What Would This World Be Like If ....

[rightkindofme]

I feel a little weird about "don't chase money". I've been very poor for most of my life. I'm not poor any more. Mostly because my husband is a computer programmer. He does consciously pay attention to his salary and he tries to get increases over time. I have a hard time believing it is so bad. The alternative, to me, is expecting someone else to support you. I don't have anyone sitting around offering us money out of love. It is chase money, or starve.

 

[Anarchy]

I feel a little weird about "don't chase money". I've been very poor for most of my life. I'm not poor any more. Mostly because my husband is a computer programmer. He does consciously pay attention to his salary and he tries to get increases over time. I have a hard time believing it is so bad. The alternative, to me, is expecting someone else to support you. I don't have anyone sitting around offering us money out of love. It is chase money, or starve.

:)

If someone is providing goods and services which people choose to spend their resources on - and they are providing them by using scarce resources that go into them efficiently enough that there is some left over from what other people are willing to pay for them, that there is a profit.

Then, everyone is being served by them.

The problem comes when compulsion or fraud is being used to get the money, whether that is by restricting who can enter the market, or by stealing, extorting or embezzling money.

In biblical times, there was no such thing as someone getting wealthy by better serving the needs of consumers - hence the condemnation of rich men, because they could only have obtained their wealth by some coercive means.

In the industrial revolution and beyond, that criticism of the "rich" being evil was levelled against those who for the first time in history made things like new clothes that even labourers could afford to buy, and today make goods affordable to all that pre industrial kings and emperors could never have dreamed of.

 

[sun seeker]

"You may say I'm a dreamer, but I'm not the only one" ~John Lennon~

Haha! @Lionheart777, my first thought on reading the first post in this thread was to say "John Lennon already asked that question!" You beat me to it.

What would it be like? Freakin' awesome.

 

[Upside Down Eagle]

I know many people may disagree with me, but I believe that all the crap in the world happens to confront us with ourselves.
In the end it is meant to teach us valuable lessons about ourselves -we can choose to learn from it or choose not to learn from it -but when we choose to do so, we experience a deep going evolution that is much more intense than growth would be if there was no conflict anywhere, whatsoever.

 

[joeylittle]

In the end it is meant to teach us valuable lessons about ourselves

Can I just tweak this a little bit? I don't believe that trauma has a purpose - but I absolutely think that it can provide a catalyst for change.

So I guess, instead of "meant to teach us", I'd say "gives us incitement to". And that might actually be what you are saying.

In all the philosophy and literature I've read that tries to investigate a 'pure' society, a kind of Utopia, it is either a very temporary state, or a state unlike anything resembling the way we live our lives now. That basically, if you remove all obstacles, people can't function. Now, that's taking it to the really theoretical plane...but on a more practical level, I guess I think it is impossible to live in a world with human beings and not have any kind of greed, or abuse, or war, or famine. But - I think it is possible for the majority of any society to believe in striving for good, or right, in a generous and global sense - and I wonder what the world would be like if that majority really existed and had a stronger voice.

 

[J_trustno1]

Hahahhaah,, wow, I love this thread. Never had that many responses from one thread and that too from a lot of different people :p. My hearty thanks to everyone for writing here. I have been asking all these questions while growing up, before joining this forum I used to ask question like this (not exactly this) on yahoo answers in philosophy section because I wanted to get an insight on why we do all these things and what is the point of it all. I have read few books, some online literature by some philosophers and I always end up asking more questions.

@Lionheart777 : Yup, you are right. I was thinking about what would I be like if there wasn't any domestic violence at home, there was no gender inequality at home, and all sorts of abuse happening at home. I think I would've been a very strong character. As a child I had strong views on things and no one could force me to do things, I was a rebel when it came to morals and ethics. I always looked for what was right. I absolutely hated lies I was told by my parents. You know the one question that has always been in my head growing up and even now is that "why the hell are people hurting each other, rushing into things, being cruel etc etc without realizing that one day they will be in a graveyard and none of these things will matter anymore. I know that to live we need all these superficial things and it our duty to fulfill our humanly needs but I totally disagree how some people do it (i.e. stepping on others, frauds, hurting others etc)."

@FridayJones : You always get me thinking about my questions and everything else. Thanks for keeping my mind challenged, absolutely love your replies all the threads. You are a deep thinker. I will agree with you that the world would be boring without dreams, ambitions, hopes and skills. The only thing that was running through my head was when people go for those dreams and ambitions by stepping on others (i.e. narcissists).

@Eleanor: Lol, hahahah. I used to think about all those things that you've written (i.e. people riding horses, playing happy music, living with a herd of animals, eating home grown vegetables, and happy -happy at the end). I always wanted to have a farmhouse growing up and living with all types of animals (cat, dog, horse, donkey, hens, ducks, rabbits, cows, monkey, etc - pretty much a zoo) lol hahhaha.

@joeylittle : I agree with you. Trauma is not something which is has a purpose but I have learned a lot from all this. I have learned what kind of person I don't want to be and what type of person I want to be.


Thanks everyone, I absolutely loved these answers. Some of them are still making me laugh. I have a huge grin on my face while writing my reply :D :)

 

[Upside Down Eagle]

Yeah @joeylittle that's what I meant. Thank your for fine-tuning :) I do believe that a plane without suffering (I mean, altogether) exists. But not in our lifetime, not right now. The thing for us is to learn what to make of it. As Thich Nhat Thanh says: "when you learn how to suffer, you suffer much less...".

I have a Zen slash Buddhist slash broadly spiritual approach to all of this. But I am not saying that I have mastered the art of suffering.
Far from it, haha. Still a long road to go.

 

[desiderata310]

There would be fewer therapist that's for sure.

 

[anthony]

I think the world would implode!!!