Rudolf Steiner's Vision for the Future - Anthroposophical Society in ...

Money and Social Transformation
Money and Social Transformation
by John Bloom
Money gets us what we want when we want it, if we
have it. Its power seems unquestionable, dominating, and
to a degree, subject to the laws of physics. It can move at the
speed of electrons and in the form of waves. Cell phone
technology seems destined to eliminate the friction from its
transactional pathways. The economic value created through
these energy fields, which we measure in money, has been
compromised by the desire
to accumulate. In the stories
we tell about money,
net worth or wealth is a
metric of success that fails
to indicate money’s ethical
basis—one that ignores the
process of how the accumulation
happened and what
it produced along the way.
Storing money has
trumped using it as an end
in itself, and wealth accrues
to the individual without
regard to the commonwealth.
It seems absurd to
accept as valid the idea of
accumulating that which is
inherently circulatory in
nature: currency. But
money, like physics, is
subject to the dominant materialist world view. Despite this,
a different view is emerging. Just as physicists push the
boundaries of science to the metaphysical, so do we need to
reframe the boundaries of economic life to include the values
of spirit. Just as the stories of good that wealth has done tend
to be told in the warmth of human interest and responsibil-
42 • being human
ity, we need a new economic story that invites and assumes
the presence of our spirit, our capacity for ethical action, in
our work with money and with each other—as individuals,
as groups, as organizations, as communities.
I have been struggling to understand the state of ethical
standards played out by those who apparently created financial
instruments designed to fail, sold them to clients who
bought them in good faith,
then “won” big bets on the
instruments failing through
derivatives and hedging.
Only a market economy
that operates devoid of
human values other than
winning and greed could
produce such an endeavor.
This is only one of many
such examples from current
financial practices frequently
in the news and in
our lives. One good result
of the unfolding saga of
financial misdealings is an
awakening sense that there
is something wrong in the
system, something deeper
and more flawed than
policy, something so off
human equilibrium that it
surfaces as flagrant inequity.
At RSF Social Finance, we describe the current
condition of mainstream finance as complex, opaque,
anonymous, and based on short-term outcomes. As antidote,
we strive for all financial transactions to be direct,
transparent, personal, and based on long-term relationships.