Do You Need Friends in an Equal Money System?
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In Equal Money System friendships will no longer be economic relationships, because each will have what they need, and each will have the same opportunity as the other to have more.
If you consider groups of friends today, think about who gets invited out the most, or to the most parties. Who is the most popular and who is it that people want to be around. It is always the one who has something more, something to offer, the one who others can receive ‘something’ from. And that ‘something’ doesn’t only have to be money. It is sometimes money, in terms of the one friend who buys all the drinks and pays the way. It can be the one with the car, the one from a rich family who has a large house for parties, or a ski lodge to bring friends to, or a second home somewhere exotic. It can be the one who has an outgoing and successful personality, one who is looked up to, wherein others might gain 'tricks of the trade' or networking connections.
These relationships are based in self-interest through gaining something from the other. There may be some reciprocity, but a self-honest look at the starting point of this type of giving will reveal that it is not based on actual caring or concern for the other, but rather ‘what is in it for me’.
This type of relationship is the type that is fostered in our current economic system, where we are born in to a world of competition and survival. We have to fight each other for finite resources, and the attitude is: “it’s me or you, and it might as well be me”. This is what lies at the starting point of most all relationships in our world. Behind the handshakes and crocodile smiles, all the niceties and nice-to-meet-you’s, is the ‘what-can-you-give-me and ‘how-am-I-a-better-competitor’.
If one were to take a look at all the friends one has and ask how many are based purely within economics or business? How many are kept out of guilt, or because something is gained from them? If each person eliminated all these types of relationships, which are based in self-interest, would there be any ‘friends’ left?
Conversely, if one is rich, and shares everything and is therefore constantly surrounded by friends and family, I ask: if the sharing is stopped, how quickly will the situation change? If one who is rich were to lose everything, would he still feel he has something to offer others in terms of ‘who he is’? Are friendships bought? And if one has very little, how many friends are kept because of gain? How many people does one want to ‘be like’, instead of just being ok with who one is?
If there are some people who haven’t been eliminated after having asked all these questions, then consider income levels. We are limited to friends within our own general level of income, because it costs money to do things and to hang out with friends. I myself have been in the situation where simply buying a coffee at a café was a luxury I could rarely afford; so when my ‘well-off’ friends would invite me out, I had to decline because I simply couldn’t afford it. I eventually had to withdraw from the relationship. The reality is that if a middle income individual has a very poor friend, it is only a matter of time before he or she gets tired of paying for everything, or simply can’t afford it, or the poverty stricken individual becomes tired of declining or making special arrangements to suit his financial situation. And if you have friends that are very rich, it might be hard to relate to them and to their problems and issues when you’re struggling to keep up on rent, or mortgage payments and bills. This kind of class difference facilitates the psychological issues of judgment, feelings of inadequacy, shame, pity etc…. It is simply easier to choose friends only from your level of income, in which case money is the determining factor of the friendship.
Another experience I've had with a supposed 'best friend', was when we discoverd a profitable employment opportunity to which there was only one position. The years of 'friendship' were quickly replaced by a situation of survival of the fittest. True friendship, where loving, caring and respecting your friend as you would love, care for and respect yourself, simply cannot exist in a situation where are we are competing with eachother for survival, yet this is the global reality we exist within.
Another experience I've had with a supposed 'best friend', was when we discoverd a profitable employment opportunity to which there was only one position. The years of 'friendship' were quickly replaced by a situation of survival of the fittest. True friendship, where loving, caring and respecting your friend as you would love, care for and respect yourself, simply cannot exist in a situation where are we are competing with eachother for survival, yet this is the global reality we exist within.
It is the ugly truth, but it is also completely unnecessary. The real truth is the fact that there are enough resources to go around, but that they have all accumulated into a lop-sided equation, wherein a few have the majority of the wealth and the means to production, while the majority are left fighting each other for the scraps. There is no dignity in this, and there is no dignity in relationships that are based on this principle.
In terms of ego, in an Equal Money System it will be very apparent that there is no need and no room for ego within equality. Ego, like survival, is something we cling to in order to save ourselves, to be the best, or to be the victim, to be hurt and to hurt others. Within the Equal Money System, those who cannot see past their ego to their oneness with the rest of life, and the equality with all that is here, will be gently re-educated until they realize that no one needs to suffer mercilessly due to the existence of the ego of another (i.e. The ego that needs to surround itself by millions of dollars as security, as survival, while others are born into poverty and starvation).
In an Equal Money System, resources will not be owned and profited from, they will be evenly distributed as the distribution of a dignified life for all. No one has the right to profit off the labour of another as slavery as is accepted and allowed in the current system, just as no one has the right to own and profit from resources that are provided freely and unconditionally from the earth. Absolutely nobody has the right to profit from resources that we all depend upon for our survival, nor to keep them from us if we can’t pay. That is barbaric. In an Equal money System, each human will be provided and cared for equally, and each human-hour will have the same value, relationships will therefore be formed within absolute equality, thus friendship In an Equal Money System will not be based in self-interest, competition, personal gain and survival, but rather on actual caring, sharing, mutual respect, and it will be dignified.
To answer the question: ‘Do you need friends in an equal money system’, the answer is no. You don’t NEED them because there is no need or dependency; you either choose to have them, or not. The real question is: will you be brave enough to enter into friendships with nothing to offer other than who you are?
Friendship based on Money Will End in an Equal Money System:
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