Economics derives from the Greek word meaning household management.
Today economics is the study of how we manage our resources, products, and services.
Since the division of labor in the acquiring of food, protection, and shelter,
human beings have exchanged things of value with each other
through cooperation and trade.
As we have advanced in technological skill, we have become
more interdependent, making social and economic relationships more complicated.
Human population has steadily increased such that the Earth's space and resources
are being sorely tested in the twenty-first century with population still increasing
and global warming threatening the present and even more the future.
As more people become accustomed to a prosperous style of living,
economics becomes more of a concern.
Both individually and collectively we must decide what to contribute
to society for all of the resources, products, and services that sustain us.
Thus we must examine both our individual and social economic responsibilities.
Everybody needs to breathe air, drink water, and eat food to keep alive.
Human beings also require extra protection from the cold.
Since humans do not live independently in isolation but rather in communities,
communication and education have become essential.
Because we are social, I would add that love is a human necessity.
Through evolution of intelligence and particularly manual skills,
humans have become most successful at adapting to and shaping our environment.
Because of our ability to provide food and shelter so efficiently,
our numbers have increased, and we have been able to turn much
of our energies and talents toward other cultural pursuits as well.
Nonetheless many people in the world today
suffer from malnutrition and lack of health care.
With the rare exception of a person who has resolved to commit suicide
by refusing to eat, surely all individuals are willing to do the work necessary
to provide for themselves if they are capable and the opportunity is available.
Thus out of compassion for their suffering I believe that we as a society
have the moral obligation to help provide the necessities of life to the poor
who are in need of them and to create the opportunities
for all able people to become self-reliant.
How we handle our responsibilities to provide for our needs both individually
and collectively is a basic part of our educational experience on this planet.
Individually we each must decide what we wish to contribute to human society.
Throughout history the vast majority of people supported themselves
by working directly in agriculture.
Now in advanced societies only a small percentage of the people work in agriculture.
Because of this and the complexity of our society,
every person in need cannot be expected to turn to the land to grow food.
Vast numbers of people suffering drought, as in Africa,
likewise cannot be expected to provide their own food without outside help.
The abundance and wealth of so many people in the world today
is so prosperous that we as a society ought not to shrink from sharing
our bountifulness with those who would suffer disease and death without assistance,
especially since poorer people tend to have more children as a survival instinct.
Thus by neglecting to aid the poor we worsen the population problem
and multiply suffering.
Yet by providing good nutrition, health care, and education we can eradicate
this needless agony and at the same time bring population growth into balance
because educated and prosperous people have fewer children.
We provide for our needs and desires by working.
Work is goal-directed activity whereby we apply our physical
and mental energies to the accomplishment of tasks.
Work is essentially creative, whether we have initiated our own project
or are cooperating with others in a group endeavor.
Since the abolition of slavery and serfdom, work has been freely chosen.
Although most people feel the economic constraint to work,
individuals do have the right to select the type of work they want to do.
Naturally these choices are limited to the opportunities
available in the labor market and to entrepreneurs.
Much work is not paid for directly but is traded to others,
especially what women often do as part of their family responsibilities.
We all work when we bathe and dress ourselves, move our bodies from place to place,
prepare and eat our food, clean and maintain our living space, etc.
All of these tasks are learned by young children.
Even play and artistic pursuits are work in the sense of expending energy in activity.
I believe that it is best for our society as a whole to provide
education and training for everyone to prepare them for useful work and a productive life.
The money taxpayers try to save on educational expenditures is often lost
in lessened future productivity and in larger expenses for crime and punishment.
Investment in education and occupational training promotes
prosperity and improves the quality of our lives.
In capitalist and socialist nations approximately one in ten people
who want to work may not be able to find a job.
To me this shortcoming must be remedied for the sake of justice, balance,
harmony, responsibility, health, and even growth and fruition.
Surely we can find constructive work for these people to do!
I believe that if we have the will, government agencies with skilled employment
counselors could help all these people find the training they need
and jobs in the private sector with the rest given public service work.
Also we ought to realize that mothers and fathers taking care of young children
are working, and we can enhance their experience and the future of those
children by providing them with appropriate education and training
as well as child care services so that they can do other work if they wish.
I believe that the unemployment problem is so large,
not because people do not want to work, but because our society
as a whole has neglected to provide the opportunities needed for all the people.
Another way of distributing work more fairly is to lessen the length of the work week
so that employers will hire more people to avoid paying overtime wages.
Since the introduction of the forty-hour work week, tremendous
technological advances have improved the efficiency of human labor.
Many more jobs can be made available by shortening
the work week to thirty hours or less.
I believe that as people grow in spiritual awareness, education and cultural pursuits,
they will prefer to have more free time for these creative activities
rather than increased material wealth.
Our work is what we give to the world; it is the channeling
of our energy and intelligence into constructive production and service.
Everyone has something to contribute, and cooperating together
we are able to create an abundant and fulfilling life.
Work ennobles us, almost as gods and goddesses on Earth.
We must take responsibility so that our work or activity
is not destructive or harmful to others or to our environment.
All wealth is originally produced from natural and human resources
made useful to us by work, even if it is mining minerals from the ground
or harvesting native plants.
Work has evolved from gathering and hunting to agriculture and pastoral care of animals
to crafts and metallurgy to inventions and industrial production to electronics and computers.
All of these activities and human services have produced
value or wealth for human beings.
As farmers settled on land and tools were devised and shelters built,
people began to claim the objects they were using
and producing in their work as property.
Trade was found to be mutually beneficial and evolved from barter
to the use of metals to coins to paper money to credit.
Wealth was shared with family and others and passed on through inheritance.
Thus each new generation is given a legacy from all past accomplishments.
Property is a way of saying that someone has created something
or purchased it or received it as a gift, and is using it and is responsible for its care.
Although some property is commercially owned and shared by a group,
no large society, not even Communism, has abolished the private ownership of property.
Communism and to some extent socialism have appropriated
the means of production of industry by public or government ownership,
and individuals still maintain private ownership and responsibility for personal possessions.
Even in capitalist societies governments on various levels own and operate services,
the military, many utilities, and public agencies; many private businesses
are large corporations that are collectively owned and operated,
and virtually all businesses attempt to serve the general public.
Individuals and groups who have the opportunity to acquire and own property
within society are expected to contribute to government services
through taxation which is fair.
Ownership of property by individuals and groups allows them to use those resources
any way they wish as long as they do not violate the laws
that protect the general welfare of society.
The sense of ownership gives people a selfish incentive
for taking good care of their possessions.
Collective or social ownership depends upon a sense of social responsibility
and concern for others as well as oneself, whereas individuals
may respect others’ private property out of fear of liability.
Private ownership promotes greater personal autonomy and independence
while collective ownership requires greater sharing and cooperation.
Each society must decide what can be privately owned
and what services and businesses are better publicly operated.
These decisions and those of taxation affect the
distribution of wealth, goods, and services.
Certainly it is most efficient and free to allow individuals money and wealth
from their work to spend as they choose
according to their values of what they need and want.
The process of exchanging goods and services in the marketplace
allows specialization of labor.
We each contribute our work or property in exchange for money,
and then use that money to buy the things we need and want.
This enables individuals to choose not only what they want to contribute
but also what they want to purchase, allowing the economy to be self-regulating.
The price system serves to equalize supply and demand by offering
monetary incentives for people to produce what people
want more of or what they will pay more for.
If demand decreases, then prices will fall or production will be lessened.
These market pressures operate in an economy planned by the government
just as they do in a privately owned free-enterprise economy.
However, government bureaucracies may be less flexible in adjusting to popular demand
because of their entrenched power and rigidity
that may allow them to be inefficient without going out of business.
Individuals and family units do their own marketing
for the products and services they want.
This allows people creative freedom in choosing their lifestyle and enables them
to learn the discipline of operating within the budget they can afford.
Thus everyone learns by the limitations of their earning ability and property
about economy in a very personal and experiential way.
Every individual and group must learn how to manage their resources and assets
in order to fulfill their fiscal and economic responsibilities.
Greater equality and democracy in business allows workers
to share in management decisions.
If employers and managers attempt to take unfair advantage of labor,
workers can manage their situation by union organizing and collective bargaining.
No one can exploit people, resources, and the environment
unless we allow them to do so.
In managing we are continually evaluating situations
and making value judgments of what we should do.
In making these decisions I recommend that in addition to profit
and financial success that we carefully consider all of the divine principles
in order to enhance the entire quality of life not just the material side.
I suggest that our economic choices can work to maximize goodness, truth, beauty,
reality, awareness, joy, love, wisdom, power, life, growth, fruition, will, freedom,
responsibility, creativity, balance, harmony, courage, faith, patience, law, justice,
peace, wholeness, health, and perfection.
If these are all taken into account I believe that the results will be
not only prosperity and success but personal fulfillment and happiness as well.
Good managing requires a broad view and flexibility
in considering and implementing what is going to be best for everyone.
Society has a right and even a responsibility to prevent harm to people
and the environment by regulating economic activities
by means of laws and public agencies.
Furthermore most governments have assumed the responsibility
of promoting, protecting, and providing for the general welfare of all the people.
Thus the right to tax economic affairs has been accepted by virtually all societies.
Taxation and government spending is best decided by democratic processes
so that they will be fair to everyone.
The people in each society choose the kinds and amounts of tax
and what public services are to be provided by government.
Society is not a jungle, and everyone has the social obligation to contribute
to the general welfare because of the opportunities and services they receive.
Anyone who has attained financial wealth has done so
because of the workings of the whole society
as well as their own individual effort.
Therefore I recommend sharply progressive taxes which place
a larger obligation on the wealthy.
Some say this reduces economic incentive,
and I believe that greed and avarice need not be promoted.
Everyone should have the incentive to work and contribute to society.
In excessively capitalist societies these opportunities
are often not well distributed among the people.
The wealthy have an unfair advantage for obtaining even more wealth
while the middle and lower classes face ruthless competition.
On the other hand overly egalitarian economic restraint
can reduce initiative, effort, and creativity.
I believe that a healthy and just society will make sure that
everyone has adequate shelter, clothes, food, health care, education,
and employment opportunity either through comprehensive public services
or a negative income tax benefit program.
Theoretically private charity could accomplish this in a generous society,
and history has shown that to be inadequate and inefficient.
Government is able to organize the resources and services
of the whole society in a more universal and fair system.
People ought to have the incentive to work part of the time
without losing needed welfare benefits, which can be gradually reduced
as earned income is gained.
I believe that more progressive taxes will allow more people to share
the responsibilities of society’s upper echelons and lift people's motivations
from greed to the desire to do a good job
and be creative and generous with their talents.
In the 21st-century people have found the need to modify
unfettered capitalism and supplement the free market with
needed public services and welfare benefits.
At the same time the ideals of Marxism have not resulted
in the utopian withering away of the state bureaucracy.
Rather pressures and movements are modifying Communist societies
with more experimentation by free enterprise and incentive systems.
In modern states with mixed economies the government
plays a dominant role in stimulating and regulating the economy.
Like individuals and other groups, governments too must learn to manage
their finances and balance their budgets because to borrow from future generations
is irresponsible and beneficial only to the capitalists who collect interest on the loans.
In my opinion the greatest adjustment governments need to make is
to stop wasting human, financial, and material resources on
unproductive military expenditures which do nothing to improve the quality of life.
These destructive pursuits have been eating up many of the technological advances
that could be improving our lives and conditions.
The poverty, unhealthy conditions, and starvation in the world today
are a disgrace to humanity when we are wasting in military activities
many times the resources needed to alleviate this suffering.
LIFE AS A WHOLE:
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II. The Individual
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III. Society
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