’ and having to work against each other.

What’s really incredible is the extent to which competition has been and is accepted as a ‘normal’ part of life, and it’s essentially forgotten that competition had to be conditioned in – we aren’t born with it. It’s something we learn through our family structures and in school, especially in sports for example, where winning is emphasized, and you’re separated into ‘teams’ instead of everyone being on the same ‘team’ and working together.

Some will argue that competition builds character, and it sure does – the question is, just what kind of character does competition create? The kind that has justified and accepted turning against one’s fellow man and seeking to ‘win’ no matter if it means someone else loses. And that is the very basis of our current economic system and our relationship toward/with it, in which we’ve accepted that only a few can ‘win’, while most everyone else has to ‘lose’, and never considering the option that everyone can win, and that if you winning means someone else losing, that is not really ‘winning’. The real way to win is to have a world where we’re actually supported to live in the best quality, and none are denied access to what we need here to live and thrive, that none are allowed to suffer for no good reason in order to make profits.

And it’s actually thought that using ‘incentive’ actually ‘increases productivity’, and you’ll have things like ‘quotas’ to meet at work, where what happens is this actually limits growth and productivity, because once you’ve met the quota, there’s no motivation then to go on any further, as your movement was dependent on that incentive. And where in the case of meeting a quota, the reward is usually actually the ‘avoidance of some form of punishment’, so your goal becomes totally removed from the actual task/job you’re doing. And that begs the question, why does what you’re doing require incentive to get you to do it? Is it not something you would do otherwise? So that really calls in to question the nature of what it is that we require incentive to do, and whether it is really the kind of jobs that are of benefit to ourselves and each other, and all of life here, or whether it’s jobs that only exist for the making of profits, without concern/regard for life?

See, we wouldn’t just naturally abuse ourselves and our home the earth and nature, but we had to be incentivized to do so, so that we won’t question what’s really being done and what are the actual consequences and outflows we’re creating, and why it is that we’re doing it, because we’ve been given a reason, it’s for a reward, which for many the ‘reward’ is literally one’s survival, and there is obviously no freedom in that. So it’s slavery, we’ve enslaved ourselves to/within this capitalist system where we must work within what’s available to us just to be able to survive, and thus there is really no free will in this reality, no ‘free choice’. Because not everyone can become, say, president of a country or a business. I mean, it’s obvious no starving child is ever going to be a wealthy business owner. And that even the majority of those in elite countries who are surviving in relative comfort, and living paycheck to paycheck, are not going to become world leaders or big-time CEO’s.

Obviously a system based on competition is not working, with most of the population living undignified lives, lacking even the most basic of needs, when there is plenty for all to live the best quality life. It’s as simple as no longer accepting a system that is based on us competing against one another, and instead one where the starting point principle is to work together, as the world we can create through cooperation is one in which no one starves. Where no one suffers from lack of clean drinking water, effective education, proper housing, or effective healthcare. I mean it really makes you wonder why haven’t we done this already and established an Equal Money System, so that we can give ourselves the best life possible, and All of us, not just a few with the most money in a system that doesn’t give enough to all, through which we’re allowing people, children to starve every day, when it can be prevented. Time to give ourselves the life we’ve always wished for – join us today at http://equalmoney.org.

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• 209. Successful Living = Capitalist Brainwash

Do we need an Equal Money System, what if we just stop spending Money?

There’s still many many people who haven’t yet come to understand how simply cutting down one’s spending and stopping spending money, isn’t going to lead to a solution. Because they are still looking at it from within an individual perspective within their personal experience, of being one of the elites in the world, who has money in the first place, to consider not spending. They’ve not yet considered/realized that for actual change that will have an actual impact on changing this, it’s required to consider every single human being on this planet. And their living situations and what options they have or don’t have currently. Because most of the world’s population has no options. It’s only those living in elite countries that have options.

Only 28% of the world’s population is considered middle class, as defined by those who spend between $10-$100 a day. 2% is wealthy, and 70% is poor. Thus it’s only a minority that the idea of ‘not spending money’ applies to. And for global change to take place and last, we would require all of the population to be in a position to work toward this change.

The vast majority of the world’s population, 70%,  are poor. Poor means having limited or no choice in how you live your life. It means having to take what is available to you. For example, there are people who live off of crabs that they can catch because that is what is available to them and they will starve otherwise. Thus, the poor, the majority of the population, are already spending very little to no money at all, and that hasn’t changed anything. So that’s a clear indicator right there, that not spending money isn’t a solution. Because many already aren’t, and the result is that their life is an absolute struggle, and thousands die every day because they couldn’t get that which they required to survive- food, shelter, water, proper medical care, effective education.

In terms of changing the very nature of existence here for all life, if  only 30%  can change that means fuck-all (excuse the term, but it’s quite apt here – unless you consider all, all is fucked), because there is still the vast majority of 70%. So all solutions must consider the options that everyone currently has or does not have. And currently 70% of the world’s population has no real options. Thus, that is the primary point that must be taken into account within any possible solution. That is the point of the Equal Money System. To give everyone the ability to actually move in this world, and not be limited to spending each moment trying to survive.  Before you can even consider changing the world or yourself, you have to have your basic needs met. The Equal Money System will give everyone guaranteed access to your needs, so that you are not busy every moment with survival, and can actually consider things beyond that.

Money is like the blood of our system. All parts of the body require blood flow to function properly. What would happen in a body when some parts of the body, who already had enough blood, started hoarding it their excess blood? Within a body which, within the design of capitalism,  already is deliberately not allowed to have enough blood flowing through it to support all parts effectively?

So, let’s look at what would happen if the middle class stops spending the money that they have available to spend – corporations providing the products we’d be buying less of will lose business and have to resort to even more drastic methods of making money, than is done currently. They’ll charge less for their products in the hope that more people will buy them. This means that the slave laborers manufacturing and producing the goods  that are sold in elite countries will be paid even less, as companies will have to cut costs in any way they can, as corporations are actually required by law to ensure a certain amount of profit for their shareholders, which is people of elite countries holding those shares, who demand a return for their investment into said company. Corporations that can’t make enough profit will go belly up and then the slave laborers will have no jobs and thus no income at all.

So already we can see that within this plan, the result is actually more suffering, more will have even less access to their needs. The abuse continues.

In the event of the current middle class no longer buying stuff, those that are currently in positions of power within the current system might take actions to change middle classes, raise up some poor people who would be happy to spend money to finally get what they need, and knock down the stingy middle class who has decided not to buy stuff anymore. This would be done through wars and reallocation of wealth/money. Because the goal of those who orchestrate such events, is always profit, thus whatever means necessary will be taken to continue making profit. Just look at the history of the U.S. for a perfect example. Before industrialization and mass producing of goods, the American population was buying enough of the goods that were produced, but once industrialization hit, now there was an excess of goods. So, the business owners wanted to continue selling these goods to make more profit, and the working class’s survival was linked to the businesses, as those were their jobs and how they got the money they needed to get by, and if those businesses went belly up or couldn’t sell as much, due to increase in competition between companies to sell their products, there would be cuts in order to maximize profits, and people would be laid off and no longer have an income to be able to get what they need. So the U.S. went to war with other countries like Puerto Rico and Panama and essentially took them over in order to set up military bases in those countries for the purpose of establishing and protecting trade routes where products could be shipped to other countries, to broaden the market for their surplus goods.

But that will likely not happen, because you simply won’t get everyone to stop spending money. Have a look at a prevalent mentality of those in the middle class, where you are defined by what and how much you own. This programming runs thick, it is programmed into children from a very early age to define oneself by consumerism, where you will be actually treated as less than if you don’t have all the latest products. Watch the documentary “Consuming Kids: Commercialization of Childhood” to see how this is done. This is why in order for us to change the world, we’re going to have to change ourselves, to ensure that the values we live by are not based in consumerism but on what is actually best for life. What will be best for humans, for nature, for the animals, for everything that is here. Instead of ignoring these things which we depend on to survive, about which I’ll go into more detail in another blog.

Thus you can see that until we change the very nature of the current profit-based system which we’ve accepted and allowed, no real change will be possible. And to do that we must first change ourselves and the values and limitations we’re living as. As long as we’re allowing life to be taken advantage of and abused for the sake of profits, the abuse and suffering will continue. That is why the Equal Money System is being developed, as a system that will actually be based on doing that which is best for life – not profit.

So how do we go about changing the system? When considering how to change something, you must first understand how it was created – you must get to the actual source of the manifestation. The current profit based system as it currently exists was created through the political system. Have a look at how much resistance there is for most people to get involved in politics. This is no accident. We’ve been led to believe that politics is either too boring, or too complex, or that solution must come through revolution and violence. Because politics is the tool through which we can actually bring effective change, and violence gives reason the respond with force, which the system has plenty of, thus violence is no option. The other tactic used to keep people from implementing real actual change, was to give people the idea that one can change the world according to what they buy or don’t buy. Effectively channeling one’s want to do something and make a change in this world, into consumerism, and away from politics. And this has been happily accepted, as it’s much easier to read a label that says ‘organic’ or ‘made from recycled materials’ than to actually make the effort to educate oneself and expand oneself and get involved in the system.

Thus, change that is of any benefit will not come from looking for individual solutions that the whole group cannot apply.  Effective change will not come from a minority of the earth’s population changing their spending habits. The change that come from that is from a personal individual self interest perspective, looking at improving one’s own experience while not considering the whole picture, and the consequences and outflows in the rest of the world. What’s required is that the human change themself, those that are in a position where one has enough financial stability that their needs are met and they have the option to educate themself and get involved in bringing about change, to stop accepting things the way they are, and actually become a participant in what is here as the current system, to take the necessary actions that will lead to real change. This is the place where we’re coming together to do just that, and that is why we are developing a new system, the Equal Money System, because we see what is actually required to bring real change, and we’re standing up to do it.

Do we need an Equal Money System or can’t we just share?

Here are some questions that were asked by someone on Facebook about the Equal Money System, and my responses. Have a look to get some perspective on how the Equal Money System will work:

SBC: Someone help me understand… why ANY MONEY at all ??? why not a world of bartering, good, skills, knowledge… in effect ‘sharing’ all the above so everyone has what is needed. I have lots to share or trade, never any real money left at the end of the month and I have goods I don’t need but often no money for goods I do need… so why a money system? Why Money? I am not ‘afraid’ of Equal anything if it means sharing… I just don’t understand, why money…. How many of you live on less than $700 a month?… I’ll await your reply.

Bartering requires a capital of goods, so that does not help those in poverty at all. Not everyone has access to education to get skills because they don’t have money. Money is the tool through which we get access to our needs and education, etc. thus money will be given to all so all is guaranteed access. If you can live without money it means you are still living within a system that is supporting you, otherwise you’d die. Much of the world’s population is not supported and they already do not use money because they do not have money and so they are busy starving to death and suffering due to lack of education and healthcare. Since we’re accepting and allowing a system where you require money to get your needs, then we give all money so all have equal have access, and none can be excluded. Money is thus the perfect tool to utilize to ensure that all get equal support, and that each individual has the ability to support themself and not be dependent on another for their survival.

SBC: that is why you share… you teach and give any abundance to those who need. Everyone has a gift even if they haven’t been polished by education. It starts somewhere… desire to learn, desire to grow. Everyone should have an oppotunity to find their inner desire, their gift… One can help and have -0- money, enchouragement is valuable. One can share skills, knowledge… it is free. Many people wish to share their talent and skills at no cost because it brings them joy. Giving of themselves is reward enough. Money means measurement. If you must measure everything, who decides? By who’s measurement is value of money given? What is worth something of value to you may not be to another. People value differently. To live equally the value of services will not be the same to all. Do you understand what I am saying?

We’ve become so brainwashed to believe that poverty just exists and that’s how it must be, it’s just a part of life, so then we think in terms of ‘charity for those in need’, not considering how/why poverty is created in the first place, not even even realizing that it is created and is not a ‘natural’ or ‘inherent’ thing that must be that way. The current system actually creates the poverty and lack. It’s within this realization that it becomes obvious to have a new system that does not create lack in the first place. The Equal Money System is thus designed to support everyone by giving everyone the means to support themself, thus there will be no poor. Helping/charity still accepts the poor as poor- with the Equal Money System no one will made to be poor in the first place.

Education is not a polish, it’s what gives one the ability to function in an effective way in this reality, the deleterious effects of a lack of education is tremendous. We’re not talking about a lack of school only, but within the family as well, where the whole family has no education from generation to generation, where they lack almost any practical understanding of how this physical reality works. For example doctors practiced blood-letting in the past when we had less understanding of how the physical human body operate, and many were killed.

Skills and knowledge are not free- to have skills and knowledge means you have been supported with the basic necessities like food, water- without those you’d be dead- no learning possible. Then there’s also the materials required to learn skills- those aren’t free, most goods are provided by slave labor- as those producing those goods have no choice but to work in poor conditions for insufficient pay to have a dignified life.

This is the point here- that not everyone has access to these things that some of us do and because it’s always been here for us we take it for granted to the extent that one does not even realize all that has gone into one’s life to get to where you are now, all the food and the slaves who produced it, your clothes, the buildings you’ve lived, worked, learned in, the water you’ve drank, the products you’ve used, the cars you drive, etc- not considering what it means to have literally nothing in this world, to be born in a place where there is no system of life support and every day is a struggle to survive, and thousands die everyday. People in those situations don’t have the option to share anything- they don’t have anything.

To suggest that the solution is for those that have to share, is accepting the poverty to exist, and making their survival or wellbeing dependent on whether or not others share – is that how you’d like your quality of life, or whether you even survive or not, to be determined, where you have no choice, no option, no power or ability to change your life? When instead we can have a system that simply supports everyone in the first place, so no one’s survival or quality of life is unguaranteed, where you wonder from day to day how or if you’re going to survive and make it to the next moment. And what for? Just to be in a constant state of trying to survive? No one wants to live that way, so why are we allowing a system that forces beings into this type of existence?

Measurement is a cool practical tool for working within a physical reality.  We have already decided the value of money- we use money everyday according to the values that have been set by those we’ve elected into the system to make those decisions. Many of us are not part of the process but simply accept how it’s being done currently, and currently money is being valued in the way that is most effective for making profits, not for supporting life. This is what we change within an Equal Money System, where money becomes the tool that it’s supposed to be – to facilitate distribution of needs to where they’re needed. The ‘value’ will be determined by what does this most effectively. Thus, it’s really irrelevant what the ‘value’ is, as it goes according to what will support all life to be the best possible in all ways.

The value of services is the same to all- all need food, water, shelter, healthcare, etc. For items that aren’t needs but are cool to have like a computer for example, in a system where profit is not the goal and items are made to last, not made to become obsolete rapidly to maximize profits, we can have a computer for everyone, we can have a car for everyone, etc. If you don’t want a car, then you won’t have one. We have the capability and technology and resources to do this. We don’t have the resources to support our current economy that’s based on overproduction of inferior goods for profits. Thus all have access to what is ‘valued’ in the context of what is needed for survival, and that which makes life practical and fun. Thus the ‘value’ becomes life itself, because only life has value – life meaning real life where all are able to live and thrive in a way that’s best for all and none are left out, no longer enslaved to a system. Any other ‘value’ is not real, it’s a mental make-believe created to make profit.

We are all the ‘greedy bastards‘ as we’ve accepted and allowed the current system to exist and continue to exist, while it enslaves so many and causes so much suffering. Thus it’s each and every one of us that must change, to stop allowing this. Obviously those in power don’t do everything by themselves, it’s all of us together creating this world, thus we have to actually stand up and stand together to stop the hell that we’re creating and work toward creating a world where all are supported to live and thrive to fullest potential.

For more information on the Equal Money Money System – http://equalmoney.org