Economy
Reader questions to Benjamin Creme from the Share International Magazine (1990 – 2003)

Q: Can you give us some idea of the economic transformation of our lives which will take place? (June 1990)

BC: The redistribution of resources is the problem which is at the heart of the economic and, indeed, the spiritual crisis overhanging the world today. This spiritual crisis is focused in the political and economic theatre. That is why Maitreya comes, in the first place, as a political and economic teacher. Although his teaching is nonreligious,
it is about the spiritual life, about right human relationships. When we share the world’s resources we take the first step into solving the ills of the world, and the first step into
our divinity.

The method, as I understand it, will be a sophisticated form of barter in which the nations pool their excess resources and redistribute them fairly and justly according to need. Nothing will be imposed, it is up to us, and many different ideas will be floated. As a basic minimum, the aim is adequate, correct food, housing, health-care and education for all as universal rights.

Q: Will the Lord Maitreya teach us how to share? The idea of helping people at the other end of the world while we are living in London, for example, is something difficult to understand. (November 1991)

BC: It is not too difficult to understand, when you remember that at the end of the Second World War the economy of Europe was absolutely on its knees. There were literally millions of refugees to cope with, the concentration camps had been opened and the millions of interned inmates were released. There was a colossal problem: Germany had been bombed to smithereens, most of its cities were in ruins. This was true of areas in France and Belgium and parts of England — I do not need to go into all the details.

Europe — and the Soviet Union — was in tatters, and what happened? Thousands of miles away across the sea, an American called George Marshall had a brilliant plan — the Marshall Plan came to fruition and money and goods on a lease-lend basis were
shipped from the United States into Europe — the biggest sharing exercise in the world transformed Europe. In a very few years the economy got going and the cities were rebuilt. Sharing on a world basis is possible if you have the concept and the will. It is simply a recognition of the need and finding a way to fulfil it.

The Masters have a very simple plan which has been worked out, not by Them but with Their help, by a group of initiates, economists and financiers of international standing, but who are also members of the Spiritual Hierarchy: each nation will be asked to make an inventory of what it has and what it needs. In this way the world’s ‘cake’ will be known. Each nation will be asked to make over into a common trust that which it has in excess of its needs in any given commodity. A new United Nations agency dealing only with the distribution of resources will be formed under the supervision of a Master or at least a third-degree initiate. And so, by a simple process of sharing and exchange, a very
sophisticated form of barter will replace the present economic system. This is not immediate, but not too far in the future.

The collapse of the stockmarkets, beginning in Japan, will force governments to see certain priorities which Maitreya has enumerated as (1) the supplying of sufficient, correct food for the people, (2) the supplying of adequate housing and shelter, and (3)
the supplying of education and health-care facilities for all as a natural right. This does not seem too much — food, shelter, health-care and education — but there is nowhere in the world in which all of these automatically exist.

Not even in the United States which sees itself as the richest, certainly militarily-speaking the most powerful, nation in the world, do these pertain as a common right. There are 33 million people, officially, in the United States living under the poverty line. When these simple, basic priorities are implemented you will have a transformed world. As soon as we recognize our responsibility for the Third World we will implement the principle of sharing.

Q: Maitreya has said that in Islam no interest should be charged on capital. Since the Western economies survive on interest, should the West do away with its economic system? (June 1991)

BC: The short answer to that is yes. It is a completely irrational system which has brought us to the verge of destruction. Maitreya calls market forces — which are the basis of the Western economic system and another term for ‘greed’ — the forces of evil. He says there is nothing more destructive than the blind following of market forces and any nation which does so will reap destruction. The philosophy of market forces presupposes that everyone stands at the same level, with the same amount of money and the same needs. The fact is that the gap between the developed world and the Third World is getting wider every day.

The nations of the Third World are supposed to conform to market forces — and if they go to the World Bank or IMF for aid, as a condition of that aid, inevitably, is some reorganization of their economy which takes a major account of market forces. This is destroying the economy of the Third World, so much so that, the year before last, $40 million million more went from the Third World to the developed world in repayment on loans than from the developed world to the Third World in new loans. It is nothing to do with aid. It is usury.

F: Is not what we are talking about really the teaching of Karl Marx and the faults of the capitalist system, and if so should not people get more politically involved? (June 1991)

BC: It is not simply Karl Marx or communism against capitalism. Communism without capitalism is a non-starter. That is what they have found in the Soviet Union. It is not adaptable enough to the requirements of the modern world, and so it has gone under and is in chaos in the Soviet Union. Capitalism without socialism is like a great shark in the waters that will eat up everything in sight, and has no group sense or social responsibility. We need to take the best of both systems and bring them together.

According to Maitreya, a symbol for that is the unification of Germany. The union of East and West Germany means today the bringing together of two opposite systems, capitalism and communism, and Maitreya says the result will be a kind of social democracy which is neither one nor the other, but a fusion of the best aspects of both.

Both are necessary. The sense of justice, brotherhood and social caring of communism is necessary for the West, but the sense of freedom of the individual in movement, expression and thought is necessary in the East. That is something which will, Maitreya says, gradually become the norm in Europe and eventually throughout the world.

Q: What would an appropriate socio-economic system for the coming age look like? (January/February 1991)

BC: To my mind it would have to reflect the inner connectedness of people with one another and with the planet. A sustainable sufficiency would have to replace the present system of overproduction, competition and waste. Therefore, interdependence and co-operation, social justice, freedom and sharing would be the keynotes of a viable spiritually-based system. It would also have to take account of, and provide opportunities for, man’s individual initiative and creative enterprise but not at the expense of social justice and group good.

Maitreya, through His associate, has said that the unification of Germany is the symbol of this future social system: not capitalism versus communism, but social democracy or democratic socialism with full participation of all peoples in their own government. Housewives, doctors, artists, teachers, etc, would play their full part in government of the people, for the people, by the people; something never achieved before, East or West.

Q: I have read that the Plan for mankind involves increased leisure for people. This raises several questions: (1) How will working people afford more leisure time at the expense of less working hours and pay? Will leisure time be subsidized? (2) What fate
awaits the unemployed who see a declining job market, little hope of any liveable income, and who are not in a position to enjoy leisure anyway? (3) Will the expected stock-market crash cause huge rises in unemployment? How will governments handle this? (December 1990)

BC: The increased use of robots in manufacturing processes will inevitably create even more unemployment. This is already happening world-wide, especially in industrially developed countries. However, the use of robots creates more wealth, and with a rational world economy based on co-operation and sharing of resources and technnology, the ability to supply human needs and also to increase leisure becomes practically possible. The coming Technology of Light, in particular, will free humanity from much of its self-imposed limitations today.
The coming stock-market crash will inevitably cause much unemployment. This will lead to a complete change of government priorities: the supplying of adequate food, shelter, health-care and education will become paramount responsibilities of all forwardlooking
nations. The waste of resources as today, in armaments and competitive practices, will cease. A rational and sustainable economic structure based on sufficiencywill become the norm. Leisure will be the natural byproduct of such a structure.

Q: What do you think of free trade? (January/February 2003)

BC: Free trade must be free. The present concept of 'Free trade' is really the domination of world trade by the Western nations through market forces. At the same time, the Western powers protect their own industries and exports by various non-free trading regulations against all others, developed and developing alike.

Q: I was happy to read one of your answers in the last issue of Share International in which you say that the mix of socialism and capitalism in future will be about 70 per cent socialism and 30 per cent capitalism. (1) Could you perhaps sketch what role money will play in future? Will it be withdrawn entirely? Or only for some time? (2) What would replace it? (March 2003)

BC: (1) Eventually money will be withdrawn to enable humanity to overcome the lure of money, but that lies quite far ahead. (2) A sophisticated form of barter will replace the present trading system.
Commercialization and market forces


Maitreya's Forecasts

In April 1988, a close associate of Maitreya, long established in London’s Asian community, contacted freelance journalist Patricia Pitchon. He started a series of briefings in which he presented some of Maitreya’s teachings and forecasts of world events with the view that they be published through Share International and made available to the world’s press. Later, Maitreya’s associate also made contact with another journalist who received additional information. Maitreya gives His teachings orally, and His associate conveys them to the journalists.

As regular readers will know, each article may cover a wide variety of topics ---- from a flood in Bangladesh to a lesson in Self-realization. Many of these topics recur again and again, each time adding some new information from Maitreya. For the sake of clarity, therefore, we have edited the excerpts presented here so that teachings on a particular topic are grouped and can flow together. Maitreya’s purposes in releasing this material are further to prepare humanity for His emergence and to help us understand the spiritual laws governing our lives.

The forecasts of world events included in many interviews are given out primarily to illuminate one of the most important of these spiritual laws: the Law of Cause and Effect. It is only by grasping and working within this law, Maitreya says, that we can resolve the present social, political, economic and environmental crises.

From the book: Maitreya's Mission, Vol. Two (Pages 130 - 131 - First Edition Sept. 1993)

In the last two to three years we have seen a reduction in the wars and conflicts taking place throughout the world as the superpowers withdrew from their policy of supplying arms to further their own foreign aims and interests. The energy which drives soldiers into battle and fills the air with warplanes has been switched off.

But, Maitreya says, that energy cannot just disappear; it has to go somewhere. This energy has been roaming the world and suddenly it has found a new womb: the commercialization created by market forces. Market forces, Maitreya says, are the forces of wickedness, confusion and chaos, and its children are competition and comparison.

Freedom is not found in the free play of market forces, for market forces have no ‘eyes’. They are blind and satanic, leading inevitably to ‘mine’ and ‘more’ ---- that is, to possessiveness and greed ---- without end. Market forces will bring this civilization as we have known it to the edge of disaster. Market forces have created social and natural havoc. People have been condemned to death, literally, in the name of profit and loss. Hospitals have been shut because they are not profitable; schools have difficulty in staying open. These institutions are essential for the health and well-being of society.

The new creed of the superpowers has become ‘the economy’, which is the soul of commercialization. This represents a serious new threat to the world, Maitreya warns, one that could even compromise human life. Commercialization is more destructive than any nuclear bomb.

The quality of commercialization is greed, and, in Maitreya’s view, commercialization means making money while others starve. It will affect all nations, He says. This negative energy, which recoiled from the battlefield, will create a very hostile world. It is the human mind which has created this force and it can be changed by human awareness. Only Maitreya, however, has the power to turn this destructive energy into a creative force. Commercialization throughout the world is part of the pattern that will result in a major collapse of the world’s stock markets, beginning in Japan.

After this crash, the first duty of governments will be to feed people with the right food. Their second duty will be to ensure adequate housing. Next will come health and education, and lastly, defence. In short, the crash will lead to a reordering of priorities. Already, there are many strikes taking place as people begin to question the boss-employee relationship. This is because the new energy is already diluting and sweeping away the master-servant relationship which underlies so much of market forces. You can only solve the problems of the world, Maitreya points out, with a sense of realism that is not clouded by ideology or market forces.

‘‘Politicians whose creed is ‘market forces’,’’ Maitreya says, ‘‘will find that their time is over.’’ Capitalism, in its pure form, is at an end in Europe. It has no future whatsoever. Instead, countries will model their governments on a form of democratic socialism. Gradually this will become the model for all nations as the most effective way to ensure that the voice and will of the people is properly represented. In the new systems, Maitreya says, even market forces will be based on social consciousness. Market forces will not be ‘in charge’ of social consciousness. It is social consciousness which will guide market forces.


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