Hicks 1

Sarah Hicks
Professor Rizzieri
PHI 105
November 14 2014

Buddhist Economics Essay

In this informative essay I will be discussing Buddhist economics.
To start out, I will give a basic understanding of Buddhism by
elaborating on what liberation is and how limiting ones desires plays a
part in achieving it. Next, I will transition into the relevant topic of labor
and define what Buddhists as well as capitalists consider its purpose to
be. Finally, I will conclude by summarizing the main points of the essay
to further clarify the understanding of Buddhist economics.
Liberation is the act or process of freeing someone or something
from the control of others and themselves. According the MerriamWebster dictionary, liberation frees you of constraint. The Buddhist
perspective encourages liberation so you no longer are tied down to
the urges you have to be better than someone else, or have the
greatest material belongings. The main goals are to lead a moral life,
be mindful and gain wisdom and understanding. This way you can
focus on doing what feels right, without any pressure. Youre able to be
the most content and help others simultaneously.

Buddhist economics have a similar mentality to its religious

perspective. With work, it is believed that the experience should give
you wisdom, understanding an increased moral perspective- its very
crucial. They believe that
Hicks 2
when a person is unemployed they lack a nourishing and enlivening
factor of disciplined work that no one can replace. Therefore this view
requires you to strive for full employment. Buddhists place more
emphasis and value on the quality of the products themselves, rather
than the quality and efficiency of the process. The textbook states that
Buddhist economists value skill much more than the result. This
implies that as long as the skill is developed, the product quality is high
and the process will be just as great. This is why they do approve of
some mechanization to create products, but not total mechanization of
labor. They believe that mechanization should enhance mans skill and
power. Unfortunately most of the time, that is not the ending result.
Capitalists tend to take mechanization of labor much farther.
They will often question the purpose of labor all together. Capitalists
claim that it is currently a necessary evil and ask if full employment
really pays. It is stated that Less than full employment ensures a
greater mobility of labor and better stability of wages. Employees
goals are always to have income without labor and the employers goal
is to have output without employees at all. This tends to be looked at

as the easy way out by Buddhists but to capitalists it is the most

efficient.
One major way capitalists and Buddhists clash regards the time
and effort that employees decided to put into the production of goods.
The capitalists feel that the most important issue on hand is how to
save money and make the product with the cheapest budget possible.
Buddhist economists feel that labor is a major part of shaping people in
a positive way and therefore focus on the quality of production itself,
regardless of a budget.