24.2 See money as human energy flowing into human potential

Money is a figment of our imagination, though it might not feel that way when you are short of New Magna Carta Mediumit. It is a token that measures the relative value we put on objects, products and services. Imagine that you could float out to space and look back at the earth and see a visual representation of the flow of money around the earth. You would see a lot of interconnected beams. You would see bright blobs which would represent banks, governments, rich individuals and companies. Money is a token of human energy. We direct a flow of this human energy into investments that are vessels of human potential. At its best, capitalism is a way of optimising the flow of human energy so that it feeds human potential in the service of our values. Looked at that way, it is like our cardiovascular or nervous systems, like a beehive. Like all living systems, this flow of human energy that we call capitalism can be healthy or unhealthy. It can be infected by parasites, criminals and cancers. Our job is to keep it clean, healthy and good. Let’s harness it for the highest human good.