Frugality

At its core, frugality is a process of optimisation - getting adequate bang for your buck, as it were. Frugality is not deprivation, it is the balance between gluttony and asceticism - enjoying yet not wasting.

Is frugality a virtue? There are those who claim the heavenly state is one of opulence and superabundance, with no need of careful husbandry of resources. If a spiritual mode of production (so to speak) eliminates all scarcity, then what need is there for frugality?

In any case, frugality is not an end in itself. It is merely a means to whittle down the concern with goods and services to an elegantly managed level.

Perhaps frugality is also a preparatory, creative process to train us in higher modes of production. Perhaps we need to learn to turn a sow's ear into a silk purse before we can turn water into wine.

Green Consumerism

Green Consumerism is the notion that by making production and consumption less violent and less exploitative, it is better, and at the extreme, good.

A lesser evil may be better than a greater one, but it is never good. Materialism can never be greened into goodness.

I am not against making choices of lesser evils - I am all for that! (Consider for example, using the local mutual bank or credit union versus the multinational corporate bank). However, greening (or 'fair trading') one's consumption is no substitute for the radical steps of moderation, frugality, and finally, spiritualisation.

Caring and Moderation

One small step towards a transcendental economics is for one to start caring about things beyond oneself.

There are certainly a lot of problems in the world to care about: destruction of wild nature; poverty; war; injustice, etc. I like the concept of World Problematique since it gets at the overwhelming complexity involved.

To paraphrase Einstein (among others), one cannot fix a mistake with the mindset that made the mistake. I propose (though this is hardly original) that materialism is a mistake top to bottom. There is neither any matter, nor is there good to be found in pursuing the accumulation of stuff.

The answer to the World Problematique is found in Idealism - both in its philosophical sense, and in its moral sense.

The chief among these moral ideals is to consider the consequences of our actions, not only for ourselves, but for all Creation.

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Another small step is to moderate the flow of goods and services consumed in one's lifestyle. There are two fields for this moderating process: one's expectations and one's actions. This is something that goes beyond reform. It is not enough to buy a more fuel-efficient car, one must learn to get around without a car.

If you see giving up the idea of owning a car as radical, then start with something easier: Perhaps you can question the ownership of a second car.

A Big Topic

By economics, I am primarily referring to the more general idea of the getting of wanted goods and services. I won't be talking much about academic economic theories.

Most contemporary and historical thoughts on economics are embedded in a philosophy which I would call expedient materialism. Even if one believes in spiritual ideals, one is still an expedient materialist if one believes (for example) that one must eat other living things to live, must till the soil to grow the food to eat (or perhaps to feed to the livestock), and must ravage the earth to forge the plow. Such a use of Creation is more or less exploitative and violent; and as it progresses through time with greater human numbers and more sophisticated technology, it threatens the integrity of the natural world.

There are, of course, other possibilities. Human lore is full of magic and miracles that provide food unconventionally. There are even contemporary outliers such as Prahlad Jani who lives on a sort of nectar he receives from the goddess Amba; and Sri Sathya Sai Baba who can manifest food out of thin air, so to speak.

I am starting this blog to expose some of my thoughts (and perhaps start a conversation) on the World Problematique and potential solutions along the lines of transcendental economics.

My transcendental economics has two parts: first, a theory of a non-exploitative way of getting goods and services; second, a practice - including small and simple steps - to transition away from exploitation and violence.