ABUNDANCE AND OUR ECONOMIC SYSTEM

ABUNDANCE

Perhaps the greatest part of the illusion of our material world is the idea of lack and limitation. Our modern civilization is based on it. The regulation of money, wages, and investment in the economy is entirely for the purpose of distributing scarce resources. It is founded on scarcity.

The notion of economic theory is founded on the idea of a zero-sum game; that is, if you have more of one thing, you must have less of something else. It began as observation, but soon became a controlling factor, as the theories are used to allocate resources and make both political and business decisions.

It is further assumed that scarcity operates throughout nature, so that we can only have more if someone else has less. This teaches us to feel guilt for all that we do have, so that we are prevented from enjoyment of anything. Since we cannot enjoy what we have, we neglect to feel grateful. The absence of gratitude in our thinking leads to unconscious avoidance of opportunity, and pushes prosperity away from us.

The most dangerous idea in our economic system may be that things derive their value from scarcity; that there is no such thing as intrinsic value. Scarcity is contrived in order to maintain the value of goods. People apply this to themselves to destroy their self-esteem, reasoning that abilities they hold in common with many others are therefore valueless.

Again, this is a case of a belief system which does not serve us well. Is an egg, sausage or steak less tasty when eggs, pork or beef are more plentiful? Are they less nutritious? Yet we expect to pay less for them if they are not scarce, and we allow farmers to become bankrupt due to low prices if there is a plentiful supply. We have lost sight of the concept of intrinsic worth.

A new concept of abundance - the flow concept - can be found in my books TURN THE WORLD ON ITS HEAD and THE LITTLE BOOK OF TRUTH AND WISDOM. Yes I am flattering myself with the latter title, and I was tongue in cheek when something told me to use it! Both books can be found at www.lulu.com.