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31 Mar 15
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His ideas became popularised in much of the English-speaking world during the 1970s. He is best known for his critique of Western economies and his proposals for human-scale, decentralised and appropriate technologies.
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02 Jul 12
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Protégé of Keynes
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Protégé of Keynes
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973 book Small Is Beautiful:
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a study of economics as if people mattered is among the 100 most influential books published since World War II.[
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Protégé of Keynes
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e developed the set of principles he called "Buddhist economics," based on the belief that individuals needed good work for proper human development. He also proclaimed that "production from local resources for local needs is the most rational way of economic life." He traveled throughout many Third World countries, encouraging local governments to create self-reliant economies. Schumacher's experience led him to become a pioneer of what is now called appropriate technology: user-friendly and ecologically suitable technology applicable to the scale of the community;
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His theories of development have been summed up for many in catch phrases like "intermediate size," and "intermediate technology."
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E F Schumacher was influenced by Mahatma Gandhi,
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Schumacher identified Gandhi as the people’s economist whose economic thinking was compatible with spirituality as opposed to materialism.
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15 Aug 11
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29 Jul 11
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27 Jun 11
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01 Jun 11
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Appropriate technology
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Intermediate Size
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John Maynard Keynes with a paper entitled "Multilateral Clearing"
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written between sessions working in the fields of the internment camp
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Keynes recognised the young German's understanding and abilities, and was able to have Schumacher released from internment. Schumacher helped the British government mobilise economically and financially during World War II, and Keynes found a position for him at Oxford University.
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production from local resources for local needs is the most rational way of economic life.
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Schumacher's experience led him to become a pioneer of what is now called appropriate technology: user-friendly and ecologically suitable technology applicable to the scale of the community.
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create self-reliant economies
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By the end of his life, it can be said that Schumacher's personal development had led him very far afield from the ideas of John Maynard Keynes. Keynes, second only to Adam Smith, is widely regarded as the most influential modern orthodox economist. In contrast, Schumacher is one of the most widely recognized heterodox economists.
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“It is when we come to politics,” Schumacher insisted, “that we can no longer postpone or avoid the question regarding man's ultimate aim and purpose.”
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individual responsibility
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bound to the parameters of realism and science
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Freud
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subject to the complex interplay of the ego and the id
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perception subjective
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rendering it self-centered
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Marx, by seeking a scapegoat in the bourgeoisie, had replaced personal responsibility with a hatred for others.
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fault lay in his blaming of others for problems with society
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'relativity' in all other fields including morality, led to rejection of moral codes and responsibility
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The Insufficiency of Liberalism
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hree stages of development
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stage one of primitive religion to stage two of scientific realism
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third stage
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that there is something beyond fact and science
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stage one and stage three appear to be exactly the same to people stuck in stage two
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good work was essential for proper human development
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production from local resources for local needs is the most rational way of economic life."
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Buddhist economics
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“From the point of view of the employer, it [work] is in any case simply an item of cost, to be reduced to a minimum if it cannot be eliminated altogether, say, by automation. From the point of view of the workman, it is a 'disutility'; to work is to make a sacrifice of one's leisure and comfort, and wages are a kind of compensation for the sacrifice.”
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From a Buddhist point of view, this is standing the truth on its head by considering goods as more important than people and consumption as more important than creative activity. It means shifting the emphasis from the worker to the product of work, that is, from the human to the sub-human, surrender to the forces of evil.
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The Buddhist view, “takes the function of work to be at least threefold”: “to give a man a chance to utilize and develop his faculties; to enable him to overcome his egocentredness by joining with other people in a common task; and to bring forth the goods and services needed for a becoming existence.”
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“to organize work in such a manner that it becomes meaningless, boring, stultifying, or nerve-racking for the worker would be little short of criminal; it would indicate a greater concern with goods than with people, an evil lack of compassion and a soul-destroying degree of attachment to the most primitive side of this worldly existence”.
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Appropriate technology
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Intermediate Size
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Intermediate Technology
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To impose Intermediate Size on a national economy Schumacher suggested superimposing on large-area states a cantonal structure of modest size so that vast industrial concentration (with all this entails in imbalance, ineptitude, and diseconomies of scale) becomes not only unnecessary but also impractical and inefficient. (1)
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Intermediate Technology would be a byproduct of the cantonal structure.
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Once a development district is 'appropriately' reduced, it becomes possible to fulfill a society's material requirements by means of less expensive and simpler equipment than the costly, computerized, labor-saving machinery necessary for satisfying the massive appetite for the remedial transport and integration commodities without which a very large modern market community cannot exist. Though this means a reduction in productivity, it does not mean a reduction in even the highest humanely attainable standard of living. (1)
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Putting it differently, the reduced efficiency of intermediate technology provides the same amount of goods, but at a higher cost in labor. However, since higher labor cost and longer working hours means simply that the desired level of production can be achieved only by full rather than partial employment of the available labor force, they represent socially no additional cost at all. They are, in fact, a benefit. It is unemployment, defined by Schumacher as the degrading saving of manpower through the inappropriate use of advanced machinery, which is the prohibitive cost which no society can afford to pay in the long run. Furthermore the unemployment caused by excessive technological progress will inevitably lead to the revolt of the unemployed (1).
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16 Dec 10
Thomas JamesSchumacher's basic development theories have been summed up in the catch-phrases Intermediate Size and Intermediate Technology. In 1977 he published A Guide For The Perplexed as a critique of materialist scientism and as an exploration of the nature and o
EFSchumacher economics profile biography Wikipedia reference
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08 Nov 10
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27 May 10
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07 Apr 10
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11 Jan 10
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16 Oct 07
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The following four quotes from Schumacher describe his ideas well
1. “From the point of view of the employer, it is in any case simply an item of cost, to be reduced to a minimum if it cannot be eliminated altogether, say, by automation. From the point of view of the workman, it is a 'disutility'; to work is to make a sacrifice of one's leisure and comfort, and wages are a kind of compensation for the sacrifice.”(2)
2. “From a Buddhist point of view, this is standing the truth on its head by considering goods as more important than people and consumption as more important than creative activity. It means shifting the emphasis from the worker to the product of work, that is, from the human to the sub-human, surrender to the forces of evil.”(2)
3. The Buddhist view, “takes the function of work to be at least threefold”: “to give a man a chance to utilize and develop his faculties; to enable him to overcome his egocentredness by joining with other people in a common task; and to bring forth the goods and services needed for a becoming existence.”(2)
4. “to organize work in such a manner that it becomes meaningless, boring, stultifying, or nerve-racking for the worker would be little short of criminal; it would indicate a greater concern with goods than with people, an evil lack of compassion and a soul-destroying degree of attachment to the most primitive side of this worldly existence”.(2)
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