{"id":97737,"date":"2017-09-04T12:00:40","date_gmt":"2017-09-04T11:00:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/?p=97737"},"modified":"2017-09-01T10:41:28","modified_gmt":"2017-09-01T09:41:28","slug":"clarifying-gandhi-potus-rutherford-and-gandhi-on-moral-economics","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/2017\/09\/clarifying-gandhi-potus-rutherford-and-gandhi-on-moral-economics\/","title":{"rendered":"Clarifying Gandhi: POTUS, Rutherford, and Gandhi on Moral Economics"},"content":{"rendered":"

30 Aug 2017 – <\/em>The question of what constitutes a wonderful and advanced civilization is dependent upon Justice, which is buttressed by economics.\u00a0 All great philosopher-doers, concerned with the betterment of human life have recognized that the handling of the economic means for living life must be guided by ethics and morality for the good of all.\u00a0 Gandhi was no exception.\u00a0 He undertook a task, the sheer enormity of which remains unsurpassed to date:\u00a0 to create a free, truly democratic, independent, unified India, out of dozens of princely states, out of rigid, feudal-social-mindset-stratifications, after nearly 400 years of brainwashing colonialism.\u00a0 His awesome effort assisted by a less bridled media, gave his voice world-wide amplification.\u00a0 Gandhi was able to clearly define unifying ideals, to demonstrate ethical means for our awareness to express itself towards and for each another.<\/p>\n

In the realm of economics, as with all the ideals he evolved to, Gandhi saw Justice clearly, with moral economics as the means to ensure Justice.\u00a0 To ensure that all could eat, have education, homes, clothes, decent and meaningful employment, the basics for a good life, was and is, human justice and basic decency to one another.\u00a0 All economic action and activity that went counter to ensuring Justice, was and is, immoral, unethical, truly wrong.\u00a0 He said:<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u201cI must confess that I do not draw a sharp line or any distinction between economics and ethics.\u00a0 Economics that hurt the moral well-being of an individual or a nation are immoral and therefore sinful.\u00a0 Thus the economics that permit one country to prey upon another are immoral.\u00a0 It is sinful to buy and use articles made by sweated labour.\u201d[i]<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u201cTrue economics is the economics of justice.\u00a0 Those people alone will be happy who learn how to do justice and be righteous under all conditions of life.\u00a0 All else is vain, a kind of moral perversity that presages doom.\u00a0 To teach the people to get rich at any cost is to teach them an evil lesson.\u201d[ii]<\/a><\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Gandhi was not alone in his thinking, he found a kindred understanding in the Russian thinker, Tolstoy, in EU\u2019s Ruskin, for what is deeply common to us, is found to be\u00a0 universal in our awareness.<\/p>\n

In the USA, Republican President Rutherford Hayes (Presidential term 1886-1881), lost the support of his party when he expressed his views on the amassing of wealth and influence in the hands of a few.\u00a0 After his one term as POTUS, he retired to his ample personal library, with a vigorous speaking engagement schedule.\u00a0 From his diaries while in Office[iii]<\/a> (1886):<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 March 18, Thursday.\u00a0 \u201cMy point is that free government cannot long endure if property is largely in a few hands and large masses of the people are unable to earn homes, education, and a support in old age…\u201d<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

During a period of US history when being personally circumspect and pious were qualities that received social support, Rutherford saw that distribution of wealth into the hands of the masses to better their lives was of far greater import than philanthropic acts:<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 March 19, Friday: \u201cNo man, however benevolent, liberal, and wise, can use a large fortune so that it will do half as much good in the world as it would if it were divided into moderate sums and in the hands of workmen who had earned it by industry and frugality.\u00a0 The piling up of estates often does great and conspicuous good.\u00a0 Such men as Benjamin Franklin and Peter Cooper knew how to use wealth.\u00a0 But no man does with accumulated wealth so much good as the same amount would do in many hands.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cMarch 26, Friday. \u201cAm I mistaken in thinking that we are drawing near to the time when we must decided to limit and control great wealth, corporations, and the like, or resort to a strong military government?\u00a0 Is this the urgent question?\u2026\u201d<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Today, his questions have been answered.<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 December 4, Sunday:\u00a0 \u201cIn church it occurred to me that it is time for the public to hear that the giant evil and danger in this country, the danger which transcends all others, is the vast wealth owned or controlled by a few persons.\u00a0 Money is power.\u00a0 In Congress, in state legislatures, in city councils, in the courts, in the political conventions, in the press, in the pulpit, in the circles of the educated and the talented, its influence is growing greater and greater.\u00a0 Excessive wealth in the hands of the few means extreme poverty, ignorance, vice, and wretchedness as the lot of the many\u2026.Let the people be fully informed and convinced as to the evil. \u00a0Let them earnestly seek the remedy and it will be found.\u00a0 Fully to know the evil is the first step towards reaching its eradication\u2026.We may reach and remove the difficulty by changes in the laws regulating corporations, descents of property, wills, trusts, taxation and a host of other important interests, not omitting lands and other property.\u201d<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Like Rutherford, Gandhi offered this vision for global economic reconstruction:<\/p>\n

\u201cAccording to me, the economic constitution of India and for the matter of that of the world should be such that no one under it should suffer from want of food and clothing.\u00a0 In other words, everybody should be able to get sufficient work to enable him to make the two ends meet.\u00a0 And this ideal can be universally utilized only if the means of production of the elementary necessities of life remain in the control of the masses.\u00a0 These should be freely available to all as God\u2019s air and water are or ought to be, they should not be made a vehicle or traffic for the exploitation of others. Their monopolization by any country, nation or group of persons would be unjust.\u00a0 The neglect of this simple principle is the cause of the destitution that we witness today not only in this unhappy land but in other parts of the world, too.\u201d[iv]<\/a><\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Gandhi saw that economics must become \u2018rural- minded\u2019.\u00a0 In Gandhi\u2019s day, the majority of people lived in rural areas.\u00a0 Current World Bank data[v]<\/a> holds that 54% of humanity now lives in urban areas.\u00a0 Population concentrations aside, urban lifestyles are still dependent upon rural outputs.<\/p>\n

Gandhi saw Justice becoming achievable through what he called the Economics of God, his God \u2013 of Truth and Love.\u00a0 Through his Constructive Program, aimed at poor people, he saw that reviving India\u2019s artisan handcraft skills was crucial.\u00a0 He wanted to see village India capable of adding economic value to what was produced from the land.\u00a0 He chose spinning cotton into yarn, the very basic element of cloth production as his personal means to support artisan skill revival, and as the potential means for millions in India to put a few more pence into their pockets and then into their mouths.<\/p>\n

Also like Rutherford, Gandhi saw that the ideal of moral economics was thwarted by the energy of selfishness and greediness: such thwarting can rightly be seen as evil.\u00a0 Gandhi\u2019s Just democracy saw that economics choices of any nation had to take into consideration the climate, geography, and human temperament of its inhabitants.\u00a0 He wrote to the world through his newspaper (1927):<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u201cI offer the economics of God as opposed to the economics of the Devil which is gaining ground in the world today.\u00a0 The latter aims at or results in concentrating a million rupees in one man\u2019s hands, whereas the former in distributing them among a million or thousands; in placing the economics of the spinning wheel before you, I am really trying to establish the economics of God. I ask for the cooperation of Hindus, Mussalmans, Parsis, Christians and all in this holy mission.\u00a0 The industrialism of today is fast destroying the village in India; it is only by converting every home into a spinning mill and every village into a weaving mill, that we can revivify the village life.\u201d[vi]<\/a><\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Gandhi gave us this picture of moral economics:<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u201cTrue economics never militates against the highest ethical standard; just as all true ethics to be worth its name must at the same time be also good economics.\u00a0 An economics that inculcates Mammon worship, and enables the strong to amass wealth at the expense of the weak, is a false and dismal science. It spells death. True economics on the other hand, stands for social justice; it promotes the good of all equally, including the weakest, and is indispensable for decent life.\u201d<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

NOTES:<\/strong><\/p>\n

[i]<\/a>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Gandhi, M.K. Young India. <\/em>October 13, 1921. Age 52.<\/p>\n

[ii]<\/a>\u00a0\u00a0 Gandhi, M.K. Indian Opinion. July 4, 1908. Age 38.<\/p>\n

[iii]<\/a>\u00a0 Encyclopaedia Britannica, Inc. (1968). The Annals of America, vol. 11. 1184-1894: Agrarianism and Urbanization<\/em>.\u00a0 From:\u00a0 Selection 27:1886-1887: Rutherford B. Hayes: Wealth in the Hands of the Few<\/em>.\u00a0 Pps. 124-125.<\/p>\n

[iv]<\/a>\u00a0 Gandhi, M.K. Young India. S<\/em>eptember 15, 1927. Age 57.<\/p>\n

[v]<\/a>\u00a0\u00a0 Graph. Urban population (% of total); The United Nations Population Divisions World Urbanization Prospects. <\/em>As seen August 27, 2017 : http:\/\/data.worldbank.org\/indicator\/SP.URB.TOTL.IN.ZS<\/a><\/p>\n

[vi]<\/a>\u00a0 Gandhi, M.K. Young India. S<\/em>eptember 15, 1927. Age 57.<\/p>\n

_______________________________________________<\/p>\n

P.K. Willey, Ph.D. (University of CT, USA), a scholar of Gandhi\u2019s ideals, is a parent of two, and a writer.\u00a0 Willey seeks to foster discussion on Gandhi\u2019s Earth Ethics, to contribute to raising awareness about what is most essential to us all. Email: pkwilley@wiseearthpublishers.com<\/a> \u2013 www.earthethics.org.in<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The question of what constitutes a wonderful and advanced civilization is dependent upon Justice, which is buttressed by economics. All great philosopher-doers, concerned with the betterment of human life have recognized that the handling of the economic means for living life must be guided by ethics and morality for the good of all. Gandhi was no exception.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[146],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-97737","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-economics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/97737","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=97737"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/97737\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=97737"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=97737"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=97737"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}