the altruism in economics

sorry for the delayed response, i was busy hoarding money! :)

it is interesting article indeed. http://www.odemagazine.com/doc/63/altruism-vs-economics/all

it takes 200 years for the british to wipe out any self image (forget pride and respect) an indian or anyone else could have in indian values, teachings or heritage.

it takes the wealth of old india and new america to usher in the jet age of mass production and en masse consumption of material, even at the cost of the spiritual.

it takes centuries and lot of mistakes for the west to realize that taking armed forces everywhere doesn't always work; or even insulting civilization, or other monolithic, frozen-in-time religions doesn't work; making a junkyard of environment doesn't work.

so now, manufacturing (of everything but weapons) is done by china, hand work done by india (and the likes), so the west has a much cleaner environment, much more debt, but very little to pay, and stockpile of weapons to keep the debt collectors out.

so now, after making the biggest blunders of economic history like enron, worldcomm, crash of 2007 all because of greed, unbridled greed, we come to the conclusion of a 40 years' research - "hey, think about your fellow human being also, else who will you show off to!"

and now, the newly ushered indians in the age of development, reaping the fruits of greed and selectively free economy will be taught by the masters of greed that altruism is the way to build your economy.

what!! we can't learn from own mistakes? can we dominate the world with our satyam like greed and IT super power, and make our lives miserable with material things, do our own research for 40 years and write books, hold seminars, teach MBA colleges, that we made a mistake to think of an employee as a resource to be managed, a RFD tagged asset!

so please open YOUR (developing world) economy for GM food, our clinical research, our missionaries and what not.

it has always been held by indian wisdom from ancient times, that money gives no joy, it is only for living in this world as a means, things are not consoling (except to a little child who has got mean friends)

vidyA dadAti vinayaM, vinyAdyAti pAtratwaM |
pAtratwAt dhanaM Apnoti, dhanAt dharmaM tataH sukhaM ||

or
- knowledge gives humbleness (at least true knowledge does),
- from humbleness comes worthiness (ever wanted to hire an arrogant bastard? even the mafia wants honest non-arrogant killers!),
- from worthiness comes money (someone may actually hire you for some work and pay),
- from money (one can do) good deeds,
- from there comes joy.

so the joy comes not from money, but doing good with the money!
and this could be done in the process of making money, by being human and not a rabid dog after a stinking bone with rotten meat.

another gem goes -
earn what you haven't got, save what you earn, invest what you save, and do good with the increased wealth!

how much of research has gone into these gems?
maybe 1500 years of watching society, human behavior closely with no multi-trillion agenda, but a simple wish to see the immediate community in harmony.


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-- sj