SMALL IS BEAUTIFUL

by E.F. SCHUMACHER

PART ONE: THE MODERN WORLD

1. The Problem of Production

• One of the most fateful errors of our age is the belief we have solved the problem of producton.
• Our system lives on irreplaceable capital which it cheerfully treats as income.

They are:

1. Fossil Fuels
2. The tolerance margins of Nature
3. Human substance.

It is our most important task to get off this present collision course. We must all tackle this task. To talk of the future is only useful if it leads to ACTION NOW.

2. Peace and Permanence

Standard Western Economic Proposition that:

1. Universal Prosperity is Possible.
2. Its attainment is possible on the basis of "enrich yourself".
3. That this is the road to Peace.

Problems with this:

1. Rich use alot more fuel, which is running out.
2. An attitude to life which seeks fulfillment in the single-minded pursuit of wealth-in short, materialism-does not fit into this world because it contains within itself no limiting principle, while the environment in which it is placed is strictly limited.
3. Alot of people believe that "science will find a way out"-maybe. but only if there is a conscious and fundamental change in the direction of scientific effort. Often Science can bring negative results though.
4. Prosperity is achieved through greed which exploits non-renewable.
5. Man is far too clever to survive without wisdom. No-one is really working for Peace unless he is working primarily for the restoration of wisdom.
6. From an economic Point of View, the central concept of wisdom is permanence. We must study the economics of Permanence. Nothing makes economic sense unless its continuance for a long-time can be projected without running into absurdities. Gandhi said " Earth provides enough to satisfy every man's need, but not every man's greed."
7. Every increase of needs tends to increase one's dependence on outside forces over which one cannot have control and therefore increases existential fear-which are the ultimate causes of war.
8. Wisdom demands a reorientation of Science and technology towards the organic, the gentle, the non-violent, the elegant and the beautiful. We must look for a revolution in technology to give us inventions and machines which reverse the destructive trends now threatening us all.

From Scientists and technologists we need methods and equipment which are:

1. Cheap enough so they are accessible to virtually everyone.
2. Suitable for small-scale application and:
3. Compatible with man's need for creativity.

From these three comes non-violence and a relationship of man to nature that guarantees permanence. If any one of the 3 is neglected things are bound to go wrong.

1. How much is cheap enough? Schumacher believes the costs of the average amount of capital investment per workplace should be the same as the earnings of an able and ambitious industrial worker. If significantly higher then the society is likely to run into serious troubles: undue concentration of wealth and power among the privileged few; an increasing problem of 'drop-outs' who cannot be integrated into society and constitute an ever-growing threat; 'structural' unemployment'; mal-distribution of the population due to excessive urbanisation; and general frustration and alienation, with soaring crime rates, and so forth.

2. Generally smaller scale operations are less destructive than larger ones. 3. Perhaps the most important of all-work which is humane and good for the body and soul. This can be found only in oneself. AN OUNCE OF PRACTICE IS WORTH A TON OF THEORY.

3. The Role of Economics

Economics plays an essential role in society. Anything labelled "uneconomic" is perceived as deadly. What does this verdict mean?

• The judgement of economics is an extremely fragmentary judgement, out of the large number of aspects which in real life have to be seen and judged together before a decision can be taken, economics supplies only one-whether a thing yields a money profit TO THOSE WHO UNDERTAKE IT or no-these judgements are necessarily methodically narrow. This ignores man's dependence on the natural world.
• The buyer is not concerned with the origins of goods or the conditions under which they were produced. His sole concern is the best value for the money. Therefore, the market only represents the surface of society and its significance relates to the momentary situation as it exists there and then. In a sense the market is the institutionalisation of individualism and non-responsibility.