Mujica was called the world's poorest president because he donated 90% of his salary to charities.
‘WORLD’S POOREST PRESIDENT’ EXPLAINS WHY WE SHOULD KICK RICH PEOPLE OUT OF POLITICS (2015)
WAKING TIMES “We invented this thing called representative democracy, where we say the majority is who decides,” Mujica said in the interview. “So it seems to me that we [heads of state] should live like the majority and not like the minority.”
EARTH CUSTODIANS kind of agree here but it just won't work that way, because our system is based on competition, and competition only rewards a winning minority. So there isn't any resolution possible, all efforts are vain and futile from the start. We have wasted more than 2,000 years on this paradox and it is now time to let it go.
The rich will never have empathy because empathy would make them lose their assets, yet people keep voting for rich individuals hoping for a miracle. In the meantime, the world goes from bad to worse on many fronts. What is the lesson?
The lesson is that we all must recognize the failure of the ideology of "success": it is a threat to humanity's well being. A society teaching to become rich and powerful is a "full loop deception".
“I’m not against people who have money, who like money, who go crazy for money,” Mujica said. “But in politics we have to separate them. We have to run people who love money too much out of politics, they’re a danger in politics… People who love money should dedicate themselves to industry, to commerce, to multiply wealth. But politics is the struggle for the happiness of all.”
How much is "too much"? The love of money knows no bound and since competition rules, those who love money must too struggle at their own level or create monopolies to secure their assets, even if this means trampling human rights. No wealth can be amassed ethically. The stock market itself is banking on ignorance. But the more ignorance the more poverty. There lies the secret of the inequality gap the mainstream refers to. But they are not going to tell us that, instead they are going to support politicians promising to help fix what cannot be.
“The tie is a useless rag that constrains your neck,” Mujica said during the interview. “I’m an enemy of consumerism. Because of this hyperconsumerism, we’re forgetting about fundamental things and wasting human strength on frivolities that have little to do with human happiness.”
People who understand RBE, resource based economy, are very aware that the key to happiness resides in experiences and discoveries, leisure and creativity. The hunt for money is an obstacle in the sense that the more money one earns the more money one needs. This focus on money is associated with a reward by the brain which is subliminally exposed to images of material success. But the reality is that this focus ruins everything over time.
NEWSWEEK: "This is a matter of freedom. If you don't have many possessions then you don't need to work all your life like a slave to sustain them, and therefore you have more time for yourself," he says.
Consuming for profit is enslaving!!!
In the system we have today, this statement rings very truthful. But if RBE ever could be implemented, and hopefully in our lifetime, this is something everybody would witness every day. We mainly work 40hrs/week because our society is wasteful at so many levels.
CNN EN ESPANOL : "Does this planet have enough resources so seven or eight billion can have the same level of consumption and waste that today is seen in rich societies? It is this level of hyper-consumption that is harming our planet."
Although president Mujica said this in 2012, he wasn't advocating for a money-free world. We feel like he may have been a controlled opposition during his 2010-2015 presidency. Yes additionally, he was supporting Chavez at the time. And also Brazilian Lula da Silva.
A money-free society is apolitical and that might be the main obstacle because the majority of people expect a politician to save them. Mujica was perceived as a near-prophet when elected.
BBC: Mujica accuses most world leaders of having a "blind obsession to achieve growth with consumption, as if the contrary would mean the end of the world".
Exactly, that is where we are headed to if we don't degrow and fast . As stated in our blog Degrowth… Or Death? , there is no “soft cure” and the transition won’t be painless if society sticks to its materialistic anchors. We ought to realize that “endless growth” is a mirage caused by the irrationality of value. (see link below)
FULL ARTICLE: https://www.wakingtimes.com/2015/08/19/worlds-poorest-president-explains-why-we-should-kick-rich-people-out-of-politics
RELATED ARTICLES:
Degrowth... Or Death?
https://earthcustodians.net/blog/2019/06/17/degrowth-or-death/
Mujica, The Poorest President (2012)
https://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-20243493
JOSE MUJICA, WORLD'S 'POOREST' EX-PRESIDENT, REJECTS PENSION, SAYS HE'S 'TIRED AFTER A LONG JOURNEY (2018)
https://www.newsweek.com/worlds-poorest-ex-president-rejects-pension-says-hes-tired-after-long-journey-1077451