Cow Quote #10 - Subsistence economics and trade

[Guest guest]

"Gauranga Prema (das) BCAIS (Cape Town - SA)" wrote:

 

> Bhagavad Gita 3.25 Lecture in Hyderbad on Dec 17

>

> Why you are making big, big plan of big, big factories? You take to this

> process for your economic problem solved." KRSNa advises,

> kRSi-go-rakSya-vANijyaM vaizya-karma svabhAva-jam [bg. 18.44]. This is the

> agriculture, cow protection, trade. No industry. KRSNa never says industry,

> trade. Trade means... Suppose here we are attempting to grow food stuff. So

> after eating for ourselves, if there is excess, then we can take this food

> grains or anything which we have produced to a place where there is need.

> That is called trade. Trade in exchange also. There is exchange. That is

> also trade. So that is recommended by KRSNa, and because we are KRSNa

> conscious, we must abide by the order of KRSNa, kRSi-go-rakSya-vANi...

 

This is one of dozens of quotes where Srila Prabhupada uses a phrase that

apparently no devotee heard when he spoke it:

 

"...if there is excess..."

 

These four little words, "if there is excess," point to Prabhupada's plans for

a subsistence (rather than commercially oriented) economy.

 

In a subsistence economy, the first priority is for a family to produce all the

food it needs.

 

The *second* priority is that -- if there is excess -- the family can trade or

sell that excess.

 

By way of contrast, in a market-based or capitalist economy, the first priority

is to produce goods and services for the market. That is what is meant by

"market economy." If the family happens to produce goods for its own direct

use, that is a much lower priority.

 

Another very important phrase that Srila Prabhupada uses in this quote and

elsewhere (such as Light of the Bhagavat) is "where there is need."

 

Again, this points more to a subsistence rather than a market-oriented

economy. In fact, what Srila Prabhupada is proposing here is exactly the

opposite of capitalist commercial economics. Prabhupada is proposing -- as

Gandhi did -- a needs-based economy. Capitalism is a wants-based economy. It

is said that although our needs may be few, our wants are infinite.

 

The fact that the wants of human beings are infinite was clearly recognized

early in the industrial revolution, as exemplified by the following quote from

the early 1900s:

 

"The challenge is not to produce goods -- it's to produce customers." -- Samuel

Straus

 

In other words, the challenge in the market-based economy is to stimulate the

artificial desires of the human being. As such, in fact the golden arches of

MacDonalds are a perfect emblem of capitalism. Not one person in the world

actually needs to eat the flesh of a slaughtered cow -- yet by the success of

advertising such a strong desire for this unneeded product can be artificially

stimulated that MacDonalds can advertise "billions sold."

 

**************

 

So this quote of Srila Prabhupada's is quite radical and revolutionary -- for

it points to an entirely new social system. Within the context of modern

capitalist society, it is practically impossible to live based on a subsistence

economy. In sociological terms, this was pretty much proved by Lenin in the

Lenin vs. Chayanov debate on capitalist vs. subsistence farming in the mid

1900's -- in which Lenin maintained that subsistence farmers could not survive

very long if they had to operate within a capitalist framework.

 

Thus, in fact, in the immediate sense there is no real blame that devotees also

must depend on advertising to stimulate artificial wants for their products --

whether the products be farm produce or paintings or services.

 

But, in the long term, we should not lose sight of the radical social change

that Srila Prabhupada is suggesting in this and many similar quotes. And we

should contemplate what the spiritual benefits would be in living in a society

modeled along the terms he puts forward. Then we should begin to provide

training so that communities based on these principles can be developed -- "a

small unit of ideal community," (March 1974 varnasrama walks) i.e., varnasrama

farming communities.

 

your servant,

 

Hare Krsna dasi

[Guest guest]

Prabhus,

 

HKDD said:

 

> Thus, in fact, in the immediate sense there is no

> real blame that devotees also

> must depend on advertising to stimulate artificial

> wants for their products --

> whether the products be farm produce or paintings or

> services.

 

I find this very encouraging, for it is a needed

compromise for progress. Without compromise I see only

ideology that is not yet pragmatic in nature.

 

> But, in the long term, we should not lose sight of

> the radical social change that Srila Prabhupada is

suggesting in this and many similar quotes. And we

> should contemplate what the spiritual benefits would

> be in living in a society modeled along the terms he

puts forward. Then we should begin to provide

> training so that communities based on these

> principles can be developed -- "a

> small unit of ideal community," (March 1974

> varnasrama walks) i.e., varnasrama

> farming communities.

 

If the economic principle is utility and the

development scale is that from market-oriented to self

sufficiency then this fulfils the above criteria, and

an educated directional flexibility is given so that

progress can be made.

 

NB: You state the above is sociological, but I see it

as economics, as economics is an aspect of society.

Therefore when looking at working models, the work

(activity, business) component is part of economic

criteria not sociological. Sociological is to do with

the structural heirarchy of society, its eating,

sleeping, mating, defending, educating and the varied

forms this takes, when work is included then that is

the economic component.

 

Mark

 

 

 

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