COMPETING STORIES
Prosperity  Empire Story  Earth Community Story

Money & Wealth

 Money is medium of exchange, a storehouse of value, and a measure of wealth. The market allocates money as a reward to those who create wealth in equal measure to the value of their contribution. Banks create money out of nothing when they lend it into existence. Money has no intrinsic existence or value outside the human mind and functions as a system of unaccountable power subject to flagrant abuse. Money is a convenient and essential medium of exchange, but the true measure of a society’s wealth is the health of its human capital of creative minds, its social capital of caring relationships, and its natural capital of healthy ecosystem.

Path to Prosperity

 Economic growth is a process that increases the total wealth, well-being, and happiness of the society. As the benefits trickle down in the form of valuable goods and services and the creation of well-paid jobs, the lives of all improve. Eliminate poverty by growing the economy and eliminating welfare programs that strip the poor of their incentive to work. Economic growth is a process by which the rich expropriate real resources of the poor to convert them into goods that soon find their way to the garbage dump to increase inequality by making money for rich people. We increase real prosperity by redirecting resources from wasteful or destructive consumption to investing in living human, social and natural capital. We end poverty by reallocating resources from rich to poor.

Markets

 Free markets unburdened by rules and trade restrictions direct investment to its most productive use, provide jobs, give consumers the lowest prices, and maximize the well-being and happiness of the society. The term “free market” is a code word for an unregulated market that frees the rich to consume and monopolize resources for personal gain free from accountability for the broader social and environmental consequences. Markets are an essential institution, but to allocate efficiently they must have intelligent and fairly enforced rules.

Class

 The well-being of society depends on a wealthy class with the means to invest in the economic growth that benefits us all. Prosperity, democracy, and security all rest on the foundation of equity, i.e., a strong middle class with no extremes of wealth or poverty.

The Common Good

 There is no common or collective social interest beyond the aggregation of individual interests. Everyone does better when we each pursue our individual advantage without governmental interference. The alternative to the individualism of unfettered free market capitalism is the extreme collectivism, deprivation and tyranny of Communism. Life is a fundamentally cooperative enterprise. Public goods created and maintained through cooperative effort are essential to human health, well-being, and happiness. The good society balances individual and collective interests. This is best accomplished by a mixed economy featuring private ownership by community stakeholders and markets properly regulated by democratically accountable governments to maintain equity, internalize costs, and seek optimal self-reliance in meeting basic needs.
Security    

Primary threats

 Evil people, criminals, terrorists, and rogue dictators. Global warming, oil dependence, overconsumption, overpopulation, extreme inequality, financial speculation, and the internal assault on civil liberties.

Natural Human Condition

 Competition, crime, war and domination. Cooperation, community, partnership, and mutual caring and sharing.

Source of Security and Social Order

 Righteous rulers with strong police and military power. Caring communities that build trust, share risks, and create resilience in the face of crisis.

Democracy

 The United States is the world’s most advanced democracy and an ardent global proponent of democracy and human rights. The United States is an Empire ruled by people of wealth and has been since its founding. Democracy is an essential foundation of Earth Community and remains an unfinished project.
Meaning    

Origin

 Imperial Religion: God the Father.
Imperial Science: Chance and material mechanism		 The integral spiritual intelligence that is manifest in all being.

Human nature

 Imperial Religion:Humans are fallen sinners worthy of salvation only by divine grace.
Imperial Science:  Humans are by nature individualistic, violent, materialistic, and competitive.		 It is our nature to create and live in the caring, cooperative, caring, creative communities that are essential to our survival and happiness. Our brains are wired to reward with happiness for acts of caring and cooperation. Greed and violence are symptoms of psychological dysfunction..

Human purpose

 Imperial Religion: Honor and serve God the father as his obedient children.
Imperial Science: Compete for survival, dominance, and breeding rights.		 Contribute to Creation’s eternal unfolding as responsible adult co-creators.