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Essay / Analysis of EF Schumacher's views on economics in "Small is Beautiful: Economics as if People Mattered"
EF Schumacher "Small is beautiful: Economics as if people mattered" is based on alternative economic thinking dealing with taking into account natural resources. and human behavior. It intrinsically speaks to a reflection on development based on human values. The subtitle of this book is more directive than the title. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get the original essay Schumacher, a British economist and philosopher, introduced Gandhian and Buddhist thought in economics which is contradictory to modern economics. It states that the continued exploitation of nature for economic growth and constructive development results in a change in man's attitude towards nature. Schumacher also mentions that large organizations work purely for profit and stabilize themselves economically. How this takes off from our satisfaction work which creates an environment where money is valued over nature for employees and which widens the gap between the rich and the poor. In this book he focuses on four main themes: the modern world, resources, the third world, organization and ownership, to find the solution to the destruction of nature that we carry out for our own profit and which is increasing day by day. In the modern world, he started from the view that modern man thinks he has solved the problem of production through industrial production and technology. But the main disadvantage of this solution is that it disrupts man's relationship with nature, which is harmful to all living beings. If we try to solve one problem with technology, it creates ten more, like unemployment and poverty, and the fact is that we cannot replace all the natural resources in this world. Schumacher's view is that technology makes work easier, but at what cost. We create demand for unnecessary products by exerting advertising influence on people, this production of unnecessary products creates a huge negative impact on resources. He states that we have forgotten to be happy in what we have. This means that modern man demands more and more unnecessary things under the influence of consumerism. Now we are moving from an individual to a country, each country wants to try to protect itself by creating more and more nuclear weapons and explosives, which means we are neglecting the fact that we live on the same planet. This type of irresponsible attitude towards peace and permanence leads to continued exploitation of nature. Economics is very important to know economic and non-economic things and to conclude the exploitation in terms of overall consumptions. Buddhist economics is a philosophical philosophy that states that when we see others consuming more than us, we feel anxious and aimlessly try to consume more than others. This mechanization makes man lose his sovereignty, makes him forget his creativity, his skills and his ideas, and prevents him from thinking critically. In the question of size, Schumacher explains that man consumes resources more than he needs, he gives examples of overcrowded people which are difficult to manage, but in the village there is no need for management. We need smallness in action and greatness in thoughts. In the second part, he explains the resources. One of the greatest resources is education. On the one hand, this education allows modern man to deal with science and contributes toimprove the literacy rate, but on the other hand, on the other hand, it destroys man's ability to think critically, to create his own values and ideas. civil man creates many things but he fails to understand nature. One of the most important sources is the earth, which carries living organisms to the upper surface and we destroy them by acquiring land without any results. In technology with a human face, it once again explains the ecological balance and the key resources of today's economy. Technology is also important but has limitations.In the third world, it focused on development and socio-economic issues of development. British leaders impose their development strategy on other countries by creating opportunities and living a happy life. How we consume very quickly, but intermediary technology pushes them down. He does not mean that development is about building the biggest infrastructure and creating services in less developed areas through external funding, real development begins with understanding among people. People are the most important factor for development and need their participation for the work to have a long-term effect. Schumacher has a new economic approach which has its own values and moral assumptions and which is useful to the poor. In the last one, he explains the organization and ownership. First, Schumacher attempts to appreciate attempts to transform smallness into greatness, balancing the order of the massive with the freedom of the small. He understands the value of sustainability in income and loss reporting and motivating people by providing challenging and enjoyable work and encouraging people's creative ideas. Both nature and humans are in trouble, so Schumacher proposes an alternative system to break the modern system. The expansion of private property has diminished the creativity of work, only allowing the nationalization of industries serving the people. In rich countries, public and private money is invested to create capital. They provide infrastructure in a centralized manner. This is what Schumacher criticizes by emphasizing the need for more decentralized management of the ownership of large organizations. I think that with Schumacher, the development model focused on production, profit and capital appeared as the most desperate demise in the history of humanity. The ultimate goal of human society should be to move more toward the economy of complexity. Economics is simply not about making and moving money. The morality of economics should tend towards equality and the utility of happiness. As the system grows, it becomes more complex and vulnerable. Let us simply take the example of the Great Dam which poses the problem of migration, rehabilitation and ecological imbalance. If the government did this work on a small scale by creating small barriers and watershed treatment, it would be effective for a long time. In another example of agriculture, small farms have less investment and risk than large farms, that's why failure affects the small farm less, but in large farms, failure is not easy to assimilate. Meadows (1972) tells us in “The Limit of Growth” that the planetary system has its own limits, how we cross these limits in terms of population, ecological imbalance, pollution. We are now part of the system and see how it affects us. Everyone talks about sustainable development, in today's world it's a main concept so.