A discussion on 'Non-possessiveness (APARIGRAH): What does it mean and how to practice it in contemporary society?' was held at a recent quarterly meeting of the Jain Study Circle. In the course of the discussion, an important question was raised: How can the number of jobs increase without growth in business and industry? The present article based on quotations from various sources may provide some food for thought on this important topic.
Seeds of Self-Reliance (from the Time Magazine of August 2002)
Vandana Shiva will never forget a lesson she learned at the age of 13. Her parents, who like many educated Indians had supported Mohandas Gandhi's struggle against colonialism, insisted on wearing clothing made only of homespun cotton. One day Vandana, having returned from a boarding school to her home in the Himalayan foothill town of Dehra Dun, demanded a nylon dress, the fashion adopted by her rich friends. Her mother, a teacher turned farmer, agreed. "If that is what you want, of course you shall have it," she said. "But remember, your nylon frock will help a rich man buy a bigger car. And the cotton that you wear will buy a poor family at least one meal."
Now 50, Shiva still chuckles when she tells the story. "Of course, I did not get that frock," she says. "I kept thinking of some poor family starving because of my dress." True to her upbringing, Shiva has made it her mission to fight for social justice in many arenas. With a doctorate in physics from the University of Western Ontario, she has been a teacher, an ecologist, an activist, a feminist and an organic farmer.
From an article by Molly Ivins, published in the Contra Costa Times, August 2002: (Figures are from the book 'Wealth and Democracy' by Kevin Phillips)
In 1999, the average after-tax income of the middle 60 percent of Americans was lower than in 1971. The 400 richest Americans between 1982 and 1999 increased their average net worth from $230 million to $2.6 billion, over 500 percent in constant dollars.
By 1999, over one decade the average work year had expanded by 184 hours. The Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that the typical American worked 350 hours more per year than the typical European.
Less than half of all Americans have any pension plan other than social security. Wage-earners in the Unites States collectively ended the decade with less pension and health coverage, as well as with the Industrial West's least amount of vacation time, shortest maternity leaves and shortest average notice of termination. Among the Western Nations, the United States has the highest levels of inequality.
From 1980 to 1999, the 500 largest U.S. corporations tripled their assets and profits, and enlarged their market value eightfold, as measured by stock prices. During the same period, the 500 corporations eliminated 5 million American jobs.
The stress and tension in the lives of middle-class Americans is unfortunately not quantifiable.
In the 1940s and 50s, the middle 60 percent of Americans got the largest share of the growth in the economic pie. In the 90s. the increase went disproportionately to the very wealthy.
From an article by Shakti Maira, published in the magazine section of the Hindu, April, 6 2003:
(Shakti Maira studied economics at St. Stephen's College and Business Management at IIM, Ahmedabad. He has worked in several multinational corporations and was a consultant for the World Bank/UNDP.)
Exactly 30 years ago, economist E.F. Schumacher published Small is Beautiful: A Study of Economics as if People Mattered. In it he wrote: "The foundations of peace cannot be laid by universal prosperity, in the modern sense, because such prosperity, if attainable at all, is attainable only by cultivating such drives of human nature as greed and envy, which destroy intelligence, happiness, serenity, and thereby the peacefulness of man".
The two fundamental problems at a systems level are: material prosperity in terms of even today's levels of consumption in America may not be attainable for all due to the natural limits of the earth's resources and ecosystem; and that the motivations that drive the system may well be cancerous to peace and friendship between people and nations.
Economic interests are the dominating values of the American, and one could add, the modern way of life. It is governed by three arching values - the right to consume, the right to property and wealth, and limitless economic growth. All other principles, of freedom of speech, individual rights, free press, and democracy, have in practice become subjugated by these three economic ideals.
The economic engines of the modern way of life are fueled by greed and envy, even more than by oil. People are induced, driven to be dissatisfied with what they have, no matter how much it is they have, and to consume more and consume something else and keep consuming. What this system keeps producing, and is structurally designed to do, is to produce more goods and continuing dissatisfaction. As a result, the increase in production and consumption has not resulted in a society that is at peace, where violence, stress, tension and fear have decreased. In the U.S., where while GNP, the measure of goods produced and consumed, has risen greatly in the past 30 years, there remains hunger, poverty, illiteracy and rising drug abuse. If the U.S. has not been able to create universal prosperity within its safe borders, what makes anyone think it can do this across the planet? But worse, the qualities of motivations that drive this Way of Life, may well be wrong, and let's say, not very moral.
From the CBS Program '60 Minutes II) of January 8, 2003
"We're doing things that we did before food stamps. Before we had various programs and quite frankly it's a little bit hard to watch sometimes," says Bob Garbo, head of the local affiliate of the non-profit group America's Second Harvest. The food being distributed in his line comes mostly from government programs and from private donations. On that day the line grew so long that they brought in an extra truck - they hadn't done that before. But since 1999, the number of people getting emergency food aid in Ohio alone has grown from 2 million to 4.5 million. There are a lot of reasons: housing and medical costs are up. Unemployment is up, and many jobs that are available are minimum wage.
Andy Rooney on the CBS Program '60 Minutes' of December 1, 2002
A woman who inherited a lot of the money from the Eli Lilly pharmaceutical company has given $100 million of it to a poetry magazine. . . . I'm happy for the poetry magazine but maybe this woman should have thought about giving the money back to some of the people who paid too much for Eli Lilly's products in the first place.
From the ABC Program 'In Search of America' by Peter Jenning, broadcast on ABC on September 7, 2002
Much of the world is becoming more "American" all the time. The American ideas of freedom, democracy and competition are spreading to almost every corner of the globe, as are American products - including the quintessentially American potato chip. . . . Meanwhile the world is being transformed by the desire of American businesses to grow and succeed in a world of global markets. Is that a good thing?
Columnist George Will once said that the potato chip is the perfect delivery device for fat and salt.
(Interviewing people in China)
Some people did not see the need to change from their usual nuts and sunflower seeds and dried fruits. Some people thought that potato chips were expensive. This practical woman thought that for the price of one bag of Lays, she could buy a whole bag of potatoes. . . .
Rather than face the costs of building a new business in an unfamiliar market, the (American) company identifies the leading local snack manufacturer and offers to buy it out. If the local manufacturer refuses to sell, Frito-Lay moves into the market on its own, using its size and marketing experience to cut into the local manufacturer's sales. Often, at that point, the local company gives in and sells, sometimes for a lower price than the original offer. . . .
The executives behind Frito-Lay's global expansion acknowledge that they try to swing national eating habits to a food that was created in America, but they deny that amounts to economic imperialism. Rather, they see Frito-Lay as spreading the benefits of free enterprise across the world.
Excerpts from Pope John Paul II's statement to President Bush (July 23, 2003):
In recent days, the worlds attention has been focused on the process of globalization, which has so greatly accelerated in the past decade and which you and other leaders of the industrialized nations have discussed in Genoa.
While appreciating the opportunities for economic growth and material prosperity which this process offers, the church cannot but express profound concern that our world continues to be divided, no longer by the former political and military blocs, but by a tragic fault line between those who can benefit from these opportunities and those who seem cut off from them.
The revolution of freedom of which I spoke at the United Nations in 1995 must now be completed by a revolution of opportunity, in which all the world's peoples actively contribute to economic prosperity and share in its fruits.
This requires leadership by those nations whose religious and cultural traditions should make them most attentive to the moral dimension of the issues involved. Respect for human dignity and belief in the equal dignity of all the members of the human family demand policies aimed at enabling all peoples to have access to the means required to improve their lives . . .