What if abundance was the norm?

Have you ever assumed something was true without question, and then years later start to see that the assumption was just that, an assumption, rather than a universal law?

That assumption for me has been the scarcity of resources and how that forms the backbone for an economy to function. I'm not sure where I first heard that idea. It may have been something I simply absorbed. I do believe it was further spelled out in economics classes, though. The idea is that goods and services I might want to have are scarce, and so they cost money, and I have to make tough decisions about which goods and services I am willing to pay for and which ones I will choose to forego in favor of other ones. Entire economies run based on lots of people chasing around relatively scarce products. They pay good money for those products, making others rich. Money itself, which buys me the products I opt to pay for, is the ultimate scarce resource.

This assumption of scarcity of resources tends to lead to various economic philosophies, which aren't as different from each other as people holding them dear would like to think. On one side you have Communism, which basically tries to take from those who have much and give to those who have little or none (although it rarely works out that way in practice--there are rich Communists on top and poor ones on the bottom). On the other side you have Capitalism, which basically says if you work hard enough and smart enough you should be entitled to all your earnings and profits and your contribution back is to create jobs for others.

What I see around me and experience is that lots of people work really hard (either as entrepreneurs or employees) to earn enough money to support themselves and their families in what they would consider to be a decent life. For some that involves living it up and having some luxuries; for others that involves staying one step ahead of the bills and having enough left over to buy groceries. It's as if there isn't enough money to go around or something. And yet you keep hearing about people who have lots of it.

A couple months ago I learned about VIVA coin and the VIVAconomy, and ever since then I have been questioning this assumption of scarcity. What if scarcity really isn't the norm? What if we could have an economy based on a paradigm of abundance instead? How might it work?

I hope to explore this concept further in a series of essays, but for now I'll leave you with a few questions.

What if all good work could be accounted for in the economy? Just one case in point. I'm a mother and I work hard all day at various tasks revolving around raising children and trying to keep the house in some sort of order. Although my husband and children depend on me doing this work, I do not get paid for it. One day a week I go to my paid job and that's where I relax. I get stuff done at a nice pace where I'm not interrupted by little people, and that's what I get compensated for. I'm not complaining about the fact that no one pays me money to be a mother, but I think there is something wrong with an economy that doesn't in some way account for the work I and many mothers do. It's not just mothers. It's people taking care of their homes and growing gardens and creating art. All those things and more seem incredibly valuable, what I would consider to be good work, but they don't get compensated. So again, what if all good work could be accounted for in the economy?

If an economy could account for everything of value, what would it look like? What would it be like to live in that economy?

What if the economy just assumed a living wage for everyone? I'm not talking about mandatory minimum wage or even universal basic income. I'm just wondering what it might be like if in a similar way that our current economy does not formally value the contribution of motherhood, for example, a different sort of economy assumed that everyone would be doing good work in some way so they wouldn't have to prove it with a paycheck. What if you could have your basic needs met, and then focus your efforts not on meeting those basic needs but on doing spectacularly good work?

In a scarcity based economy the idea of basic needs being automatically met raises lots of hackles. You think about welfare queens and the like. But maybe in a different sort of economy, that would be like of course you get your basic needs met. How else are you going to get any real work done?

What if abundance, rather than scarcity, was the norm?

Your thoughts?