Where is Society Headed?
With wars raging, the numbers throughout the world struggling to find enough food increasing and the gap between rich and poor at home widening, it is sometimes hard to remain hopeful about the world we live in.
Recently, I discovered The Venus Project (www.thevenusproject.com), an organization started by Jacque Fresco. From what I’ve read, they offer ideas about how to solve the problems of the world today. They view the current monetary system as problematic. Capitalism, Communism, Socialism, Fascism while different in many ways all support a monetary system. Instead of a monetary economy, The Venus Project proposes a resource based economy.
The question then becomes not whether we have the money to buy something, but whether we have the resources to build it. This may sound strange the first time you hear of the idea. But if you take the time to read their proposals and wonder how the future could unfold, you may find it an attractive idea. This type of society would bring an end to war, hunger and poverty. As things stand today, these problems all stem from living in a monetary system. Where there is profit to be made, some people who draw the short straw are going to end up suffering.
One of the ideas that I found interesting is that ownership will become something of the past. Things are only useful to us when we are actually using them. For instance, a camera is of little use unless we are taking pictures. So we could have libraries for more than just books. In a future society, there could be a library for cameras, places for people to park shared cars, a library for technology tools – iPlayer Ipad US) and so on. If all people of the world have access to things, we can improve the life of many.
You may feel that some people would end up “worse off” than they are today. But just getting access to goods is only one of the benefits of a resource based economy. Another huge positive is that machines and robots can take over many of the mundane and repetitive jobs carried out by humans today. We may be able to get to the stage where machines can do practically all our jobs. This would leave humans free to pursue our passions rather than the paycheck which is often our current goal.
A better society is possible.
