The Ethics Of Affluence
by Roedy Green ©1996-2008 Canadian Mind Products
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Goals
- To play fair with my fellow humans in earning a living.
- To stop worrying about money.
- To avoid unethical or boring activities.
Introduction
I have lived my life earning just enough to get by. I have skillfully avoided
making money. I find gambling or speculatively buying and selling to earn a
living odious. I dislike enslaving myself periodically performing pointless
tasks to get enough money to pay the rent and groceries. In past, I would tell
myself that suicide was the only option if I could not raise next month’s
rent. I try to avoid thinking about money or how to earn it. I take a very dim
view of wealthy people. At the same time I have a fear there won’t be
enough to get through the next month. This essay looks for better attitudes.
Christianity
“Whereas principle is a great and noble protection against showy and
degrading vanities and vices, poverty is worth six of it.”
~ Mark Twain, The $30,000 Bequest
In Mark 10:25 and again in Matthew 19:24 it says rich people are very unlikely to
make it into heaven. Yet in Matthew 6:33 it says that if you first seek the
kingdom of heaven, all manner of riches will be added unto to you. Surely they
don’t mean to imply if you seek the kingdom of heaven, you will become
wealthy, but then you have to go to hell.
I Timothy 6:10 says that the love of money is the
root of evil. Presumably money itself can’t hurt you if you don’t
love it.
Luke 12:34 warns that accumulating a treasure will
cause you to love that treasure, like the Golem in Lord Of The Rings. If you
simply let that treasure flow through you on the way to helping others, perhaps
you won’t necessarily become attached to it.
Luke 12:33 says to give away all that you have. This
provides you with a treasure that cannot be stolen, but that cannot be cashed in
until after death. That is all very well, but I need money for the rent next
month and a solid reassurance it will be there.
Deuteronomy 23:19 and many other places forbid usury —
accepting interest on a loan. This is an unusual commandment to follow in the
modern age, though it was strictly adhered to in the middle ages. Only non-Christians
could offer interest-bearing loans. You can meet this restriction today with a
no-interest chequing account, or a no-interest ethical savings account. You
might consider putting some money in the Grameen
Bank which makes microcredit loans ($50 US) to the poor. They start small
businesses and pull themselves out of abject poverty.
“Fear of poverty is one of the most destructive fears and can result in
worry, doubt, indifference, indecision, overcautiousness and procrastination. It
paralyse the faculty of reason, destroys the imagination, kills off self-reliance,
and leads to uncertainty and lethargy. Think wealth and abundance.”
~ Aquarian Practitioners Of Light
Equality
No one seems to notice the injustice that some people in the world are paid
pennies a day where others are paid millions, for equally onerous work. There is
massive inequity.
“May no one eat a second bowl of rice until everyone has had a first.”
~ possibly Mohandas Gandhi
Usury creates an instability. The rich get richer and the poor get poorer. Usury
is not right. I still hold this old-fashioned belief. I would thus not feel
right about making money by investments.
I don’t feel right pigging out living high off the hog knowing so many
others have little. I want to share my wealth.
Ecology
Planetary citizens avoid driving. They avoid owning SUVs they only need a few
weeks a year. They choose cars that do minimal damage to the environment, e.g.
are small, fuel efficient and light weight.
It bothers me to see people discarding mountains of trash, and dumping all
manner of chemicals into the drains. It bothers me to see people heating huge
unoccupied homes, belching out fountains of CO2
to do it. It bothers me to see people using a vehicle of several tons to
transport a single human. It is inefficient.
Conspicuous consumption means the more money humans
make, the more they trash the environment.
I want to live a lifestyle that is even gentler on the environment that I am now.
A Spending Plan
In chronological order of intended manifestation:
- Donations to planetary charities.
- A wrist mounted GPS partly for the metaphysical reassurance of knowing "You
are here"
- Vision corrected.
- World travel.
- Compact state-of-the-art energy-efficient
house that blends with the environment.
- Procedures to improve appearance.
- Compact yellow state-of-the-art energy-efficient single-passenger largely human-powered
vehicle, suited for year round use.
- Compact yellow state-of-the-art energy-efficient multi-passenger vehicle.
Fears
The big fears of becoming wealthy are:
- The temptation to keep giving a lover material goods. I would not be loved for
myself, but for my money.
- Groupies, not necessarily in Beatle-sized hordes, both intellectual and sexual.
On the other paw, this is the big carrot. The main way an older gay man can
attract a younger lover is through wealth and prestige.
- Money is like the Ring of Power that Frodo carried. Even nostalgic Frodo was not
immune to its corrupting power.
Two Scenarios
Much as now
Why this is a bad thing:
- I spin my wheels doing little effective to help the planet, though it is
possible the website is more of a contribution that had I donated large sums.
- Others worry they must look after me should I fail.
- I am fearful and waste time worrying about money. I waste time doing tasks that
don’t contribute much to the planet just to earn the rent.
Why this is a good thing:
- People don’t automatically believe me just because I said it. They think
for themselves. They are not cowed in debate.
- People are at ease around me.
- I have lots of time to spend as I choose.
- I have my privacy and peace.
- I have little formal recognition but a fair bit of informal prestige.
Allow affluence to rise
Why this is a bad thing:
- People might find it difficult to treat me as an equal.
- I would still feel ashamed and guilty at having money.
- I would have people jittering at me demanding my money and time.
- I would have to talk to people on the phone.
- My financial life would be more complicated.
- I would have to deal with schedules.
- I would have less free time.
Why this is a good thing:
- I could donate more to charity.
- There would be more money to fund projects.
- There would be money to help friends the way I said I would.
- I would have to think about money, but I wouldn’t have to worry about it.
- People would be more likely to take my ideas seriously. I would not waste so
much time documenting ideas that nobody even considers.
- I would not have to consider money nearly as frequently in planning what I want
to do.
- I could have material comforts and healthful food.
The actual choices are not quite so dichotomous. There is a middle path between
monk-like poverty and Gatesian excess. The middle ground may not be an
uncomfortable as the two extremes. Another direction is to find ways to get
things and acquire things cheaply or without money. As an example, Wiley offered
me
worth of books on the condition I review one of them.
Though I personally might be better off with (1), the planet is better of with (2).
I feel embarrassed to discover I am still taking the selfish path. In reality,
path (2) is probably like the Monty Python torture device — the comfy
chair, not nearly so awful as I imagine it will be. I might have assistants to
partially shelter me from the things I dread — petitioners, telephones,
spam, money and schedules.
How
Presuming I do manage to change my attitudes, I still have the practical problem
of actually generating the income. I would imagine it might come from several
possible sources:
- Writing computer programs that are useful to many people.
- Writing books that are read by many people.
- Brainstorming for people who can afford to pay me handsomely.
- Lecturing to large audiences.
- Leading large workshops.
Summary
I think the key is understanding a distinction between:
- money grubbing
- conspicuous consumption
- conspicuous waste
- accumulating wealth
- Allowing myself to have money to spend primarily for the benefit of the planet.
Affluence is so often associated with (1), (2), (3) and (4), that it is hard to
imagine it without them. I have cold feet. I think "Who am I kidding. I
became more wealthy, I would fall prey to its corruption just like everyone else."
On the other hand, I need to get some money soon to live on. I have to get on
with this. There has to be practical plan as well as a metaphysical one.
This whole essay sounds a bit nuts, especially if you saw how low my current
bank balance is. It is an externalisation of internal dialog, in Living
Love terms, a conflict process.
“Throughout most of human history, a guy who took more than his fair share
was considered an asshole. With the invention of civilisation, all changed. The
guy who took more than his fair share, especially one who conspicuously wasted
it, became a hero. The more he took, the more heroic.
~ Roedy (born 1948-02-04)
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