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in a year!?

No. This is my considered and confirmed belief, and answer to that question, and thus the fourth "stage" in my evolving understanding of the economy, and money, and man's inability, over the long-term, to defy his biological imperative toward self-preservation. But it is more, or certainly has become more, than mere survival instinct. You need look no further than the 21st centrury waistline to bear witness to our tendency to consume, hoard, and consider first OUR needs and wants over that of our biological competitors - that is, other humans.

It is this "everyone for himself" animal instinct that wins outright in the archeologic timespan. And in the short-term, the representational and behavioral manifestation of this tendency comes in the form of materialistic greed. This is where the not-so-fine line between want and need becomes ever more blurred. While caloric conservation is absolutely understandable and natural, and surely an evolved and defensive system in all (or most) of the animal kingdom, we have applied our sentience to this aspect of survival and have made mistakes and habits that are neither necessary nor beneficial to our micro-est of systems - the one single body, nor the macro-system we call the environment.

But that is a metaphor. Oh, it is a very real and apt demonstration of preservationist behavior gone awry, but fails to be analogous in terms of the even more nefarious and perilous fault of money. Here I refer to the competive and even sexually driven compulsion behind the love of money - power. Many of us seem to be forever trying not only to keep up with the Jones's, but to surpass them and show them up. Jimbo buys that sexy convertible as much to lure the ladies as to feed his ego. Jane (and/or Mrs. Doe) often revels in having the biggest diamond, or outdoing not only the other Mrs's. but in the same competitive drive I used to think was attributable mainly to testosterone, will herself go toe-to-toe with Jimmy - who then is not only fighting to outshine his procreational rival, but in defense of his very machismo!

But, behind all of it - the sexualization, the bulging bellies, the raging Freudian head-butting, and the green complexion we get from looking at our neighbor's allegedly greener front yard, is greed. We don't need more - we WANT more. It seems, sadly, to be programmed in our DNA. It is natural to "look out for number one". Greed is the sentient entension of this biological tendency.

Until we overcome the greedy tendency, either through discipline, altruism, or evolution, the unnatural money system will be incompatible with the macro-management and preservation of our species, and remain fundamentally inhumane.

Learn more about this author, Stanley W. Shura.
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