Money

Money, it has been said, is the root of all evil. A parable about the folly of greed and the dangers of avarice, perhaps, by intention, but as with too many truths the reality goes deeper.This planet has the capacity to produce and transport enough food for everyone to be fed: but we don't. We can produce energy with no harmful gas releases to poison the air, and no toxic waste and byproducts to linger for generations: but we don't.And the reason is money. Or rather, the problem is greed, but it does deeper than that. Theft is about money. Car accidents, all too often, are about money. Wars are about money. Muggings, job dissatisfaction, pollution... so how do we organise the money to make things better? We can't - so long as there is money, a way of keeping score, a demarkation into which people can apply 'better' and 'worse' labels then there will be greed that divides. Value needs to be placed on people as people, and not bank accounts.So there's no hope, unless we get rid of the money. Here, when I say it, is where most people start to laugh. 'It wouldn't work', 'Money makes the world go round', 'what would we use instead'...Why wouldn't it work? Without the money, without that way of keeping score trying to keep score wouldn't make sense. What if we actually gave people what they wanted, because they wanted it? Everyone would claim as much as they could, want the biggest houses, the biggest cars... but would they?Cars, for instance, have prestige for two reasons: value and performance. Without the concept of value, there are only performance cars and if you want to drive one of those, we can put some at a racetrack. For everything else, if you need a car, use one. Without value, and therefore theft, the concept of ownership doesn't apply - there is a pool of cars to be used, and you use one when you need it.The same applies to everything - houses, food, energy, clothing. Imagine if life had no labels, no artificial 'values' thrown at us by advertisers and marketeers. Imagine a world where the lawyers were in it for the justice, and the Doctors wanted to be healers - not that all of them aren't at the moment, of course.The bulk of the anti-social behaviours that define criminality - theft, burglary, muggings - would be redundant. You could argue that there's little point in mugging someone now, and you'd be right, but that little is enough for some people. But if nothing that you could steal had intrinsic value? There is still the scope for individuality, still the scope to decorate how you choose, dress how you choose. If anything, without the external pressures from such places as adverts and market-trends, individuality might get a freer rein.Without money, then, the few things in life with real, intrinsic value suddenly become important - people. True talent, whether it be artistic, sporting, engineering... regardless of the field, suddenly that talent stands out for what it is. Would everyone want to go see the same football teams? Of course, so a first come first serve basis would have to be applied - no more season-ticket holders rewarded for their loyalty, unfortunately, but then no more corporate hospitality boxes tying up real fans seats for rich hobnobbing.So, what's to stop someone demanding a fifteen room house? Nothing, I suppose. Assuming that there isn't a 'means-tested' limit to what you can claim, you can have a fifteen room house. Of course, anything you want extra over the requirements you have to build yourself - and without money to pay people you have to clean it all yourself... is it worth it, because it's no longer anything to crow about.