Consider the lilies

And why take ye thought for raiment? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they toil not, neither do they spin.

Matthew 6:28

We strive and sweat and stress because:

1. Resources are scarce. 
2. We must exploit them efficiently to generate wealth. 
3. Competition stimulates efficiency. 
4. Rewards stimulate competition. 
5. The accumulation of wealth is our reward.
6. Sequestering wealth leads to inequality. 
7. Inequality leads to waste, injustice, lack of opportunity. 
8. Sequestered wealth creates a wider sense of scarcity. 

Now repeat. Start the cycle at 1 for Neoliberalism, or 5 for Marxism. Either way we take paradise and by our actions turn it into landfill.

But:

1. Resources are not scarce.
2. Waste and scarcity arise from an unsustainable idea of wealth.
3. Human kindness has achieved more than all our transactions.
4. Renewables, recycling and sustainable living unlock natural abundance. 
5. All costs are reduced to energy costs, which renewables eliminate.
6. Everything is free. Wealth is not just sustainable, it is limitless.  
7. Inequality and injustice are eliminated. 
8. Automation abolishes the distinction between work and leisure. 

Now repeat. Start wherever you like. Whatever we do takes landfill and turns it into paradise.

The scarcity we experience as the pretext for the way our societies are organised is an artefact of that social organisation itself. It is a mechanism for sustaining privilege.

The cycle can be vicious or virtuous. Either privilege is sustained, or the planet is. It can't be both. It's up to you.

Consider the lilies.