Hello Love!
In case you missed it, here is Part One of this article.
Please go read that before you read today's post.
Now onwards and upwards!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Add Value And You'll Be Rewarded With Abundance Is A Myth:
Important note - our economy doesn’t revolve around things that are of TRUE value.
As much as people want to tell you that to get rich or abundant all you have to do is make something that ‘helps’ people, is to step into your power/magic, to figure out your special THING and then offer that to the world - because people will pay for what’s good - our economy doesn't work that way.
Spirituality wants to tell you that abundance comes from authenticity and finding your niche.
This is a myth.
They want to tell you that being of service in some way equals abundance.
This is also a myth.
For *some* people at *some* times this is true. But for MOST it's not.
As much as people want to say that the market creates equity because it will always favor things that are good for the people - this is very clearly not the case at all.
The actual economy we have is based on perceived value.
Not actual value.
It’s based on what people THINK is good for them/have been led to BELIEVE is good.
And what we perceive to be valuable is highly, highly manipulated. It's a product, much of the time, of the trauma of a system that's intentionally set up to make us feel inadequate, unsafe, insecure and like if we just had more social capital, more abundance, more love and more fame we would be happy and safe. We have to get honest about the fact that what we buy and spend our time on is often NOT what's of actual VALUE but what we THINK will make us happy/safe/secure due to cultural conditioning. People owning and selling those culturally dictated values are making bank - and our culturally dictated values are often times NOT good for us. Even within the spirituality/wellness communities - there is SO much being sold very successfully that's either useless or harmful. Because we're scared and in pain and don't know what else to do.
Also, there are also forces that CONTROL to a large extent the choices consumers have, making it incredibly difficult to choose something that may be more valuable/better simply because it’s not being produced or it’s being produced so rarely that it’s prices make it inaccessible to most people. Most of us rely upon fossil fuels to power our lives - not because we really WANT to, but because those in control of the resources have decided this is what’s going to be readily available. To try to use alternative forms of power, for most people, is totally inaccessible because of cost and also the time and energy required to hook up a whole new system. Are fossil fuels best? Are they what most people would CHOOSE if they had other, equally available options? Are they sustainable? No. But they make the most money for the shareholders of companies that have been around for a long time, and therefore they dominate the market. Most people aren’t choosing the food they are going to eat or the clothes they are going to wear based on what’s most nutritious or durable/functional.
Also, humans are highly influenceable, especially when they feel insecure and unsafe. Which in this system, most people do. In these states of vulnerability, we can easily be sold on the merits of goods and services that DON’T actually support anything. That doesn't provide true value. That offer PERCEIVED value - that SEEM to offer something that would make us feel safe/loved/like we’re going to be ok - that in reality, don’t do this at all.
The diet industry is a perfect example. How much actual value does the diet industry produce in the way of actually improving people's lives? Very very little. But because society perceives the offering of the diet industry to be valuable due cultural dictates, those who sell weight loss/weight gain/this or that health hack make a LOT of money for their shareholders. The workers don't make anywhere near what they produce in ways of sales. If you own the company you're doing well because you own the means of production of something the society has chosen to value - whether it had actual on the ground value or not. Even if it causes objective harm so long as people see it as good they will trade their money for it. True value isn’t what sells a product or service. Perceived value is. People being CONVINCED that something will make their lives better is what sells. We have so much evidence for how diets don’t work, and yet it’s still one of the most profitable industries on the planet. If true value was what sold things, diet’s would have been dead a long time ago.
We also see this in our current boss babe/bro/abundance spirituality culture. Again the value in these offerings is that it's promising you that you can become rich if you follow whatever protocol is being offered. Manifesting. Changing your vibration. Hustling. Creating something of value. Whatever your current belief system around how money works is, there's an abundance coach waiting to tell you that you're right, that's how it works, and I'll teach you to master the system.
And these C.E.Os get rich.
Not because mass amounts of their clients actually become rich. Not because they actually create millionaires. They get rich because they are TELLING us they can create millionaires. These people are seemingly selling the 'system they used' to get rich and may genuinely believe that aligning their chakras or creating the perfect funnel was what did it. But the reality is - they owned something the population judged as valuable. They got rich being the c.e.o of something that earned capital for its shareholders. Themselves or the people whose capital they BORROWED to create their product - because remember there's no wealth generation in our economy without some foundational wealth. If what they are teaching you isn't this ‘I found something people wanted, and I owned it so all the profits were mine, and I was able to charge a high price for what I offer because people are convinced that deeply that it will improve their lives’ - it's a lie. Whatever they did to their belief systems around money or their chakras or their downline - it was secondary to owning the means of production of something the culture perceives to have value, and having access to starter capital to get it off the ground. Then eventually being able to hire workers who they don't actually pay equitably.
Another simple way to look at this - our society would be in a pretty bad state if all of our teachers, garbage collectors, grocery store clerks and other lower paying/service job workers quit.
None of us would be very happy if we lost the much needed support of these people.
Yet, we don’t value their time and effort very much, given what these people are paid. On the other hand, if all our celebrities and athletes stopped their work, society might be a little boring, but we wouldn’t lose much in terms of actual value. Yet, we pay these people excessive amounts of money to do what they do. We value their contribution to society in a way that allows for them to amass huge wealth, and for those who OWN them, who own the means of producing the entertainment or sporting events, they are exceedingly wealthy. The wages these people earn are not an accurate reflection of what’s actually being offered to society by these people. The market isn’t simply paying people for value. It’s paying them based on perceived value. We value distraction and entertainment more than we do those who take our garbage and teach our children.
This is why we allow for this to be how our system works.
