Economics is a science about our egoistic relations, which today is gradually transforming into a different kind of economics—the economics of altruistic relationships.

When we solve our family’s economic problems, we usually sit down around the table with our spouses and children and think together how to best use our limited budget. We take into consideration the needs of each family member: the youngest wants a toy, the older child wishes to attend classes, the oldest requires medications, we need to buy food, and so on…. We structure our budget according to everybody’s needs. We have to arrange the world’s budget the same way.

Generally, we bring to our families everything we earn; we don’t automatically set aside part of the salary for ourselves exclusively; for example, we don’t from the start put aside for our own sake 30% of our earnings as regular enterprises do.

Let’s say, a factory produces cups and sells them for $10.00 each; the owner keeps $5.00 for himself; the remainder covers salaries and other production expenses—amortization, insurance, etc.

Why does the owner earn $5.00 per cup above everybody else? He should receive the same salary everyone else does. We are within a single system where everybody should receive in equal proportions and interact with others in a fair way.

If we stick to this plan, each item will cost 50% less because the price of all components would also go down—machinery, materials, transportation, etc. Each person will receive a decent salary to maintain a decent way of life; it won’t be even close to a beggarly salary!

A huge surplus of goods and resources will emerge in the world. Every year, humanity is throwing away a half billion ton of good food. That’s enough to feed another Earth!

It turns out that our wrong egoistic relationships bring disequilibrium to the entire globe. If we strive for balance in the relationships between us, then naturally this will lead to values of peace and harmony, and we will end up with a huge excess of materials and natural resources. We’ll stop wasting the earth’s resources and we’ll stop eating chemically grown vegetables and fruit because all systems will be in balance.

We don’t have to enhance industry. It is enough that we correct the relationships between us in order to provide the world with everything we need: food, clothing, shelter, etc.—all at a normal level. We’ll get there by changing ourselves, rising from the egoistic to the altruistic level.

In the past, this sounded like science fiction: The City of the Sun, communism, utopian, etc. But today we have no other option. Nature forces us to act accordingly.
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From a “Talk About the Integral World” 10/20/11

Related Material:
There Is No Turning Back
The Economics Of The New World
The Economy Of Balance

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