Universal Human by Gary Zukav

Author:Gary Zukav
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Atria Books
Published: 2021-06-22T00:00:00+00:00

41 Contributors and Consumers

An economy is an area where goods and services are produced, distributed, and consumed. It can be a large area, such as a continent, or a small area, such as a village. It can be the largest five-sensory area—all nations and cultures, all places and all people. This is the global economy. It is a ruthless, aggressive, fierce, and self-serving product of fear. We usually hear most about this economy, but we are also affected by national, state, and municipal economies. We can even recognize “economies” in neighborhoods, relationships, and families. Self-interest is indistinguishable from the concept of “economy.” It is the foundation of every five-sensory economic (mutually exploitive) activity.

Economics is the study of how we use opportunities to benefit ourselves—how we “take advantage,” “capitalize,” “exploit,” and “monetize” them. In 1776 a Scotsman, Adam Smith, described his understanding of an “invisible hand” in the “market.” The “market” was (and is) the always dependable intersection of intentions of greed that determines the selling price of anything. A deal is done when a willing buyer agrees with a willing seller on a price.

The seller might be willing to sell her house, for example, because her children are hungry and her dying husband needs medicine, but the buyer is not concerned with this circumstance. In fact, buyers seek out such circumstances. The intention of the buyer (self-interest) is not affected by the intention of the seller (self-interest). Self-gain is the intention of every buyer and every seller in every economy.

No economist has yet found a way or reason to challenge Smith’s assertion that rational (unfeeling) self-interest (fear) and competition (fear) lead to (five-sensory) prosperity. Smith built this edifice of fear on the foundational experiences of every frightened part of every personality. They all fear not getting what they want, and they all fear losing what they have. They all pursue external power. Pursuing external power is flight into the fantasy that manipulation and control can produce self-worth and joy. “Consumerism” is another word for that flight.

Consumers are the driving force of every economy. Even owners and directors of companies are consumers. The entire world is their source of consumable goods and services. They consume what they need to produce more consumable goods and services. They decide how much iron ore, wood pulp, computers, office furniture, machinery, information, and investment capital their companies will consume.

Consumers take. They make things inaccessible to others. Whatever it is, consumers use it up—food, water, electricity, gasoline, everything. They deplete, devour, defoliate, and destroy. They suck in what they can, and they use it for themselves. Consumers hoard because they never have enough. They compete with other consumers for the same goods and services. They do not trust the Universe to provide what they want to consume, need to consume, and are desperate to consume. Consumers are like hamsters on a treadmill.

Consumers take no responsibility for what they consume. They are part of a larger system (economy) that takes no responsibility for what it consumes. Consumers even see themselves and their relationships as consumables.

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