Quotes from "Buddhist Economics" by Ernest Friedrich Schumacher
"It is clear, therefore, that Buddhist economics must be very different from
the economics of modern materialism, since the Buddhist sees the essence of
civilisation not in a multiplication of wants but in the purification of
human character."
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"While the materialist is mainly interested in goods, the Buddhist is mainly
interested in liberation. But Buddhism is "The Middle Way" and therefore in
no way antagonistic to physical well-being. It is not wealth that stands in
the way of liberation but the attachment to wealth; not the enjoyment of
pleasurable things but the craving for them. The keynote of Buddhist
economics, therefore, is simplicity and non-violence. From an economist's
point of view, the marvel of the Buddhist way of life is the utter
rationality of its pattern--amazingly small means leading to extraordinarily
satisfactory results."
"The ownership and the consumption of goods is a means to an end, and
Buddhist economics is the systematic study of how to attain given ends with
the minimum means."
"As physical resources are everywhere limited, people satisfying their needs
by means of a modest use of resources are obviously less likely to be at
each other's throats than people depending upon a high rate of use.
Equally, people who live in highly self-sufficient local communities are
less likely to get involved in large-scale violence than people whose
existence depends on world-wide systems of trade."
"From the point of view of Buddhist economics, therefore, production from
local resources for local needs is the most rational way of economic life,
while dependence on imports from afar and the consequent need to produce for
export to unknown and distant peoples is highly uneconomic and justifiable
only in exceptional cases and on a small scale."
"From a Buddhist point of view . . . non-renewable goods must be used only
if they are indispensable, and then only with the greatest care and the most
meticulous concern for conservation. To use them heedlessly or
extravagantly is an act of violence, and while complete non-violence may not
be attainable on this earth, there is nonetheless an ineluctable duty on man
to aim at the ideal of non-violence in all he does."
". . . the Buddhist economist would insist that a population basing its
economic life on non-renewable fuels is living parasitically, on capital
instead of income. Such a way of life could have no permanence and could
therefore be justified only as a purely temporary expedient. As the world's
resource of non-renewable fuels
is clear that their exploitation at an ever-increasing rate is an act of
violence against nature which must almost inevitably lead to violence
between men."