Advantage 41 – Large provision of loans leads to new financial products

Excerpt from the book »Gradido – Natural Economy of Life«

»The first act of independence by a human being

is the drafting of a life plan.«

– Heinrich von Kleist

German poet

The large supply of loans will fire people’s imagination to develop new financial products. These can be offered either by private individuals or financial services firms. Innovative pension models are conceivable: middle-aged people help young people to  build a house or set up a business and receive an additional pension in return. Another product might be concerned with the comfortable realisation of sabbaticals: the customers plan time-out from work and, in return, make the same possible for others.

As we see, there is no limit to what is conceivable. Strictly speaking, it is not primarily a matter of financial products but of manifold possibilities for planning and organising life, which are easily realisable in the Natural Economy of Life. This constitutes an ideal new field of business for customer service representatives of banks and insurance companies and for financial services firms of any kind.

 

Advantage 42 – Low credit risk

Excerpt from the book »Gradido – Natural Economy of Life«

»Those who never take the smallest risk

run the greatest risk in life.«

– Bertrand Russell

British philosopher and mathematician

The greatest risk lies in not making a loan because of the gradido’s perishability. Any loan, however unfavourable, would be better for the lender. That does not mean that you should make unfavourable loans. Should two out of ten loans not be repaid, you would still have the benefit of eight loans since the money from the loans that are not repaid would have been gone anyway if you had not lent the money.

Loan contracts are naturally just as binding as at they are at present. It is very easy for the borrower to repay the loan as money is plentifully available and therefore flows very generously. The risk of becoming insolvent is much smaller than in the present system and there will scarcely be any bankruptcies. 

Advantage 43 – Interesting business investments

Excerpt from the book »Gradido – Natural Economy of Life«

»It is unacceptable that you can’t get a loan for a smart idea

but you can for your grandmother’s property.«

– Jürgen Rüttgers

German politician, CDU[Christian Democratic Union]

There will be many inspired business ideas in such a fertile environment. People have plenty of money and willingly spend it because of its transience. Good products and services that make life more agreeable have good chances on the market and it is an excellent time for start-ups.

A lot of people will be very interested in investing in new companies. If business goes well, they can obtain positive returns, which would not have been possible with interest-free loans. Again, this is an ideal business sector for good financial services firms and consultants. It is conceivable that there will be innovative start-up portals to bring inventors and developers together with investors and business people. 

Advantage 44 – No interest hidden in prices

Excerpt from the book »Gradido – Natural Economy of Life«

»All the costs accumulated in the production and pricing phases go into the end price. These have to be borne by the households directly or indirectly in their expenditure, since they are the last in the chain and can no longer pass on the costs.«

– Helmut Creutz

German economic analyst and publisher

At the present time interest, taxes and other levies have to be included in product pricing. This either increases prices or leads to merciless cut-throat competition that only big discount shops can survive. This is evident on all levels at the present time. 

In the Natural Economy of Life loans are normally interest-free. Hence, no hidden interest has to be included in product pricing. Prices are fair again and competition between discounters and small suppliers subsides. 

Advantage 45 – Win-win situation for lenders and borrowers

Excerpt from the book »Gradido – Natural Economy of Life«

»We believe that economics does not necessarily have to be a zero-sum game; it can be a win-win proposition for everyone involved so long as they have the tools in which to succeed.«

– Ron Kind

American politician

We have already written about the advantages for the lender, who can save the value of their money by making a loan. These advantages are so great that there may possibly even be negative interest for loans.

And now we come to the advantages for the borrower. Anyone who has to build a house with borrowed money may, under certain circumstances, have to repay the threefold amount in the course of the years. The longer the duration of the loan, the more the borrower has to pay back.

In the Natural Economy of Life it is completely different. The maximal amount a borrower has to pay back is the amount of the loan. Both parties – lender and borrower – thus enjoy great advantages from the loan and the result is a real win-win situation. 

Advantage 46 – Equalisation and Environment Fund

Excerpt from the book »Gradido – Natural Economy of Life«

»We don’t want to rave about the source but drink from the source; we don’t want the flowers, birds and butterflies in more and more beautifully designed coffee-table books but we want to get to know them very personally; we want to breathe the air and enjoy fruits that don’t make us ill; and we want to dream into the evening free of noise under healthy trees.«

– Hubert Weinzierl

German environmentalist

In the past hundred years humankind has destroyed more of the environment than in thousands of years before. The felling of rain forests, extermination of many species of animals and plants, poisoning of water and air, nuclear energy, emissions from industries and cars, factory farming, electromagnetic pollution and much more are taking the ecological system to its limits.

Nevertheless, protection of the environment is only practised when it is »economic«. And to make it »economic« the most absurd forms of calculation, such as trade with certificates for CO₂ emissions, are introduced. Apart from the fact that carbon dioxide has now been branded the number one climate killer, this is nothing else but modern selling of indulgences. And the destruction of the environment goes on.

The Natural Economy of Life is based on the threefold creation of money. Every month three amounts of 1,000 gradidos are created per person: 1,000 gradidos for the basic income, 1,000 gradidos for the national income and 1,000 gradidos for the Equalisation and Environment Fund (EEF). Every country thus has an additional budget at its disposal for protecting and decontaminating the environment, equal in amount to the national budget itself. For this reason the Natural Economy of Life is the only monetary and economic system we know of that attaches such importance to decontaminating and protecting the environment.

The Equalisation and Environment Fund is a guarantee that the good of the environment is the top priority with everybody. Even »money people« will find their love of Mother Earth again.

Advantage 47 – Clear system of incentives for life

Excerpt from the book »Gradido – Natural Economy of Life«

»Our common mother –  nature – is showing her children more and more clearly

that she is at the end of her tether.«

– Tenzin Gyatsho

14th Dalai Lama

Business works with incentives. The strongest incentive system in business is money. In the old system money did not create any clear incentives for life. On the contrary, it mostly created destructive incentives, to destroy the environment, to exploit others, to wage war. Even the most good-willed person is torn between their conscience and ethics, on the one hand, and financial incentives, on the other. Our present money system virtually forces people to adopt behaviour hostile to life. And so it is no wonder that the war industry is one of the strongest industries worldwide. It is perverse that we humans, who find ourselves in the position of possibly vanishing from off the face of the earth soon, invest our greatest economic strength in a branch of industry whose purpose it is to kill each other! Our current economic system is clearly programmed for self-destruction.

The Natural Economy of Life offers clear incentives for life. Its top decision criterium is the threefold good – the good of the individual, the good of the community and the good of the big scheme of things. From the threefold good the threefold creation of money is derived – basic income, national income and the Equalisation and Environment Fund. The money is created directly from life and offers incentives on all levels to decide in favour of life and behave in a manner friendly to life. This particularly applies to the Equalisation and Environment Fund, which subsidies eco-friendly activities.

Here again the principle applies that positive motivation is many times better than threats of punishment. By rewarding good, we promote positive feelings in people. Joy, pride, self-confidence, community feeling, sense of responsibility, etc. enhance quality of life for every single individual and hence for the community. Seen medically, endorphins are released in people’s brains – happiness hormones which contribute to a good feeling and lasting health.

As we see, the threefold good is also maintained again here. Individuals become happier and healthier, which enhances quality of life within the community. This situation was generated by rewarding or subsidising eco-friendly activities, namely measures for the good of the big scheme of things.

advantage 48 – Healthy organic vegetable food

Excerpt from the book »Gradido – Natural Economy of Life«

»As long as there are slaughter houses

there will always be battlefields.«

– Leo Tolstoy

Russian writer

The earth can produce enough food for everyone – but not with three meals of meat a day. Today’s factory farming is an atrocious crime against living nature. The animals are tormented during their lives and slaughtered in a barbaric way. One meal of meat requires over thirty times the resources needed for a comparable vegetable meal. Factory farming is considered to be one of the greatest environmental sinners, even coming before emissions from industry and cars.

Vegan meals completely without animal products can be prepared in at least as tasty and varied a way as other meals. Everything indicates that a vegan diet is considerably healthier than an animal-based diet.

It is not our wish to re-educate everybody to become vegans. But when more and more tasty vegetable food is provided in our shops and restaurants, we will automatically eat fewer animal products. Instead of eating meat twice a day, we perhaps eat meat only twice a month. In this way we reduce our meat consumption to a thirtieth of the amount, without having to forgo culinary pleasures. On the contrary, our diet becomes more varied and much healthier.

Here we also follow the threefold good – more pleasure and health for individuals, sufficient food for all people with less ecological damage and less animal suffering. 

Nowadays there are tasty vegetable alternatives to almost all meat and milk products, such as vegan sausages and steaks and soya, rice and hemp milk. They may not taste exactly the same as animal products but they may even taste better and there is something for every taste.

And what about butchers? Will they have to cease doing business? Absolutely not! The fine art of butchers consists in making tasty meat from meat that does not originally taste so good. The same skill is required for producing tasty vegan steaks or sausages; only the basic ingredients are different. The butcher can continue to exist without any problems. I can even imagine that the first vegan butcher in a city will do very good business.

Vegetable food can be grown in sufficient quantities and biological quality everywhere in the world. For this we do not need either chemical fertilisers or genetic engineering. Organic farmers and permaculture farmers show that it is possible. The best food is produced locally and one side-effect is that less transport is needed. It may happen that large concerns can no longer earn so much money but, in turn, they will be supported in developing eco-friendly products and services by the Equalisation and Environment Fund. Farmers and small farmers will likewise be supported in growing organic food regionally. 

Advantage 49 – Only eco-friendly products have chances on the market

Excerpt from the book »Gradido – Natural Economy of Life«

»Nature always creates the best of what is possible.«

– Aristoteles

Greek philosopher

In an economy where a subsidy fund equal to the national budget is available exclusively for protection and decontamination of the environment, only eco-friendly industrial branches, products and services have a chance on the market. Products harmful to the environment are not subsidised and therefore cannot compete with eco-friendly ones. Industrial branches and companies which have hitherto operated in a way that damaged the environment receive the necessary support to make the changeover.

Advantage 50 – Incentives for eco-friendly technologies

Excerpt from the book »Gradido – Natural Economy of Life«

»Every natural law that reveals itself to the observer

implies a higher, still unrecognised one.«

– Alexander von Humboldt

German naturalist

The Equalisation and Environment Fund promotes the development of eco-friendly technologies. Entire branches of industry can thus make the changeover to sustainable, eco-friendly products and services without any risk. Nobody need be concerned about their job. Losing their job would in fact not be a financial problem for the person concerned as, after all, we have the basic income. But many people love their jobs, the cooperation with colleagues and the whole social environment: all this is worth preserving.

Just imagine the creativity of entire humankind being concentrated on decontaminating and conserving nature and the environment. This is Swarm Intelligence in its best sense.How quickly we would then arrive at genuine solutions together!

Advantage 51 – Environmental requirement for property

Excerpt from the book »Gradido – Natural Economy of Life«

»Property entails an obligation. Its use should at the same time serve the common good.«

– German Basic Law

article 1, section 2

In prehistoric times there was no land ownership. The earth did not belong to humans but humans belonged to the earth, as an Indian saying teaches. Then one day people invented private ownership. The word »private« comes from the Latin »privare«, which means »to rob«, so private property is stolen property. Even if the previous owner legally acquired or inherited their property, there was robbery at the beginning of the chain. However, this knowledge should not lead us to consider dispossessing owners prematurely. The property relationships are as they are and property entails an obligation!

We propose subjecting ownership of property to a strict environmental requirement. All property owners, whether they be owners of detached houses, rented blocks of flats, company sites, farmland or entire forests… will be obliged to ensure that their property is in a natural, eco-friendly state that observes all the rules of environmental research.

For a house owner this might mean cultivating their garden organically and greening their roof. These would be measures that are easy to realise and enhance quality of life for all the residents.

A concern that has felled large areas of rain forest would have to go to far greater lengths.  The rain forests are the green lungs of our earth and the deforested areas have to be re-enabled to fulfil their original task again as far as possible. Should it not be possible for the concern to meet the high requirements, it has the right and the duty to give the land back to the community. The community will undertake the renaturalisation measures with the support of the Equalisation and Environment Fund. In this way, a method is found to maintain the use of land and property consistent with nature and, at the same time, make good the great damage to the environment as far as is humanly possible.

Advantage 52 – Economic equalisation

Excerpt from the book »Gradido – Natural Economy of Life« 

»Poverty is the greatest destroyer of the environment.«

– Indira Gandhi,,

former Indian Prime Minister

There is no justification for poverty, either on ethical and moral grounds or for reasons of scientific and economic logic. On the contrary, all people in this world have a right to a life in human dignity. Differences are in order and enhance diversity. But when they go to the limits of existence or even survival, it is a damning indictment of the whole of humanity.

It is an inherent quality of the Natural Economy of Life that it creates worldwide prosperity and peace in harmony with nature. This quite clearly means equalisation between poor and rich countries and classes of society. Since there is enough for everyone, we do not have to take anything away from anyone and give it to someone else. Equalisation between poor and rich countries and classes of society thus means that those who have hitherto been poor become wealthy, while the people who already live in prosperity can keep their wealth.

I don’t know how it is with you, dear reader, but I personally can only really feel good when I see that the people around me also feel good. As long as my fellow humans are poor, I cannot really enjoy my prosperity. When the people who have hitherto been poor become wealthy, not only their quality of life is enhanced but also the quality of life of the others, who were already prosperous before.

Besides that, life will also become more peaceful. Already today the children of rich parents have to be taken to school by a guard in some cities as it would be much too dangerous for them to walk to school alone. Such a »golden cage« does not exactly contribute to quality of life for wealthy people either. Equalisation between poor and rich countries and classes of society therefore harms nobody and benefits everybody.

Advantage 53 – The solution to the problem of world hunger

Excerpt from the book »Gradido – Natural Economy of Life« 

»World agriculture could feed 12 billion without any problem.

That means that a child that dies of starvation today is murdered.«

– Jean Ziegler

from “We Feed the World”

Feeding the world population is not a technological problem but once again an economic one, resulting from the market logic of the old monetary and economic systems. As we saw in advantage 48, we can supply entire humankind with high-quality organic food. This food will be mainly from vegetables as their production needs only a thirtieth of the resources necessary for animal food. Since the consumption of too much animal food is the cause of most lifestyle diseases in civilised countries, we will also get healthier as a side-effect.

Organic cultivation of fruit and vegetables is possible everywhere in the world, even in desert regions. Permaculture provides successful examples of this. In general, vegetable dishes are much tastier than animal ones. The culinary diversity is significantly greater and for people who enjoy meat there are now excellent vegetarian substitutes that taste delicious. Vegan steaks, sausages, soya milk and much more make the changeover a pleasure. We do not propose banning meat consumption but merely recommend offering an increasing number of vegetarian dishes in shops and restaurants – a trend which fortunately is already noticeable.

For the 24,000 people who die of starvation every day on average and the many million people who survive but suffer from hunger the question of taste is of minor importance. At most, religious laws play a part. There are religions that prohibit the consumption of meat but vegetable food is permitted everywhere.

The more the so-called civilised world reduces meat consumption, which is unhealthy anyway, the more prosperity is possible for all of us and the sooner there will be peace. Then nobody will have to suffer hunger or thirst anymore.

Advantage 54 – Female and male principles in balance

Excerpt from the book »Gradido – Natural Economy of Life«

»Cultures change on account of their wounded archetypes or they die.«

– Bernard A. Lietaer

Belgian financial expert and author

Anyone who has studied the C. G Jung’s archetype theory also knows the archetype of the Great Mother. The Great Mother stands for the primeval female: she stands for the primeval mother of all being, for Mother Earth, for being provided for and protected. She looks after her children and ensures that there is enough for all.

Several thousand years of patriarchy have suppressed the archetype of the Great Mother more and more and finally made it almost vanish. In the outside world we recognise this in the fact that the values of the Great Mother no longer apply very much and that professions that incorporate her qualities, for example social professions, are not particularly well paid. Besides, we see this factin the disastrous damage we have afflicted on our Mother Earth.

The Natural Economy of Life for worldwide prosperity and peace in harmony with nature honours the Great Mother again. »Worldwide prosperity and peace« means security and being provided for and this state is achieved »in harmony with nature«, in harmony with the Great Mother.

Worldwide prosperity for all naturally includes equality of the sexes. The natural differences of the sexes are appreciated and honoured. It is not a question of enforced conformity. Just as every person has their very own qualities, their personal strengths, their talents, the two sexes also have their very specific characteristics, their gender-related strengths, their talents. Only through their differences does the attraction exercised by women on men and vice versa come into being.

The use of these wonderful qualities to construct differences in rank can only be explained by deficiency thinking, the illusion that there is not enough there for everybody. 

Advantage 55 – There is enough for everybody

Excerpt from the book »Gradido – Natural Economy of Life«

»The world has enough for everyone’s need but not for enough everyone’s greed.«

– Mahatma Gandhi

Indian lawyer, publisher and pacifist

If an archetype is suppressed to such an extent, two polar shadows emerge according to the archetype theory. The Great Mother’s shadows are fear and greed. The fear of not being provided for is reflected in the immoderate greed manifest in ever-increasing money grubbing. A greedy person is never satisfied and thinks they must have more and more to escape the feeling of not being provided for. Fear and greed are thus the two complementary sides of the same coin. As we now know how fear and greed came about, we also know the remedy. When we give people the secure feeling of always being provided for, these two shadows vanish by themselves. The Natural Economy of Life is a way of ensuring that all people worldwide are provided for and of generating sustainable worldwide prosperity and peace in harmony with nature. Overpopulation can be avoided in a gentle way, as we have seen in advantage 39. But even if the world population should continue to increase for a while, there is enough for everyone, as we discussed in advantages 48 and 53.

The Natural Economy of Life does not build on the incorrect theory of scarcity, which constitutes the foundation of today’s economic theory and virtually provokes fear and greed. It has integrated the Great Mother’s archetypes into itself and provides life-affirming incentives to distribute this earth’s goods in such a way that everybody’s needs are met.

Advantage 56 – Immigration problem solved

Excerpt from the book »Gradido – Natural Economy of Life«

»It is completely unrealistic to assume that any country in Europe is not a country of immigration.«

– Heinz Eggert

German theologian and politician, CDU [Christian Democratic Union]

People who are faring well in their homeland do not need to emigrate or even to flee. They may like to travel sometimes to see the world but they will normally return home again.

At the present time, when humanity is supposed to have reached the summit of its evolution, life circumstances are distributed very differently over the world. Many people scarcely see any other chance but to leave their homes and seek their luck abroad. Some of them put up with great ordeals and mortal dangers. They paddle out on to the open sea in small boats in the hope of reaching the life-saving shore on the other side. If they survive, they are rarely welcome there. They are put in refugee camps and face an uncertain future. The countries which are supposed to accept the refugees also have great problems. They lack money, jobs and housing and the integration of foreign ethnic groups proves to be very difficult.

As long as the Natural Economy of Life is introduced in all countries at the same time, this problem resolves itself automatically. You can live well in any country since all countries are provided with the same financial resources per capita. Challenging tasks await you everywhere and good pay is guaranteed.

Former refugees will be glad to go back home. Many of them will bring back know-how they have learnt abroad. Others will establish good business relations due to their contacts so that the equalisation between poor and rich can be accomplished agreeably and briskly. 

Advantage 57 – Respect indigenous peoples and protect their rights

Excerpt from the book »Gradido – Natural Economy of Life«

»Tribal peoples offer today’s world alternative values

and ways of successful living; diversity is important.«

http://www.survivalinternational.org

        from ”What are our guiding principles?“

It is incomprehensible that today indigenous peoples are still being expelled from their territories. Incredible harm is being caused out of sheer greed for profit, whereas it is perhaps the primeval knowledge of these people, who are in close touch with nature, that is badly needed for the whole of humankind to survive. The protection of indigenous peoples is of great importance in the Natural Economy of Life. It is a blessing that there are now already organisations campaigning to protect them.

From the standpoint of the Natural Economy of Life, members of indigenous tribes contribute just as much to the threefold creation of money as do any other people. They have the unconditional right to participation and hence to an active basic income. They themselves know best what they need and what they can contribute to the threefold good. They are stewards of primeval knowledge which can be vital for humankind’s survival. Their knowledge and their contact to nature may possibly be crucial to the renaturalisation of the rain forests since most primeval knowledge is lost to the so-called civilised peoples.

Only in close cooperation with the indigenous tribes will we be able to survive as humankind and transform our earth back into the paradise the creator must have made. Humankind expelled itself from this paradise, as is reported by the holy scriptures of various religions and cultures. But the paradise was never in another place; it was always here and we have destroyed it almost beyond recognition. Together with the indigenous peoples we have the chance to return to the lost paradise. 

Advantage 58 – Industrialised nations have customers able to pay

Excerpt from the book »Gradido – Natural Economy of Life«

»In the end it proved that the so-called solo actions were the decisive requirements for Germany to remain export world champion.«

 – Klaus Töpfer

former director of the UN environmental programme, August 2010

Until recently Germany had boasted that it was export world champion. German know-how and technology are exported abroad, naturally only to countries that can afford it. Not that other countries have no need of the proverbial high-class German workmanship: on the contrary, poor countries might have an even greater need. And German firms would certainly like to supply these countries as long as they could pay.

You do not need much imagination to picture how this will develop in the old system. The poor countries stay poor. The so-called »emerging markets« increasingly develop into industrialised countries and also strive to be export world champions. They now have the know-how and the technology and as long as their wage level is still low they can produce and supply at low costs. German products will then be too expensive and Germany has meanwhile lost its title to China.

In the Natural Economy of Life industrialised countries, such as Germany, will continue to export a lot with all countries of the world being potential customers. The hitherto poor countries will have a plentiful national budget and the Equalisation and Environment Fund is at their disposal for innovative environmental technologies.

Advantage 59 – Developing countries can purchase technology and know-how

Excerpt from the book »Gradido – Natural Economy of Life«

»We are living at the expense of the Third World and are surprised when calamity knocks at our door.«

– Gregor Gysi

German politician (Die Linke left-wing party)

The hitherto developing countries, which have become able to pay because of the threefold creation of money, are now welcome customers for the industrialised nations wanting to export their technology. For a certain time there will be a high demand for know-how and technology.

In the course of time the necessary know-how and technology will likewise be available to the former developing countries, which themselves will make the products needed in their countries. The demand for imported goods will decline. We will then see an equalisation between hitherto poor and rich countries with a decline in export and import activities worldwide. All countries will increasingly focus on their domestic business. Exports and imports will then be confined to uncommon raw materials which only exist in certain countries and products typical of a country.

Domestic products will be lower in price than comparable products as the wage level has now levelled out worldwide and hence production costs as well. However, there would also be transport costs for foreign products, making them more expensive than domestic ones. Transportation will decline, which is good for the environment. 

Advantage 60 – The rich can stay rich

Excerpt from the book »Gradido – Natural Economy of Life«

»You can't help the poor man by destroying the rich.«.

– Abraham Lincoln

16th President of the USA

The Natural Economy of Life has no enemy stereotypes. Its aim is to achieve prosperity for all in peace and in harmony with nature. As we know, there is enough for everybody. The wealthy countries and people can continue to enjoy their prosperity. Perhaps they will not be able to exercise so much power but they no longer have to protect themselves from other people. If everybody is faring well, why should they attack each other? And greed for power is also just a greed that will automatically disappear once everyone is safely provided for.

The rich people in this world will also benefit from the Natural Economy of Life. They will have enhanced quality of life, a good conscience, security and the uplifting feeling of being connected with everybody.