Philosophical Reflections on Economic and Social Issues E-Book

Jean-Marie Paglia

• Herausgeber: Books on Demand
• Kategorie: Geisteswissenschaft
• Serie: The Way for Mankind
• Sprache: Englisch

Seitenzahl: 167

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2021

Beschreibung

The book deals with the problems of the world in the social and economic aspects. The general idea is that neoliberalism is basically wrong and will never solve the problem of a fair living standard for everyone. So-called development is not progress at all, but rather it is a sick growth if not done on moral bases. The human creature believes it has reached the final point in evolution, a kind of perfect being, while in fact evolution is not finished and we have to continue the way in spiritual development. If there is any growth or development to be done, it must be a growth in consciousness, and the way to achieve it is through meditation, or other means of sef-improvement. The book rests on a lot of research but absolutely not on personal speculation, the underlying thread and inspiration comes from traditional spiritual wisdom, and this allows a general view that joins everything together from basic wants to spiritual needs. Mankind is already well engaged on its way to a better future.

Leseprobe

By the same author

La Voie de l’humanité, Livre 2 (2011)

Considérations philosophiques sur les enjeux politiques et

culturels

[The Way for Mankind, Book Two:

Philosophical Reflections on Political and Cultural Issues]

La Voie de l’humanité, Livre 3 (2020)

La spiritualité est notre voie d’évolution

www.lavoienaturelle.com

Translated from the original French by Lucy Lyall-Grant

Acknowledgments

We would like to express our gratitude to all the authors directly or indirectly quoted in this book, in particular Anup Shah, Betsy Bowman and Bob Stone, Frank Brunner, Fritjof Capra, Paul Hawken, John Ikerd, Mila Kahlon, David Loy, Ethan Miller, and Venerable Payutto.

Their points of view help us understand the world.

Thanks, too, to Jacqueline Enjalbert for her illustrations.

This work is dedicated to those who are not put off by somewhat dry reading matter, and who savor the satisfaction of in-depth reflection.

Contents

Acknowledgments

Foreword

A Quick Glance at the Planet

Neoliberalism, the Principle of the Global Economic Order

A Quick Glance at Developed Countries

A United World for Better or for Worse

The Law of the Market

The Quest for the Highest Profit

Dinosaurs

The Growth of the Masses

A Cancer-like Growth

A Matter of Conscience

The Principles for Change

For the Happy Few

The Ways in Which Change is Occurring

Observing the Changes

Solidarity Economics

Entrepreneurial Concepts

Balance is Well-Being

Sources and Documents

Foreword

In the times we live in, most of us must seriously be wondering about the way the human race is going. We are faced with a mound of major problems for which we seem to have no solution, and there seems to be no articulated or agreed idea for defining our way forward, as though we were steadily and resolutely moving towards our goal, without having any goal whatsoever.

The following pages express the bewilderment and the reflections of the common man; not an expert, and not someone who is ever consulted. Nevertheless, the ordinary man thinks, gathers information and listens to many different points of view because he would very much like to understand, and shape his own destiny accordingly. Let us enter his thoughts, follow them and develop them, for they are your thoughts – our thoughts – and we may be surprised at how similar our ideas turn out to be. The thoughts expressed here come from all kinds of different horizons and are addressed to every person living on this Earth. But we will have to be brave to go all the way, for the road ahead is arduous.

Let’s take a look at where we stand now, tracing the thoughts of those who have been observing the world’s problems.

First of all, in this volume, let’s examine the situation in economic and social terms.

What do we see?

1. A Quick Glance at the Planet

Let’s look at Mumbai. Here are a few details from an article in Le Monde Diplomatique : “India’s City of Gold.” (1)

“Many slum dwellers have built two or three lofts atop their hovels and rented them out. On average 10 people live in a single hut of about nine square meters. No one can estimate how many people live on Reay Road, but every single day the headcount increases and with it the chaos. To be honest, no one can even confirm how many people live in the city overall. Official surveys show that there are 12 million (more than Greece) and that half of them are homeless. But because of the endless stream of immigrants, the slum population, the hundreds of unregistered children born every day, it may be closer to 16 million […]

Many have come from far to settle in the City of Hope, convinced they would find jobs […] So they survive here, on the road, day after day, despite the pollution, heat, malnutrition, dirt, trucks and cars whizzing by, accidents, diseases, huge rats and crows, stinking gutters, the disgust of better-off passers-by and the monsoon floods […]

It takes a while to realize why it continues to attract so many outsiders who hope to make their fortunes here. It is overwhelmingly huge, hot, cramped, polluted, suffocating, crowded, traffic-choked, with appalling sights and smells of poverty and sickness. If you are poor, you live in inhuman conditions; if you are rich, the mafia bothers you. If you are middle-class, just leaving your house every morning is a struggle – fighting with traffic, negotiating potholes, trying to ignore tiny begging hands scratching your car windows.”

This account could equally well describe hundreds of cities around the world. It is evidence of the sorry state of our planet.

We are regularly kept abreast of the general state of the world. Here are a few examples from websites keeping an eye on the world’s problems – there are many sources of information at our disposal. Most of the figures quoted in this chapter come from the Global Issues website (2), which offers a very thorough analysis of the social, economic and political problems affecting our planet. Here is a brief rundown of the overall situation, a reality far easier to contemplate when it’s reduced to statistics:

Two billion people suffer from malnutrition, and 18 million starve to death every year.

Millions of people die each year from curable or preventable diseases.

1.3 billion people have no access to drinking water; 3 billion have no sanitation and 2 billion do not have electricity.

Poverty, hunger, malnutrition, disease, appalling sanitation and illiteracy haunt a large proportion of the world’s population. We could flesh out the description of this world of ours by mentioning child labor (25 million children are exploited in unacceptable working conditions), the terrible conditions for many women and the lack of respect for basic human rights.

It would be interesting to try and understand how we have managed to make such a mess of our existence and our dignity.

We human beings are real idiots.

The genesis of this global tragedy is largely the result of clashes between cultures. Over the last few centuries, Europe’s aggressive, mercantile cultures came into contact with peaceful subsistence economies. As we all know, these encounters were not harmonious – you only have to think about Conquistadors seizing gold, land, souls and people in the newly discovered “Indies”, or the slave trade – the buying and selling of human “ebony”. Cultural differences were too great to give rise to fair exchanges.

The tragedy of under-development appears to stem from those historical exchanges. Colonialism opened up vast territories that were exploited by rich countries. The colonized peoples found themselves in a state of economic inferiority, and they have remained in that state ever since.

Following the end of colonialism, strategic aspects of world trade have remained under the control of the dominant powers, notably thanks to gaining the allegiance of local elites.

It is the rich who decide upon trade regulations, shape international institutions and control information, and these trade advantages enable them to exploit resources for their own benefit, depriving the producing countries of their fare share.

Conditions imposed by international institutions upon poor countries maintain their dependence and under-development, as they favor trade which does not benefit the poorer countries.

Poor nations can no longer produce their own food and do not have the means to develop their own industries.

Free trade does not equal fair trade. Wealth continues to be transferred from poor countries to rich countries, and the weakest countries are forced to accept unfair deals.

What’s more, rich countries know how to protect themselves from imports which could harm their economies.

Poor countries urgently require investment in the areas of infrastructure, education and health before being able to establish fair trading conditions, but their efforts for self-development are crushed by the burden of debt, some of which dates back to colonial times.

A number of cause-and-effect relationships bind the two extremes of this human imbalance, and such bonds are rarely brought to light. Let’s examine debt as one such example.

Nations emerging from colonization started out indebted to their former colonial masters during the 1960s, and the debt has continued to grow ever since. Borrowed billions find their way back to the rich countries, which become even richer from this exchange. “The poor are subsidizing the rich” as they say. Debt continues to increase with compound interest, reaching dizzying heights, and the vicious cycle can only be broken by canceling the debt.

According to the Jubilee 2000 report by the World Bank, debt continues to grow despite larger payments, while the amount of aid is decreasing. International aid is down 20% from the 1990s, and countries which pledged a defined percentage of their GNP in aid have not kept their word.

For every dollar received in the form of aid, the Third World pays back 13 dollars. The production of wealth required by these countries for their own development is being siphoned off – in the 1980s real income fell by 60% in Mexico, 50% in Argentina, and 70% in Peru.

It is fortunate that we are not aware of all this; it would make us uneasy. If we were aware of it, on the other hand, and were not overly concerned, we would have to admit that we are essentially self-engrossed creatures, conscious only of our own interests and concerns.

And it should also be remembered that in the poorest countries, the people who have to repay such debts did not contract them in the first place. They never saw the money at all.

Kofi Annan, Secretary General of the United Nations, pointed out during a conference on October 30, 2003, that in the previous year developing countries had paid almost 200 billion dollars to third countries.

“Funds ought to be flowing from developed countries into developing countries, but the figures are telling us that the opposite is true. Funds which should be encouraging investment or growth in developing countries, or building schools and hospitals or supporting other measures for […] development, are, on the contrary, moving abroad.”

The United Nations development program estimates that transfers from South to North are worth $500 billion per year, while aid donated to the Third World totals around $50 billion.

According to the economist Manfred Max-Neef, developing countries subsidize industrialized countries to the tune of hundreds of billions of dollars every year. Max-Neef calculates that around $400 billion net are transferred from Latin America to industrialized countries. (3)

Ten years after the World Food Summit, which pledged to reduce by half the number of people suffering from malnutrition by the year 2015, no progress has been recorded and 854 million people still do not have enough to eat, according to the FAO annual report on food insecurity (October 2006.)

The world is what we make of it, and what we make of it also shows who we are. It has to be said that we have not managed to make a very decent world, nor one which we should be happy about. However, we are not particularly concerned about it – to us, such problems appear insurmountable and remote.

NB. The statistics quoted in this book may not exactly match the present-day situation. The regular information available will let the reader assess for himself whether significant changes have happened or not as the years went by.

2. Neoliberalism, the Principle of the Global Economic Order

The fundamental economic rules governing our planet are well known, and are laid down by the most powerful nations who thus ensure they can obtain the best for their national self-interest. Over time, economic principles have evolved to some extent, while naturally remaining basically the same.

The neoliberal theory is based upon the idea of the greatest possible economic freedom within a system of triumphant capitalism.

The fundamental principle of free trade sees in a totally free market a magic wand capable of providing all the benefits one could possibly hope for; freed from state intervention, excessive regulation, price controls and the weight of the unions, free trade spurs on the economy. The free movement of goods, services and capital requires sustained growth.

The privatization of public companies ensures that they are efficient and profitable.

Free trade develops global commerce and enables every country to develop in turn. It guarantees the most just and most efficient distribution of resources.

Competition gives the system magical energy – healthy competition between countries, companies and individuals within companies encourages the success of the best and stimulates innovation, lowers prices and gets the best results. This sacrosanct competition is at the very core of every personal preoccupation – it is an expression of the survival principle, the ancestral expression of human activity.

What could be better than that?

As far as we can judge, it would seem that this system has indeed brought inestimable progress in many areas. Notably, globalization has meant that emerging countries have been able to get off the ground economically, as outsourcing brings jobs there, even if this remains a form of exploitation.

Obviously, this kind of economic activity distributes a certain amount of wealth and improves living standards, but not in a way that is satisfactory, efficient or balanced. The undeniable proof right in front of us is the current state of the planet and also in long-since developed rich countries where economic disparities have not disappeared with time, but persist and are often getting worse – a sure sign that this revered free market economy is not functioning well at all.

This economic activity does not meet the needs of the people, as half of us remain completely impoverished while a fifth of us consume almost all the world’s resources.

The article from Global Issues, “Primer on Neoliberalism” (1) notes that within a year of establishing the North American Free Trade Agreement, wages were cut by half in Mexico, while the cost of living rose by 80%.

In Corpwatch, “What is Neoliberalism?” (2) Elizabeth Martinez and Arnoldo Garcia point out that:

One of the indisputable results of Neoliberalism is that the rich are growing richer while the poor grow ever poorer.

During a conference at the British Museum on November 16 2000, Nelson Mandela declared:

“We welcome the process of globalization. It is inescapable and irreversible. “However,”… if globalization is to create real peace and stability across the world, it must be a process benefiting all. It must not allow the most economically and politically powerful countries to dominate and submerge the countries of the weaker and peripheral regions. It should not be allowed to drain the wealth of smaller countries towards the larger ones, or to increase inequality between richer and poorer regions.”

Quoted in Global Issues in “Criticisms of Current Forms of Free Trade,” (3) John M. Bunzl writes:

“Far from some altruistic motive to see those in poor countries improve their lot and thus narrow the gap between rich and poor, globalization therefore merely serves as an efficient, low-cost method for TNCs [transnational corporations] to take advantage of low taxes, weak regulations and vulnerable labor whilst penetrating the economies of developing countries.”

We could even go so far as to say that Neoliberalism is a factor in causing social disintegration. If it is taken for granted that economic dynamism should reward company shareholders and that other benefits for the workers or the rest of society are of secondary importance, then this economic dynamism can only occur at the expense of the social structure. It amounts to aggression with regard to social values, swindling the social organization. This is clearly shown in the measures imposed by capitalism. Just as during the Industrial Revolution, when farmers and small, independent craftsmen had to give up their independent means of subsistence and become working-class masses dependent on capital, today we can see the same damage being inflicted upon the social structure by the measures dictated by Neoliberalism – reduction of the role of the state, deregulation, the greatest possible freedom for businesses, the privatization of public sectors, reduction of the power of the unions, labor flexibility, precarity which puts employees at the mercy of their employers, cuts in social protection – all these elements demonstrate the economic masters’ aggression towards the social structure for their own gain.

The most obvious aspect of this way of doing things is that the decisions which affect society as a whole are taken by a very small number of people, all with ulterior motives.

It is also obvious that this same mechanism has now spread over the entire planet.

In the same way as it generates workplace relationships based on heedless exploitation and competition, Neoliberalism puts a strain on the environment and the world’s resources, causing further degradation. The “free-for-all” principle, a primitive, “dog-eat-dog” battle is placed at the very heart of the social contract, and cynicism becomes the moral foundation of our world. It establishes a moral deficit in our world which earlier societies did not experience to such a serious extent, and endorses the degradation of conditions for humankind on a planetary scale.

3. A Quick Glance at Developed Countries

There are hundreds of reports and studies highlighting the persistence and even the rise in significant levels of poverty in developed countries. We can get an idea of the situation by quoting just a few of them....

In the year 2000, an OECD report (1) on poverty in six developed countries (including Germany, Canada and the United States) indicated a disturbing rate of persistent poverty. Over a period of six years, poverty levels in these countries fluctuated between 12 and 40%.

The most noticeable differences between rich and poor are observed in the richest of these countries. In the United States, the top 1% of the population amasses more money that the 40% of people at the bottom end of the scale, and this inequality has been increasing constantly for 70 years.

In the United Kingdom, the 50% of people at the bottom of the scale possess only 1% of the nation’s wealth. In 1976, that figure was 12%. Poverty can be said to affect half Great Britain’s population if welfare benefits are not taken into account – a sorry result for a country which for centuries has endeavored to be a standard-bearer for civilization.

Could this be called progress? Is this fair distribution of wealth? Is this economic efficiency?

Here are a few accounts:

The Impact of Globalization on Urban Development.

(A description of an inner city neighborhood)

“Row upon row of empty, boarded up privately owned houses exist in neighborhoods where Local Authority tenants do not wish to live and owner-occupiers have abandoned properties that have become almost worthless. Escalating crime rates in these areas are amongst the highest in Western Europe, as are levels of hard drug dependency […].

Inner London is now the wealthiest single region in Europe, with a per capita GDP more than double that of the European average. The capital enjoys a GDP three times higher than the poorest British regions [...]. Britain in aggregate is one of the four poorest countries in the European Union. It has the sharpest distinctions between rich and poor regions in Western Europe. Against London’s rating of 222, the EU average for GDP per person is 100 […].