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Buddhist Economic Wisdom for Falling Back in Love With Mother Earth
By John Stanley and David Loy
Posted: 03/30/2012 11:30 am
The economic system of Marxism is founded on moral principles, while capitalism is concerned only with gain and profitability. The former is concerned with the distribution of wealth on an equal basis, equitable utilization of the means of production, and the fate of the working classes and underprivileged. This appeals to me and seems fair. The major flaw of such regimes is their emphasis on class struggle -- insistence on hatred to the detriment of compassion. Their failure is not that of Marxism, but of totalitarianism. So I still think of myself as half-Marxist, half-Buddhist. --The Dalai Lama
Communism failed because it couldn't tell the economic truth; capitalism will fail because it can't tell the ecological truth. --Lester Brown
Nineteenth-century historian Thomas Carlyle referred to economics as "the dismal science." Today, in the 21st century, despite decades of cheer-leading for it in the media, mainstream economics looks not only dismal but unscientific and even cynical.
That's largely because most economists have been providing mathematical cover for the biggest inside job the world has ever seen: the privatization of profit and socialization of loss by governments in hock to corporate capitalism -- a key feature in our long and continuing recession. The corporate media have convinced us that hundreds of billions of taxpayer money to save reckless banking systems is an economic necessity. But investing something similar to save our planet as a viable habitat for future generations is treated as an economic impossibility.
More: HuffPo Story
Posted: 03/30/2012 11:30 am
The economic system of Marxism is founded on moral principles, while capitalism is concerned only with gain and profitability. The former is concerned with the distribution of wealth on an equal basis, equitable utilization of the means of production, and the fate of the working classes and underprivileged. This appeals to me and seems fair. The major flaw of such regimes is their emphasis on class struggle -- insistence on hatred to the detriment of compassion. Their failure is not that of Marxism, but of totalitarianism. So I still think of myself as half-Marxist, half-Buddhist. --The Dalai Lama
Communism failed because it couldn't tell the economic truth; capitalism will fail because it can't tell the ecological truth. --Lester Brown
Nineteenth-century historian Thomas Carlyle referred to economics as "the dismal science." Today, in the 21st century, despite decades of cheer-leading for it in the media, mainstream economics looks not only dismal but unscientific and even cynical.
That's largely because most economists have been providing mathematical cover for the biggest inside job the world has ever seen: the privatization of profit and socialization of loss by governments in hock to corporate capitalism -- a key feature in our long and continuing recession. The corporate media have convinced us that hundreds of billions of taxpayer money to save reckless banking systems is an economic necessity. But investing something similar to save our planet as a viable habitat for future generations is treated as an economic impossibility.
More: HuffPo Story
Check out the Buddhism Group if you are interested BTW - Aloha.
