Life Is Not Fair

Life’s Not Fair

                Life’s not fair: it’s harsh, but it’s true. Life’s not fair because some people are taller and are better basketball players, and some people have a huge singing range and can stay on key effortlessly, while some people have an aptitude for math like it’s nobody’s business.

To be born with such advantages or disadvantages in life is not fair. We are not all born equal no matter what any constitution says, and that’s just the way it is. We’ve got to work with what we’ve got in this life and learn to accept ourselves the way we are.

                However, there’s another type of inequality that exists, and it’s much more unfair than any physiological or biological difference will ever be: it’s the current, competitive economic system. This system has been built and designed to produce haves and have nots, where billions of people are going hungry, most people are struggling to get by, and a handful of people have everything they could possibly want and more.

                It’s one thing to be ‘lucky’ enough to be born with certain aptitudes wherein one can possibly enjoy a certain skill set throughout their life, which another may never get the chance to do. It’s another thing when you’re born into a country in debt, and you starve from the moment you take your first breath till the moment when you die.

Life’s Not Fair: The American Dream

Two people are born in the ghetto somewhere in the U.S.A, One is tall and a good basketball player, and the other is the same minus the height and skills. The tall one who can play basketball gets discovered and goes on to make millions and now he’s all set, while his counterpart will remain in the ghetto, where he will suffer the consequences of the unemployment, unaffordable education, and the bad economy created by the elite. Basically, he hasn’t got a chance in hell. And no matter how much money his basketball playing friend can make, he can never buy a solution to this problem, because it is global and it is systemic. Instead his millions will go to supporting the system as it is and making sure everything stays in place.  

We live in a world where one can be born  into a country, or a part of a country where no matter how hard you work or what type of person you are, you will go hungry, and you will never get the opportunity to change that reality because of the systemic and inescapable poverty that exists. And then there’s the illusion that in America, there’s still a chance for everyone to ‘make it’, also known as the American Dream. It’s not called a ‘dream’ by accident: dream on America. Take my example of the basketball player- that would be an example of the American dream- but even if every NBA player were to have come from poverty, the fraction of people that go from rags to riches is so insignificant. Billions of people, tens of millions in the U.S. remain struggling, isolated, merely surviving with no future and no hope. The few people who make it out of this situation are celebrated, given media attention and held as examples of what the others ‘could’ become if they’re lucky. To this I say: Good luck getting a loan with bad credit and no assets. Good luck getting a good job with a criminal record. Good luck making sense of the world when you’re born into drug addiction. Good luck being an honest, hard-working individual when you are physically or sexually abused, and you have no one to show you how to ‘rise up’ and ‘overcome’. Good luck becoming competitive in a country where the quality of education is poor unless you can afford Ivy League schools, where a BA just doesn’t cut it anymore, and where poverty is systemic. Poverty HAS to exist in order for the system to function properly, wherein the rich become even more rich every year, and the middle class -the backbone of America- gets chipped away at, crumbles under crushing debt and begins to live hand to mouth, joining the ranks of the poor.  But these are the breaks right? I mean, Life’s not fair after all.

                But this is different, this is a man-made phenomenon. This has been planned and orchestrated, accepted and allowed, legislated and concretized.  The difference is also the fact that this is global, and that starvation and suffering is systematic and long-term.  The situation has been created over generations, and it has gotten out of hand. Now it’s time to just stop, stop, and do something altogether different.

                The Equal Money system is a new kind of economic system. It is being proposed as an alternative to profit-based capitalism. It is being proposed by an international, self-organized group who are committed to change. We understand that in order to bring about change we first have to change ourselves, by going to school, educating ourselves, and getting jobs that will place us in good standing within the system. We are cleaning up our own financial situations and becoming responsible, well-disciplined individuals who care enough about the lives of those who have no chance, to commit our own lives to personal, then systemic, then global change. We are empowering ourselves by learning about what Life is really about: not clothes or beauty, sex, partying, drinking or sports- but rather the global community who need to work together to lift the poor out of their isolation, help the rich step down from their delusions of grandeur, and bring everybody to a level playing field where education, medical attention, food, shelter, communication and transportation are guaranteed to all.

                We understand that REAL change can only come from a change within the system. That we have to ‘be the change’ as they say, by becoming the politicians, by becoming the educated, by becoming the rich, by becoming the system, in order to change the system from within. We need to become the system to change the system, not fight the system.

 If you are unsatisfied with the way things are and if you agree we need to change, I propose you join the Equal Money movement by learning about it, learning about Desteni, and then empowering yourself to become the system, so that you truly can ‘be the change’ that will change the world. It’s about time, but it will take time. Real change is slow, but there’s a lot to do.

Here are some of the principles of the Equal Money System in simple English:

No human being may profit off of the work of another, one human hour of labour has the same value across the board. If you want to be rich and have more, you simply have to work more. Profiting off of the work of another is called slavery.

The value of money is not backed by gold or market shares, but by Human Life. We are all born with the same worth; we all have intrinsic value which is inseparable from us. When the human dies, the value dies, no value carries over to be passed down the bloodline creating family elites. We are one global family and each member will be considered.

- This not only makes sense, but helps to deter corruption while we re-educate ourselves till we understand that equality always pays in the end. It eliminates the constant fear of not having enough, eliminating the ‘you OR me’ mentality, and nurturing the ‘us’ mentality.

Within an Equal Money System there will be two parallel systems, one for basic requirements and one for luxuries.

-          It’s not the same as communism. If you want more- you can have it, you just have to do the work yourself. If you don’t want to work, you don’t have to, but you will only get the bare minimum in life, if you’re cool with that-so be it! If you want to work 5 hours, 10 hours, 15 hours a week only, that is fine because you are only ‘sacrificing’ luxuries by working less.

Basic Needs System: All basic needs will be met, giving the human peace of mind and security, eliminating the need to simply survive, giving each human value so that he and she can understand what it is to value others and respect life. Educating him and her to be responsible, considerate and caring custodians of the earth and the plant and animal systems  upon which we depend for our survival.

-          How can we value others if we don’t value ourselves? How can we value ourselves when our societies only value money? How can we value the earth when it pays to destroy the earth?

-           When a child is born he or she is immediately granted a bank account, the balance in the account will last the child’s entire life, the money can only be spent on basic needs for that child and the well-being of that child.

The Luxuries System: Entertainment and other luxuries will be provided wilfully by humans, and paid for by money which represents man-hours of labour. Entertainers will be paid per hour worked the same as doctors and veterinarians and teachers. If you want more luxuries, you work more.

Profit will not exists, thus cheap products and excessive packaging will cease to exist, among other things, drastically reducing pollution.

-           Everything that’s related to cutting costs will cease to exist. Such as using harsh chemicals, (because ‘green products’ are too expensive and don’t work fast enough).  Advertising and all the waste associated with it will cease to exist: therefore, false advertising, and ads that are emotionally manipulative will cease. Products that self-destruct after two years will have no place here. Fertilizers, hormones, antibiotics and other high-yield producing techniques will end. Pesticides will be reduced and replaced.Cheap waste removal such as waterways and landfills will be drastically reduced with the aim of only producing so much waste as the environment can effectively handle. No more slave labour, no more inhuman working conditions. No more child labour. No more child sex trade. No more insurance-based suicide.

All decisions will be guided by the principle of what’s best for all, and voted on in democratic elections where each person has a vote.

None are free until all are free. None are equal until all are equal.

There will be a four year mandatory work period for all human beings. Once schooling is complete, a 4 year mandatory service in work towards the functioning of society is required for the running of the system.  4 years is nothing compared to today, where many people have to work a lifetime after schooling is complete, if they were even lucky enough to get an education. We have to work for our whole lives in order to survive; even the idea of retirement is becoming something that is no longer tangible for most.

Leaders will lead as equals, and will be voted in by the people.

For more information visit www.equalmoney.org.

Equality Always Pays

Equality always pays.

Life gives constantly, consistently and continuously. Take a plant, if you grow a fruit bearing plant and you don’t water it, don’t feed it and don’t tend to the soil, that plant will not give up. That plant will put everything into staying alive, growing and bearing fruit. If such a plant does manage to still bear fruit, you can eat it and nourish yourself, regardless of how you treated that plant.

The environment in which we live is constantly filtering out our toxins, cleaning our water and air, and providing us with food, shelter and raw materials with which we create every single thing we need for our comfort, enjoyment, entertainment and security.

Animals provide the same giving. They will produce in the form of their labour and their products in the form of milks, eggs, flesh, skin, bone etc... And they will continue to produce these things which we use, regardless of how we treat them, for as long as they are able.

This is the unconditional giving of life, and of innocence of Life: they do not have a mind to judge us or the ‘free will’ to choose not to provide. They do what they do because they are alive.

Inequality exists only within the mind of man, and is expressed in his actions, in our actions, wherein we take advantage of this unconditional giving from our world and even demand more, as if we were somehow entitled to take what we want without considering the experience of that which is providing, or `the consequences of our `taking. We demand more and more until we suck the life out of that which provides, and we move on to the next one, or the next space, to do the same. Over and over until we ruin everything and there’s nothing left for our children.

All we would have to do to gracefully receive all these unconditional gifts provided to us by Life in all its different shapes and forms is to realize our equality with all of Life, and with all that is here. This involves treating everything with the respect, care and dignity we ourselves would want to be treated with. If we are unable to even treat ourselves and our own bodies with respect, care and dignity, then we will be unable to treat our world with equality, because we are unequal to ourselves. This is why, within the process of bringing about equality, we must first start with equality within, because only then can we realize our equality with All Life.

If we were to actually live as ‘equals’ with all that is here, we would nurture the land and it would provide the most wonderful produce forever, baring of course the occasional isoloated environmental factors that would prevent such a thing. On a global scale, if we as humanity took care to respectfully cultivate the land and animals all around the world, the earth would provide ceaselessly and endlessly for us. It is already willing to do so, except we take too much, we abuse the animals and we deprive the land of the essentials it needs, we destroy the land and deprive half the people in the world of any kind of Life other than to struggle for survival, while a small minority live the kind of life we could all be living if we truly lived as equals. If we truly cared for each other, honoured life as ourselves and ourselves as Life.

The animals and insects already provide for us unconditionally, all we have to do is acknowledge that. Acknowledge that we depend upon them for our very survival and be humbly grateful for what they do, by treating them with respect, by giving them something in return, like dignity, care, comfort, enjoyment.

This is what I mean when I say it’s time to realize our equality with all that’s here, treating others, even other life-forms, as we would want to be treated.. This can only be done by mature, responsible people who have the strength to be humble enough to be grateful. Most humans are not that advanced, think only of themselves and their personal experience in the world as the world cares for them as if they were spoiled children who never grew up to realized that :at some point, it’s time to take responsibility, for oneself  and one’s actions.

That time is now, because it has to be. We can’t remain in denial about what we’ve created in the world. As all of us have been living out our lives in ignorance, millions and now biliions are going without. We are completely insulated from what’s going on in the world, in terms of suffering and destruction. It can’t continue.

We have to get through this by forgiving everything that has led up this point, everything that has allowed us to get this far out of control, so that we can stop immediately and start to change. Start to respect what we have and where we live so that we can ALL graciously experience the abundance and the unconditional giving the earth is already providing.