Chapter 3.3 – The threefold good

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

The manifold interactions of natural beings with each other serve the good of the individual (the bee drinks nectar), the good of the community (the bee colony obtains honey supplies) and the good of the big scheme of things (maintenance of the eco-system). We call this the threefold good.

The threefold good of the whole is the decisive criterion in the Natural Economy of Life. When one of the three aspects is neglected, the whole picture gets out of balance. When the good of the individual is lacking, meaning no personal interest exists, why should we commit ourselves? When the good of the community is lacking, the community will collapse. And when the good of the big scheme of things is at issue, the basis of our existence is at risk.

I would like to invite you to make an experiment. Please select a few events of the day, both personal and political. Now ask yourself about each event:

1. Does it contribute to my personal good? Does it contribute to the personal good of the individuals involved?
2. Does it contribute to the good of the family, the region, the country etc.?
3. Does it contribute to the good of all people, nature and the environment?

What did you find out from this little exercise? Did the majority of your events serve the threefold good? If not, what could be improved?

It is best to examine the  threefold good as often as possible. With everything you encounter ask yourself: »Does it serve the good of the individual, the good of the community and the good of the big scheme of things?« If you ask yourself these three questions about all the things you are confronted with, you will sharpen your judgement of what serves life and what harms it. The threefold good will develop into a permanent part of your life and the three questions will become a much-loved habit that you wouldn’t want to do without. In the next sections we have plenty of opportunities to practise this.

Chapter 3.4 – No creation of money through debt

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

»In nature there are no debts and no interest is charged. That’s why it doesn’t occur to plants and animals to hoard more than they need. Because of that there are no  »rich« and »poor« plants or animals«.    

– Joytopia

Have you ever wondered where money actually comes from? How was it created? Does it simply come from the cash dispenser like electricity from the socket? Did a creator make it in some prehistoric time as God created the world? And who created the debts?

There is a touch of mysticism about money. And so it is no wonder that only very few people know how money is created. »Money creation« is a term from the world of finance. It describes the process by which money comes into being. And indeed it is now something mystical since today’s money is often called fiat money. This has nothing to do with the car make of the same name but refers to the Bible: in Genesis, the first book of the Bible, God said in Latin »Fiat lux!«, which means »Let there be light!«. And there was light, as we learnt in our religious instruction lessons. Today’s creator gods say »Fiat money!«, or »Let there be money!« And they create money from borrowing or debt.

Fiat money signifies »money from nothing«. A small part of it is created by the central banks and the greatest part by the commercial banks. In the bank balance sheet the total of all accounts has to be »zero«. Expressed differently, the total credit balances have to be equal to the total debts.

How does the creation of money from nothing work? Imagine that you and I both have a zero amount of euros on our bank accounts. We have absolutely no money at all. Although neither of us has any money, you buy books from me to give to your friends because you would like to pass on the valuable knowledge about the Natural Economy of Life. As you are an honest person, you transfer a hundred euros to my account. I am now the happy owner of a credit balance of one hundred euros: and you unfortunately have a debt of one hundred euros to the bank.

What has just happened? Money was created from nothing – through debt! Inside the bank the procedure is in fact slightly more complex but for us »non-bankers« (that’s what banks call people like you and me) only what goes in and what goes out counts. Nothing goes in and assets and debts come out.

Who has created the money then? The central bank? Its bank director? The friendly bank clerk who looks after your current account? The bank computer? The answer is hard but clear: you have created money, thus burdening yourself with debt. You wanted to do something good, support a project, inform your friends, make the world a bit better and in doing so have got yourself into debt!

»Yes, but only because I didn’t have any money. You should only spend what you have.« This – or something similar – is what you may be thinking now. But can this rule be kept at all in a system where money is created through debt? For every credit in euros there has to be a debit somewhere else. If you have no debt someone else has. There is no other possibility in our system. So that it does not come to people’s attention our governments have assumed the debts on behalf of their citizens. In Germany that currently makes 20,000 euros in government debt per person. Virtually all nations worldwide have enormous debts and many of them are on the verge of bankruptcy.

Such a system cannot function at all – least of all when we consider the threefold good for there it fails on all three levels. The good of the individual is diminished since you either have debts or have helped to create other people’s debts. The good of the community is at risk on account of the high government debts with the risk of state bankruptcy. Today the entire international community is affected. And finally the good of the big scheme of things is negatively impacted since highly competitive markets do not shrink from waging wars and destroying the environment.

A system of creating money from debt harms everybody and benefits nobody.

Interest and compound interest further aggravate the problem. But even interest-free monetary systems have the harmful impact described. Well-meaning alternative monetary systems, such as barter clubs and exchanges, LETS systems and suchlike are also included in this category. Regional currencies, which are tied to the national currency, cannot be considered as solutions for this very reason.

»It is beyond doubt that the good is always the bad that you cease to do«.

– Wilhelm Busch

German humorist, poet and graphic artist

In the following sections you will get to know a monetary and economic model which does not create money from debt but from life itself. It is constructed in such a way that everyone benefits and nobody is harmed.

And it is based on a principle which should be a matter of course for a civilised species…

Chapter 3.6 – Threefold money creation

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

Threefold creation of money by life 

»Our money is no longer created from debts but from life itself. Our currency is the gradido, which means »thanks«. The creation of money follows simple rules. 3,000 gradidos are created for every citizen each month. A third of the money created is used for a basic income. Another third is used for the national budget and the rest for the Equalisation and Environmental Fund. We call this the threefold creation of money«.

– Joytopia

Do you remember where money comes from in the old system? Correct – from nothing! Assets and debts are created from »nothing«. Figures are generated in a computer according to internationally recognised rules. The old rules follow zero-sum principles and are designed in such a way that their impact harms everybody and benefits nobody.

The gradido – the »living money« – is created from life itself. Through the existence of every person 3,000 gradidos are created every month without debts being created. The new rules, according to which the numbers are generated in a computer, follow the plus-sum principle and serve the threefold good – the good of the individual, the good of the community and the good of the big scheme of things. They have a beneficial impact on all those involved and harm nobody.

It is important to understand that money creation is nothing more than generating numbers in a computer. And it is quite normal for rules to be altered or superseded by new ones when they do not serve their purpose (any longer). There is scarcely anything more hostile to life in this world than the present monetary system. All wars and all man-made disasters are direct or indirect consequences of it. What the hell got into humankind to introduce the system of debt money? And what the hell is still in us that we treat it like a sacred cow and maintain its perfidious creation rules? It is quite easy to alter the rules and create living money that serves the good of everyone and makes the survival of humanity possible – in peace and in harmony with nature.

From the threefold good the threefold creation of money is derived. Three amounts of 1,000 gradidos are created for every person each month. With 1,000 gradidos per person per month the Natural Economy of Life provides the financial means to serve the threefold good. The threefold creation of money includes:

1. an active basic income for every person,
2. a national income for every country proportional to the number of its citizens,
3. an Equalisation and Environmental Fund for decontaminating the environment.

The active basic income

The first amount of money created (1,000 gradidos) is intended as the basic income. Every citizen has the right to a basic income of 1,000 gradidos. Two variations of this are conceivable: an unconditional basic income that everyone gets »just like that« and an active basic income that is earned with unconditional participation.

On account of the many positive consequences that ensue from unconditional participation we unequivocally advocate the active basic income. In addition to the advantages already described, from the viewpoint of monetary theory there is also the argument that the money created is covered by services already rendered. Even if – and especially because – the value of money only exists in people’s heads, money covered by services should have a more stable value than money which is created »out of thin air«.

The idea of an unconditional basic income triggers so-called »envy debates«. Working people ask themselves why they should produce the money or products consumed by other people who in their eyes do not work. Supporters of the unconditional basic income try to defuse these envy debates with all kinds of arguments without any real success.

A basic income covered by services makes such envy debates superfluous. After all, everybody has earned their active basic income with services to the community.

National income proportional to the number of inhabitants

The second amount of money created (1,000 gradidos per person per month) goes to the national budget. Without having to levy taxes every country has a per-capita national budget at its disposal of an amount customary in Central Europe, including health and social services.

Central Europe currently has the highest standard of living worldwide. Therefore it serves us as a yardstick when it is a matter of defining what we imagine worldwide prosperity to be quantitatively.

Since the second amount of money created also includes health and social services as well as the national budget, neither taxes nor other levies have to be imposed. Hence, considerably less government control is necessary than today, which makes it possible to reduce bureaucracy significantly.

The national budget is funded without any debt whatsoever. All the costs of servicing capital in the present system are avoided. In future there will be absolutely no reason for a government ever to borrow money. For, on the one hand, the national budget is already generously calculated and, on the other hand, an additional fund of an equal amount is provided for protection and decontamination of the environment.

Equalisation and Environment Fund

The third amount of money created is intended for decontaminating and preserving our environment.  With 1,000 gradidos per person per month the world environmental budget is as high as the sum of the national budgets of all countries. As its name says, the Equalisation and Environment Fund has the task of eliminating economic and ecological contamination as far as possible and protecting nature and the environment  in a sustainable manner in future.

By economic contamination we primarily understand the serious differences between the hitherto poor countries and the rich industrialised countries. The Equalisation and Environment Fund helps in this respect in addition to the equalising impact inherently brought about by the Natural Economy of Life. The elimination of the differences between rich and poor as fast as possible is first and foremost a signal of peace as it shows the unconditional willingness of the rich nations to make good the damage they caused in the past. And worldwide peace also benefits the environment as well as human beings.

The long-term task of the Equalisation and Environment fund is sustainable protection of the environment and nature. Eco-friendly industrial branches, products and services are subsidised. This means organic products will be significantly cheaper than products harmful to the environment, which will not be able to maintain their position on the market. Only eco-friendly economic activity will be worthwhile. Industrial branches hitherto harmful to the environment will receive support during the changeover.

With the creation of the third amount of money we have created a worldwide environment budget to make funds available for a return to being harmony with nature. However, this can only work if we firmly integrate an important natural law into our monetary and economic model – the cycle of growth and decay. 

Chapter 3.17 – Summary

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

Now that we have the single elements together, it is easy to assemble everything into one whole. The single components have been described in detail. The next chapter is entirely devoted to the beneficial effects. That is why a brief summary follows at this point.

Let’s begin with the most important decision criterion of the Natural Economy of Life, by which we measure all our thinking, talking and acting – the threefold good.

 

The threefold good

1. The good of every single participant - win-win.
2. The good of the community – family, community, country, humanity…
3. The good of the big scheme of things – nature, environment, mother earth, universe…

The natural law of growth and decay

The threefold good is, so to speak, the ethical foundation of our monetary and economic model. For it to work we have to develop it in harmony with natural laws. The most important law for us is the cycle of life, the cycle of growth and decay. It is integrated into our model in the form of creation of money and perishability.

The threefold creation of money

The threefold creation of money is derived from the threefold good.

The community, represented by the government, creates three amounts of 1,000 gradidos for each citizen every month to be used for the following purposes:

1. Basic income, either unconditional or active,
2. Government income, including health and social services,
3. Equalisation and Environment Fund (EEF) to protect and decontaminate the environment.

Basic income

The model supports the two options of an unconditional basic income, which is paid out »just like that«, or an active basic income.

The active basic income follows from unconditional participation in the community: everybody has the right to work for the community for up to 50 hours a month in accordance with their inclinations and skills. The community remunerates this work with 20 gradidos an hour up to a maximum of 1,000 gradidos monthly. Because of the manifold beneficial effects of unconditional participation, we prefer the active basic income, particularly as the money thus created is covered by services and full employment is automatically achieved.

Government income

The second amount of 1,000 gradidos is sufficient for a generous national budget, including health and social services, on the scale which currently exists in the Federal Republic of Germany. Taxes, social insurances or similar levies are therefore not required: gross and net income are the same. A huge reduction of bureaucracy is possible. Illegal work no longer exists by definition.

Equalisation and Environment Fund (EEF)

The third amount of 1,000 gradidos constitutes an additional fund of the same amount as the national budget. The Equalisation and Environment Fund serves to eliminate economic and ecological contamination, primarily to remedy as far as humanly possible the disastrous environmental damage humans have caused over more than the last hundred years. It is the largest environmental fund in the history of humanity. Protection and decontamination of the environment will become the most lucrative sectors of the economy. 

Self-regulating system stabilises the money supply

The cycle of growth and decay is already integrated into the gradido. The threefold creation of money is subject to decay of 50% a year. Only 50 gradidos still remain from 100 after one year. After the pattern of nature the gradido is thus a self-regulating system, which keeps the money supply per person constant. The money supply cannot be manipulated.

Creation of money without debt

The creation of money follows the pattern of nature without debts having to be incurred. The gradido only provides for credit balances. Loans are still possible. They are agreements between lender and borrower. As only existing money may be lent, the money supply is not altered by loans. Although interest is not forbidden, it has no chance on the market.

Common good currency

As  you see, each part of the money created is spent on a contribution to the community. The gradido is thus a currency for the common good. The call for an economy of the common good is getting louder and louder. Besides the gradido, there are already several projects in this direction but so far they have not considered the monetary system. While reading this book it should have become clear to you, dear reader, that an economy of the common good cannot work in the old monetary system. With the gradido every sector of the economy will become an economy of the common good all by itself. 

Understanding it is child’s play

The entire model is described in essence in this summary. It is so simple that even children can easily understand it with an appropriate explanation. The Natural Economy of Life has many life-saving benefits over the old monetary and economic systems although these may not be recognised at first glance. In the next chapter you will therefore learn the 100 most important advantages of the Natural Economy of Life. Let yourself be inspired!

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 63 – Peace

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

» And I dreamed I saw the bomber jet planes riding shotgun in the sky,

turning into butterflies above our nation.«

– from the song »Woodstock«

by Joni Mitchell

Peace, what a lovely word! Don’t we all want peace? But what normally stands in the way of peace? Conflicts of interest! The old monetary and economic systems are programmed for conflict. Cut-throat competition, industrial disputes, hostile takeovers, asset strippers, debts, destruction of the environment…, all this sounds very charged with conflict. We are still living in a system hostile to life, whose most lucrative economic branch is the war industry. There cannot be peace in such a system. 

The advantages already listed show that the Natural Economy of Life manages to steer the most different of interests in the same direction so that conflicts of interest scarcely arise or can be easily solved. In a monetary and economic model inspired from nature, from which even such different groups as a flat-sharing community and an international conglomerate benefit and in which an equalisation between poor and rich countries is created for the good of all – in a system so friendly to life the potential exists to live together in peace.

This peace will be permanent as it is founded on the threefold good – the good of the individual, the good of the community and the good of the big scheme of things. A thousand-year-old human dream has a realistic chance of coming true.

Advantage 67 – Promotion of health

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

»There are 1,000 illnesses but only one health.«

– Arthur Schopenhauer

German philosopher

The expression »lifestyle diseases« already says everything. The achievements of our civilisation, as convenient and agreeable as they may be, are making us ill. They make individuals ill, likewise the community and finally the entire environment. Measured by the threefold good, today’s civilisation fails on all three levels.

That this need not be so has been shown by the previous sections, in which an improvement in health was also often a »side-effect«. Less stress, sufficient healthy food for everyone, better motivation, being provided for, better quality of life, being needed, personal life planning, peace – all these positive concomitants of the Natural Economy of Life contribute to the health of both the individual and the community. Furthermore, the health service in all countries is provided with plentiful financial resources (see threefold creation of money).

For the recovery of nature a fund is available, which is as big as all the national budgets together. The recovery of nature has become the best business in the world for the economy. Although we humans cannot restore what we have destroyed, we can do our best and the necessary money is available everywhere we can help with our human means.

The recovery of the individual, the community and the environment serve the threefold good. They are not only noble objectives of the Natural Economy of Life but an essential part of it and automatically follow after it has been introduced.

Advantage 71 – Disappearance of useless and harmful work

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

»Work for work’s sake is contrary to human nature.«

– John Locke

English philosopher

Useless or harmful activities are a similar case to meaningless work. We currently hear more and more people complaining that they are sentenced to being compelled to do useless or even harmful work. If you ask them why they do it, you get the answer that they have to earn their living.

In the Natural Economy of Life this pressure no longer exists. Particularly with regard to harmful work (damaging to the environment or health, warlike, exploitative, etc.), this is a blessing for the individual, the community and the environment. Nobody any longer needs to do anything of whose usefulness they are not convinced. Once again, the threefold good is a good yardstick for the usefulness of work: does the work serve the individual, the community and the big scheme of things? If all the questions can be answered with a clear »yes« the work is useful. If one area is missing, there is need for improvement.

Overall, much more useful and constructive work will be done in the service of the individual, the community and the big scheme of things.

Advantage 77 – Beneficial ecological footprints

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

»In nature there are neither rewards nor punishments;

there are consequences.«

– Robert Green Ingersoll

American writer

You may know the expression »small footprint«. Based on the assumption that everybody leaves traces or footprints behind them with everything that they do and that these footprints are generally damaging or at least use resources, a »small footprint« means that as little damage as possible is caused. The expression is used in software development and also in the environmental field. A small ecological footprint thus means that a product or an activity causes as little damage as possible to the environment. For this reason nature conservationists often call for a small ecological footprint.

But how would it be if we left a »beneficial ecological footprint«? This would mean that we would not only not damage nature with our actions but even benefit it. A beneficial ecological footprint is created, for example, when a conventional farmer changes over to organic farming or when a supermarket extends its range more and more in the direction of vegan (exclusively non-animal) products which are produced organically as far as possible. The more beneficial footprints we leave behind us, the greater the chances are that the descent to hell is not only slowed down but the direction is reversed.

In the previous sections a lot has been said about measures that can promote such a reversal. The most important financial instrument that the Natural Economy of Life has at its disposal for this purpose is the Equalisation and Environment Fund, which provides a budget for decontaminating our environment worldwide of an amount equal to the national budgets of all countries together.  

Much human creativity and commitment will still be required to reverse the direction completely and permanently, thus initiating the return home to paradise. However, the financial foundation for this is already provided by the Equalisation and Environment Fund.

And, as always, all action has to be measured by the threefold good and will have to meet all three criteria: does it serve the good of the individual, the good of the community and the good of the big scheme of things? When all three questions can be answered with a clear »yes«, the action leaves a beneficial footprint.  

Advantage 89 – The threefold good

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

»Only great cooperation is fruitful,

 when one person shares in it through another.«

– Antoine de Saint-Exupéry

French writer

Every decision, every action, every product and every service must, if possible, serve the threefold good – the good of the individual, the good of the community and the good of the big scheme of things (all beings, the environment and nature). The threefold good is, to a certain extent, the paramount decision criterion of the Natural Economy of Life. In everything we do we ask ourselves:

1. Does it serve the good of every single person?
2. Does it serve the good of the community?
3. Does it serve the good of the big scheme of things?

Only when all three questions can be answered with a clear »yes« have we passed the test. If one of the criteria is not met, we should rethink something.

The threefold good is also the basis for the threefold creation of money: the active basic income primarily serves the good of the individual, the national income serves the good of the community and the Equalisation and Environment Fund serves the good of the big scheme of things. The most important criterion has thus been met for the creation of money.

Advantage 90 – The good of the individual

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

»Never do anything you wouldn’t like

to be done unto you.«

– Confucius

Chinese philosopher

Self-interest is probably the greatest motivation factor of all. Everyone is, first of all, their own neighbour, even if altruistic reasons are given. A functioning system of incentives – and money is nothing but an incentive system – must address the self-interest of each individual or, in other words, protect the good of the individual.

With the gradido this starts with unconditional participation. Everyone has the right to contribute to the community and thus receive their active basic income. This automatically results in the common good being served at the same time.

Advantage 91 – The good of the community

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

»I let go the desire for the general good

and the good spreads as generally as grass.«

– Laotse

Chinese philosopher

Not only the good of the individual is served with the active basic income. As it is generated through service to the community, it enhances the general good at the same time. That is one of the typical win-win situations that frequently arise all by themselves in the gradido system.

The creation of the second amount of money is explicitly intended for the good of the community – the national income that is automatically created by each citizen. This is used to finance all the things a nation’s government is responsible for. The good of the state naturally also benefits the individual since, after all, the state is the community of all citizens.

The common good is integrated into the Natural Economy of Life as a matter of course. There are no more conflicts between the good of the individual and the good of the community, in which a decision has to be made for one of them. We can let go of the desire for the general good as the threefold good spreads automatically by itself.

Advantage 92 – The good of the big scheme of things

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

»Paradise is seldom recognized as such until it is considered from the outside.«

– Hermann Hesse

Swiss writer

For the good of the big scheme of things the Equalisation and Environment Fund provides a pool of money equal in amount to the national budgets of all countries together. This fund is filled by the third amount of money created amounting to 1,000 gradidos per person per month.

This is by far the largest environmental fund that has ever existed or is planned anywhere, as far as we know. It many times exceeds all environment funds in the world. The good of the big scheme of things thus has equal importance from a financial point of view to the good of all nations together.

Protection and decontamination of the environment are going to be the most important and profitable economic sectors in the world. Or, in other words, only companies that make and offer their products and services in harmony with nature will be able to survive. Things will be made easy for companies as they receive support in making the changeover. Organic and biological products will thus be lower in price than others. The world economy will switch to biological quality.

Advantage 94 – Promotes swarm intelligence in humans

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

»Nature does not know a teaching space, only masterpieces«.

– Johann Peter Hebel

German poet

Have you ever observed a swarm of migrating birds gathering to fly south together, twittering wildly, flying around a little here and there, and then suddenly flying off without any recognisable reason in a closed formation as if they were a single organism? They change their flight direction together in a single moment without even two birds colliding. The strongest birds fly at the front so that the others can take advantage of their wind shadow. When the birds at the front are exhausted they join the ranks behind and other birds take over the leadership. All this happens seemingly automatically. 

Or have you ever observed a bee colony or an ant heap? How does each of these small insects know what to do so exactly? The queen cannot take care of them as she is too occupied with reproduction.

When a group of individual beings begins to behave more intelligently than would be possible for the individual members of the group, we call this group intelligence or swarm intelligence. Behavioural scientists have been investigating this phenomenon in animals for a long time.

And what about human beings? Can humans also possess swarm intelligence or does a group of humans rather develop »swarm stupidity«, as critics claim? This is an issue for complexity research.

Two requirements seem to be crucial for success:

1. A clear objective
2. Only a few rules.

Ailing businesses have been restructured within a short time in this way. The staff were convened and committed themselves to the common goal of saving the company and making it successful again. It was made clear to the staff that absolute confidence was placed in their competence. Each of them knew best how something was to be done in their own job and what possibly needed improving. Accordingly, a simple rule might be: everybody does their best. After a few months the company was in the black again and the staff were proud of their achievement: together they had helped save their enterprise and were able to go on working under good conditions.

What was possible for this company can also be accomplished by the whole of humanity. After the introduction of the Natural Economy of Life we will also look back in pride because together we helped to save the »enterprise of humanity«. And – God willing – we will be allowed to go on living under good conditions.

In our case the goal is to survive together in worldwide prosperity in peace and in harmony with nature. An objective that considers the good of the individual as much as the good of the community and the good of the big scheme of things. The simple rules have been copied from nature. They are the fundamental rules of the Natural Economy of Life – the threefold good and the threefold creation of money derived from it in conjunction with the principle of transience. If we can agree on this, humanity will develop swarm intelligence. In this way we have excellent chances of finding our way back to paradise together.