Unlimited wealth accumulation is root cause of recession and sufferings
Let me begin with a story.
There was a king who had lot of gold coins. One day he saw,
those gold coins were getting mouldy (covered with fungal growth) because of
long disuse. So, he spread the gold coins in the sun to dry and a frog picked
up one of the smallest pieces. At this, its belly puffed up and its throat
swelled up and it began to sing “Why shouldn’t I sing. I am as rich as king”.
At this everyone asked the frog “What wealth do you actually have?” The frog
spun that little coin around at least 700 times saying, “Am I less than king?”
Another popular story
Once a sea frog came out to enjoy sand. He could hear
croaking of frogs in nearby well. He went to meet those frogs to welcome them
to vast sea. He saw there was hardly any place in the well and it was filled
with frogs. He went inside well to invite them to sea. In response, proud
leader of the well frogs said “Is your sea bigger than this well?” The sea frog
replied “yes it is”. The well frogs did not accept the fact. After many hours
of word battle, well frog agreed to visit sea and was astound to see the
vastness of the sea.
Coming back to the topic
PROUT’s first principle states – “THERE SHOULD BE NO
ACCUMULATION OF WEALTH WITHOUT THE CLEAR PERMISSION OR APPROVAL OF SOCIETY”.
As per Oxfam
report, Wealth of 9 richest Indians is equivalent to bottom 50% of country.
If we look at net worth of individuals provided by Hurun
Research Institute, anyone can be astonished with wealth accumulated by the
handful of high networth individuals. Moreover, if this is the declared wealth
or white money, then imagine how much money will be in form of black
money.
I want to say that this earth is a very tiny dot as compared
to this vast universe. Amassing such huge amount of wealth in this planet- Is
it similar to frog who kept a gold coin and was thinking of himself to be
rich. These rich are nothing as compared to this universe and can never
be there. Are they like frogs of well? They are considered as wealth creators
but they do it for own profit and not for charity. With automated machines
coming up, they will create wealth for themselves and not for others. They
don’t bother how much others are suffering or deprived of resources
because of this uneven wealth distribution.
I don’t vouch for equal distribution but for rational
distribution, such that everyone can meet their minimum requirements. The gap
between minimum and maximum salary should not extend beyond a certain ratio
like 1:20 depending on the socio-economic unit’s wealth distribution. If
minimum salary is fixed at Rs 20000, then maximum salary / income per month
should not be more than Rs 4 lakhs. There must be efforts to minimize this gap
further and upper limit should only be increased as minimum salary level is
increased not the vice versa. The intellectuals or meritorious deserve to be
rewarded else innovation will decrease or disappear but there must be a check
to avoid increasing disparity. Of course, there should not be any tax on income
or income tax, as wealth is already being restricted.
May be owl has been shown as transport
of Goddess Lakshmi because it is foolish to run after material pleasure and wealth
when human body can be used to attain psychic and spiritual pleasure. Owls
cannot see during day light and the people running after wealth become blind
towards humanity. Running after physical things is underutilization of human
frame. Businessmen look for maximum utilization of resources but in this case
they don’t realize what value they are letting off go.
Money as power
In today’s world, money is synonymous of power. This power
is leading to corruption and such pathetic condition of society. If common
people support for economic democracy, the politicians will not have economic
decisions power and corruption can be minimized. Read my blog on Economic
democracy here.
Aparigraha
For a healthy progressive society, its better, people should
move in unison and follow the principles of Yama and Niyama which are well
defined that individual’s conduct should not harm the collective psych of
society. One of these principles is Aparigraha (non-greed) which means; to
avoid accumulating material possessions more than
required. By accumulating more and more, we may deprive others of the
resources.
It is human nature to have something preserved for future or
contingency. So a decent limit of possession should be
allowed but not that much, what we are witnessing with handful of richest
individuals. If we are able to provide affordable or free healthcare and
education, people’s concern for contingency will drastically reduce.
I remember a story where a person ordered a lot of food and
paid money but he wasted most of food. While he was leaving, the person serving
him told, politely but firmly, that money belongs to you but resources does not
belong to you. So, we should ensure a holistic system that resources should be
available for the utilization and welfare of all and money should be the medium
for it only.
Psychic and Spiritual wealth
Psychic and spiritual wealth are unlimited. Psychic wealth
is which gives us mental pleasure. If a person buys one bread, it can be eaten
by him only. But if things like music is there, it can be shared with many
people. So, physical wealth possession should be
constrained that everyone can meet their necessities.
Humans are psychic beings. Eg- If a person insults you and
then gives bread to eat, you will not eat but a dog would accept it even if it
has been insulted. Therefore, humans should progress more towards psychic and
spiritual pleasure.
Spiritual wealth is feeling proximity to God. This is also
unlimited though I have not experienced it completely :)
To conclude, I will say; Mother Earth produces plenty to
nourish its children as a mother’s breast produces sufficient milk for her child.
It is our greed and mismanagement of resources that we are not able to feed
everyone and live happily. Physical wealth at any given time is
limited. Uncontrolled accumulation by few persons deprives others of their due
share. Hence, a ceiling on wealth is a necessity.
To know more about fundamental principles of PROUT, visit- https://prout.info/five-
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