Dollars and Sense

According to a story in the Vancouver Sun on Nov. 6, 2004, the estimated global military spending was 843 billion US a year, and that the United Nations budget was 4 billion a year. Such amounts are increasing every year and the costs of maintaining the UN can be added onto the former, for this group does nothing to reduce the antagonism between rival nations. A nation that doubles in population every few generations requires additional territory and resources to provide for their increasing numbers: resulting in mankind's separate ethnic groups competing for possession of the earth's lands and seas. Animals compete for territory to sustain themselves for the same reasons that mankind does, and in both instances a species that didn't increase in numbers to its fullest extent would find that the resources that were available to them would be taken over by others; leading to their decline in numbers. Our species faced the same situation that others did, and it was the industrial advanced Europeans that increased in numbers to invade and overrun the distant American and Australian continents that were inhabited by primitive societies and native bands. This led to the temperate zones of the earth becoming more densely populated, and nations competing more strenuously for the assets of each other. As well as national competition, many governing groups retain their popularity by providing advantageous legislation to its majorities to retain their support. This practice results in discrimination within a society: which sometimes results in riots and civil wars, and gives the ruling party the power to set their own salaries, pensions, and perks, while enriching their friends and relatives with lucrative contracts and ambassadorial positions.

Our separate nations and ethnic populations are presently led by the ancient philosophies that supported their growth. In uniting our nations to prevent wars, we should wish to discouraged the growth of our numbers; so that there would be plentiful earthly resources for all to prosper without the need to compete for them. Then the moral majorities should be encouraged to adopt none-discriminative policies to achieve political peace amongst the planet's many ethnic groups. With an improved morality amongst us (as the consequence of supplying ourselves with adequate resources for all to prosper unmolested) our society would not need to enforce so many laws that discouraged competition, and we could save the expense of our elections. We would still have to enforce laws to discourage violence and crime, and provide for the maintenance of many of our roads and bridges to facilitate trade and commerce. We would have to rule our world in a wise and moral manner, and it is this new morality that we must impose upon each other, and equally upon the individuals and groups that provide for our public services. We must endeavor to treat all of the people of the planet as equals, and refrain from making laws that favor one group's past religious or matrimonial practices to the detriment of another. Individuals must remain free to structure their social lives without governmental intervention, for it will no longer promote or subsidize the population increases that have degraded the planet's environment. Without the emergencies of war, we wouldn't be justified in subsidizing the production of a single commodity: for as it became scarce the price of it would rise, encouraging the greater production of it. By making such major changes in the way we govern ourselves, both the majorities and minorities would save considerable expense and energy through respecting others equality and right to prosper. Then by avoiding such social competitions and divisions we could guide humanity toward the peace that they had made and earned, and which the ancient spiritualists considered was not possible, for wars were claimed to be an act of God.

The drive to take from each other is caused by nature: for as populations increase the earthly resources that they use to produce the necessities of life become more scarce; causing greater competitions to gain them. The obvious solution is to overcome national competition and its cost and sorrows. Many will wonder what we will do to support all of the soldiers and those that are employed in present governmental occupations. We won't be putting them on unemployment insurance for long, because we should only rule and not subsidize the unable and the unwilling. By reducing the birthrate to one per couple for a few generations the ranks of the underemployed will dwindle as unused earthly resources become available to adequately support everyone that has the ability to produce their needs from them. We should hope that our present leaders and dignitaries will not become indignant through losing their high paying salaries and pensions, and refrain from using the police-forces and armies that they presently control to thwart our attempts to guide our civilization in a wise and beneficial manner. They must begin to earn their keep in the same non-confrontational and environmentally protective manner that all others will become legally obligated to abide by.

In uniting our world, the present nation's obligations to their creditors, and their money will have to be extinguished, and suitable monitory controls introduced that prevent the devaluation our new currency; and end for all time the periodic disputes by labor for higher wages to offset the increased costs of their household expenses. We must establish a single universal language to better manage our business ventures with each other, and our business of governing ourselves with the use of civil servants. We should no longer be bankrolling our old competitive survival-values, so the costs of raising and educating children should no longer be subsidized, and should be financed by the parents that sponsor them. Schooling likely will be by Radio, TV, and the Internet, for we don't need thousands of teachers to teach the same subjects when an established curriculum would suffice through the use of our modern technologies. The use of public funded transportation to transport students to distant classes should be discontinued, and family groups will become responsible to educate and discipline their children, and to coach them when they fail their grades. In our united world the prior source of income of many will be disrupted, but the casualties in the transition probably would be no greater than we presently experience in our attempts to best each other. By reducing our numbers we will soon gain sufficient earthly resources and opportunities to fulfill our needs to the extent of our ambitiousness. We will become free to roam anywhere on the planet, and the prior costs of restricting trade or migrations between former national boundaries will be eliminated: so the more freedom we can give ourselves, the less it will cost us.