This is a tough one to work through as we all have been raised within the scarcity model and are very accustomed to how it works. Let me work through a thought experiment to help people visualize what life would be like under a prosperity model as it will look very different than what we are used to.
Scarcity Model
This model functions on the premise that resources are scarce and that everything be assigned a dollar value so that decisions can be made to best utilize those scarce resources. As such, even people have values based on skill, ability, training, education, etc. Most people work for money and how much they get paid depends on supply and demand. In the northern areas, natural gas, oil and coal are used and because people have to pay others to mine it, it too becomes scarce as people have to trade time for money in order to trade money for heat. There may be lots of coal, but there is a finite amount of time and it is our time that ends up being the scarce resource in our lives. Now we are competing against others for the scarce number of jobs and as a result there is always a large percentage of people who cannot compete and end up in poverty. Of those that do have jobs, the system is designed to siphon away energy as the greedy found ways to do that without most people noticing or rebelling. Inflation, taxation, debt, usury and other tools are all used so that the uber rich can live off the poor.
Loblaws is a major distributor of food in Canada and has just admitted to price fixing bread over the last 14 years. They are a middle man and their greed could only happen within a scarcity model. Image copyright of Loblaw Companies Limited.
It all works because we only have a limited amount of time on this planet and as a result we end up trading it in exchange for paying others to provide for our needs. It takes about 40 years to pay off these people and by the time we get there, we are tired, broke, injured or even dead.
Prosperity Model
It has been my experience that it actually takes about 3-5 years to establish the basic infrastructure to live off the land and provide for all our needs. By dedicating 3-5 years, we have noticed that 100% of our effort goes towards our infrastructure and the amount of time to maintain that infrastructure is a fraction of the time we spent working jobs. Yes, it does require that we do a lot of work, but it is a small fraction of the 40+ years in the other model. When the infrastructure is established, we end up working about 4 hours a day on average to maintain our gardens, live stock, buildings and land. That leaves at least 4-6 hours a day for other activities. Winter time has more spare time, spring, summer and fall less. But it all works out.
Suddenly we are confronted with lots of time on our hands and we were not sure what to do with it all. This is especially true during the winter when we are in rest mode along with the rest of nature. Two hours of work is all that is required to keep us warm and well fed during the winter.
What to do with all that time? Help others!
I'm going to suggest that the way to address poverty, infirmed, elderly, young or other dependents is to make sure our communities are functioning in a prosperity model first. By being proactive, we ensure that those who are willing and able have their needs met with little effort. Yes, it is hard work, but it is not long, labourous, time consuming work. With all the extra time, people are now free to invest in it how they please. Art, music and other creative venues are suddenly open to explore. But serving others opens up as we suddenly have an abundance of time to help. Because most of our community is experiencing this abundance, it is easy for groups of people to trade off helping those that need full time care.
People often ask me how I get everything done because it seems like I've accomplished so much. I was able to do that because I live in a prosperity model and I have the time to do this work. I'm not a slave to the job where I have to put in 8 - 10 hours a day just to pay the bills. I have one bill - Internet & phone. It does not take much to pay that off. No mortgage, line of credit, credit cards, power bill, gas bill, water bill, etc all do not exist in my life. As a result, I spend hours each day helping people all over the world. Most people don't see it because it is done in the background or in private. But the work is getting done and I am able to do that because I have an abundance of time.
Now, imagine if we get a billion people off the grid and living in a model of prosperity instead of scarcity. I estimate that I have approximately 1500 spare hours a year. If a billion people were living in this model, that would mean there is now 1.5 TRILLION hours per year available to help people. Do you think the scarcity model can compete against that? No way. That is why governments around the world are working hard to make sure people stay on the grid.
I suspect that the state and corporate empires realize that the moment we decide to start giving our time away because our needs have been met, that would be the end of their empires. They cannot compete against 1.5 TRILLION hours of free labour. It would crash the labour market and destroy their empires. That is why they work hard to keep people busy. When they accomplish that, time becomes scarce and they can maintain a labour rate for that time. But they too fall pray to supply and demand. When the supply of labour grows well beyond what the demand for labour is, their system crashes.
When we move off the grid and start living on the land, the amount of time we spend to provide for our needs plummets. Why? Because we are taking the middle men out of the equation. We are bridging the gap between producer and consumer. The middle man gets cut out and the prices plummet. This should point out how much money these blood sucking, time consuming, greedy monsters really to take from you and I. I would estimate that it is the equivalent of at least 1.5 TRILLION hours for that one billion I talked about before. Multiply that times 7 and you will get a good idea on how much time they steal from people. Imagine what we could create with 10.5 TRILLION hours each year. Now we are talking about prosperity.
To get disconnected from the grid requires that we completely change our relationships and it will be a big shift. But if we want to live in a model of prosperity for all people, it is something we must entertain. When we get there, the 10.5 TRILLION hours could then be put to work to find even more efficient ways to reduce our time obligations for providing our needs, which in turn then frees up even more time to help others and find even more ways to be productive and prosperous for all life on this planet.
The state and corporate empire is NOT interested in this as there is zero profit or control in this paradigm shift. So they will resist with their last dying breath. Then we will see freedom on this planet. This is what I see and I know we can do it.
Just to be clear, I quite my slave job when I was 39. I work hard but retirement from slave work has been good to me.