Thoughts for Tomorrow
Money! Money! Money! Is a Rich Man's World Realistic?
I was confused when I first visited a supermarket in the USA, having to choose between vast ranges and varieties of products but I was soon trapped in a consumerism loop. I would purchase several things and discard more than I really needed. Then I'd happily go back again, for more unnecessary stuff!The trouble is the more money we have, the more power we have to take anything away from the world that we happen to want. We acquire and probably waste more and more things; food, clothes, vehicles, second homes, land, private aeroplanes - whatever! 
The planet's resources are finite so, inevitably, the richer we become as individuals, the less becomes available to those who really are in need, wherever they happen to be on the globe.
Unfortunately, the financial system was created years ago for a very different world where exploitation of the planet's resources was pursued as if there was no tomorrow. Grab what you can for yourself, work hard and you might make millions creating wealth out of all proportion to what you need for a reasonably happy and fulfilling life. But there is a tomorrow and it's coming fast! Helping yourself to as much of the planet's resources as you can afford may be legal but it's certainly not sustainable.
The top 1% of the world's population already own half of the world's net wealth, giving billionaires enormous power over politicians, the media, finance and the large international companies with a vested interest in maintaining the fossil fuel industry. Is a systemic change towards a more cooperative way of sharing resources realistic? Could excessive accumulation of wealth and money be curbed somehow to achieve a more equitable distribution of the planet's resources without yet more ecological damage? Systemic change is not necessarily unrealistic as history proves with the abolition of slavery, women's rights, decolonisation etc. etc. but changing the status quo requires so many hearts and minds to change and there's not much time left! Well then, reducing the power of individual wealth is just not realistic. After all, money is absolutely necessary for everything.
Or is it? In June 1962 Satish Kumar and a friend walked from India on a 'Pilgrimage for Peace' to Moscow, Paris, London, and Washington D.C. They carried no money at all on a trip lasting two and a half years relying only on the cooperation, friendship and support of the people they happened to meet on the way. Here's what Satish Kumar says about realism:
"Look at what realists have done for us. They have led us to war and climate change, poverty on an unimaginable scale, and wholesale ecological destruction. Half of humanity goes to bed hungry because of all the realistic leaders in the world. I tell people who call me "unrealistic" to show me what their realism has done. Realism is an outdated, overplayed and wholly exaggerated concept."
I'm inclined to agree!
EcoBud