Thriving In Our Present Economic Uncertainty
Could a Gift Economy be the answer?
‘Loneliness and the feeling of being unwanted is the most terrible poverty.’ Mother Teresa
I just recently read a disturbing book based on a true story, where a black African nurse, through the prejudice of a member of the white supremacist movement, lost her job and was banned from practising in a hospital where she had worked for twenty years, this without one complaint ever having been lodged against her.
Just like that.
What disturbed me was that the hospital authorities, and every one of her colleagues, deserted her, and used her as a scapegoat…an ugly dismissal to easily deal with a problem!
Not one of them stood up in her defence.
Not a soul called to visit, to see how she was doing.
Nobody asked if she was managing financially.
Moreover, the hospital covered up the truth...an easy ‘fix’ rather than looking into what had occurred
Either nobody cared, or they were just cowards.
It was only a story
Or was it? If we were to ask a black person if they could resonate with the nurse’s situation, I bet many would have a story to tell, or ten!
Such is the life of the racially discriminated.
And the fragile belief that we are not racist, something that was perfectly highlighted in the story, surfaces as a question, more often than we care to think about.
It’s different for us white people. We have choice, and recourse to a legal system that will support us if things go awry.
Not so for a black person, who, when targeted, has nowhere to run.
I wondered how much better she might have fared under a Gift Economy where race and ethnicity are not up for debate.
The Gift Economy… it’s not something you read about regularly, but it quietly thrives within some communities, and though not new, is a way of living, and giving, that could see us all survive in our presently-uncertain times.
Here is the dictionary’s definition of economy.
- the state of a country or region in terms of the production and consumption of goods and services and the supply of money
2. careful management of available resources
The Gift Economy falls into the latter definition, that is, the sharing of what we can, without thought of payment.
It’s about supporting others, through the generosity of spirit, reciprocity, and trust.
It hints at a Utopian society where everyone can enjoy equal status, where needs are met, and sharing is intrinsic.
It has at its roots, some principles of minimalism, sharing, living with less, giving, and taking.
This is a way of living that existed before the advent of cash when people supported and valued each other within an egalitarian society.
My post on the Victory Garden hints at such a lifestyle, one brought on by war, and resultant poverty. During this difficult period of survival, sharing brought out the best in people, generosity, friendship, hard work, and support, with never a thought of paying back.
And then sadly it was gradually forgotten about as people forged new and supposedly financially-better lifestyles, post-war.
Yet it would be fair to say, that that generosity of spirit is still inherent in us. It feels so much better to give, lend, and share, with no thoughts of reciprocation.
Interestingly, though, more often than not, that ‘payment’ shows up sometimes in the most unlikely of ways.
Generosity begets generosity!
My niece runs a coffee shop where, I suspect unwittingly, she is part of the gift economy. Just recently she announced that all sales (not all profits) of coffee for the day, would go to a local charity. From that one act, she was able to donate well over one thousand dollars to the cause. Her gift was her generosity, her time and that of her staff, plus the actual coffee.
‘Be the change you want to see in the world.’
Her business thrives, by the way!
It is human nature to be generous, but usually in small ways that don’t necessarily impact greatly on our lives.
BUT, it’s in REAL giving to support others, and to enhance their lives, that we find the warm glow within us, the one that tells us we’re on the right path.
There is much debate these days about the universe giving back to us when we work with gratitude. Whether we believe that or not is neither here nor there, for undoubtedly that feeling of fulfilment is one form of payment. I’m told also, those good things often happen for the participants within the Gift Economy.
By contrast
Today’s monetary, hegemonic economy, the same one that is writhing in pain right now, many of us struggle to cope within. This is a system that is very much about competition, about status and ownership, and about how we think we are viewed by our community.
It’s also isolationist in its scope.
The gift economy has its foundations in acceptance and inclusion. It frees us up to be the best we can be, to share whatever we have, our strengths and talents, and our caring, and to be confident about finding solutions to problems that beset others.
For those in need, a gift economy can enable them to put fear aside, to survive, to feel valued and included.
Here in Australia, there is a gardening program on ABC and just recently it featured a retired teacher who practices Guerrilla Gardening. This refers to actions performed in an impromptu way, often without seeking permission…an aspect of the Gift Economy.
‘Shirley calls herself a “guerrilla gardener” — someone who gardens on someone else’s land. Although the term guerrilla can hold negative connotations, in Shirley’s case, the whole neighborhood and passersby, are behind her efforts and are delighted with the way she has turned ugly council beds in her North Fitzroy street, into “jeweled tapestries of flowers and foliage.”
‘Eight years ago, Shirley was still working as a teacher when she noticed that traffic management installations in the street created a number of empty and untidy (potential) garden beds. Golden elms had been planted but, with no under-planting, the beds quickly became filled with rubbish and weeds. She decided when she retired, to do something about it’.
The result is a wonderful street vista, pavements teeming with plant life, a delight to walk along. And now, it would seem, everyone who lives there, to some extent, works to promote the beauty.
This was a new concept to me, yet just today, I found myself reading about yet another young couple living in Daylesford, Victoria who have established many guerrilla community gardens throughout the town.
“It’s just a gift, a free-for-all, for people that can’t afford to grow their own organic food at home.”
She and her partner have worked tirelessly on vacant blocks of land in their area, originally without permission, establishing free-for-all organic gardens.
In time council decided to turn a blind eye to the activity, and so, now the initiative thrives.
Now the young woman’s work also includes passing on her culinary and health skills, to her community…yet another gift!
“I love it. I call it community immunity because it’s keeping us all healthy. It’s building up our physical resilience but also our emotional resilience,” she said.
How impressive is that, in a world where so little time is given to helping others. It actually challenges us each to consider what our role here is on this earth.
Journalist Paul Van Slambrouck poses this question.
‘What exactly did I (or you) do to deserve to be alive? If you can process that question and come out thinking it was a gift that you can’t ever pay back, then beginning a life of greater giving is the only logical and remotely reciprocal way to go. If the most valuable thing you have isn’t anything you earned, why be stingy with all the lesser stuff? You can start that practice of greater generosity with greater gratitude. And where better to start than with your mother, but don’t stop there. Family, friends and the final frontier, strangers, are all worthy subjects.
‘Let’s review what ails us. Our financial system nearly collapsed a few years ago. We propped it back up with what was left of our communal resources, and a little scotch tape here and there to correct the system’s shortcomings. And now we find ourselves with recovery so anaemic only the wealthy can feel it. There has to be a better way.
‘Barter is a good way to survive a lousy economy. I can fix toilets; you can clean carburetors. Care to dance?’
‘Barter is a good way to survive a lousy economy’…comforting words indeed!
You see the kind of economy that we have grown up with, whose very volatility has us cringing in apprehension right now, is one that is without that sense of community. If something monumental were to happen to any one of us, (a pandemic, loss of super, or a huge financial loss), we’d be on our own, struggling with our sense of failure, and unwilling to disclose our needs, for all manner of reasons.
Our pride, our shame, would give us an optimal chance of withering and dying.
By contrast, the community is the very cornerstone of the Gift Economy, and within it, we would survive.
What about the Gift Circle?
This is a practice within the Gift Economy, where people can group to share their talents and abilities, and in turn, can also request help.
Founded by Alpha Lo and endorsed and promoted by Charles Eisenstein, it offers hope in using people’s resources and skills to match needs and rejects the idea of money being at the foundation of helping others.
Eisenstein suggests that, through no fault of our own, we are deeply programmed for scarcity, that we lack community and engagement, we are socially dislocated, and that we are disassociated from nature.
The fact that this economic system concentrates the world’s wealth into the hands of but a few, leaves us feeling anxious and intent on monetizing something for ourselves, in order to survive.
It’s the very reason why we keep producing. We allow deforestation to go ahead, and we have allowed our landfills to reach crisis point.
Being doubtful that we can ever pull back from this, band-aid solutions are proffered in the hope of surviving the environmental devastation that is right now on our doorstep.
‘But the Gift Economy represents a shift from consumption, to the contribution, transaction to trust, scarcity to abundance, and isolation, to the community’.
As we escalate towards yet another global financial disaster, could you see yourself be a part of the safety net of the Gift Economy? Could you be an inspiration for hope…the change we want to see?
Or indeed, if things were to go against you financially, can you think of ways that you personally might benefit from this system?
We’re in this living thing, together, and the very idea that our very first tentative steps to effect positive change could move mountains for others is comforting.