The insides of the trillions of stars,
and of the minds and cells of our myriad selves;
all that lies between, 
and under, and behind,
incalculable quiet calls through the cosmic hiss.
Buddhism and 
economics
{Me}



Environmental journalist
Buddhist in the SGI lay society
Comms officer at SAFCEI
(Southern African Faith Communities' Environment Institute)
What is religion anyway?
Conventional view:
Christianity
Islam
Taoism
Judaism
etc
Arnold Toynbee
Religion
relationships and hope
where we place our hope for a better life / world / future
self in relation to cosmos

Nationalism
Communism
technological progress
Great religions of the 21st century?
(PROGRESS...)
what:
why:
who:
heart
culture
technology
“Religion is what we have faith in.”
And now? What do we have faith in now?
?
“I think we’ve suffered from a series of mass delusions: We’re all going to be rich. We’re all going to live forever.” – Mayor of the nearly bankrupt city of San Jose, Calif (10th largest city in US) 


When the [the Buddha] appeared in this world, he made compassion for living things his basis. And as an expression of compassion for life, to refrain from taking life and to provide sustenance for living beings are the most important precepts. – The Blessings of the Lotus Sutra, Writings of Nichiren Daishonin I, p. 667.
‘Recognize that all beings are interdependent and every form of life has value regardless of its worth to human beings.’ – The Earth Charter

A Buddhist economy
Would value nurturers: mothers and teachers and healers above all
‘Consume less and share better’
Values diversity
Values equality


To use [non-renewable resources] heedlessly or extravagantly is an act of violence. – EF Schumacher, Buddhist economcs
Economists themselves, like most specialists, normally suffer from a kind of metaphysical blindness, assuming that theirs is a science of absolute and invariable truths, without any presuppositions. Some go as far as to claim that economic laws are as free from "metaphysics" or "values" as the law of gravitation. 
– EF Schumacher
‘Most people in rich countries are paid more than they should be.’
– Ha-Joon Chang: 23 Things They Don’t Tell You About Capitalism
life is incredibly precious
 equality

It is inconceivable, vulgar, that people can live in such wealth and luxury as in Cape Town’s wealthy suburbs while 10 km away people are in living in utter destitution... The corporate sector is not concerned about high rates of unemployment and poverty.’ – Economic historian Sampie Terreblanche
the restorative economy
“Our task is not to return to nature, but to give back to nature.” 
– Ian McCallum

The Buddhist economy already exists – it's just a bit spread out at the moment...
‘Inequality fuels status competition, individualism and consumerism. It makes it harder to gain public support for policies to reduce global warming.’
Remedies:
smaller differences in pay before tax (like in Japan)
redistribution through taxes and benefits (like in Sweden)
‘Economist Dawie Roodt said political and economic consideration took precedence in the [Dalai Lama] visa debacle.’ 
– Sowetan
Growth is God for many economists.
“The solution for now is to leave interest rates unchanged,” Kgotso Radira, an economist at Investec Ltd. in Johannesburg, said in a telephone interview. “Should the growth outlook deteriorate significantly then a cut would be likely.”
“There’s little risk of a sustained break of the inflation target” band of 3 percent to 6 percent, Jean-Francois Mercier, an economist at Citigroup Inc. in Johannesburg, said in a telephone interview.
‘The economy may expand 3.3 percent this year and 3.7 percent in 2012, according to the median forecast of 16 economists in a Bloomberg survey. The International Monetary Fund estimates growth of 3.4 percent and 3.6 percent for the same period.’
‘You can never have an impact on society if you have not changed yourself.’ 
– Nelson Mandela
Standard Bank chief executive Jacko Maree announced in August that he would give 10 percent of his taxable income to fund education for poor black students.
The world according to our senses – difference
What we forget 
– connection, interdependence
‘Dependent origination’
Fundamental unity
POSIWID
The purpose of the South African economy is to give a minority a great deal of money while leaving many people really, really poor.
‘Unless we can perceive our fellow human beings and feel their sufferings as our own, we will never be free of conflict and war.’
David Le Page
david.lepage@gmail.com
www.sgi-sa.org.za
safcei.org
prezi.com
‘A change in one’s heart can change everything.’ – Daisaku Ikeda
The present state of affairs is really a perversion of the proper working of capitalism. It is all wrong to have millionaires before you have ceased to have slums. Capitalism has done enormous good and suits human nature far too well to be given up as long as human nature
remains the same. But the perversion has given us too unstable a society. Differences of reward must be large enough to induce people to do their best but the present differences are far too great. – John Lewis, 1957
If the JLP comes to something, it will be I think because I have brought to business the mind of a naturalist. – JL
At Steve Jobs' NeXT computer co., there were just two salary levels.
“No society can surely be flourishing and happy, of which the far greater part of the members are poor and miserable.” – Adam Smith
high social inequality is directly correlated with: 
shorter lives, criminality, unemployment, obesity, malnutrition, teenage pregnancy, illegal drug use, economic insecurity, mental illness and anxiety.
“How can you cease to believe in law and order, a moral universe, co-operation, the purpose of existence, and yet still believe in sportswear?” - Zoe Williams, in the Guardian
“North Africa is about allowing inequalities to grow, allowing joblessness to grow. It is about a state that hasn't actually performed, about a minority that accumulates things for itself. If you want to follow that path for the next 20 years, we'll end up like North Africa.” – SA Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan
Economics as religion
death
Scientific heavens:
Immortality/longevity
New worlds – terraforming

Heaven is heresy
diversity
Ritual
‘Greed is good for America.’ – Talk show host
Greed, anger and ignorance are poisons – Everyone else
"Capitalism is survival of the fittest, and sometimes it's not pretty." –  Hedge fund computer programmer
“We don't believe there is an absolute resource constraint. When peak oil comes, it is just as likely to come from consumption peaking, perhaps because of climate change policies as from production.” – BP chief economist Peter Davies
promoting False miracles 
and the supernatural
feel more, 
'consume less, 
share better.' AnD SLOW DOWN.
– Open our own hearts
– Equality
– Alternatives to GDP
– Employee ownership
– Wild law
– Deepening democracy

"Once again, the economy has not performed as well as the high priests of the economics profession had expected." – Economonitor, 22 June 2011
"High Priests and Lowly Philosophers: The Battle for the Soul of Economics" – Case Western Reserve Law Review, 3 March 2006
"Economists — The high priests of progress" – Energy  Bulletin, 12 August 2010
"The Subprime Crisis & Economic High Priests - Part One" – 
"Where the high priests of the dismal science see opportunity through the magic of the market’s invisible hand, Joe Sixpack sees a threat." – Gregory Mankiw, The New York Times
How an invisible religion 
is fueling
a crisis for life on Earth
'Few stock pickers, if any, have the skill needed to beat the market consistently, year after year. Professional investors, including fund managers, fail a basic test of skill: persistent achievement.' - Daniel Kahneman
'If wealth was the inevitable result of hard work and enterprise, every woman in Africa would be a millionaire.' - George Monbiot
Fundamental unity
Thanks, Dr Al Bartlett
"The promotion of growth 
is simply a sophisticated way 
to steal from our children." 
– David Brower