Excerpts on economy and community from the book, "Spontaneous Evolution," by Bruce Lipton and Steve Bhaerman:
page 294 "Principle One: Wealth is Well-Being"
"In his treatise on human economics, Aristotle wrote that a city originates for the sake of basic survival, but it exists for the sake of living well."
page 291
"Aristotle first defined economics as the science of household management, the study of the dynamics necessary to sustain individual or family survival. As households joined together in community to enhance their collective survival and prosperity, family economic principles were extended and applied to the well-being of the entire village. Villages with successful economies subsequently grew into cities and, later, evolved into more encompassing nation-states that employed essentially the same economic principles. As nation-states further evolve into the new organism called global humanity, in which all must share the finite resources of one planet, it is again necessary for us to revise and expand our understanding of economics.
Historically the field of economics has been associated with the dynamics of property exchange among members of human communities. But in a fractal Universe, the same economic principles apply to all living systems, be they households, nations, businesses, or the communities of cells that comprise a human body."
page 292
"Considering our culture's preoccupation with the material realm, it is not surprising that we measure wealth in terms of physical possessions, particularly money. Aristotle recognized an inevitable problem of equating money with wealth over 2,500 years ago when he wrote, "He who is rich in coin may often be in want of necessary food.""
page 308
"Valueless, debt-based representative money is a major contributor to the current global economic crisis.
. . . In his book Access to Human Wealth: Money beyond Greed and Scarcity, Bernard Lietaer, a Belgian economist who helped design the euro, offers a short-term solution for our economic problems in the form of yin currency. Yin currency is designed as a complement to the dominant money, yang currency, represented by the dollar, the yen, the franc, the euro and so on.
Lietaer emphasizes the nature of what constitutes workable, beneficial money is defined by agreement within a community. Therefore, people are free to create their own currencies to complement the yang monetary system. Without even realizing it, we make use of complementary currencies all the time. Lietaer cites frequent-flyer miles as an example of an agreed upon complementary currency--and you don't even need to fly to earn them.
Yin currency represents a form of money that allows time-rich but money-poor communities to contract needed services from those willing to provide them. Currently, nearly 4,000 communities around the world use yin currencies, most often as a means of funding nurturant care in communities where there isn't enough yang money to pay for social services.
A specific example of yin currency is Japanese fureai kippu, which means "caring relationship ticket." Instead of relying on expensive nursing homes, Japan has created the fureai kippu currency to pay for elderly care not covered by national health insurance.
Here's how it works. Let's say an elderly man who lives on your street cannot go shopping by himself. You do his shopping, help him prepare food, and assist him with his ritual bath, which is an important part of Japanese culture. In exchange, you earn credits that can be put in what might be termed a fureai kippu savings account. You can draw on your credits when you are old, or you can transfer them to your elderly mother who lives in another city so she can pay someone else to look after her.
Surveys indicate that Japanese seniors overwhelmingly prefer services provided through fureai kippu to those paid for in yen because they more closely express the heartfelt essence of community.
Interestingly, the word community is derived from the Latin cum munere. Munere is "to give," and cum means "among each other." Community and fureai kippu share the same meaning--"to give among each other.""
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