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I have struggled with this disconnect as I have seen friends and family unpaid and underpaid, and in my own life as I support my work writing and farming with “off-farm” jobs. My first reaction is to dream up a new system, an economy in which farming is economically viable for more people and where work that needs doing always earns a paycheck. But I have begun to wonder if the money economy is always doomed to be disconnected from real value and if we might begin to think in a different direction about our work.
If we ask what work should be, our best thinkers from Peter Maurin to St. Francis say that it is a gift to the community. Good work is giving our time and energy to the building up of the good—it is raising children and growing vegetables and schooling the unschooled. Perhaps we should stop trying to make it “pay” and follow Wendell Berry’s call in his poem “Manifesto: The Mad Farmer Liberation Front” to “Love the World. Work for nothing. / Take all that you have and be poor.” Perhaps we should give up on making a living from our work and simply do it because we are called to it and offer our work to our neighbors as a free, gift just as we have received freely. Sure we will still need to earn money here and there so that we can negotiate our way through the money economy, but that will not be the economy we live in—we will live in God’s economy, the economy of the gift. And maybe, as we offer our gifts others will offer us theirs and the need for the economy of false value will subside from our lives. It is with this hope that I now live and work.]]>
Brother, I am so there! GOD help us live in His kingdom! No man can serve two masters.
Spot on! Our family will be setting out to do this in a few short months, thanks for the eloquent encouragement!
Rachel: we're looking forward to it!
I really wonder how much of 'need' there is to earn money if we are really operating in a gift economy. My experience is that when you help other people out, particularly those in need, the reciprocity principle comes into effect. Often times I get payed back far more generously than what I gave. As long as we are being more generous with our time and energy than our expectations of what we 'need', I suspect that we will not find it necessary to have a contractual pay agreement.
But to live that way requires faith in a God who provides. It is not easy to have that kind of faith.
Maria: it is difficult but very necessary if we are to follow Jesus. Thank you for the encouraging words!
I've got to admit that I live in the best of both worlds. My husband has a job that he enjoys and that covers all of our expenses and then some. And I'm able to volunteer my time in numerous ways: bookkeeping work for our church and for a christian foundation in Israel, helping at the kids' schools, helping to run the school garden, etc. Not only can I give my time and energy to places in need, but thanks to my husband's job, we're also able to give generously financially to those in need as well.
I find that in some circles that gift of time is often discounted. In other circles the gift of money is discounted. But both are needed in order to help others. Haiti's a great example of that right now. Money is needed to bring in the supplies that are desperately needed. And at the same time the gift of time by doctors, those hauling away debris, those caring for the children, those organizing distributions, etc. is also sorely needed.
I think what's important is that we be alert to what we are able to do to help others. Yeah, there's lots of work out there, but it's often easy to ignore. We need to have eyes and ears open. And we need to know ourselves. What am I good at that I can help with? And to be honest, we need to be willing to be taken for granted. (Which, of course, also reminds us to be more encouraging and thankful to those doing volunteer work around us.)
… Then there's always a bartering system as well. But that's probably a whole 'nother thing.
I've got to admit that I live in the best of both worlds. My husband has a job that he enjoys and that covers all of our expenses and then some. And I'm able to volunteer my time in numerous ways: bookkeeping work for our church and for a christian foundation in Israel, helping at the kids' schools, helping to run the school garden, etc. Not only can I give my time and energy to places in need, but thanks to my husband's job, we're also able to give generously financially to those in need as well.
I find that in some circles that gift of time is often discounted. In other circles the gift of money is discounted. But both are needed in order to help others. Haiti's a great example of that right now. Money is needed to bring in the supplies that are desperately needed. And at the same time the gift of time by doctors, those hauling away debris, those caring for the children, those organizing distributions, etc. is also sorely needed.
I think what's important is that we be alert to what we are able to do to help others. Yeah, there's lots of work out there, but it's often easy to ignore. We need to have eyes and ears open. And we need to know ourselves. What am I good at that I can help with? And to be honest, we need to be willing to be taken for granted. (Which, of course, also reminds us to be more encouraging and thankful to those doing volunteer work around us.)
… Then there's always a bartering system as well. But that's probably a whole 'nother thing.
Main
Objectives of the Gift Economy:
1) Everything
we have or use will be gifted to us and we are free to do what our heart tells
us to do. Everyone supports us for what we want to do so we work only in the
direction that we are most interested in.
2)Working in
that direction we produce a certain outcome and we have used the best effort
and the best materials. We keep part of what we produce for ourselves if we
need it, and the bulk of the extra product we gift to those who need it the
most.
3)There is no
ownership of any object. Everything we have we use and own for as long as we
have a use for it and then when we no longer need it we pass it on to others.
4) We neither
take nor snatch. We ask and then we receive and in most cases we simply receive
it as a gift without having asked for it first. And of course when we have more
than we need we give the rest back to those who need it: Give and receive.
5)We accept
every person with our full heart as having his/her own unique characteristics.
We accept all his/her thinking patterns, habits, religious beliefs etc and with
that we have no barrier of “mine” or “yours” and
“big” or “small”. Every person here is one of my own and my
equal. When we give we see the requirement most of someone and not the individual person. We are all equal in
our eyes and in our hearts. We respect and support all his/her personal
activities and interests and support their well being as a family member of
this world.
6) All big
projects are run by cooperation of all those who are most interested in doing
that work. Here responsibility is shared with convenience and interest.
Everybody with a mutual understanding works together and produces a certain
useful output for this society.