ABSTRACT
People of all ages are awakening to a reality that has been hidden by years of seemingly limitless consumerism and the expectation of lifetime employment. Money is useful in many ways, and it will continue to have a role to play in facilitating exchanges in the larger world. Its role, however, will be reduced by environmental as well as by global technological and cultural changes. These changes may range from Third World cultures resisting the western model of development to the collapse of the modern state that we are now witnessing in some regions of the world. The failure of public schools and universities to challenge the dominant cultural assumptions that underlie the political and economic system that equates wealth with the possession of money, and the credential system that provides access to power and money, have left most people ignorant of how to avoid sinking further into poverty and hopelessness.
