Advantage 28 – Higher incentive to perform well

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

»Nothing splendid has ever been achieved except by those who dared believe that something inside them was superior to circumstance.«

– Bruce Barton

American author

One might think that the incentive to deliver good work would decrease with a basic income. But is that really the case? In order to make a judgement, let’s look at the interaction of the following parameters.

It is correct that a basic income, be it active or unconditional, makes provision for everybody. This means that the sheer survival instinct no longer serves as an incentive. Hardly any applicants will be found for unpleasant, boring, dangerous and degrading jobs but most of this work will be rationalised away anyhow. Moreover, it does not serve to enhance the workers’ quality of life: on the contrary, most people who have to do such jobs today are emotionally detached from their work. They will quit their jobs immediately they find something better. Therefore we would do well to let machines do more of this type of work or at least make it more agreeable, more interesting and easier.

Motivation and the incentive to perform well increase in all other jobs. Why is this? People who are provided for by basic incomes only take up jobs they enjoy and/or which are well paid. They pick employers or customers who offer an excellent working climate and meaningful tasks. Conversely, this means that employers will make every effort to make the working conditions as good as possible. Good working conditions allow people to work well and with motivation; they are glad to perform at a good level.

Thus seen, all unfavourable circumstances which have hitherto been able to stop »normal« people performing in an outstanding manner have been done away with. It used to be exceptional people who performed in an exceptional manner. The Natural Economy of Life creates circumstances in which every completely normal person can develop their full potential and accomplish true miracles in their very personal field. And a high incentive exists on the financial level as all income is tax-free.

Advantage 72 – Everybody can develop their full potential

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

»It’s a pure waste of time to do something in a mediocre way.«

– Madonna

American singer and actress

The beginning is to become aware of your own wishes, yearnings, dreams, goals, inclinations and abilities – a discipline that should be practised from youth on. Children also have the right to unconditional participation. They are allowed to contribute to the community in very early years in accordance with their age and nature and receive their active basic income. We must cooperate with educationalists to determine the age at which this can begin but we suppose it could start in nursery school.

During the transition to the Natural Economy of Life there will also be many adults who have to relearn how to perceive their inner needs and abilities and bring them into harmony with the threefold good. This will be a wonderful field of activity for the many already existing social education workers, personality trainers and consultants.

Unconditional participation is therefore not only an obligatory duty to earn one’s active basic income. It is a kind of life school where one can train to develop one’s potential better and better. Development of this potential is facilitated by two things – becoming aware of one’s own inclinations and abilities and the possibility of using these immediately in the community.

Advantage 93 – Reinforce what is positive

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

»Attention brings reinforcement – lack of attention brings liberation«

– Nikolaus B. Enkelmann:

the 11th law of thinking

Once when we were refurbishing our house the architect asked us what colour the rainwater pipe from the roof gutter should be painted. At that time I did not know what this pipe was and so I will explain that it is the pipe that leads down the wall of the house and disappears into the earth, ending up in the drainage system. At that time I was not even aware of the existence of rainwater pipes, let alone what they looked like. So we decided to have a look at the rainwater pipes on houses on our next walk.

And indeed we saw at least one, if not more, on every house. Some of them had a golden sheen because they were made of copper and were still quite new. Old copper pipes were a dark reddish brown. Pipes made of tinplate were sometimes painted in the colour of the roof tiles and sometimes in the colour of the house wall. One particular specimen was even painted in three colours because the wall of the house was painted in a different colour on each floor.

During the following few weeks we almost exclusively saw rainwater pipes in many different colours and models. We now encountered them constantly merely because of our attention to them, although I had not even known of their existence before. They had always been there but they did not enter our lives until we paid attention to them.

The law of attention works with everything: when we primarily pay attention to negative things, actions, circumstances, etc., we will discover more and more of them in our lives. Conversely, when we focus on positive things, actions and circumstances, we will become aware of how many of these are already part of our lives. Both the positive and negative categories were already there before; only our attention to them makes us perceive our lives as having either a negative or a positive tendency.

But unlike the rainwater pipes, which do not really care if we pay attention to them or not, people react very strongly to attention. People who are criticised for their negative qualities in general reinforce these, thus becoming »worse«. Conversely, people become »better« when we praise their positive qualities and actions.

In the present times people mostly pay attention to negative things. They try to fight undesirable things or at least protect themselves from them. We wage wars against terror; we fight unemployment, demographic change, poverty and hunger; we protect ourselves from flower pollen, the sun, rain, insects and body odour. The results are more terrorism, unemployment, poverty and hunger and more allergies to pollen, sun and insect bites. Oh yes, I’d almost forgotten: we try to fight the state debts but they are increasing all the time worldwide.

Now you will certainly understand why the gradido system only provides for positive account balances; why we do not propose punishments for environmental sinners but the Equalisation and Environment to subsidise protection and decontamination of the environment; why the government does not burden citizens with taxes but encourages them to develop their full potential through unconditional participation.

By paying attention to the positive we reinforce it. What works with the individual functions even better in the community because the effects are exponential. By introducing the Natural Economy of Life we can transmit a positive basic attitude to the whole of humanity. The positive effects even exponentiate many times over. A swarm intelligence develops, giving us common abilities we had never even dared dream of before.