Small Is Beautiful

Economics as if People Mattered

E.F. Schumacher

• German (1911-1977)• Studied and later taught economics at Oxford• German recovery• Consultant for developing nations

"Any intelligent fool can make things bigger, more complex, and more violent. It takes a

touch of genius - and a lot of courage - to move in the

opposite direction."

Small is Beautiful

• Originally published in 1973– What was going on at this time? • Richard Nixon inaugurated for second term

– Clean Water, Clean Air, and Endangered Species Act

• Limits to Growth published 1972• OPEC and embargo on oil imports

– Rising gas prices– Energy shortage? – Sound familiar?

• Followed by President Carter saying in 1977:– Americans agreed and most were anti-growth

• What happened?“In a nation that was proud of hard

work, strong families, close-knit communities, and our faith in God, too many of us now tend to worship self-

indulgence and consumption” “Human identity is no longer defined by what

one does by what one owns”

Small was Ugly

• Solar panels came down along with the budget for R&D for renewables (Reagan)

• No limits to growth (Bush, Clinton, Bush, Obama)

• Larry Summers:

“There are no…limits to the carrying capacity of the earth that

are likely bind any time in the foreseeable future. There isn’t any risk of an apocalypse due to global warming or anything else. The idea

that we should put limits on growth because of some natural

limit is a profound error”

Small is Beautiful (again?)

• Financial collapse • Peak Oil • Global Warming

Small is Beautiful • Internal and External

consequences of modern economics– Environmental

• Natural Capital and waste– Spiritual and Societal

• How can we expect peace and prosperity if our ways of getting there are through greed and violence?

• Will we ever be rich?

For at least another hundred years we must pretend to ourselves and to every one that fair

is foul and foul is fair; for foul is useful and fair is not. Avarice and usury and precaution must be

our gods for a little longer still. For only they can lead us out of the tunnel of economic necessity

into daylight.

John Maynard Keynes

Buddhist Economist

• Work and leisure are complementary

• Focus on liberation• Scale: smaller is better

Modern Economist• Work is a necessary evil

• Focus on goods • Scale: Bigger is better

Schumacher and Buddhist Economics

Buddhist Economics• Creatures and land are

inherently valued (ends)

Modern Economics • Creatures and land are

factors of production (means)

Small is Beautiful

• Lead to: – Local Agriculture Movement – Main Street not Wall Street – Fair Trade

• "Only after the last tree has been cut down…the last river has been poisoned…the last fish caught, only then will you find that money cannot be eaten."

- Cree Indian Prophesy