Advantage 61 – The previously poor gain prosperity

Excerpt from the book »Gradido – Natural Economy of Life« 

»If a free society cannot help the many who are poor,

it cannot save the few who are rich.«

– John F. Kennedy

35th President of the USA

The Natural Economy of Life creates prosperity for everyone. However, our earth cannot support a prosperity such as the industrialised countries are currently living out. But this does not mean that we have to »tighten our belts«. We merely have to bring our prosperity into harmony with nature.

We will cease giving GM feed to factory-farmed animals so as to subsequently bring  their meat contaminated with antibiotics to the tables of a few privileged nations. Instead of bombarding the citizens of rich nations with lifestyle diseases while the people in other countries have to starve, we learn to grow healthy organic vegetable food regionally. People will enjoy a wide culinary diversity of regional specialities.

The new prosperity of previously poor people will be accompanied by eco-friendly production, whether of foodstuffs or other goods. Eco-friendly, untreated products are, at the same time, good for the people who use them and their use contributes to health and hence enhanced quality of life. Do you notice the positive chain reaction?

Advantage 62 – Suited to everyone: from the flat-sharing community to the international conglomerate

Excerpt from the book »Gradido – Natural Economy of Life« 

»You and I are one. I cannot hurt you without hurting myself.«

– Mahatma Gandhi

Indian lawyer, publisher and pacifist

A new monetary and economic model should not exclude anybody: people are very different and consequently their lifestyles as well. The positive thing about this is that we can all learn from each other and enjoy other people’s differentness. Every individual, no matter what life concept they favour, has their place in the Natural Economy of Life.

Let’s imagine a shared-flat community, for example. Several people live together like a kind of large family and they may or may not grow food together. They will feel the need to contribute their very personal share to the community in some form or another. Unconditional participation gives them the possibility to receive their active basic income. Whoever wants to can, in addition, work as a craftsperson, an artist or whatever and supply other people with their products. With their active basic income and earnings from other work (all of which is tax-free) they rent the land on which they live (including the building) and enough money remains to pay all the other expenses. The Natural Economy of Life thus makes their very individual lifestyles possible.

An international conglomerate – the other extreme, so to speak – employs staff all over the world and markets its products worldwide. The wage level is the same everywhere and the wages and salaries are tax-free. There are no complicated tax laws, which would be different from country to country, and so the enterprise manages with relatively little administration. Since development of eco-friendly products is promoted, the concern receives subsidies from the Equalisation and Environment Fund. After all, it would be a commercial mistake to make products harmful to the environment and forgo the subsidies. People live in prosperity in all countries. As long as its products are meaningful and needed, the concern finds customers who are able to pay everywhere.

I have deliberately chosen two very contrasting examples of this point to show that the Natural Economy of Life considers everybody. With a bit of imagination you can think up all other possible examples for yourself.

Advantage 63 – Peace

Excerpt from the book »Gradido – Natural Economy of Life«

» And I dreamed I saw the bomber jet planes riding shotgun in the sky,

turning into butterflies above our nation.«

– from the song »Woodstock«

by Joni Mitchell

Peace, what a lovely word! Don’t we all want peace? But what normally stands in the way of peace? Conflicts of interest! The old monetary and economic systems are programmed for conflict. Cut-throat competition, industrial disputes, hostile takeovers, asset strippers, debts, destruction of the environment…, all this sounds very charged with conflict. We are still living in a system hostile to life, whose most lucrative economic branch is the war industry. There cannot be peace in such a system. 

The advantages already listed show that the Natural Economy of Life manages to steer the most different of interests in the same direction so that conflicts of interest scarcely arise or can be easily solved. In a monetary and economic model inspired from nature, from which even such different groups as a flat-sharing community and an international conglomerate benefit and in which an equalisation between poor and rich countries is created for the good of all – in a system so friendly to life the potential exists to live together in peace.

This peace will be permanent as it is founded on the threefold good – the good of the individual, the good of the community and the good of the big scheme of things. A thousand-year-old human dream has a realistic chance of coming true.

Advantage 64 – High quality of work and life

Excerpt from the book »Gradido – Natural Economy of Life«

»When you do what you love and are ready to take money for it,

you cannot avoid being successful!«

– Samuel Woitinski

German author and coach

According to statistics, 75% of employees have emotionally detached themselves from their jobs. They only still go to work because they have to earn money. They are compelled to do a job they dislike because they first of all have to earn their living. Without this pressure they would stop today. You do not need much imagination to realise how much their well-being and the quality of their work suffers from this attitude.

Once again, it will be quite different with the gradido. Gradido means »thanks« and a basic income of a thousand gradidos means as much as »A thousand thanks for being with us!«. With the basic income the community thanks each of its members for being a full member of the community. Everybody is welcome with the very personal talents life has given them. As a full member of the community everybody can contribute with their inclinations and abilities.

When people do what they love, they do it especially well. They do it with love, joy and enthusiasm. They are »intrinsically« motivated from within. This inner motivation is of much more value than all the money in the world; money is only one among many means of motivation.

During the transition from the old system to the gradido it could be an interesting task to work out each person’s inclinations and abilities together with them and develop their full potential. Many people have forgotten how to feel and articulate their true needs. However, there are good methods of doing this, which have proved themselves a thousand times.

When people have relearnt to sense themselves with all their wishes, dreams, likes, talents and abilities they will become »their real selves« again. They begin to shine and blossom. The gradido system gives them the right to unconditional participation – the right to contribute to the community with their individual potential and in return receive their active basic income.

Everybody is blessed with a hitherto unknown quality of work and life, which previously was reserved for just a few privileged people. Those who had already achieved this are among the winners in this society. They are more than averagely successful in their professional and private lives. In the gradido system the majority of people will be several times more successful, more motivated, more productive and happier than before. Their quality of life is considerably enhanced and with it the quality of their work. 

Advantage 65 – Self-determined time schedule

Excerpt from the book »Gradido – Natural Economy of Life« 

»A person who does not have two-thirds of his day for himself is a slave.«

– Friedrich Nietzsche

philosopher, stateless

Only a small number of lucky people can claim to be able to schedule their time as they like, plan their lives independently and also realise these plans – in brief,  to be able to do what they like with their time. This is taught in all success training courses but only a few people manage it. And a person who manages it is one of the exceptionally successful »high-flyers«. They have succeeded in organising the only really scarce commodity in this world, which is available to everyone in equal measure, in accordance with their personal ideas.

Could it be that the creative organisation of our personal life time is exactly what our maker, who created us »in his own image«, expects of us? He has given each of us humans 24 hours of time a day. And now he is waiting to see what we will do with it. To give us some help, he has endowed us with our personal wishes, dreams, yearnings, inclinations and abilities. That’s why we also speak of  »gifts«. And what do we do with them? We have long since abandoned our dreams for, after all, we have to earn our living.

What only a few »high-flyers« have succeeded in doing up to now will become easy for everyone with the introduction of the gradido. Although they will still have to earn their living, unconditional participation guarantees them that they may do exactly what they have always wanted to.

For their active basic income they work 50 hours a month. That is less than an average of two hours a day, which they make available to the community in line with their talents and can schedule according to need. They are completely free as to what they do in the remaining 22 hours. They themselves determine whether they work to earn more money tax-free or do something completely different.

Advantage 66 – Significantly less negative stress

Excerpt from the book »Gradido – Natural Economy of Life«

»The all-time drama has actually had only a single topic –

the inability of people to live together.«

– Gerhard Bronner

Austrian musician and cabaret artist

There are two kinds of stress –positive »eustress«, which motivates and spurs us on to do our best, and negative »distress«, which wears us down. This section is concerned with the negative kind of stress – distress. Distress results from pressure, fear, threats and so on. In earlier times it served as a way of reacting to life-threatening situations in an appropriate way. Our ancestors had three possibilities of dealing with dangers – fight, flight or play dead. These three survival strategies have proved to be successful and we can still observe them in wild animals today.

In today’s civilised world it is mostly not possible, or at least very inappropriate, to react to the threats of daily life with the fight or flight options. A person who has trouble with their boss can generally neither beat him/her up or run away. Hence, there only remains the third option of playing dead. However, our behaviour has an impact on our inner life. When we live in a situation where we frequently have to use this strategy we die inwardly and each time we play dead a part of us dies. We become frustrated and demotivated and in the end fall ill.

 

In the Natural Economy of Life we have a far greater freedom of choice as to how we want to react, for we are no longer as dependent on our jobs as nowadays. We still will not beat up our bosses but we can defend ourselves in another way when we feel that we are being unfairly treated. And if that does not help, we can quit without having to put up with social disadvantages.

Moreover, unconditional participation gives us the chance to do what we love and so there is already much less reason for conflict from the start. When we do what we love we do it very well and thus have great chances to receive recognition and appreciation. Should conflict situations still arise, we can defend ourselves since we have the right to unconditional participation and cannot simply be dismissed. Besides, we would only have to endure such a situation for two hours a day, if need be. Should the situation repeat itself, we would change our job and thus also the human environment in which we are acting. The normal state is therefore deep satisfaction and fulfilment in the self-chosen work; and we can cope with the rare stress situations.

If we work in the free economy, either instead of or in addition to the active basic income, we do not have to put up with unfair treatment from either our employer or customers. We are not obliged to do the work to assure our livelihood since our existence is always secured. For employers this means that they have to create a pleasant environment for their employees, otherwise they would lose them. For customers it means that they have to treat their business partners in a fair and friendly way. The customer is no longer the only king: we have all become kings.

Negative stress is a frequent cause of illness in our times. If we have no stress, we stay healthier both mentally and physically.

Advantage 67 – Promotion of health

Excerpt from the book »Gradido – Natural Economy of Life«

»There are 1,000 illnesses but only one health.«

– Arthur Schopenhauer

German philosopher

The expression »lifestyle diseases« already says everything. The achievements of our civilisation, as convenient and agreeable as they may be, are making us ill. They make individuals ill, likewise the community and finally the entire environment. Measured by the threefold good, today’s civilisation fails on all three levels.

That this need not be so has been shown by the previous sections, in which an improvement in health was also often a »side-effect«. Less stress, sufficient healthy food for everyone, better motivation, being provided for, better quality of life, being needed, personal life planning, peace – all these positive concomitants of the Natural Economy of Life contribute to the health of both the individual and the community. Furthermore, the health service in all countries is provided with plentiful financial resources (see threefold creation of money).

For the recovery of nature a fund is available, which is as big as all the national budgets together. The recovery of nature has become the best business in the world for the economy. Although we humans cannot restore what we have destroyed, we can do our best and the necessary money is available everywhere we can help with our human means.

The recovery of the individual, the community and the environment serve the threefold good. They are not only noble objectives of the Natural Economy of Life but an essential part of it and automatically follow after it has been introduced.

Advantage 68 – No unemployment

Excerpt from the book »Gradido – Natural Economy of Life«

»The poorest person is he who has no employment.«

– Albert Schweitzer

German physician, theologian and pacifist

The elimination of unemployment is considered to be the number one political objective in many countries. At the same time, we are experiencing the closure of more and more production facilities either because demand is declining or technical progress is making it possible to produce with fewer workers. Money is lacking for labour-intensive professions, such as the health and social services, nursing, old people’s care, and so on. Unconditional participation guarantees everybody employment consistent with their inclinations and abilities in order to earn their active basic income. The unemployment problem is thus solved overnight with 100 percent employment being achieved.

The author makes no secret of the fact that he prefers unconditional participation with its active basic income to a so-called »unconditional basic income«. For unlike the unconditional basic income, which is paid out »simply so«, unconditional participation has a huge number of beneficial advantages. However, should the majority of people opt for an unconditional basic income, the Natural Economy of Life is probably the only monetary and economic model with which it would be financially viable on an international level. There will be no unemployment in the old sense in this case either. The blessing of self-determined time management will supersede the bogey of unemployment.

Advantage 69 – Good working climate

Excerpt from the book »Gradido – Natural Economy of Life« 

»Pleasure in the job puts perfection in the work.«

– Aristoteles

Greek philosopher

Pressure, stress, rush, bullying, health risks – those are just some of the widespread epiphenonema in the workplaces in the so-called civilised countries. In the Third World things are often much worse. Men, women and very often children as well are kept as slaves for starvation wages. They sometimes have to toil 16 hours and more a day in sweatshops under inhumane conditions. Such inhumane circumstances can only exist as long as people are compelled to accept them because of poverty.

The introduction of unconditional participation puts an end to this. After that employers have to court their employees: they have to offer them more than just money. The workplace and working climate must be agreeable so that people enjoy meeting their colleagues there. Work becomes a sought-after social event, the hub of communication between people. Employers who do not provide their employees with this will soon find themselves alone or they will quickly learn to adjust. Today there are already exemplary companies we can learn from in this respect.

The working climate will thus quickly improve significantly. As you have already guessed, this will again have an positive impact on the health of all those involved. 

Advantage 70 – Meaningful work

Excerpt from the book »Gradido – Natural Economy of Life« 

»You need to see a task in front of you and not a quiet life.«

– Leo Tolstoy

Russian writer

A pleasant workplace with an excellent working climate is one thing and meaningful work is the other. Of course, there will always be people who will go along with any nonsense if the atmosphere is good and the money is right. However, many people will attach importance to doing meaningful work. As nobody is forced to do work contrary to their nature and employers have to court employees, it will be easy to pick your job. Anyone seeking meaningful work will find a job. 

Advantage 71 – Disappearance of useless and harmful work

Excerpt from the book »Gradido – Natural Economy of Life« 

»Work for work’s sake is contrary to human nature.«

– John Locke

English philosopher

Useless or harmful activities are a similar case to meaningless work. We currently hear more and more people complaining that they are sentenced to being compelled to do useless or even harmful work. If you ask them why they do it, you get the answer that they have to earn their living.

In the Natural Economy of Life this pressure no longer exists. Particularly with regard to harmful work (damaging to the environment or health, warlike, exploitative, etc.), this is a blessing for the individual, the community and the environment. Nobody any longer needs to do anything of whose usefulness they are not convinced. Once again, the threefold good is a good yardstick for the usefulness of work: does the work serve the individual, the community and the big scheme of things? If all the questions can be answered with a clear »yes« the work is useful. If one area is missing, there is need for improvement.

Overall, much more useful and constructive work will be done in the service of the individual, the community and the big scheme of things.

Advantage 72 – Everybody can develop their full potential

Excerpt from the book »Gradido – Natural Economy of Life« 

»It’s a pure waste of time to do something in a mediocre way.«

– Madonna

American singer and actress

The beginning is to become aware of your own wishes, yearnings, dreams, goals, inclinations and abilities – a discipline that should be practised from youth on. Children also have the right to unconditional participation. They are allowed to contribute to the community in very early years in accordance with their age and nature and receive their active basic income. We must cooperate with educationalists to determine the age at which this can begin but we suppose it could start in nursery school.

During the transition to the Natural Economy of Life there will also be many adults who have to relearn how to perceive their inner needs and abilities and bring them into harmony with the threefold good. This will be a wonderful field of activity for the many already existing social education workers, personality trainers and consultants.

Unconditional participation is therefore not only an obligatory duty to earn one’s active basic income. It is a kind of life school where one can train to develop one’s potential better and better. Development of this potential is facilitated by two things – becoming aware of one’s own inclinations and abilities and the possibility of using these immediately in the community.

Advantage 73 – No crime because of poverty

Excerpt from the book »Gradido – Natural Economy of Life«

»It is much easier for the rich to do good

than for the poor to refrain from doing evil.«

– Jean Antoine Petit-Senn

French poet

Why is it especially dangerous in cities of poor countries? In the slums there are organised gangs who earn their living by robbing other people. Even small children are trained and used as pickpockets or their accomplices. This is one of the few sources of income these people have, so we can hardly blame them.

As there will no longer be any poverty in the Natural Economy of Life, crime caused by poverty will also decline. There are far more agreeable possibilities of earning one’s living and developing one’s full potential.

What may possibly remain is pathological crime, for example the kleptomaniac who shoplifts in a department store. Perhaps this pathological crime will decrease as well, for the gradido system has an extremely positive impact on physical and mental health. 

Advantage 74 – No pressure to consume

Excerpt from the book »Gradido – Natural Economy of Life« 

»We are constantly being told that we have to buy, buy and buy again.

That is naturally a disaster for sustainability.«

– Hannes Jaenicke

German actor

Our present economic system needs constant growth to be able to continue to exist. In order to maintain this growth there are entire branches of industry which are exclusively concerned with marketing products, no matter if these are needed or not. Advertising agencies, marketing departments, sales and distribution departments, sales representatives, salespeople and, in principle, all the private media have the aim of fuelling consumption. New needs have to be created. They talk about solutions to problems which people previously did not know they might have.

»Planned obsolescence« is a specially developed method to make products age faster than necessary in relation to their technical development. Maybe you are familiar with this situation: your computer printer suddenly does not work anymore. You take it to be repaired and are told it is only a small thing, but the repair would cost more than the price of a new printer. Or your computer, which up to now has worked perfectly, suddenly slows down after a new operating system has been installed. The operating system can do a lot of new things that you did not know you needed. Because of this, it needs more resources and slows down your computer. This is not noticeable with new computers as they have now become faster. So sooner or later you have to make the decision to buy a new computer.

These and similar methods are absolutely necessary to maintain consumption in our present economic system, otherwise it would collapse like a house of cards. 

The Natural Economy of Life is based on sustainability. It can cope with the economy shrinking and a certain amount of healthy downsizing is desirable alone for reasons of environmental protection. As long as all products needed are available what does it matter if production has to be reduced? Even if jobs are lost, everybody is optimally provided for by the active basic income. Pressure to consume, which is the vital artery of the old economic system, has become superfluous in the gradido system. Instead of designing advertising with the aim of constantly increase consumption, the above-mentioned media experts can now use their skills to inform people about sustainability and eco-friendly behaviour. 

Advantage 75 – Significantly less production without social drawbacks

Excerpt from the book »Gradido – Natural Economy of Life« 

»In the case of the consumerism paradigm, the basic assumptions that need to change include: that more goods and services make people happier, that perpetual growth is good, that humans are separate from nature and that nature is a stock of resources to be exploited for human purposes.«

– Erik Assadourian

Director of the Worldwatch Institute

Without the pressure to consume, significantly less will be produced. All the better! Fewer resources will be needed and people will have more leisure. They will have more time for themselves and their dear ones, their hobbies, their health and their further personal development. Isn’t that what most rushed modern people wish for?

Nowadays more spare time generally means less money, loss of social status and a decline into poverty. The person’s standard of living can no longer be maintained and the running expenses of leasing instalments, rents and loans cannot be paid anymore. This is a horror scenario for many people and already reality for others.

In the Natural Economy of Life as well more spare time may possibly also mean less income. But what does it matter if dad earns a bit less money? All the members of the family are provided for by their active basic incomes, which covers the running expenses. If there are loans, it may take longer to repay them but it will not be more expensive as they are interest-free. In the worst case, a luxurious standard of living would have to be cut back to a normal level. In return, people have more time –  a luxury only a few have today.

Advantage 76 – Consequently greatly reduced use of resources and less rubbish

Excerpt from the book »Gradido – Natural Economy of Life«

»Before we change the world,

 it might be more important not to destroy it.«

– Paul Claudel

French writer and diplomat

The pressure to consume, which is so crucial for the old economic system, rears its ugly head in two ways – use of resources and waste. Both are extremely damaging to our environment, drastically diminish the quality of our lives and present humankind with increasing problems. The limits to growth have long be exceeded. Far too many resources have long since been used up and much too much rubbish has long been produced and dumped somewhere in the world.

Without the pressure to consume there will be much less production, much less use of resources and much less rubbish. This does not mean that the old resources have been replenished and the old rubbish dumps removed. However, the descent to hell has been slowed down and with some further measures we will bring it to a standstill and finally reverse direction. 

Advantage 77 – Beneficial ecological footprints

Excerpt from the book »Gradido – Natural Economy of Life« 

»In nature there are neither rewards nor punishments;

there are consequences.«

– Robert Green Ingersoll

American writer

You may know the expression »small footprint«. Based on the assumption that everybody leaves traces or footprints behind them with everything that they do and that these footprints are generally damaging or at least use resources, a »small footprint« means that as little damage as possible is caused. The expression is used in software development and also in the environmental field. A small ecological footprint thus means that a product or an activity causes as little damage as possible to the environment. For this reason nature conservationists often call for a small ecological footprint.

But how would it be if we left a »beneficial ecological footprint«? This would mean that we would not only not damage nature with our actions but even benefit it. A beneficial ecological footprint is created, for example, when a conventional farmer changes over to organic farming or when a supermarket extends its range more and more in the direction of vegan (exclusively non-animal) products which are produced organically as far as possible. The more beneficial footprints we leave behind us, the greater the chances are that the descent to hell is not only slowed down but the direction is reversed.

In the previous sections a lot has been said about measures that can promote such a reversal. The most important financial instrument that the Natural Economy of Life has at its disposal for this purpose is the Equalisation and Environment Fund, which provides a budget for decontaminating our environment worldwide of an amount equal to the national budgets of all countries together.  

Much human creativity and commitment will still be required to reverse the direction completely and permanently, thus initiating the return home to paradise. However, the financial foundation for this is already provided by the Equalisation and Environment Fund.

And, as always, all action has to be measured by the threefold good and will have to meet all three criteria: does it serve the good of the individual, the good of the community and the good of the big scheme of things? When all three questions can be answered with a clear »yes«, the action leaves a beneficial footprint.  

Advantage 78 – Peaceful parallel introduction is possible

Excerpt from the book »Gradido – Natural Economy of Life«

»Those who make peaceful revolution impossible

 will make violent revolution inevitable.«

– John F. Kennedy

35th President of the USA

That things cannot go on as hitherto is becoming clear to an increasing number of people worldwide. The number of protest movements is increasing. Creative masterminds are working on solutions and many solutions already exist. In the economic sector as well there are already valuable approaches to solving the problem. LETS groups, regional currencies and movements for a basic income are approaches for creating sustainable alternatives from the basis.

About 15 years ago we discovered the natural fundaments of our new monetary and economic model. In connection with the »Joytopia« international research project and »Gradido« we continually went on developing the Natural Economy of Life. The present book reflects the current state of development. For some experts it is the most developed monetary and economic system in existence.

Its introduction would be accomplished fastest if the majority of the world population decided to end the old system and introduce the gradido on a fixed day. That is plan A, the scenario of the Joytopia story. As we do not know if this will happen, there are also plans B and C as alternative ways in which the Natural Economy of Life can already begin in the existing system and be further developed.

The common feature of all three plans is that the gradido is made known worldwide and people are familiarised with it. This can happen on several levels, such as internet websites, social networks, videos and in written form. The present book provides the basic understanding as to how the Natural Economy of Life works and can help transform our world back into a paradise again.

Plan B is the step-by-step introduction of gradido as an official complementary currency in single countries. For this we have elaborated a plan in phases, with which a country can immediately start once its population have decided on the gradido.

Plan C makes the gradido available as a community currency in social networks, organisations, initiatives, communes and communities of any kind. Here the gradido initially acts as a means of granting a discount. Participants in the gradido network give each other gradido discounts to any amount of their choice. The single communities can either install their own gradido servers or register their members on an existing portal, e.g. http://gradido.net. The gradido software is open source. If you are a programmer and would like to help develop it further, please contact us.

The three plans run parallel. We will know which of the three has been successful when we get there.

Advantage 79 – Simple and comprehensible for everyone

Excerpt from the book »Gradido – Natural Economy of Life«

»It is well enough that people of the nation do not understand our banking and monetary system, for if they did, I believe there would be a revolution before tomorrow morning.«

– Henry Ford

American industrialist

Our old monetary and economic systems are actually not so hard to understand at all but they are made artificially complicated. The quotation from Henry Ford explains why. In the present book the author is trying to explain in the simplest possible way why our existing system cannot function at all.  However, that is not the main purpose of the book. It would be irresponsible to explain why the existing system does not work and then leave the readers standing out in the rain.

The aim of this book, dear reader, is to encourage you to desire the simplest solution which is and always has been available to humankind: following nature’s model! Nature has functioned for billions of years. She has produced something as destructive and harmful to the environment as human beings. She has put up with their actions and accompanied them in their evolution. And nature still functions – in spite of human beings!

If we human beings actually have no idea about how to live peacefully in symbiosis with each other and nature, then please at any rate let us imitate nature’s brilliant inventions. Nature has no copyright, no intellectual property or patents. She invites us to marvel at her masterwork and learn how life works.

Nature is complex but not complicated and her fundaments are easy to understand. With a little observational talent, love and ability to abstract, we can translate her mode of functioning to our monetary and economic systems, thereby obtaining a road map to lead us out of our self-made hell and back to paradise.

You, too, will probably understand the content of this book. You will remember what you always knew but was educated out of you during the course of your life. Maybe you were already told in your childhood that the world unfortunately does not work as simply as you imagined; and because all adults said that you accepted that they must be right.

However, the world does work so simply: it is as simple as nature is simple. In her simplicity nature accomplishes the most complex of miracles. Human beings are the only complicated species in the world and have the irresistible urge to complicate everything that is simple and up to now they have succeeded well in this. They have now made the world so complicated that it cannot go on existing as it is. And that is our great chance for changing direction. 

Advantage 80 – We can begin at once

Excerpt from the book »Gradido – Natural Economy of Life«

»In all beginnings dwells a magic force

 for guarding us and helping us to live.«

– Hermann Hesse

Swiss writer

Knowledge is not worth anything unless it is applied. Anybody who knows how a piano works but does not practise will never be able to play the piano. Everything acquires its value from what we make of it. »By their fruits ye shall know them«, the Bible says (Matthew 7: 20). As simple as this realisation is, the more difficult it is to put into practice when it is a question of new monetary and economic systems. We cannot simply try out the Natural Economy of Life either in a laboratory situation or in real life. Is the undertaking therefore doomed to failure? By no means! 

As always when we do not know how to go on, we have an excellent counsellor we can ask – nature. Nature did not first of all try out life on earth in a laboratory situation, or at least we do not know that she did. As far as we can observe, nature uses two tools – the creative plan and evolution. We find the creative plan in all manifestations of life, in every seed, in the genetic code, in the natural laws, in the paths of stars and galaxies and in the paths of electrons. Evolution can be historically researched, for example with the help of excavations, stone specimens and fossils. In general, nature starts realising her creative plan on a small scale as far as is possible and then lets the whole thing grow. Sometimes it grows continuously and sometimes there are leaps in its development, the so-called leaps in evolution.

We have copied nature’s creative plan and from it developed the Natural Economy of Life. It is the fruit of our joint work in the research project. With the copies of this book you can sow the seed in the entire world. When the time is ripe and the soil fertile, the seed will germinate.

You, dear reader, are warmly invited to contribute your personal share and scatter the seed. To do so, you do not have to be in agreement with every detail as everything will go on developing and anyone can contribute to the future development. Knowledge of possible solutions is actually the most important thing we need at the present time.

If you want to do more, you can help to make the soil fertile by talking to others about the concept on the internet, in social networks or in person, of course. This is bound to result in most interesting conversations.

A further possibility is to join a gradido network, for example http://gradido.net. There you will get your own gradido account, your own website and access to the gradido marketplace. Such gradido networks will soon be created all over the world. They are, so to speak, virtual research islands with a real background. The members can offer each other goods and services and grant each other gradido discounts of any amount agreed on. The more gradido networks are created, the wider the entire network will be. This is plan C from section 78.

If you want to cooperate more intensively or support the project and our work financially, we warmly invite you to become a member of the Gradido Academy: http://gradido.net/academy.

The next few sections are concerned with how the Natural Economy of Life can be introduced in phases parallel to the existing system.