Guest guest Posted May 5, 2003 Report Share Posted May 5, 2003 The Research Project The Economics Of Love: Varna-Asrama Dharma The 38 areas of research for this project are listed below. The following outline is to provide a blue print for a new social reform movement based upon the principles of the Vedic social system of Varna-Asrama Dharma and how effectively they translate in modern economic terms. 13 chapters of Volume 1 are posted at ROOPA.org. More will follow. I hope this general discussion can lead to a new interest in such reforms from both a Vedic perspective and one with an eye for recognizing our own divinity in context to contemporary social economic policies. Hopefully, this will also help to better craft an outline that can more fully organize and incorporate each of our own ideas on them. Raghunatha Anudasa Raghu 808 277-1120, PO Box 1108, Hilo HI 96721 The social cost of vice may be up to a trillion dollars a year in added taxes, insurance premiums and other out of pocket cost to Americans. If we did not have this vice burden, we could cut taxes and insurance premiums by as much as 50% or $7,000 a year per American family. 1) Total Cost of Vice Research Project: Calculate the total cost of vice to America and then to each country. Calculate how much it would save the average American family and then by each country. Welcome to ROOPA: Responsibility Of One's Products & Action. ROOPA makes only one request: please cover the social cost of your 'fun:' smoking, drinking, gambling, etc. ROOPA suggest that this cost be included in the retail price of the product. A pack of cigarettes would run about $7 while a can of beer would cost about $27. 2) What is the Added Retail Cost Research Project: How much would be added to the retail price of each vice product if buyers paid for all their social cost upfront. ROOPA does not forbid vice so much as providing people with the extra seven thousand dollars that otherwise goes to cover the tax and insurance premiums to cover vice. Use that extra $$ to 'party on.' Or use the extra cash to buy a new house, a college education or a trip to France. ROOPA leaves the choice with you--the tax payer. You get to decide how to spend your 'extra' $7,000 rather then government and business interest spending it on 'vice subsidies.' Therefore, ROOPA is Economic Democracy. Economic Democracy will prove as revolutionary as the founding of democracy in our country 200 years. This is covered on our website: ROOPA.org. This is all part of the book I'm working on called The Economics of Love. It's a rather simple model for instituting Varna-asrama Dharma into a broad-based, contemporary political and economic platform. ROOPA is the center piece: Responsibility Of One's Products & Actions. In short, it requests people to take full responsibility for the long term economic cost of their activities and products. Millions of legal precedents and hundreds of political reforms and business practices already use this system wherein the guilty pay for the "monetary damages" of their actions. ROOPA streamlines this universal legal practice into a formal system of economic policy and 'justice for all.' 3) Legal, Political, Commericial Precedence for ROOPA Research Project: Reference these precedents .. There are millions of legal precedents and hundreds of political and commercial ones wherein the estimated cost of an activity, person or product's liability to a group, individual or society is assessed against the 'guilty.' Document examples that have already set the precedent for ROOPA in each of these fields: legal, political, commercial and religious. .. The chapters posted @ ROOPA.org already offer some examples. We need more. Insurance premiums are a prime example wherein the estimated liability of an action or product is paid in advance by its users for all 'potential' risks. Charity is used in different religions, for example, as a means of repentance. There are also many examples in politics and business where monetary compensation is already a standard practice. ROOPA is already in effect through out every area of our society. We are only offering to formalize this widely used practice. * * * * PREMISE: All Activities Have Economic Outcomes ROOPA starts with the premise that most every activity has a social impact. This social impact in turn translates into an economic outcome. ROOPA does two things. First, if follows the long term economic outcome of things. Secondly, ROOPA request: please take full responsibility for those things that create economic liabilities. The Economics of Love and Hate is just one of several interesting economic patterns that become obvious when we look at the long term economic outcome of things. The Economics of Love & Hate is based on the simple observation that things generally considered 'bad' such as vice, happen to have expensive, long term, economic liabilities associated with them. Those things generally considered good or virtuous, happen to have long term economic rewards. Examples: Charity, honesty, chastity, sobriety, cleanliness, kindness, peace etc. (Some one once asked me what: what are the economic ramifications of lying? Lawyers. I said lawyers. All the money we spend on contracts and lawyers is the price we pay for liars. Expensive vice indeed.) This is not so much a moral crusade as it is a 'plain and simple' economic observation. It is only a coincidence that such observations happen to correlate with the 'moral superstitions' held sacred by religions the world over as universal truths. It was in looking through the eyes of such religious perspectives that these economic observations became obvious, yet they remain 'economic truths' in their own right. There are other economic patterns that also become obvious when we follow the long term economic impact of them. A human beings 'economic performance' is quite revealing. Man (human being) is the center piece of all 'economic activity' and so provides the most profound insight when we trace the long term economic outcome of his life's journey. We find the same pattern true as in our Love & Hate model. Those things considered 'good' lead to positive economic outcomes and visa versa. For example, one who has some form of religion will in turn live longer, have better health, relationships, families, careers, incomes and communities. Those who do not have a religious practice of some kind are correspondingly depressed in each of these areas of life. As such, religion is often a leading measure in calculating mans 'economic performance' for his performance is often directly linked to his religious observance. 4) Quality Of Life in Religious Practice Research Project: Find studies (I found a couple) demonstrating the 'better quality of life' for those with a religious practice vs. those without one. Show the contrast between religious and non religious communities-if any. We also find that different religions better enhance a person's economic performance while others handicap and create economic liabilities. A radical Muslim group, for example, that promotes war and violence versus a moderate Muslim group that promotes social activism, sobriety and humility. In short, there are principles such as sobriety, social activism etc that result in these economic benefits. Therefore, ones benefit is in degree one follows these principles. What ever extent religion teaches these practices, to that degree, its followers enjoy the benefits of these sacred principles. 5) Principles That Make Religion 'Good' Research project: What are the common principles and life style attributes so common to most religions that offer the positive benefits that make up the 'good' of those religions. To what degree does each religion practice each of the identified principles. How does it compare to Varna ashram? 6) Contributions & Liabilities of Different Religions Research Project: Find studies that trace the social economic contributions and liabilities of different religions by way of work, recreation, community service, cultural diversity, health and life style habits etc. * * * * We again find this good vs. bad model translating in economic terms when we look at life style. Those engaged in 'bad habits' or vices have a far greater social cost to society then those who are 'vice' free. 7) Cost of Vice Over A Life Time Research Project: Find studies demonstrating the social cost of one engaged in vices over the course of their life time and the savings by those who refrain. Follow it by each vice. Those with a gambling habit multiplied by a drinking habit, multiplied by a smoking habit etc. * * * * We again see this same good vs. bad economic translation when it comes to social policy. Policies generally recognized as good (education, health care, housing, community development & infrastructure) have an unmistakable corresponding benefit to a person's 'economic performance. In short, the better ones education, health care, transportation, the better their economic performance. There is an exact correlation between these benefits and ones 'long term' economic performance. A vehicle is a good example. The car engine, model, design and integrity correlates to a person's education, health (care) and community development. Each step of added education, health care, transportation, housing etc, upgrades the person's economic performance as dramatically as up grading a car from a 2 cylinder engine to a 4 or 6 or 8 engine cylinder. This is especially true in this age of technology. Budgetary policies that cut these 'up grades' of education, health care, community care and infrastructure will degrade the economic performance of each of those effected. 8) Persons Added Performance Per Benefit Research Project: How much does each benefit of social service such as social security, health care, education, infrastructure, etc translate into the increased 'economic performance' of a person and the community at large. How do cuts in each of these areas degrade it. President Roosevelt may provide the best example. There was a huge jump in the long term economic performance of seniors, children and the poor with the introduction of public schooling, health care and infrastructural projects for nation wide phone, water and power projects along with extensive new roads, trains and other public transportation. The result: Seniors lived longer by many years while having 'more productive lives' worth hundreds of thousands in economic activity. Most interesting, they cost less in medical care though living longer. Children grew up educated and with a stronger sense of well being for life allowing them a far greater degree of increased life skill and good will towards their families and communities. This had a great deal of economic rewards. Workers became significantly more efficient though labor cost was more for almost half the number of hours (8 hour days from the average of 16.) And the government ended up with more revenue though children, moms and seniors (a whole segment of the population) no longer worked. In spite of these price hikes in labor, inflation never set in. Why? 9) Inflation: Labor or Bank Interest? Inflation has always been blamed to the cost of labor, yet after WWII, the price of labor increased many fold across Europe and the US, yet none suffered inflation. There is a raging debate in different circles that insist that labor is the cause of inflation while others say it is the interest rate and volume of currency printed that cause inflation--almost exclusively. Let ROOPA review this quandary. People forget that America prior to FDR was a 3rd world country by way of the standard of living, employment levels and practices and community development. The big question is this: was it FDR's policies that transformed America from 3rd world to first rate. The 'war economy' is given credit for this turn around. If true, how is that countries like Russia or those of the Middle East could not transform their countries on a war economy? 10) War Economy vs. Social Programs; Reagan's Cold War Research Project: Which produces the greatest wealth for a country: war economy or social development programs. Remember, Reagan's official strategy for 'beating the Russians' was to 'out spend' them on war. If the war machine made money for a countries economy, then Russia should have only become richer. Instead, it went broke. Review this scenario. America could continue to spend on social development (the real basis of prosperity) while Russia could not. So Russia collapsed. If Russia collapsed because of communism, then Reagan can not be credited for beating the Russians. If he did beat the Russians, then the credit goes to his brilliance of recognizing the economic death nail of a 'war economy.' 11) FDR Policies Review Research Project: Where FDR's social (welfare) policies the cause of America's dramatic economic turn around or was it exclusively the war as assumed by many? Social services provides a number of economic boosts. A) Exponential market growth Social security and health care for the poor provided pharmaceutical and other health care providers with one of the single greatest boosts ever. Only about 15% of America's wealthiest could afford full medical services back in the early 1900's. Social security expanded that market 20%. Health care for the poor expanded that market again by another 25%. Insurance again expanded it another 40%. In short, social services instantly increased the market prospects for all health care providers by 500%. (These are working figures to demonstrate the point. Get exact figures.) Welfare and social services also increased the market share for cars, refrigerators, air conditioners, TVs, cloths, food, toys, (drugs), housing (construction), school, insurance etc, by an (estimated) 200 million more people over the 60 years it has been in effect. What is the economic return on the added economic activity on this vastly increased market share vs. the money spent on these social services? Is it trillions? How many? What would happen if India introduced social services to all its poor? That would increase India's market potential by 500 million people? (How many hundreds of millions?) How would this effect India and the world economy? Would it make India an instant economic super power? How much would it cost? Where could the money come from? (I have some simple ideas how to raise $$?) B) Better Returns on Research. The 500% market growth in pharmaceuticals increased R & D (research & development) up to 500%. Greater the market share, greater the R & D. Greater the R & D, greater the variety and technology of an industry or science. There is a exponential increase of products, applications and services with each new leap of R & D. 12) Correlations Between Market Expansion and R & D. Take the example of America's nearly 50 million uninsured. They can no longer afford the premiums and so go without any medical care. ROOPA looks at several things. a) What is the cost of no medical benefits for them in lost wages, added medical cost for things like emergency care (which is covered) or epidemics? b) How much business would be generated for health care providers having 50 million new clients. c) Would the government make up in tax revenue the money spent on health care for them? The cost to insure them is about $100 billion a year or about 4% of our 2.2 trillion federal budget. Would all the extra investment in new hospitals, clinics, new jobs and R & D, off set these costs in new tax revenue? 13) Cost Of No Heath Care vs Economic Return & Revenue for Added 50 Million Americans. In short, ROOPA changes the terms of the debate on these issues. ROOPA removes these discussions from today's systems of beliefs held by conservative vs. liberal that now sets the tone and agenda for all our policies. These beliefs are nothing short of ideological superstitions rather then a science. ROOPA finally provides an accurate and neutral science that can cut through all the clutter of political posturing and identify the issues in 'hard numbers.' ROOPA can asses the job performance of every political party by measuring the debt ratio, standard of living, educational performance, ecological degradation among other areas to asses 'true' achievement. I got the idea from an off hand remark by a 'liberal:' 'there has not been a Republican administration that didn't leave their constituents with 5 times more debt then when they took office.' Liberals and conservatives are for ever locked in a struggle of barbs. ROOPA can finally provide a measure to track these claims and blame. Though there are such a variety of variables, we will be surprised by the economic patterns that will come to surface once things are tracked over the long term performance of each party. 14) Republican vs. Democratic Administration Performance via measuring debt ratio, standard of living, education, ecological degradation etc. I gather that Democrats generally fair better by economic measures then their Republican counter parts for several reasons. The first is based upon a two part theory. A) Money rises to the top: The first is that money always rises to the top of the economic ladder. In short, the richer get richer because they simply have more out lets to gather income. B) Economic activity is the exchange of money. Therefore, money at the lowest rung of the social latter creates greater economic activity then money kept at the top because it must exchange that many more hands to get to the top. Economic activity is created in the exchange of money from one party to the next. Therefore, the closer to the bottom of the economic ladder money can be channeled via social services, charity and wages; greater the economic activity. Money to the poor then must travel that many more steps to get to the top of the economic ladder creating that much more in economic activity. (This is in addition to the poor becoming more economically productive had from better wages, benefits etc. Discussed below.) C) Greater the economic activity, greater the wealth of the wealthiest. The wealthy always make more money in times and countries where the poor are supplied by way of good wages and social services then in times of less for the poor. Therefore, the greatest benefits to the poor will directly expand the wealth of the rich in exact measure. Pres. Reagan for example provided a host of economic advantages and tax breaks for the wealthy by cutting benefits, wages and social services to the poor. The result: the wealthy made billions. Clinton dramatically expanded benefits for the poor by raising taxes and cost of labor for the wealthy. There was proportionately more economic activity generated by the poor. The wealthy therefore made HUNDREDS of billions under Clinton rather then 'only' billions under Reagan. Yes, the rich paid more in taxes, but at the end of the day, the rich made many times more money under Clinton then Reagan. In short, doing good by the poor, is to do good by the rich. Today's conservative vs. liberal political model polarizes the issue as some kind of class warfare. The modern view is about these contrived conflicts. It's not. Programs, good wages and benefits for the poor mean boom times for the rich. Such revelations are more discernable with ROOPA then today's political model of Republican vs. Democrat. Some will say Clinton was blessed with the tech boom. Yet, we will see this same pattern playing out over history. Post vs. pre Roosevelt where the country went from complete deregulation to a host of benefits and wage increases. Kennedy vs. Nixon, etc. D) Inflation: $$ failing to circulate to the poorest. The flip side of this theory is that inflation is the result of money failing to have circulated deep enough into the poorest rungs of the economic ladder. Flooding the market with cash (printing too much money) is another way of saying that there is no economic activity to back that 'paper' money. Economic activity is usually seen as production, but ROOPA suggest it also includes how many times $ is circulated between 'the little people' before returning to the wealthiest. Each step of that money trail creates 'work.' Therefore, the more times it can change hands before reaching the rich, the more economic activity it creates. Let us take the case of stock market here and abroad. Modern economics holds that the more $$ the stock market gets, the more money it will invest in new products, manufacturing plants etc thereby creating 'new jobs' and better wages. In short, money to the lower rungs of the economic latter. This use to be true until foreign 'out sourcing' and technology came along etc. The stock market crashed because a disproportionate amount of the capital circulated between traders rather then workers. This gutted the market. If the same cash had been better directed to the poorest via more work, infrastructure, better wages & benefits or social service programs, the stock market crash would have been smaller, shorter or avoided all together. This is why inflation failed to take hold throughout Europe or the US after WWII though wages and benefits jumped 200% or more from pre war days. Companies use to be a very effective way to channel money to the poorest through employment, technology and community upgrades through commercial up grades. However, trade policies have destroyed its effectiveness. That is why it is so important for government to make up the difference with new benefits for the poor. Modern economics makes no distinction between money circulated between the wealthy (stock market trades) vs. money invested in 'people.' Therefore, it can not predict its own boom or demise. ROOPA can predict boom or bust by simply following how much has been invested in 'the people' vs. how much is simply traded among the 'wealthy.' In short, that society (or party) which is 'good' to its people, provides proportionately more for its wealthiest. Studying different administration and policies would allow us to see these kinds of trends. 14 a) Confirm Theory * * * * 14 b) Correlation Between Wage & Economic Performance We find this good and bad economic correlation playing out still again in reference to employment policies. Those companies who pay more and offer better benefits have employees with greater long term economic performance over those who are poorly compensated. Take the example of the car again. You can save money by skipping on tune ups, oil and tire changes and other simple maintenance services. You can also make a pick up truck 'more productive' by loading it far beyond its designed capacity while driving it at maximum speeds. In the short run, you 'save' money on maintenance and you increase 'productivity' by going 'faster.' Yet, in the long term, you are getting less in exact degree that you over extend its capacity. The truck will only go 20 or 30 thousand miles rather then 100,000 miles before it needs a major over hall. This typifies a growing number of our free market policies on their ever growing 'more efficient' workers. Modern civilization is built upon the brutal exploitation of people. We can 'over work' employees for less and allow corporate interest the short term savings, but we lose in the long term. Today's economic system looks almost exclusively at the short term performance of an employees work on the job rather then the long term performance over their life time. Therefore, it appears to be more 'cost effective' to provide lower pay and benefits for longer and harder work. However, the years employees can work and the quality of work over those years are reduced. ROOPA brings these considerations into the equation. This is one of the defining differences between modern policies and the Vedic perspective. One looks at the short term, while the premise of Varna ashram is to look at the whole ecosystem of things over the long term. Varna ashram starts by looking over one's life time and then goes on to consider life over many reincarnations. * * * * The ROOPA.org web site provides an outlines for many of these points. Volume One takes the case of tobacco. Tobacco has an undisputed medical cost to this country (USA) of $100 billion a year. (Some claim it is over a $150 billion.) This comes to $2,500 per smoker, $1,000 per American family. The government's court settlement only requires the tobacco industry to pay $10 billion of this expense. Paying full price would make smoking prohibitively expensive, about $7 per pack of cigarettes. (I originally wrote much of this essay about 5 years ago when it was still only $2 bucks a pack of cigarettes. Now the issue is about using the added 5 dollars smokers are now paying for smokers health benefits. This point is discussed below under 'No Taxation Without Representation.) This is true of all vices avoided in a satvic (goodness) life style followed by yogis or 'brahminical' culture: meat eating, intoxication, gambling and illicit sex - prostitution. Combined, these four activities represent much of the USA's ECONOMIC liabilities. They cost trillions (literally) in out of pocket taxes, insurance and other far reaching social ramifications. This means each person engaged in vice is actually costing millions in "social-cost." Again, this is not a moral judgment. ROOPA only makes the economic observation that particular activities create long term economic liability. ROOPA only ask that those engaged in them, cover the FULL cost of them. 15) Cost Per Vice (inter)Nationally Research Project: What is the individual social cost of each vice to the US, then by each country-globally. Then we can say drinking cost $164 billion in the US and $400 billion globally, etc. .. The social cost for drinking runs at about $165 billion a year for example, or about $27 per can of beer. This includes the cost for extra prisons, court time and cops for alcohol related crimes like domestic violence, drunk driving & burglaries or the extra health care cost for things like scoliosis of the liver, birth deformaties or the other social services employed to deal with related problems. 16) Cost of Alcohol Research Project: Reconfirm figures for Drinking in the US & then by each country. 17) Cost of Gambling Research Project: We need to know the cost of gambling, 'illicit' sex and meet eating. .. A great deal of research has already been done on each of these topics. The social economic damage that follows in the wake of 'legalized' gambling, for example, would include the severe real estate distortions, bankruptcies, crime, drug and spousal abuse, etc. 18) Cost of Stock Market Research Project: The social cost of the stock market to the US & then by each country. See if the rate of loss is about equal to a Las Vegas Casino. It should be. .. The stock market is another casino. It should be calculated under its own category of gambling. 98% of all American's 'invested' in the stock market have lost their money. The stock market lost $7.7 trillion within the first couple years of Bush's presidency alone. This comes to about $80,000 per American family. This does not include the social cost of bankruptcies to counties, cities, business and individuals. Nor does this include the added debt liabilities now being paid by society as we see in California's electricity price hikes. This $7.7 trillion cost would likely triple the stock market loses if it included these other losses as California's price hikes. This would translates into something like $400 per stock trade if we did assess a ROOPA/ insurance premium against the stock markets 'potential social cost.' The social cost of the stock market in 3rd world countries comes to as much as a half million dollars per family in terms of their own currency. 19) Research Project: Cost of Illicit Sex: .. The social cost of illicit sex or promiscuity would include welfare, venereal diseases, AIDS, divorce, crime-80% of all prisoners are from single family and fatherless homes for example. * * * * People engaged in these activities fail to cover the FULL cost of their 'vices.' This leaves the rest of us to subsidize their cost with ever-higher insurance premiums, taxes and the ever quickening rate of reduced benefits. This is more then unfair. It is the economics of a zero sum game. The 45 million American's priced-out of health insurance is one of many examples. This all-time record can only grow with today's increasing vice-subsidies. These vice-subsidies fuel the growing disparity in all areas of our social development. Smokers repaying the American taxpayers would offset these social discrepancies. A repayment of all vice-subsidies would retire all public debt with change to spare for universal coverage for every social program ever needed. Instead, our resources are spent covering the social-cost of these vices. In short, the principles of the lifestyle of yogis and Brahmins would provide instant prosperity to America's particular economic woes of debt, disparity and shrinking social service benefits. 20) Economic Ramifications of 4 Regs Research Project: How would the principles of freedom (the four regulated principles of no meat eating, intoxication, illicit sex or gambling) translate by way of debt reduction, added services for less cost and reduced disparity? Each country has its own challenge. It just so happens that the particular economic and budgetary problems faced by the US would be solved if free of the social cost of vice. This may not be true of every country, but it sure is true of the US. See if this is true for the US and they by each country. * * * * ROOPA also provides a host of benefits to smokers and those of every vice. ROOPA replaces most government regulations, taxes, criminal penalties and private insurance premiums. They are already covered in the products up-front price. Cigarettes may be five bucks more, for example, but the smoker's health insurance premium for things as lung cancer and rehab are already covered. There will be no such thing as a lack of access to treatment though provided free to all smokers. These costs will have been covered in the upfront price of their cigarettes. In short, if vice always has an economic liability, then paying ALL its potential cost upfront becomes the activities natural regulation. Greater the vice, greater the price. Greater the price, the less affordable the product. Net result: consumption reduced. The price becomes the products own NATURAL prohibition. No need for further government interference. Today's volumes of government regulations, layers of bureaucracy and their numerous watchdogs will be replaced by this "true-price" tag. ROOPA is complete de-regulation and yet provides fair and effective social accountability. It is the best of both liberal and conservative ideals and policy. ROOPA is as simple and fair as it is effective. * * * * 21) Effectiveness of Rising Price vs Regulation Research Project : Provide examples where the rising price reduced consumption. How effective was this reduction against other government regulations or public programs attempting the same goal. .. There are studies demonstrating that raising the price of a pack of cigarettes reduced smoking among pregnant mothers, teens, seniors etc. In another study, raising the price by $1.50 reduced state wide consumption by as much as 10 million cigarettes (a month). We need to research how such price variations effect consumption. At a certain price, it creates a black market. The premise of rising prices and reduced consumption is the bed rock and holly grail of the free market advocates that justify starvation and lack of health care etc. ROOPA simply extends their same principles to vices as well. As consumption slows because of the price increase, so too does the social-cost. This in turn reduces the retail price. When consumption again rises, prices follow suit. TRUE "free market" economics at its purest. This is all discussed in Volume 1 thru 3. Volume 1: ROOPA, Economic Democracy is 13 chapters. It is posted at ROOPA.org * * * * When I first started writing ROOPA, a pack of cigarettes was only $2. I was told that they would never raise the price of cigarettes and so I should just quite with ROOPA. Well, here we are today, about 5 years later. And yes the price was almost tripled. It is high enough to cover all the social cost associated with smoking. However, little of that money goes for smoking related health care benefits. ROOPA says that at least 80% of it should. The money should go to insurance companies or health care providers much like car insurance. The money goes to insurance companies. The feds can not touch it. The feds due tax insurance companies for that income, but the government does not fiddle with how the money is dispersed. That is left to insurance companies. This is one of several ways ROOPA would work. Insurance companies would be ecstatic. A number of people don't like insurance companies. But it would certainly be more effective then today's system. 22) Tobacco Settlement for Smokers Healthcare vs. Today's System How much more effective and fair would the money be dispersed to smokers then it is today. 23) How Much Savings in Taxes & Insurance if Settlement Spent on Smokers Healthcare. How much would it reduce costs or increase benefits for the average paying insurance if the tobacco settlement was spent on smoking related healthcare? 24) What Insurance Companies, Smokers & Attorneys Would Support ROOPA? Identify ROOPA supporters There must be a number insurance companies and health care proviers that would love ROOPA's suggest-that 80% of all money collected for such things as drinking and smoking go to cover the social (medical) cost of them. Attorneys may take the ROOPA policies via the courts much as we saw of the court cases. What firms would be interested? 25) No Taxation Without Representation Research Project: money collected for a cause must use 80% of it for that cause. .. High light all the cases in which money has been collected in the name of one cause then used for another. Social security for example has been raided. It is used for everything from paying for the war with Iraq, to national debt relief. Yet, the government continues to cut benefits to seniors. Social security alone has been robbed of several trillion dollars over the decades. .. What is the disparity between moneys generated under the name of one cause and then spent for another: education budgets go to sports while military programs guise as research & youth activities. Let these programs defend for themselves. There is enough support from the public to raise money for them directly. 26) Benefits for Smokers if 80% of Settlement Used for Smokers Research Project: It would be interesting to see who many healthcare benefits and up grades could be provided to smokers if 80% of the money collected from the tobacco court settlements was in fact used for covering smoking related health care. Using it for everything else but smoking is in fact a 'bate and switch.' It is cheating smokers out of the benefits for which they paid. .. Document the social, political economic reforms realized by reforming governments corruption of collecting taxes in the name of one cause and then using most of it for another cause. This policy of bate and switch lies at the heart of much of our political corruption. .. There are two areas of political corruption. The first is excusing special interest from paying their fair share of the cost of their products and actions. ROOPA reforms this corruption. The second corruption is raising money in the name of one cause (education, social security or medi-caid) and then using it on another (like military or debt relief.) ROOPA only works if 80% of the money collected in the name of these things is used for these things. 27) Reforms of No Taxation Without Representation Research Project: How would our budget look if the government had to spend 80% of all monies collected under the name of each of the causes for which they raise our taxes. No more then 20% of such collections should be used at government discretion. * * * * This is only half of the ROOPA equation. We have only talked of the social cost and those that are guilty paying for them. The flip side is even more revealing. Good deeds, virtue, happen to offer great economic rewards. Greater the virtue, greater the economic benefits. Love is the greatest virtue of all. Motherhood captures the essence of love. Mom also provides more economic benefit then most any other `job' in the world. According to studies, it would cost "$507,000 a year.at standard professional rates" to replace the work mom does at home. Critics say it is 'only' $60,000, yet that is still CEO salary. 28) What are Cost Savings of Mom care vs Gov't Family Care Research project: How much do we spend in government or social services on family care per person and per family. What are the ramifications of failing to have family care? Examples: crime, drug abuse etc. Who is more cost effective for providing these services: families or government? What is the price difference? We spend 40% of each year working until `May 15th' just to pay our taxes. A two-parent-working household means one works just to pay the Feds. Mom is sent off to work to pay taxes so government can now care for our family. (Women make 30% less on average then men and so her income equals about what an average couple pay in taxes.) The government then charges twice as much for the same job mom did better. The alternative would seem obvious: replacing government care with family care. There are already a number of programs and states around the country that allow families to provide these family services such as home schooling or senior care for their parents. Families should be allowed at least half the money the state now takes for the same jobs as senior-care or after-school and pre-school programs. A true `free market' would demand as much. Who ever can provide a better service for less should be allowed equal market access now enjoyed by multinational monopolies who presently provide most of these services. 29) Good & Bad of both Family & Gov't Care. Research Project: how would this effect our taxes and budgets as well as the quality of family care if provided by families vs. government. What are the strengths & weaknesses of each and then how do they compare to each other. About 80% of all family care is still provided by mom. Some find this appalling in an age of women's liberation. However, let us not over look the credit this task demands. 80% of that credit belongs to mom alone. This recognition of a mother's role in the home as well as the trend towards family-provided-care is reflected in such highly successful programs as the MOMs Club and MOPS: Mom's Of Pre-Schoolers, or the Mom's of Teens. 30) Number & Success of Mom (family) Programs Research Project: How many family/ mother oriented programs are there? How successful have they been. What areas are they most successful? Mothers facing the unforgiving, multi-task, demands of today maybe justly described as "Super-Mom." The advantages Super-Mom provides over government care: No bureaucracy, half the cost, double the service, ten times as many jobs. The Family Franchise is a simple attempt to see how we could reciprocate with mother and family care 'in today's world?' I also wanted to see how this would play out practically. In short, the family incorporates itself under the same legal clauses as talent and sports agents. The family would then receive all the tax and business advantages enjoyed by talent and sports agents and commercial child care centers. This is already done in some states. The Family Franchise provides a small insight how things would play out for our families and community under such a system. In short, it is miraculous. Even more interesting, it duplicates much of the same social economic system of a varna asrama community & family. More on that later. Specifically, family-provided care could cover all the country's seniors, children and most of the poor on just half the Feds $1.4 trillion budget already used for these `entitlement programs.' These points are covered in Volumes 4 thru 6 with a total of about 15 chapters between them. These volumes need a rewrite and editing. These unedited works are available upon request. 31) Model for Family Care: Family Franchise Research Project: How much would the US save in taxes and insurance if such services were provided by the family for half the cost? What would such a model look like? What other programs do this? Research The Family Franchise model presented in Volumes 4 through 6. 32) Correlation of Family Care vs Gov't to Varna Asrama Research project: how does family care vs government care correlate with varna asrama? This brings us to ROOPA's most resounding principle of all: greater the love, greater the economic returns. By this measure, "love of God" or bhakti, is the greatest love of all. Lovers of God or bhakta's, offer the greatest economic contributions. They save society millions with each person they convert from vice to the ways of virtue. Inspiring people to quit smoking, drinking and drugs, etc translates into big savings for society at large. The work of saints and sadhus has inspired hundreds of thousands and sometimes millions of people to turn to the ways of virtue thereby representing savings worth billions. This is true of all religions that provide their communities with a newfound sobriety, chastity and social participation. The spirit and deeds of such saintly individuals provide the most cost effective social contribution. Such an economic ideal is referred to as Bhakta ROOPA. Should this ROOPA model prove accurate, morality can be judged by simply measuring the economic out come of any given activity. Greater the vice, greater the cost. Greater the virtue, greater the returns. This model has been tested against hundreds of scenarios over these last 8 years. The findings so far have been uncanny. A formal research will demonstrate the same in greater detail. 33)Moral Correlation to Economics Research Project: How accurately does morality correlate economically? 20% or 50 or 90% of the time. How much more effective is ROOPA over today's system of taxation and regulations? * * * * Applying this ROOPA formula to agriculture and industry is even more startling. Ox-powered, agrarian based, cottage industry proves far more cost effective then the petroleum based modern industry faced with repairing ALL its environmental damage. Eco-technologies like solar and wind power are similarly more cost effective against their Eco-destructive nuclear-petroleum counter-parts. Manufacturing aside, the Eco-cost of gasoline runs into hundreds of dollars per gallon. This environmental damage is nothing short of an ECO-nomic subsidy to modern industry and paid for by the billions now living in the wake of its global desolation. 34) Social Cost: Modern vs Organic Research Project: Delineate the social environmental cost of modern manufacturing and agriculture against that of the organic and cottage industry production. There are 6 phases of a products life. Each of them has a social cost associated with them. ROOPA calculates each of the phases to accurately pin point the 'true cost' of a product. This is called the ROOPA Index. 35) ROOPA Index: 6 Phases Of Social Cost 1 Resourcing- were & how the raw materials are gotten Oil, for example, causes massive environment damage in its resourcing-drilling. The cost of repairing the environmental damage caused in drilling is the first social cost to be calculated in finding its true 'social cost.' The extensive damage to the countries and people of African for example would be included in this calculation. ROOPA then compares the cost of drilling oil in Africa against the cost of drilling in the US wherein the environmental laws are tougher and therefore prove far less 'expensive' in social cost. Therefore, oil from the US cost much less then it does from Africa. 2 Manufacturing - were & how the product is produced Using the example of oil again, we see that 'refining' oil into gasoline causes further environmental damage. The cost of this damage to the environment and peoples' health (in Africa for example) etc needs to then be calculated. In the US., regulations and technology greatly reduce this environment making US oil more cost effective then those of these other countries. 3 Distribution - how the product is distributed We find massive oil spills that pollute entire regions of the world when these oil tankers wreck. The actually cost of effectively cleaning up these spills would also need to be calculated into the price of gallon of gas. Double hauled ships would have avoided 80% of these spills and cost. Therefore, transport by double hauled ships is 80% cheaper then from single hauled ships. Oil companies don't like the minimal cost difference of a double hauled ship and so the rest of us pay with decimated shore lines the world over. 4 Consumption - the impact upon its consumers and society. Oil/gasoline pollution is destroying the ozone thereby leading to changing whether patterns, flooding whole nations or leaving them in draught. It causes cancer and breathing problems, impairs children's development etc. All these cost need to be factored in as well. Again, inexpensive technology is amply available to reduce emissions. ROOPA would make it far more cost effective for manufactures to simply include these simple technologies on their cars. 5 Disposal - how the product is then disposed upon being consumed. Again, oil causes a great deal of damage in its disposal such as oil changes running into the street drains and polluting our rivers and oceans. Simple technology could reduce this significantly. 6 Politics - last but not least, each product has its own political cost involved in securing it. In the case of oil, we have to prop up dictatorial governments, go to war every so often and maintain large military forces to secure our access to the global oil supply. This is the final price consideration to be added to the cost of oil. ROOPA tallies the cost from each of these 6 steps to find the 'true cost' of each and every product. In the case of oil, a single gallon of gas actually cost hundreds of dollars. We would then contrast this cost against other energy sources such as ox or solar power. Maybe most revealing is the vast savings realized through the small expense of using the host of new technologies that would effectively repair much of the 'damage' in every area of a products 6 cycles. In the example of oil again, there are technologies that would greatly reduce the social environmental cost in each of these steps. There are simple technologies that would greatly reduce the environmental impact of drilling, processing and consumption. Double hauled ships would have prevented 80% of all oil spills for example and zero (or little) emission cars (that do use petroleum) would reduce the impacts of oil consumption by as much 95%. Oil from the US is about 5% of that from Africa if all the social cost of Africa's oil was included. In the example of meat, meat produced in Columbia is much more expensive then that of the Big Island of Hawaii. In Columbia, burn the rainforest. Or, the slaughter houses in the Mid West pollute our lands and waters. These business would prove much more expensive then meat from the Big Island of Hawaii wherein there is no destroyed forest in grazing their cows nor pollution from their slaughter houses. The price difference would be hundreds of dollars per pound. That price difference becomes even more dramatic between those of a meat eater and vegetarian. A petroleum bases system of agriculture and manufacturing would have to be calculated with the cost of gas starting at hundreds of dollars per gallon etc. The veggie and religious lifestyle would have to be calculated against the social cost of vices to see its full savings. Etc. 36) Assessing Systems & Products Research Project: Assessing a products social cost using each of these measures will allow us to find the true cost of each product and accurately compare the most cost effective systems and products against one another. ROOPA finally introduces the only true system of 'free market economics' wherein every area of a products socio-eco subsidies are calculated. Today's 'free market system' is only a pretense of this ROOPA system. Chart the ROOPA phases that index the 'true cost' at each step and provide a contrast between products and technologies. In conclusion, if this system of ROOPA is followed, one end ups with a society identical in life-style and social development to the Vedic system of Varna-Asrama Dharma. The reason is evident; Varna-Asrama is the most cost effective and equitable economic system. Today's Western model is bogged down in massive vice-subsidies while leaving billions destitute in the name of progress. ROOPA clearly demonstrates the flaws of this global, modern economy as well as providing a simple, effective alternative already practiced in courtrooms throughout the world. 37) US vs. Vedic Life Style Contrast the social cost/contribution of the average follower of Vedic Culture against the average person of the American lifestyle. ROOPA provides a host of reforms. ROOPA transforms morality from the realm of subjective religious zealots to that of a measurable science. ROOPA may prove the cure-all for corporate-government corruption, incompetence or conspiracies. All responsible public & private parties will now simply pay their corresponding social-economic cost in full. Better still, it removes the need for most other insurance premiums, taxes, government regulations or economic policies. Taxes and state regulations are a sloppy imitation of what ROOPA automatically accomplishes. Best of all, this places God and morality center-stage after being outcaste from all economic policy planning over the centuries. 38) ROOPA USA Research project: How would the US look under ROOPA. Would insurance companies, attorneys, most government regulations, bureaucrats and political corruption be out of business? How much money would be saved? ROOPA can provide the followers of Vedic culture a new and timely message that can appeal to other religious denominations as well as to a public hungry for third party reforms. We should find a great deal of interest from both the Indian community and political parties in India as well as other contacts throughout N and S America, Asia and South Africa. This is more thoroughly discussed in the six volumes of The Economics Of Love. It now needs to be independently verified by an academic institution or social-economic professors. I look forward to hearing your thoughts on ROOPA in general and would be happy for any suggestions on developing this project further. ROOPA provides a new and important framework to re-evaluate these issues from a Godly perspective missing from today's public policy debates. For this reason alone, it should be pursued vigorously. The fact that it mirrors Varna-asrama dharma is a bonus for all students of the Vedic sciences. I will send you a summary outline of two chapters. If you like them, I will send the rest. Thank you for your time. I look forward to hearing from you. Your servant, Raghunatha Anudasa If you like these ideas, contact me and send a copy to others. Raghu. 808 277-1120 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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