Buddhist economics

http://www.thisisjersey.com/2008/11/08/carnations-picked-for-last-time/

THE last crop of carnations to be grown by Jersey's once world-famous flower industry were being picked this week. Economic pressures have forced Grouville-based De La Mare Nurseries to stop growing flowers. Owner Roy Smith has put in a planning application to demolish his greenhouses and build housing on his land instead. However, he says that he now finds it is now cheaper to import from foreign countries than grow his own supply

These large greenhouses would be an ideal size for allotment space for people who wanted to "grow under glass", and when peak oil really hits, and we find imports rise in price, we will regret the loss of the amenity, for either flowers, or more importantly, for food. E.F. Schumacher noted with the coal industry many years ago in one of his books that what was "economical" was a fickle guide to change, especially when all the plant and expertise is thrown away, and has later to be regained again at much greater cost, if possible at all. At that time, oil prices meant that coal mines were deemed "uneconomic" and a policy of pit closure was instituted, which was a typical political decision based on short-term gain.

I was introduced to the work of E.F. Schumacher, in particular "Small is Beautiful", way back in the 1970s by physics teacher of mine, who - by doing so - probably was one of the most formative and important influences at school on my later thinking. This is what Schumacher said about imports, and consider that this was written in the 1970s! Like John V Taylor's "Enough is Enough" (also written in the 1970s), there were prophets around in those days. It is a pity that more people did not hear them, but they have laid the groundwork for a new way of looking at economics, which everyone will soon need:

From the point of view of Buddhist economics, production from local resources for local needs is the most rational way of economic life, while dependence on imports from afar and the consequent need to produce for export to unknown and distant peoples is highly uneconomic and justifiable only in exceptional cases and on a small scale. Just as the modern economist would admit that a high rate of consumption of transport services between a man's home and his place of work signifies a misfortune and not a high standard of life, so the Buddhist would hold that to satisfy human wants from faraway sources rather than from sources nearby signifies failure rather than success.

Links
http://www.smallisbeautiful.org/buddhist_economics/english.html