ILLUSION OF MONEY : DIGNITY DIALOGUE, October 2014
Dignity Dialogue, October 2014
peace of mind
Illusion of Money
Even
though money would be hailed by many as the greatest invention after fire, M G Warrier has reservations about its alleviative
power. Rather, he propounds a radical theory where money rests in peace and
human beings resurrect the barter world in new Avatar.
I love ants more than honey bees.
I have reasons. Like Japanese people, ants continuously work. Almost a kind of Nishkamakarma about which Krishna talks in Bhagavadgita.
They share their food with their fellow-ants, actually they use their excellent
communication system to invite their friends and relatives once they locate
some food. They do not store food. Whereas, honey bees, like the rich and the
powerful countries, accumulate food. They have a class system which almost
borders the caste system practiced by zamindars.
Just as the greedy rich who are willing to die along with their wealth and
arsenal, honey bees die along with the food they store. Ants do not attack you
unless you disturb them. Honey bees use their stings flying and reaching out
away from their territory.
Same lines, I have my likes and
dislikes on money matters. Values were respected more, before prices came into
being. Price, which is a by-product of money, has turned the world upside down.
Now there is a price for everything. Or, reversely, you can get anything for a
price. From play school admission to doctorates from universities, from
selection for competitions in schools to coveted prizes or medals or awards, or
wins in cricket matches or getting an award, for all your needs, someone is
there to fix a price and sell or arrange it for you.
Money has brought imbalances in
pricing. The cost of construction of one square foot of residential area is in
the neighbourhood of eight hundred rupees. But the selling price varies between
Rs 1500 to a few lakhs of rupees depending on where the residential building is
located. Can you distinguish between bribe and incentive or commission and
margin or interest and profit-sharing?
See the problems faced by
governments in managing GDP growth and inflation. Inflation is only one of the indicators that
tell governments and regulators the results of various fiscal and monetary
policy measures they initiate. Depending on the direction they look, they are
always able to either an optimistic prediction or tell us where either of them
need correct the next step. Problem is more about various categories of inflation,
the methods of calculation of inflation and how the inflation (CPI or WPI
inflation, for instance) affect different sectors of economy and different
income-groups. There is no clarity or uniformity in perspective on such things
among those who are responsible to prescribe corrective measures. The
‘Inflation elephant’ is perceived as different monsters by scholars from
different schools of economics. You can trace all these problems to the money
monster which was unwittingly let loose by someone who did not bargain for such
inauspicious consequences.
All these problems would not have
existed, if money was not invented. Absence of money will reduce the chances of
corruption, inequitable distribution of wealth and rich becoming richer and
poor becoming poorer, as the advertisers say, by 99.9 per cent.
The thought of a world without
money has fascinated me since my childhood days. Of course the reason for
hating money those days was that I didn’t have money and my friends and
neighbors enjoyed making me jealous by showing off the money power they
possessed before me and others in my position.
Take my own case, now. I have
completed a somewhat successful career in a bank, have a bank account and
have last year gained the status of a senior citizen. Still, I feel, the fellow
who invented money and his followers who made it currency have done more harm than that unlucky wise man who
invented atom bomb. Of course, now
the reasons for my hatred towards money are more mature than jealousy.
For a moment, imagine, man gets
out of the clutches of money, or there is no money in the world. All symbols
from $ to the one recently figured out for Rupee vanishes, everything else
remaining the same. Yes, science and technology, all results of research so
far, literature, agriculture, industry, art and whatever you can imagine remain
and continue to perform and help the world to move forward, but money is
conspicuous by its absence! This will bring drastic changes.
It will take considerable time to
rehabilitate people like those working in the financial sector, as the nature
of their jobs will change. They will have to re-skill themselves to manage a
world entirely dependent on a new barter system which will result in
revolutionary changes in the power-balance internationally.
Having been there for millions of
years without money, world will adjust itself to a money-less environment where
peace prosperity and happiness will not be dependent on bank balances but on the value addition to life and environment
each one makes.
Let us follow ants and live life
day by day. Let ants, like a tsunami, march to wherever honey bees have stored
honey and have a sumptuous meal and thereafter, let ants and honey bees live
together ever after finding their food when they are hungry and not
accumulating food as honey bees did in the past.
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