The Dharma Manifesto
Page 18
Historically, Dharma has successfully created some of the most economically vibrant and prosperous national economies the world has ever witnessed. A few examples include ancient Persia, Athens, the Roman Empire, pre-Christian Egypt, and pre-colonial India. Dharma economics favors an economic system that is localized, family-owned and -operated, based on values, spiritually centered, and that fosters the infinitely expansive engine of individual human creativity, ingenuity, inventiveness, hard work and knowhow. The tremendous unleashing of personal freedom, inspiration and creativity that Dharma grants to the citizens of any society under its guidance is conducive toward the generation of wealth, abundance and prosperity. Moreover, it will build the economy without destroying the inherent good of the human spirit and without any environmental devastation of the Earth.
Positive economic growth must be designed both to meet people’s essential needs, as well as to provide an expansive outlet for people’s natural creative energies. It must afford such creative freedom, however, without encouraging the poisonous excesses of greed, selfishness or class-envy. We completely favor the innovative development of small-scale, localized, free enterprise and small businesses, as well as economic policies that will encourage the unbridled unleashing of the individual person’s creative potential. We are, however, opposed to the creation of large-scale, impersonal, multinational corporatism. Localized free enterprise is good. Individual and family-based entrepreneurship is good. Non-antagonistic and fair competition is good. But the centralized mechanisms of envy and greed that have been exhibited, respectively, in socialism and capitalism are not a valuative good. Thus, we reject the economic systems of both socialism and capitalism.
Neither Socialism, Nor Capitalism
Socialism is the concentration of economic power in the hands of a few via the mechanism of impersonal, centralized government institutions. Under socialism, the most important institution of economic power is the state. Capitalism is the concentration of economic power in the hands of a few via the mechanism of impersonal, centralized financial and corporate institutions. Under capitalism, the most important institution of economic power is the corporation. Dharma Nationalist economics, on the other hand, is the rationally prescribed unleashing of the natural, resourceful creativity of individuals in a local context. Under Dharma Nationalism, the most important institution of economic power is the family unit.
The unnecessary conflict over the antithetical economic theories of socialism and capitalism have led to the deaths of untold millions, the polarization of the world and economic stagnation (especially during the post-Cold War period). Dharma economics is thoroughly opposed to both economic extremes of socialism and capitalism. We reject both systems, as well as any attempted juste milieu, or middle way consolidation between these two failed systems. Both systems have arisen as a direct result of materialism, selfishness and greed. Both systems exalt the importance of quantitative acquirement over the inherent qualities of human dignity, spiritual value and the sovereignty of nature. Both systems have dehumanized the individual person, have purposefully destroyed the traditional family unit, and have turned the natural beauty and inherent value of the Earth into a devalued commodity designed merely for selfish exploitation. Thus, we reject both failed systems.
Class Collaboration…Not Class War
Rather than foster any further the factitious juxtaposition of the proletarian versus the merchant classes, the Dharma Nation movement rejects the class warfare schema of Conflict Theory (Virodha-Vardhana-Vada), and calls instead for a revolutionary new era of cooperation between all classes — intellectual, administrative, merchant and labor — for the greater good of the people. Our goal is to create a harmonious social reality by reconstructing our laws and their interpretation in such a manner as to secure for all classes in the nation both social and economic justice.
Ownership Society
“One of the most essential branches of English liberty is the freedom of one’s house. A man’s house is his castle.”
James Otis (1725–1783)[5]
The wise have always understood that to deprive a person of land is also to deprive him of the dignity, pride, financial security and freedom necessary to conduct himself as a responsible citizen. Both socialism and capitalism have been guilty of shifting land and property ownership away from the individual and the family, and concentrating it in the hands of the few in the form of either the state or the corporation. Dharma Nationalism will reverse this monopolistic trend, and create an ownership society — a society in which the greatest number of people possible will own their own homes, farms and land.
Fostering an ownership society is the best way to ensure more equity in property and wealth ownership; an increased sense of pride and responsibility in the people; the avoidance of the concentration of wealth and power in the hands of the few; the proper maintenance of land and properties;[6] and the broadening of the population across a wider expanse of the geographic terrain. This means encouraging as many people as possible to actually own their own land, their own homes, and their own farms and businesses.
Property, wealth, and the means of production and distribution belong most especially in the hands of the family. On this topic Hilaire Belloc (1870–1953) wrote the following:
It is obvious that whoever controls the means of production controls the supply of wealth. If, therefore, the means for the production of that wealth which a family needs are in the control of others than the family, the family will be dependent upon those others; it will not be economically free. The family is ideally free when it fully controls all the means necessary for the production of such wealth as it should consume for normal living.[7]
The Dharma Nation movement will create an ownership society: a society in which all our people will own their personal land, homes and property. This will be accomplished through the de-monopolization of all property held by both the government and corporations, and the redistribution of these properties at a fair and affordable price to those who presently do not own their own homes.
The Deconstruction of Mercantile Culture
“Before capitalism could develop, the natural man had to be changed out of all recognition, and a rationalistically minded mechanism introduced in his stead. There had to be a transvaluation of all economic values.”
Werner Sombart (1863–1941)[8]
Every sector of our present society has been disproportionally enculturated by the mercantile mindset. This has led to a distorted over-emphasis on mercantile values that has bled into the rest of the community. The business mentality has thoroughly infected areas of cultural and even spiritual concern that, previously, were not seen as business-oriented.[9] The great ideal and modus operandi of all elements of culture has now become the business model. This has led to the systematic corruption of our people’s moral sense, to the devaluing of life and culture, and to a warped sense of greed and selfishness in our people. This new “mercantile culture” that has distorted our genuine culture must be eliminated, and a newly rebalanced culture must be encouraged.
Abolition of All Incomes Unearned by Work and Creativity
The very definition of the concept of work, too, has been slowly distorted over a period of many decades. Traditionally, it was understood that work meant concerted physical and/or intellectual activity on the part of a person that resulted in a valuable final product that could then be utilized or enjoyed by another person. Work, in its proper definition, must result in a concrete result or product. Skill, concentration, creativity, knowledge, patience, and ingenuity are among the many qualities that a person must possess in order to engage in work of any form. Only when a person possesses such abilities to a sufficient degree to either work for himself (running a business, or as an independent contractor, etc.), or to gain employment from others, is he then worthy of an income, and not otherwise.
This traditional and accurate understand
ing of what makes one worthy of an income has now become distorted to include such unproductive activities as gaining profits from the interest on loans, debt or credit; market speculation; managing non-productive activities; parasitic banking practices, and so forth. Such activities will no longer be classified as income-earning work.
Usury
“The most hated sort (of wealth getting), and with the greatest reason, is usury, which makes a gain out of money itself and not from the natural object of it. For money was intended to be used in exchange but not to increase at interest. And this term interest,[10] which means the birth of money from money is applied to the breeding of money because the offspring resembles the parent. Wherefore of all modes of getting wealth, this is the most unnatural.”
Aristotle (384–322 BCE)[11]
The modern definition of usury is the practice of charging excessive interest rates on loans. For most ancient Dharma thinkers and leaders, however, deriving any interest whatsoever from loans, over and above that interest necessary to ensure that the lender does not suffer an actual loss, is considered to be usury. Dharma Nationalists subscribe to the latter definition, and thus oppose all forms of interest-bearing loans as corrupt and immoral.
Historically, the practice of usury has been officially forbidden by many societies, and condemned by almost all religions,[12] with the exception of Judaism.[13] The practice of usury was denounced by countless philosophers and political leaders of ancient times, including Hammurabi,[14] Gautama Buddha,[15] Plato,[16] Aristotle,[17] Aristophanes,[18] Cato,[19] Cicero,[20] Seneca,[21] Plutarch,[22] Thomas Aquinas,[23] Dante,[24] and even Adam Smith.[25] It was not until the early 1900s in America that usury was finally unfettered to a significant enough degree as to irrevocably constitute a government-condoned mandate of systemic financial abuse against the populace by a nearly inconspicuous, yet powerful, cartel of perfidious bankers and lenders.[26]
The fundamental reason why the practice of usury is criminal and abusive is that usurers create money out of nothing and then charge interest on that fictitious money. Usury is an immoral and corrupt practice, and will be strictly prohibited for the following reasons:
1. In usury transactions, the usurer takes the money of the debtor in the form of interest without compensation. Thus, usury is de facto theft on the part of the usurer.
2. Usury discourages work and productivity on the part of the unindustrious usurer. The apathetic mindset of the usurer then diffuses out to the greater populace, encouraging a culture in which people value the expedience of a “quick break” more than they do the virtue of honest and dignified work.
3. Usury creates an adversarial, disproportionate, exploitative and abusive relationship between the lender and the debtor. This, in turn, leads to an increase in class envy and conflict.
4. Usury is usually a unidirectional practice involving the rich making loans to the poor, thus concentrating even more wealth in the coffers of the rich, and leading to exacerbated class strife. Concentration of wealth in the hands of a small oligarchy is contrary to the distributionist model of Dharma economics, in which the goal is to diffuse the wealth and property of the nation to as large a number of families and people as possible.
5. In the fields of investment and production, a usury-based banking system allows the outflow of currencies to the wealthy, who are able to repay the loans, while the poor bear the expenses of rising commodities pricing. This also results in economic inflation, which is disastrous for the national economy.
Charging exorbitant interest is a flagrant manifestation of unchecked greed. Charging any interest on loans at all, over and above the legitimate recoup costs of the lender, is reprehensible. For these, and many other reasons, usury must be immediately declared a crime. All usury and profiteering from interest-bearing credit will be immediately abolished under a Dharma government, with the harshest punishments in place for all violators of anti-usury laws.
Flat Tax
Taxation is theft. This is one of the foundational political mantras of the Dharma Nation movement.
Government produces no wealth. It only confiscates wealth in the form of taxation from those who actually do create wealth, and redistributes that wealth to those who did not earn it. Moreover, government officials and corrupt politicians engage in such taxation theft, not for the actual betterment of the poor, but to buy the votes of the poor. Writing about the duplicitous nature of such corrupt politicians, Prabhupada stated the following:
Tax exaction is not meant for the sense gratification of the so-called administrative heads. Tax revenues should be distributed to the citizens in times of need, during emergencies such as famine or flood. Tax revenues should never be distributed amongst governmental servants in the form of high salaries and various other allowances. In Kali-yuga, however, the position of the citizens is very horrible because taxes are exacted in so many forms and are spent for the personal comforts of the administrators.[27]
Wealth belongs exclusively in the hands of those individuals, families and businesses who are directly responsible for its creation, and is not to be forcefully redistributed by the government to those who did not create it, even in the name of poverty reduction.[28] Taxation must be recognized as a necessarily unavoidable evil that all governments must seek to reduce to the absolute minimum degree that is necessary to provide basic and foundational services to the people.
A Dharma Nationalist government would call for the abolition of the Internal Revenue Service, abandonment of the current complicated, confusing and inequitable tax system, the elimination of the progressive income tax, and a rapid transition to a fairer, flat tax system. Very simply, all households with a combined family income above the poverty level (income reflecting the year 2012) will pay a simple and fair 10% maximal tax rate, and when an atmosphere of economic prosperity warrants it, less than 10%. Whether a family makes $50,000 per year, $500,000 per year, or $5,000,000 per year, the annual tax rate will never exceed 10% of that family’s total earnings. The property tax, marriage penalty tax, death tax, and inheritance tax will be abolished outright.
Thirty-five Hour Work Week
“All paid jobs absorb and degrade the mind.”
Aristotle[29]
Contrary to the puerile fixation on labor that permeated the worldview of Karl Marx,[30] work is not the essence of an individual, and is not the meaning of life. Given the unprecedented level of technological advancement that we have witnessed in the industrialized world, working for more than thirty-five hours a week is both unnecessary and exploitative. We call for a standardized, maximal 35-hour work week for all wage-pay employees. The new work culture will be working seven hours a day, five days a week. No salaried employee will be forced to work more than 50 hours per week, but can choose to do so only voluntarily, and without the risk of being fired for not choosing to do so. Individual small business owners will be granted the ability to work for as many hours as they wish.
[1] Cicero says this in Caldwell’s novel, A Pillar of Iron (Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1965), p.483.
[2] Economic Report of the President, Appendix Table B–47, “Hours and earnings in private non-agricultural industries, 1965–2011,”, February 2012.
[3] Jeff Nielson, “U.S. Standard of Living of Living Has Fallen More Than 50%,” by Jeff Nielson, in The Street, April 4, 2012.
[4] John Merline, “Household Incomes Fall in Aug., Off 8.2% Under Obama,” in Investor’s Business Daily, September 25, 2012.
[5] “Argument Against the Writs of Assistance,” February 1761.
[6] Understandably, people have very little interest in the proper maintenance and up-keep of any property that they are only using, and are not the clear owners of. Witness, for example, how incredibly dilapidated government owned housing, vehicles, equipment and offices always are in comparison to privately held propert
ies.
[7] An Essay on the Restoration of Property (Norfolk: IHS Press, 2003), pp. 25, 26.
[8] The Jews and Modern Capitalism (New Brunswick, NJ: 2009), p. xxv.
[9] For example, this debased phenomenon has even been seen throughout the spiritual teaching sector in America. Forty years ago, the model for establishing any form of spiritual organization, yoga center, ministry, and so forth was to first acquire tax-exempt status and recognition as a non-profit entity. Today, the first step for establishing a “spiritual” organization is to set up an LLC (Limited Liability Company) business corporation!
[10] In Greek, the word “interest” is tokos (τόκος), which also means “breed” or “offspring.”
[11] Politics, 1258b.