Money: How can people survive without money in a capitalist system?

BY ERROL A. GIBBS

Money is the currency of human survival, so how can people survive without money in a capitalist system? Recently a person shared her experiences about life with insufficient money. This writer has a “new” awakening to the dire consequences the lack of money has on the well-being of people —spiritual, moral, social, intellectual, and physical.  Living in a capitalist system with insufficient capital suffocates the emotional, social, and economic growth of individuals, families, and communities.

Researching the lifestyles of people globally reveal that people living in countries without money have the highest mortality rate in childbirth, experience lower life satisfaction, have lower educational attainment, and a shorter lifespan than people who have money (OECD Better Life Index). The lack of money causes fear, anxiety, and desperation, and give rise to aberrant behavior and increase criminal justice incarceration for crimes underpinned by the money motive.

Materially based western capitalist societies set a pace that inspires wants as opposed to needs, motivating greed for money, on both ends of the social and economic spectrum. As a result, some people commit crimes to facilitate their materially driven lifestyles. Likewise, some people deny the importance of education, a career, and money intelligence that would better and more permanently supply their needs and sustain a wholesome life.

Private corporations are the engines that propel the economy, through creativity and innovation, financial risk, and the genius of industrialization. Despite high profit, capitalist minded governments aid these corporations using the instruments of law, tax incentives, and money for research and development. The goal is to help corporations maintain their solvency in a competitive international marketplace fueled by money.

Notwithstanding corporate aid (welfare), some corporations exploit the working class through wage inequality. Likewise, they manipulate vulnerable resource-rich countries through unfair trade practices, using their dominant economic might. Capitalism, therefore, is a “double-edged sword.” First, as the economic engine to facilitate growth and prosperity. Second, as the mechanism, that creates a disparity between rich and poor peoples and nations.

Capitalist minded governments are aware of the inequities inherent in a capitalist economy. Knowingly, the vast amount of wealth (generated by workers) goes to the capitalists. They resist the social reformers who seek an equitable share of the “fruits of production” in wages and benefits. Governments respond to protect the capitalist ideology by deploying massive social welfare programs as an alternative to instituting more equitable governance systems.

As a response to this “moral dilemma,” some public and private enterprises, wealthy philanthropists, and concerned citizens intervene. The result is the rise of a vast international network of charitable organizations and Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs), to fill the gap of “insufficiency of money” and services for families living at or below the poverty line.

Notwithstanding government’s dual strategy of “corporate” and “state” welfare, no amount of public and private welfare, or domestic and international foreign aid can counterbalance the social and economic imbalance inherent in a capitalist economy. Only an equitable balance between the interest of the “shareholder” and “stakeholder” —the client of capitalism —will suffice.

The country of birth is a significant factor in determining the nature of some people’s social and economic survival. More importantly, scientific education, initiative, and creativity and innovation are also salient factors, as well. However, it is only by the deliberate creation of a human ecosystem that recognizes the capacity and worth of each individual (in an inclusive society) that these central objectives become viable for the masses.

No society should be willing to accept poor, hungry, and homelessness on the scale that it is occurring around the world (https://ourworldindata.org/extreme-poverty). The big question is, “Where and how does religion fit into the human survival equation?” Ironically, money and riches have long been associated with evil and hindering the way of the believers’ “afterlife” wealth and rewards.

Christian literature states: “Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth…” (Matthew 6:19-21). Take therefore no thought for the morrow: for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself…” (Matthew 6:34). These and other foundational beliefs have explicitly given rise to a massive state global “poverty mindedness,” passive complacency and prohibition in some religious communities, dating back to the premodern, modern, and up to the postmodern era.

What are the implications of these profound maxims to a mother or parents as they struggle to nurture their children? What are the consequences for children whose parents fail to plan for their future? Could this be the reason for the lack of generational wealth within millions of families in some specific regions, religions, races, and cultures? Natural poverty ought not to be confused with poverty “engineered” as a byproduct of wealth creation.

Ironically, the most potent stronghold against poverty ought to be the voice of religious leaders. They have the sovereign authority to speak on behalf of a sovereign people with a resonant voice against unjust laws that are principal causes of poverty. More importantly, religious leaders can offer a higher “value proposition” to the capitalists —creativity and innovation, strategic alliances, and moral leadership —as they plan.