Profit Isn’t Just Money

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: When talking about the economic crisis, we might possibly have to explain the new goal to people. After all, the goal of modern economics is to generate profits.

Answer: We also want profits. Moreover, we want endless profits. The goal of creation is to bring pleasure to the creatures, to guide them to good and tranquility.

In reality, economic success nowadays is not determined so much by money, but more by a variety of factors and values that have a monetary equivalent, such as power, health, unemployment, pensions, children, birth and death rates, conflicts, and welfare. There are a lot of calculations. In essence, economics encapsulates the whole of human nature.

However, there are things in it that we can’t measure. That’s why the crisis has come: to make us want, to demand a correct change. For this to happen, we need to advance to new economics. Using screens, I will consider all of reality and will include it in the economic system.

Question: What will be considered a profit in the new economics?

Answer: It will be fulfillment. How much I’ve got in my pocket and in my soul, how much my relatives, my nation, and everyone in the world have, all of it together constitutes fulfillment. It’s as if I’m stretched over the entire world, and the entire world is important to me.

Today it’s more pleasurable to me, let’s say, to make a salary of ten thousand dollars working with you than to make twenty thousand working with someone else. How can my profit be measured? In this case, money doesn’t reflect the real situation.

As another example, I prefer working with those who make ten thousand if I, myself, make eleven. This is incomparably better to me than to make twenty thousand while surrounded by colleagues with salaries of thirty thousand. So, what is my profit then? Go figure.

These questions are raised by behavioral economics, which show that people aren’t guided by rational criteria. For example, a person is ready to refuse a large sum of money if he knows that someone else will receive twice that amount. The scientists know about this, but they don’t know what to do about it. Baal HaSulam’s article “Peace in the World” can help us here.

Question: The true goal of economics is the feeling of material well-being, security. The welfare of the country and of the individual depends on the degree to which citizens feel happy. Will humankind’s attempts in this direction succeed?

Answer: Let them try. The quicker they have tried everything, the better. People haven’t got that many solutions left anyway.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/2/2011, Shamati #219

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