I believe that we are the co-creators of the world we live in and in order to change it, we need to first become aware of it through our current narratives and then create new ones.
One such narrative is the base of our economy, the so called basic economic problem. According to it, there are scarce resources and infinite wants. Given that, life is manifested as a struggle for these limited resources because if they are indeed limited, you having it would mean, I can’t have it. Hence, the purpose of most economic agents then is either to increase the perception of scarcity or to increase the perception of wants. The bigger the gap is, the more we are in the grip of it. And the more the wants feel as needs, the better.
If you have lived as much as I have and in the places and times in which I have lived, you would know that in fact it is the exact opposite:
All the important things in life are abundant and our actual needs are limited.
That however is not economically desirable because it does not fuel economic growth and we perceive growth to be the biggest virtue of all. And it is not.
This is the story we bought into and the further we go, the worse it seems to become because the sources of growth are limited. Hence, to experience more economic growth, we need to develop new wants and needs. Step by step, we allowed to be persuaded that we cannot live without many things that we do not need. If my grandfather could be here next to me, he would be surprised, among other things, that water is in bottles, seeds need to be bought annually and we can’t live without drugs. He had the most beautiful smile and the most amazing white teeth. He died without ever being to a dentist, never using a tooth paste, and with no cavity.
In my opinion, we’ll never create the more beautiful world our hearts long for if we do not get out of the circle of scarcity, infinite wants and focus on growth.
We’ve allowed these principles to define our lives when it comes to all important aspects- health, food, learning, work, physical activity, happiness… In all these areas we’ve been persuaded to believe that there is someone who is higher authority than us and they know better what we need. Often we have been led into believing we need things that are even dangerous for us, we have been lead into developing dependencies and addictions. The reality is that in all these areas there is abundance of resources that are in our hands while we have limited needs.
The question then is whether we would be willing to emancipate ourselves from the current narrative, make an inventory of our real needs and step by step get rid of the false sense of scarcity, dependencies and addictions.
Question: What are some areas of abundance that you are programmed to perceive as scarce?