Buddhist economics

Caveats...

‘The practice of shakubuku thus means to correct another's false views and awaken that person to the truth of Buddhism.’ – The SGI Dictionary of Buddhism

‘Shakubuku is... an expression of reverence for the truth that everyone possesses a Buddha nature...’

‘The host [Nichiren], smiling, restrained his guest and said: Insects that live on smartweed forget how bitter it tastes; those who stay long in privies forget how foul the smell is.’

– On Establishing the Correct Teaching...

‘A change in one’s heart can change everything.’ – Daisaku Ikeda

‘You can never have an impact on society if you have not changed yourself.’

– Nelson Mandela

Conventional view:

• Christianity
• Islam
• Taoism
• Judaism
• etc

Great religions of the 21st century?

Nationalism

Communism

“Religion is what we have faith in.”

"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

‘Economist Dawie Roodt said political and economic consideration took precedence in the [Dalai Lama] visa debacle.’

– Sowetan

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

"Capitalism is survival of the fittest, and sometimes it's not pretty." – Hedge fund computer programmer

‘Greed is good for America.’ – Talk show host

Greed, anger and ignorance are poisons – Everyone else

Growth is God for many economists.

"The promotion of growth

is simply a sophisticated way

to steal from our children."

– David Brower

life is incredibly precious

To use [non-renewable resources] heedlessly or extravagantly is an act of violence. – EF Schumacher, Buddhist economcs

'There may also be a time when the people acknowledge that their society is approaching its end and they should not enter into a further period of renewal.' – F. David Peat, Blackfoot Physics

Buddhism: birth, maturity, decline and death

In economics, growth is forever

The true scale of time

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.

'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

“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

“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.

‘Inequality fuels status competition, individualism and consumerism. It makes it harder to gain public support for policies to reduce global warming.’

‘Most people in rich countries are paid more than they should be.’

– Ha-Joon Chang: 23 Things They Don’t Tell You About Capitalism

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

“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

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.

Remedies:

• smaller differences in pay before tax (like in Japan)
• redistribution through taxes and benefits (like in Sweden)

“Our task is not to return to nature, but to give back to nature.”

– Ian McCallum

– Open our own hearts

– Equality

– Alternatives to GDP

– Employee ownership

– Wild law

– Deepening democracy

What is religion anyway?

A Buddhist economy

Would value nurturers: mothers and teachers and healers above all

‘Consume less and share better’

Values diversity

Values equality

If the John Lewis Partnership comes to something, it will be I think because I have brought to business the mind of a naturalist. – John Lewis

Buddhism and

economics

How an invisible religion

is fueling

a crisis for life on Earth

{Me}

Scientific heavens:

• Immortality/longevity
• New worlds – terraforming

‘Dependent origination’

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.

what:

technology

The world according to our senses – difference

why:

culture

feel more,

'consume less,

share better.'

AnD SLOW DOWN.

“Disease is a manifestation of human thought because it is ideas, worldviews, and beliefs that create the conditions in which a society can be riddled with disease, strife, and poverty, or can continue in health and harmony.” – Physicist F. David Peat.

who:

heart

honouring the value of life?

The Buddhist economy already exists – it's just a bit spread out at the moment...

At Steve Jobs' NeXT computer co., there were just two salary levels.

diversity

Heaven is heresy

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.

promoting False miracles

and the supernatural

What we forget

– connection, interdependence

Religion

• relationships and hope
• where we place our hope for a better life / world / future
• self in relation to cosmos

Fundamental unity

death and time

equality

David Le Page

• www.sgi-sa.org.za
• prezi.com

Why is it important as Buddhists to fight the assumptions of economics?

Economics as religion

Ritual

Fundamental unity

the restorative economy

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

Arnold Toynbee

“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.”

“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)

‘Recognize that all beings are interdependent and every form of life has value regardless of its worth to human beings.’ – The Earth Charter

'Is it good for the economy?'

Economics is the dominant philosophy of society.

And now? What do we have faith in now?

?

Not Buddhas, but consumers.

“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.

‘Unless we can perceive our fellow human beings and feel their sufferings as our own, we will never be free of conflict and war.’

‘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.’

(PROGRESS...)

technological

progress

“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

Thanks, Dr Al Bartlett

'The gist of the teaching of the Lotus Sutra

is that all people are equal.' – Daisaku Ikeda

what makes for good religion?

• equality
• living ritual
• not superstitious
• interdependence
• honours the value of life
• humans not more NB
• accepts mortality
• consistent with science