Topic > Analysis of EF Schumacher's views on economics in "Small is beautiful: economics as if people matter"

"Small is beautiful: economics as if people matter" by EF Schumacher is based on economic thinking alternative that deals with the consideration of natural resources and human behavior. It intrinsically speaks to development thinking based on human value. 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 Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an original essaySchumacher, a British economist and philosopher, introduced Gandhian and Buddhist thought into economics which is contradictory to modern economics. It states that continuous exploitation of nature for economic growth and discriminative development brings about change in man's attitude towards nature. Schumacher also states that large organizations only work with profit-oriented motivations and stabilize themselves economically. How our satisfaction work takes off which creates an environment where money has value rather than nature for employees and increases the gap between rich and poor. In this book he focuses on four main topics: the modern world, resources, the third world, organization and property, to find a solution to the destruction of nature that we are for our own profit and which increases day by day. , started from the idea that modern man thinks he has solved the problem of production with the help of industrial production and technology. But the main disadvantage of this solution is that it disrupts man's relationship with nature, which is harmful to every living being. If we tried to solve one problem with technology, we would create ten more, such as unemployment and poverty, and the fact is that we cannot replace all the natural resources in this world. Schumacher's perspective is that technology makes work easy, but at what cost. We are creating demand for unnecessary products by exerting the influence of advertising on people, this production of unnecessary products creates a huge negative impact on resources. He claims 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 move from individual to country, each country wants to try to protect itself by creating more and more nuclear weapons and explosives, this means we are neglecting the fact that we live on the same planet. This kind of irresponsible attitude in favor of peace and permanence leads to continuous exploitation of nature. Economics is very important to know the economic and uneconomic things and to conclude the exploitation in terms of overall consumption. Buddhist economics is a philosophical thing that states that when we see others consuming more than us we feel anxious and try to consume more than others without purpose. This mechanization causes man to lose his sovereignty and forget his creativity, skills and ideas, making him incapable of thinking critically. On the question of size, Schumacher explains that man consumes resources more than necessary and gives the example of how overpopulated people 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 great resources is education, on the one hand this education allows modern man to deal with science and helps to improve the literacy rate, but on the other hand On the other hand it is destroying the man's ability to think critically, to create his own values ​​and ideas. civilized man creates many things but cannot understand themnature. One of the most important sources is the earth which carries living organisms to the upper surface and we are destroying them by acquiring land to no avail. In Technology with a Human Face he once again explains the ecological balance and the key resources for today's economy: Technology is also important but has limits. In the Third World he focused on development and the socio-economic problems of development. British rulers impose their development strategy on other countries by creating opportunities and living happily. As we consume very quickly, but intermediate technology pushes them down. It does not mean that development means building the largest infrastructure and creating services in the least developed areas through external financing, real development begins with understanding between people. People are the most important factor for development and need their participation to achieve a lasting effect from work. Schumacher has a new economic approach which has its own values ​​and moral assumptions and which is useful for the poor. In the last one he explains the organization and ownership. First, Schumacher seeks 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 of income and loss statements and of motivating people by providing hard, enjoyable work and promoting creative ideas from people. Both nature and man are in trouble, so Schumacher offers the alternative system to break the modern system. The expansion of private property diminished the creativity of labor, to only allow 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 way. This is what Schumacher criticizes for the need for more decentralized ownership management of large organizations. I think that with Schumacher the production, profit and capital-oriented development model emerged as the most desperate fading in human history. The ultimate goal of human society should be to move closer to the economy of complexity, the economy is not just about earning and circulating money. The morality of economics should strive for equality and utility of happiness as the system grows it becomes more complex and vulnerable. Take for example the Great Dam which creates the problem of migration, rehabilitation and ecological imbalance. If the government did this work on a small scale by creating small barriers and watershed treatments, then it would be effective for a long time. In other examples of agriculture, small farms have low investments and risks compared to 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 to Growth” that the planetary system has its limits, and how we overcome these limits in terms of population, ecological imbalance, pollution. We are now part of the system and how it affects us. Everyone talks about sustainable development, in today's world it is a main concept as we move towards destruction in the name of development by creating. According to Schumacher's point of view, the smallest ideas can be easily forgotten, but when it comes to the universal then it is difficult to forget those ideas. Smaller ideas are more achievable and easy to adopt practices. The true means of development are not goods, GNP and GDP. True middle economics is the search for opportunities that can be combined with problem solutions.