Welcome home! Please contact lincoln@icrontic.com if you have any difficulty logging in or using the site. New registrations must be manually approved which may take several days. Can't log in? Try clearing your browser's cookies.
Buddhism in Economics
ajani_mgo
Veteran
Well I think my NewBuddhist self has been like dead for quite some time now... And now I awake from my sleep to present my thesis of Economics in Buddhism!!
Well I'm not entirely sure how original this is, but any bored economics-trained Buddhist with some spare time could come up with this easily. I thought up of this on the bus while suddenly realising that I needed some humour for a little while after trying hard to think seriously about the plot of a novel I shall be attempting to self-publish one fine day.
So here goes, the fundamental tenet of economics is that humans have unlimited wants but there are limited resources. This results in the problem of scarcity.
As there is scarcity, the First Noble Truth suggests that there is suffering in life because of the nature of the latter - scarcity remains a large part of our life.
The Second Noble Truth hints that such suffering is caused by the endless craving of humans to satisfy their desires - unlimited wants in economics.
Suffering, thus, may be eliminated by eradicating endless human cravings. In other words, the way to resolve scarcity is to have a vertical supply curve. Otherwise, an alternative is to determine disequilibrium price when demand for the desire will thus fall to zero, however, this is not possible due to the Fourth Noble Truth.
The Fourth Noble Truth advocates the Eightfold Path in attaining nirvana, or non-scarcity.
The Eightfold Path:
1) Right View - Consumers must understand that firms are willing to generate commodities to satisfy the desires of the former given a combination of many factors. Firms must also realise that good type may encourage consumers to obtain a commodity in excessive quantities despite the cost to the consumer's happiness depending on elasticity.
2) Right Intention - Consumers must work on the basis of maximizing personal satisfaction from product utility and firms must seek to maximize their profits always.
3) Right Speech - Perfect information must be a condition in the market. Firms must avoid lying to consumers through the use of mass media and negative advertising campaigns while it is the duty of consumers to spread accurate information on the market state.
4) Right Action - Consumers are assumed to act rationally. In other words, they will seek to maximize their satisfaction as with Right Intention at a low cost of suffering. Firms must also act in their own interests at the same time to maximize profits from the consumers to give it meaning to stay on in a competitive market.
5) Right Livelihood - Specialization of labour must be encouraged to increase total efficiency and product output at minimal opportunity costs. This reduces the regret one may have from failing to obtain another product at the same resources and maintains consumer satisfaction as supply continues to meet demand.
6) Right Effort - Both consumers and firms must act in such a way to prevent market disequilibrium. Unfortunately, the government is insignificant in Buddhist thought and thus price controls are discouraged from taking place.
Goverment intervention may cause often decreased productivity rates. At market equilibrium, the goals of both consumers and firms are achieved.
7) Right Mindfulness - Both consumers and firms must be aware of price effects and factors affecting demand and supply so as to predict trends in output and price. For instance, an anticipated increase in price by the consumers may temporarily increase quantity demand for a good while the firms must not mistake this for a permanent demand curve shift.
8) Right Contemplation - By applying economics concepts in practice, the problem of scarcity be greatly resolved or perhaps even resolved to result in nirvana. Firms must employ economies of scale to increase revenue while avoiding diseconomies of scale in an attempt to minimize uneccessary losses which gets passed on to the consumers.
:rockon:
Well I'm not entirely sure how original this is, but any bored economics-trained Buddhist with some spare time could come up with this easily. I thought up of this on the bus while suddenly realising that I needed some humour for a little while after trying hard to think seriously about the plot of a novel I shall be attempting to self-publish one fine day.
So here goes, the fundamental tenet of economics is that humans have unlimited wants but there are limited resources. This results in the problem of scarcity.
As there is scarcity, the First Noble Truth suggests that there is suffering in life because of the nature of the latter - scarcity remains a large part of our life.
The Second Noble Truth hints that such suffering is caused by the endless craving of humans to satisfy their desires - unlimited wants in economics.
Suffering, thus, may be eliminated by eradicating endless human cravings. In other words, the way to resolve scarcity is to have a vertical supply curve. Otherwise, an alternative is to determine disequilibrium price when demand for the desire will thus fall to zero, however, this is not possible due to the Fourth Noble Truth.
The Fourth Noble Truth advocates the Eightfold Path in attaining nirvana, or non-scarcity.
The Eightfold Path:
1) Right View - Consumers must understand that firms are willing to generate commodities to satisfy the desires of the former given a combination of many factors. Firms must also realise that good type may encourage consumers to obtain a commodity in excessive quantities despite the cost to the consumer's happiness depending on elasticity.
2) Right Intention - Consumers must work on the basis of maximizing personal satisfaction from product utility and firms must seek to maximize their profits always.
3) Right Speech - Perfect information must be a condition in the market. Firms must avoid lying to consumers through the use of mass media and negative advertising campaigns while it is the duty of consumers to spread accurate information on the market state.
4) Right Action - Consumers are assumed to act rationally. In other words, they will seek to maximize their satisfaction as with Right Intention at a low cost of suffering. Firms must also act in their own interests at the same time to maximize profits from the consumers to give it meaning to stay on in a competitive market.
5) Right Livelihood - Specialization of labour must be encouraged to increase total efficiency and product output at minimal opportunity costs. This reduces the regret one may have from failing to obtain another product at the same resources and maintains consumer satisfaction as supply continues to meet demand.
6) Right Effort - Both consumers and firms must act in such a way to prevent market disequilibrium. Unfortunately, the government is insignificant in Buddhist thought and thus price controls are discouraged from taking place.
Goverment intervention may cause often decreased productivity rates. At market equilibrium, the goals of both consumers and firms are achieved.7) Right Mindfulness - Both consumers and firms must be aware of price effects and factors affecting demand and supply so as to predict trends in output and price. For instance, an anticipated increase in price by the consumers may temporarily increase quantity demand for a good while the firms must not mistake this for a permanent demand curve shift.
8) Right Contemplation - By applying economics concepts in practice, the problem of scarcity be greatly resolved or perhaps even resolved to result in nirvana. Firms must employ economies of scale to increase revenue while avoiding diseconomies of scale in an attempt to minimize uneccessary losses which gets passed on to the consumers.
:rockon:
0