The problem is value
Money exists solely to fuel a system of mutual exchanges. A mutual exchange is one that is fair to all parties concerned with a transaction.
If it is a business selling, then the parties or stakeholders include workers, managers, owners, suppliers and the environment the source of everything. This will get a product in front of a client the other important stakeholder. During the process, there will be many sub – mutual exchanges occurring for the final output and all should be fair or balanced, otherwise arbitration through a Justice System will be required or simply no ultimate sale will occur unless it is the right product in the right place at the right price.
Ultimately, the common value realised from all exchanges is happiness. This is not systematically quantified in the mutual exchanges that occur in human society at any level. That is through formal business or general social interactions and contracts like marriage or friendships or with neighbours.
Money in our societies is not properly focused to provide a value that equates to the purpose of any thought, desire, choice, transaction, purchase in a way that is clear, consistent or representational of its purpose. The purpose of money is to provide a unit of value that maybe easily equated towards any interaction or exchange.
The only reason to purchase anything is to make the purchaser in some way happier.
How much happiness the purchaser realises is mostly poorly considered from the identification of the requirement through selection to purchasing and enjoying that purchase.
There is simply no consistent structure to equating value in a sensible and logical format.
Capitalisation Ethos
On top of this, the Capitilism that is utilised broadly by commerce capitalises knowingly as well as inadvertently on imbalanced mutual exchanges. Best bang for buck, bargaining down wherever possible mostly to the detriment of all in less advantageous positions in the sub mutual exchanges (the supply chain) that put together the end product or service.
This could be a supermarket, screwing down the costs of suppliers to the point that it controls the existence of farmers that supply the supermarket, impacting the methods used to farm, that result in over farming practices from large scale mass production in agriculture
On the other side of the coin, the supermarket may sell at inflated prices to maximise its profits, affecting the consumer as they are effectively over charged.
This is commerce based on charge what you can get away with and whatever is left is the money remaining to run that business properly or not and provide what is hoped to target a continuous growth in profits.
This is a product of a society that has no clear system by which to equate value, both in pricing and the value perceived to be helped by the currency used.
This process stifles economies, creates large inequalities, destroys the environment.
The economic process our societies utilise is one that is focused on consumerism and materialism and a system setup to take advantage of the unwary.
The False Economy
Economies that consistently apply a process of imbalanced mutual exchanges, create a solid base for failure. Take take take, depletes resources, creates imbalance in the ecosystems that we exist in, not only in nature but the social ecosystems we exist in, take take take from the poor and middle classes. These societies have not by the year 2020 been able to create a stable enough economic environment to not live hand to mouth. Making base survival something that few really have evolved from if any, when the capability has been around for a long time, should the collective will orchestrate this.
The evolution of a society or a society that actively improves its quality of life through the process of systematic self-actualisation would in my eyes be preferable and practical. This is because a properly self-actualising society is focused on creating life that is consistently happier, filled with more love and fulfilled. The process is straightforward the use of the self-actualising logic to steer it is straightforward and works at every level. The logic is the utilisation of the Tools of Creation towards bringing joy and love. The Tools of Creation are Thoughts, Words (communications) and Actions, where the thoughts are setup to bring joy to all concerned and the Actions ones that would be considered loving actions to all concerned.
This would be the principle to use to create mutual exchanges that would be balanced.
The Mutual Exchange
Societal economics is essentially how to make the best choices for mutual exchanges. Mutual exchanges are between people and the environment. Imbalance invites a societal structure prone to collapse. Politics and governance does not function well unless the issue of mutual exchange has been resolved.
So what is the key to a successful Mutual Exchange?
To enable clarity of this, a metric that is consistent and accurately reflects the value of the exchange, needs to be found.
True value or how good something is ultimately always points to how much happiness is brought to you.
Remember something is only worth what someone is prepared to pay for it and all exchanges need to be balanced.
The point of reference is the person desiring the exchange, the client or customer. How they value something defines the market.
A Value System
To equate value I shall introduce what I call the Valuemetric Triangle. There are 3 weightings used to gauge value or the amount of happiness.
- Necessity
- Desire
- Time
Humans have survival needs, these would be categorised under Necessity. For a society that is going on to evolve and this should become the larger metric, there are Desires. The third metric, is simply how long will that happiness be enjoyed for?
To begin playing with this you could designate a set of units, such as:
- Necessity (N) 0 to 10
- Desire (D) 0- 1000
- Time (T) 0 – 10
Some examples:
A drink of water –
N = 8
D = 1
T = 1
A Fizzy drink –
N = 0
D = 5
T = 1
So water for me is a necessity and it is something that is consumable so simply brings joy in the moment, it is also something I am not particularly fond of drinking.
A fizzy sugar drink is something I enjoy drinking, it is not a necessity and is simply a consumable so enjoyed in the moment.
Now that a value has been assigned, we need to check the mutual exchanges involved. To do this you would utilise the Tools of Creation in bringing joy and love to all concerned.
Given the awareness that sugary fizzy drinks are not particularly healthy. I would need to ask myself, even though I love sugary fizzy drinks, is consuming them in copious quantities a loving action towards myself? And if not, I might ask, how can I enjoy the fizzy drinks I desire in a way that is loving to myself?
Is the case that moderation is the answer? Is it the case that a bio organic solution is a better solution?
Remember, any assessment with the tools of creation involves all parties concerned.
For the supplier of the fizzy drink, do they firstly supply at my value range?
Are the sub mutual exchanges balanced in bringing the product to you?
Equating Quality
To examine the supply chain requires every part to honestly declare how balanced each exchange was. This declaration could be part of the ingredients list.
Regarding the environment which is the source for everything, this maybe examined in terms of the affected ecosystems, particularly the ones that are life sustaining to all creatures affected. Is the production sustainable?
The best product to buy, then becomes one that meets the consumers value range and is one that is supplied with a full set of balanced mutual exchanges, throughout the entire supply chain.
This makes accountability straightforward and transparent, if something is missing it may simply be added and balance found creatively by the suppliers.
This process is a much fuller realisation towards quantifying the concept of quality in a useful way. It becomes a simple accountancy task for all transactions. Exploring the value chain in this way helps to identify areas for improvement at the level of supplying a balanced mutual exchange. Any exchanges that are not balanced in the chain, simply need focus to redress.
Good quality then becomes simply a reflection of a full set of balanced mutual exchanges relating from supply to delivery and consumption.
In Conclusion
Value conceptually is not uniformly quantified in our society and the result is a mess. Perceptions of value are consistently inconsistently applied. What is best for one is not for another. And what is considered value seems to change from one situation to another, making any mutual exchange more tricky and working out how good that exchange was difficult too.
For a system of value exchange to succeed, value must be measured in a uniform way that is clear and simple. The full realisation of the value in an exchange can be measured by the quality of the exchange.
The principles one could apply would be to use happiness as the guage of value, as this is an innate driver within all humans. Utilising the Valuemetric Triangle constructs a figure through dimensions that are important to our lives. From survival to thriving and amount of time of happiness brought or bought.
The happiness identified as the objective for a trade or mutual exchange, must be balanced through the supply chain utilising the Tools of Creation in a Self-Actualising way. This is to intend joy to all concerned in a transaction and loving actions to all in the delivery. It means to deliberately seek a full and accurate awareness of the situation and any consequences. It means being responsible personally and for any other affected in the exchange. It means honesty and transparency towards all the stakes and stakeholders. It should be delivered in a way that satisfies yourself, others concerned and the environment so that peace and harmony is maintained.
The quality dimension can then be made a simple accountancy or book keeping task, the best quality is then defined as a chain of balanced mutual exchanges throughout a mutual exchange.
This article is in the context of my second book, currently in creation, which is the creation of a Self-Actualised currency system. Please review the core concepts of Self-Actualisation in my blog to better appreciete the mechanics of the thought process.
The main photo is sourced from Pexels.