The Global Illusion – Alan Watts on Money

[Music] now true we all need money simply because we've all agreed that we all need money there's no other reason it's important to understand this about money a lot of people don't know it money is a measure of wealth money is not wealth money is like inches dollars let's say are like inches they are a way of measuring real wealth which consists of material resources plus energy plus intelligence that's wealth money represents it we used to have the idea you see that gold was money gold is wealth well that's perfectly absurd because does the prosperity of the world constantly depend on discovering new gold mines when a banker buys gold what does he pay for it with book entries and so with this myth of gold in the background we think money is real and money is the most unreal thing in the world it's a form of statistics and so therefore we don't realize that as our wealth increases as a result of an expanded technology we have to provide enough money to circulate in other words we have to pay people for the work done on their behalf by machinery because otherwise the manufacturer won't be able to move the goods off the shelf now that seems an outrageous idea frankly in disaccord with the protestant ethic you mean give people money where's the money going to come from well money never did come from anywhere it's like asking where do inches come from technology was invented to save labor that doesn't mean in order to dismiss your employees it means to let them have a vacation in other words a shorter work week and for you yourself as the owner less to do so that you can go and gaze at the moon or make love to your lady friend and why not do it well everybody feels guilty about it they think having archaic minds when we didn't have this technology that they got to go on behaving the same way as uh when machines didn't exist but now we have them but we won't use them except in silly ways like for example rushing around everywhere in automobiles polluting the air you know you don't really have to commute in most businesses if you have a telephone never thought about that you don't need an office you don't need to go rushing around exhausting yourself and getting absolutely furious in the traffic jams on the freeway you know we're all getting furious about things we can do nothing about you know we read the newspapers and look at tv and see the disasters occurring all over the world and feel upset and mad and there's nothing we can do why waste your time pick up the telephone it it saves you the cost of a secretary the of mailing stuff sticking stamps on it going down to the post office and if you count up all the hours you'll realize that the electronic method of communication that is the technology is uh much less expensive then the ordinary way one goes about things it's like an automobile is a mechanical imitation of a horse and carriage you're completely irrational long ago people have invented automobiles that were far more serviceable but they would somehow never get into use so it is a matter of keeping your mind closely on what you really want to happen and what can be done instead of going through meaningless rituals now i was referring to the fact that uh everybody needs money and while this is the system while this is the social consensus everybody doesn't need money but while it is the social consensus that that's what we all need let's be frank about it and not say therefore the person whose interest is in higher things whether it be academic religious or artistic oh you don't need money because your satisfaction is surely in doing your work the only people who need money the people who are miserable at their work they're because they're there to make money let's drop the hypocrisy the scholar the artist in this context where everybody has to have money to live needs money just as much as everybody else and should be paid accordingly this applies particularly to the teacher in the schools or whatever you know people who are put down and saying oh you're a teacher or you're a clergyman you don't need money because you live on the spirit that's rubbish [Music] in i repeat in this context where everybody has to have it so you know you think you can be a dropout and be a hippie you have to go out on the street and say you've gotten a spare change no you don't need money you're a hippie don't fool yourselves we all do but we're living under conditions where money as i have tried to explain is not understood where it is not seen for the fiction and the useful fiction which it is and so what do we do we have income tax which is the most absurd system of accounting ever conceived have you ever figured out what it costs to pay income tax not just the tax itself but the cost of paying it to yourself and to the government it's colossal when i raise the question then why do it at all why doesn't the government simply take off the top as much money as it needs and issue the rest be much simpler [Laughter] oh the silly business that torments everybody would be cancelled and the department of internal revenue and all its officers they needn't be frightened of losing their jobs because they could simply be the officials who work it the other direction in other words they could be the dispensers of the money to everybody to pay them for the amount of work done by machinery on their behalf i mean doesn't that make sense what we've got against this is not as it were an intellectual or mathematical block but a psychological block and don't see that that is the inner meaning of technology to save labor in other words uh who could say that the uh the labor party in all the various countries it's never really understood that it has to be saved and it works against its own salvation with ridiculous socialistic schemes of making everybody equally poor which is what invariably happens instead of making everybody equally rich but of course mind you when we are all equally rich there will always be people who want to outdo other people and so feel psychologically that they're poor even when they're in perfectly good health very well fed housed and clothed you want to go a little bit beyond so it's the show i'm more outstanding than you and there of course we get into great metaphysical depths but so far as the businesses of the matter is concerned i think what i've said thus far should commit itself to your careful consideration you