Who is Stealing Your Wealth?
8 Benefits of Social Capital in the Gift Economy
“It’s a dog eat dog world, Sammy, and I’m wearing milkbone underwear.” — Norm Peterson, from the sitcom “Cheers”, 1986
Below is compiled a list of 8 benefits of building social capital (love) in the Gift Economy. There are many more, but these are some of the most obvious and impactful.
As you will quickly realize if you think about these things, the Gift is a much superior way of Life than our current financial system and more in line with the teaching of the prophets, sages, philosophers, and saints throughout the centuries, as well as Nature itself.
So here are some benefits, in no particular order of importance:
1. Completely Voluntary
The Gift Economy is completely voluntary.
The Gift is not the “Take Economy”; all items must be freely gifted to another, without compulsion.
Many people confuse the idea of the Gift as an attempt to institute Communist ideology on a grand scale, but communism applies the use of violence to achieve its end; it is compulsory. It should be noted however, anyone who wishes to choose the methods of the state and its current economy are free to do so, and they are also free to simultaneously build social capital within gift communities, if they so desire.
The only request is for the state to return the same consideration of freedom of choice to those who participate solely within the Gift Economy.
2. No Government Entity Required
The Gift Economy requires no government oversight or involvement.
In fact, any government involvement would probably be destructive to the Gift and counteract the social capital that could be built. It is, actually, an entirely separate community of thought that does not participate in the destructive tendencies of the state to steal, coerce, or force its citizens to support ideologies and politics not in alignment with a peaceful and free life.
The Gift Economy is a true “ground roots”, “bottom up” movement of the common man, the one with seemingly little voice in today’s society.
3. Cannot be Stolen
The “currency” of the Gift Economy is stored in the safest “bank”, the memory of the collective community, and that currency is Love between neighbors.
As long as that community is alive and the members recall the love shown by the giver, the capital will always be sheltered.
No thief can ever break in and steal what has been secured through the thoughtful and sacrificial giving of the giver’s time, resources, and acts of honor and kindness.
4. Cannot be Taxed
The Gift is not taxed.
A breakthrough for me occurred when I realized that a citizen of my country is only taxed on his income when he uses the federal currency.
Think about this for a moment. This is so important it bears repeating:
You are only subject to tax when you use the currency.
In fact, most governments do not even attempt to tax barter agreements, and even in cases where they do, it is very difficult and expensive to enforce. The only exception is property taxes, which will be the subject of another post. The state always allows gifts of merchandise among its citizens; in addition, it only taxes gifts when they are composed of the governmental currency above a required amount.
There is no need to hide from the taxman when no tax is due.
Give to Caesar what belongs to Caesar. In the case of the Gift, no tax is ever due.
There is never a need to break any laws of the state in order to share the gifts of your hands with your neighbor. This allows one to be a model citizen according to the laws of his land, but also not participate in the growth of a governmental “authority”.
5. No Inheritance Possible
Social capital cannot be inherited.
This is actually a huge advantage for the long term success of the Gift Economy.
By restricting the inheritance of wealth, each individual is required to earn his capital through his own merit and the love he has contributed to his community. There is no other method.
In today’s economic system, it is relatively easy to inherit generational wealth and provide nothing of service back to the world in which one lives; in our current system, a person can live an extravagant lifestyle without ever having contributed to the well-being of anyone, simply because he was lucky to be born into a rich family.
How many people have money, position, and power simply because of winning this generational lottery?
This situation is simply impossible within the framework of the Gift Economy.
6. Experiences Time Decay
Social currency experiences time decay.
Kind acts done today will slowly be forgotten in time; therefore, it is important to continue loving our neighbor and to keep the gift moving through the community throughout our lives.
Although this would seem to be a negative, every system in the natural order in which we live abides by this principle.
Unused lumber rots, uneaten wheat spoils, livestock dies. To fight the natural order of Life is a losing battle.
Like it or not, we are creatures of the Earth, beings of the natural world, and to ignore this simple truth is asinine.
In addition, continued giving to our communities provides our lives meaning and fulfillment until our last breath.
7. Encourages Personal Meaning
The Gift Economy allows each person his own personal freedom to pursue happiness in his own way.
Instead of trudging off each day to a job she doesn’t like, a person is free to dream and ask herself,
“What is the most beautiful thing I can do right now with my one, precious life?”
If there were no other benefits to the Gift, this would still make the new economy all worthwhile.
8. Stimulates Peace
And last, but certainly not least, the Gift Economy fosters cooperation and peace, instead of competition and separation.
Exchanges of social currency within the Gift are relational, not transactional.
They build up goodwill, respect, and encouragement within the community instead of the dog eat dog, competitive world of business.
And the mad dash for “more, more, always more” is over.
These are powerful reasons why the Gift is far superior to our current economic systems. And there are many other benefits to the implementation of the Gift Economy that I have not mentioned here.
What do you think are its most important benefits?
Leave a comment, ask a question, give a suggestion. I would love to hear your thoughts, positive or negative.
And thank you for reading my post. I really appreciate it!
“The greatest achievement was at first and for a time a dream. The oak sleeps in the acorn; the bird waits in the egg; and in the highest vision of the soul a waking angel stirs. Dreams are the seedlings of realities.”
— James Allen
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