The Best things in Life are Free - By Andrew Harvey

There may be no truer statement.

Take our relationships with others, which outside of a few notable exceptions such as prostitution, have no monetary cost. The most rewarding things in this world come when we escape the nearly omnipresent grip of money. Take, for example, volunteering. When you freely give your own time, and have complete control of where you devote your efforts, the rewards far exceed anything money could offer you. The benefits of free giving between people is where the salvation of our world lies.

Every time you stop to hold the door for a stranger (or your best friend), pick up a piece of garbage, donate used clothing, time, or yes, even money, you are disproving all of the nay-sayers that say socialism cannot work. The biggest step in people acceptance that we can live in a world without money is convincing them that there is a possible alternative. Instead what we should do is to look at the many ways in which this world has existed without money since the least hairy of the apes stared walking together.

Of course there has been money, barter, or trade since we have started gathering in groups, but was this for the better? What about all the ways in which we never needed money? Family, community, and friends have always existed, usually managing to stay away from the divisive nature of money, and always for their detriment when they have failed to do so.

Sure we have had money for a long time, but who were the ones who decided we needed that? It was those who were in power. The ones who needed to create a monetary system in which they could measure and place an arbitrary value on everything. By measuring and assigning values to the things which we use, it removes the inherently communal nature of the world around us, by classifying items as “property”.

What I am getting at is that we are all in this together. This is another truism, which I have yet to hear a rational argument against. When it comes down to it, everyone, and everything in this world, are linked. Most places in this world have created a intricate series of classifications to divide us as people: governments, monetary systems, gender, class, religion and race (to name a few). When it comes down to it, these are all meaningless. They are imaginary social constructs that only have power because we continue to legitimize them by using them, and rigidly enforcing them in our social order. Our society (globally, and especially western-ly) continues to give these systems of exploitation and division power by ensuring that they persist.

Why? Money.

Money equals power in capitalism, and so long as 10% of the world controls 85% of it’s wealth, this will not change. The richest in our society have it in their (perceived) interests to maintain the status quo. Capitalism requires a perceived scarcity of resources to fuel the competition and inequality which it produces. When we are divided as people, in all the ways we are, we can perceive this inequality, and then seek to out-compete the “other”. This competition leads to an animal ferocity towards each other, and this world. We have been tricked by each other, and the media, into believing that our “needs” are not met. In western society we have more wealth than the other 70% of the world could ever imagine, but still feel the need to consume at ever-increasing rates. We work ourselves to the point of stress-induced illnesses, while keeping our neghibour, and fellow people across the world conditions we would never allow our $800 dog to live in. The perception of “need” in our society can include new game consoles every other year and new iPods every single year, while next door, across-town, or on the other side of the world “need” includes clean drinking water, and food that would cost what we tip our barista each morning.

This local, and global inequality is what leads to crime, national tensions, and the ravaging of the world, and the vast majority of it’s population for the benefit of the tiny minority.

Now that I have convinced you we should immediately abandon money, and embrace the glorious boosum of socialism, here is what we can do:

• Stop letting money come into our lives in whatever ways possible, stop paying prostitutes for company for one.
• Give yourself. In whatever ways you can think of. Volunteer your time, make sure you are there for friends and strangers when they need you.
• When you must use money, ensure that it goes somewhere where it will be more equitably distributed, i.e. fair trade. This also means DON’T GIVE MONEY TO BIG CORPORATIONS. Corporations are massive organizations of exploitation which use their size, and leverage to “outcompete”, and undercut smaller, more local, fairer companies which spread the money around more.
• Join a co-op. Any co-op you can. If one does not exist where you live, start one. Start on a small scale. I am not talking about the business designation the government has created necessarily, I mean starting with two families buying bulk rice together to save money. Any step we take together is a step in the right direction.
• BE NICE TO EACH OTHER. Stop acting like it is us versus “them”, whoever “them” might be. Smile at people, hold a door for someone, unplug your earbuds, and start a conversation on the bus with a stranger. You will find we all have a lot more in common than you think.

There are many other ways to do what I am talking about, but this is a good start.

I love you all people. Lets start fixing this world together.