What Comes After Money

by Daniel Pinchbeck

  More recently, the freedom of the market has been affected by more than this traditional sort of tinkering. Materialism has produced a wound in our collective psyche, one which has released the powerful among us from the search for mental meaning to the slavery of our instinctual greed, avarice, and competitiveness. One of the effects of this is the gross corruption of the practices that keep the market free. The current practice is to manage corruption through laws, but this has very limited success. The other effect is subtle.

  There is now an active counter-evolutionary movement for taking away meaning processing from large segments of people. Right now, this is more of an American phenomenon, but it may soon spread to other developed economies with strong currencies. Americans have been in a unique situation since the gold standard shifted to the dollar standard. Americans can borrow money to buy resources and goods from other countries almost indefinitely because those countries have few options other than reinvesting their money in the American dollar and the American economy. The American government then has the capacity for large amounts of deficit financing—and it is using this deficit financing to cut taxes for the rich. This is not immediately detrimental to the economy, because the rich are the biggest consumers and they are also big investors. But the practice makes the gap between rich and poor larger and tends to eliminate the middle class. In this way, market share is becoming more concentrated in the hands of the rich, and a new class system is being created. Can traditional capitalism function when the capital becomes concentrated again as it did under feudalism or a mercantile economy?

  Spiritual economics would foster a universal revival of idealist values; instead of dealing with the symptoms of the materialist wound, such as corruption, we should rather heal the wound so that the symptoms disappear. For example, take the case of deficit financing; right now it is being used to increase the wealth gap between rich and poor, contrary to the spirit of capitalism. Even worse, deficit financing removes the very important economic constraint against nations with aggressive ideas. George W. Bush’s Iraq war would not have been possible if deficit financing were not permitted. So should we be against deficit financing in spiritual economics? Not necessarily. How does spiritual economics deal with a government that creates income disparity between rich and poor or starts aggressive wars? In an idealist society, the root cause for a government’s actively creating income disparity or war—negative emotion—would be addressed, and attempts would be made to eliminate them by creating an oversupply of positive emotions. Through spiritual economics, we would then use deficit financing to eliminate income disparity (as Adam Smith envisioned) as far as practicable without affecting the proper functioning of the economy—nationally and internationally—so long as the deficit increase or decrease remains within a few percentage points of the increase or decrease of the Gross National Product (GNP).

  Next, let’s take up the subject of multinational corporations. Multinational corporations have access to cheap labor in underdeveloped economies employed by shifting manufacturing to underdeveloped countries, outsourcing, etc. The labor thus loses the leverage of wage increase through negotiations with management, since the labor laws are very different in underdeveloped countries because of economic necessities. The labor of developed countries lose leverage, too, because of increasing fear of outsourcing of jobs.

  In order to subject multinationals to uniform management labor practices, we need to turn from nation-state economies to international economic unions (but not necessarily with a single currency, like the European Union). In other words, the tendency of spiritual economics would be to move toward a single international economic union within which individual democracies would function with political and cultural uniqueness and sovereignty but with increased cooperation.

  Finally, there is the important subject of the other counter-evolutionary tendency of capitalistic expansion economy—loss of the worker’s leisure time. Spiritual economics has a built-in constraint on expansion, as already noted, so the standard of living does not have to keep moving up at rates faster than wage increases. Even more importantly, spiritual economics values other needs and their satisfaction that require leisure time. So in this economics, “standard of living” is defined differently; increases are measured not in the material dimension but in the higher dimensions—holistic well-being—without compromising the worker’s leisure time.

  REDEFINING THE GNP

  How can we quantify holistic well-being? For our material needs, the GNP is a fairly good indicator of progress or decline. But can we generalize the concept of GNP for spiritual economics?

  Most people believe that science only relates to the material world, because only the material can be quantified, can be measured reliably. We have to eradicate this prejudice. We may not be able to measure vital energy, prana, or chi in the same sense that we can measure a quantity of rice, but it is not true that we cannot measure it at all. For example, when vital energy moves out of you, you notice certain feelings at the particular chakra; the same is true of vital energy excesses. When vital energy moves out of the navel chakra, you feel insecurity, butterflies in the stomach. When vital energy moves into the same chakra, the feeling is quite different, that of self-confidence or pride. Similarly, meaning processing gives you a feeling of satisfaction in the crown chakra because vital energy moves into the body there. So we can quantify meaning to some extent by the “amount” of satisfaction we derive from processing it.

  Even the supramental can be measured. If we altruistically perform a good deed for someone, we feel happy or blissful—not because there is any particular influx of vitality in any of the chakras, but because our separateness is momentarily gone. With love, it is even easier, because we not only feel the bliss of not being separate from the whole, but we also feel vital energy in the heart chakra. And both can be measured.

  Of course, this kind of measurement is not accurate; it is indeed subjective and always a little vague. But if we remove the prejudice that only accurate and objective measurements count, what then? Then we can certainly establish criteria to judge a nation’s net gain or loss of currency (feeling, meaning, and godliness) in the subtle domain. We must note that quantum physics has already replaced complete objectivity (strong objectivity) with weak objectivity, in which subjectivity is permitted so long as we make sure that our conclusions do not depend upon particular subjects.

  For example, we can send questionnaires to people to keep an ongoing tab on their feelings, meanings, and supramental experiences or lack thereof. When we tally all this for the entire year, we can easily calculate an index of vital, mental, and supramental well-being. This index would then complement the GNP, which is the index for our material well-being. In the same way, we can estimate the contribution to the vital, mental, and supramental energies from a particular production organization.

  Some examples will show that well-being in the subtle dimensions really does count, and we are missing something in our economics because we do not count it. In the Native American culture of old, there was so much subtle wealth that nobody even cared to own material wealth. Native Americans treated material wealth in the same way as subtle wealth: globally, collectively, and without playing a zero-sum game.

  In Hindu India (before the tenth century), the country and culture were fundamentally spiritual. The economy was feudal, of course, but according to all accounts (not only of indigenous people but also of foreign visitors) people were satisfied and happy despite the prevalence of the caste system. What gives? Hindu India certainly had wealth, but no more than today’s America. In a spiritual culture, lot of good vital energy, mental meaning, and spiritual wholeness is generated—that is the reason. The subtle wealth reduced the need for material wealth and more than made up for the lack of it. The same was true for Tibet until the recent takeover by China.

  Of course, the Indian and Tibetan cultures are not perfect, because they did limit the meaning processing of the lower classes; so evolu
tion of consciousness eventually caught up with them. But so much energy was generated in the subtle domains in the Indian culture that even today, at a time when there is real poverty in the material domain, the Indian poor are still able to manage, because they continue to inherit and maintain their subtle wealth. If Karl Marx had seen that, it might make him rethink whether the exploited classes are always unhappy!

  HOW SPIRITUAL ECONOMICS SOLVES THE PROBLEM OF THE BUSINESS CYCLE

  Earlier I mentioned the business cycle, which is commonly referred to as a boom-and-bust cycle. In the nineteenth century, after some years of growth, capitalist economies seemed to fall into a recession. An even deeper stagnation (called depression) eventually happened in the early twentieth century. It is to prevent this kind of fluctuation that the cures of Keynesian and supply-side government intervention were proposed. With these cures, recessions still happen, but they have been milder, (except for the 2007–2008 recession.) However, these cures have created a perpetual-expansion economy. Because recovery depends almost entirely on consumerism, a perpetual drain of planetary resources has been created.

  In a spiritual economy, since production of subtle products is cheap, in times of recession we could soften the blow by increasing production in the subtle sector (for example, through collective production of vital energy, or meditation by a large group), so that consumption in that sector would also increase. This would reduce demand in the material sector, giving businesses time to regroup and increase material productivity. But most people enjoy the subtle and transformative practices for awhile. In a matter of a few months, they reach a plateau. By the end of a year or so, most people have had enough transformation for now, and they are ready to resume “real work.”

  In the same way, in “boom” times the production of material goods would increase, material consumerism would increase, and there would be fewer subtle goods produced and consumed. As the economy recovered, people’s material needs would be satisfied again, and they would once again become hungry for the satisfaction of their subtle needs, whose production would then increase. This would have the effect of putting a damper on the inflationary tendencies of “boom” times in a capitalist economy. The important thing is that there would be no subtle price for the subtle goods; there would be no inflationary pressure in the subtle dimensions. Paying attention to the subtle would just enable the entire economy to soften the blow of both recessions and boom time inflationary pressure. In other words, cyclical variations of the economy would be much less severe, so mild that little or no government intervention would be needed to keep the economy in a steady state. I am convinced that spiritualizing the economy is the way to accomplish a stable economy, something that many economists have thought impossible to achieve.

  The million dollar question is, How do we go about replacing capitalist economics with this spiritual economics?

  IMPLEMENTATION: WHEN AND HOW?

  You might think, “Spiritual economics sounds good; it brings together spiritual values with the best of capitalism. But how is it going to be implemented? By the government? By social revolution, as with Marxist economics? By a paradigm shift in the academic practices of economics?”

  But let’s begin with a different question: How did capitalism come to replace feudalism and the mercantile economy? Capitalism was first implemented not because of a social revolution or because academics welcomed the idea but because capitalism served the purpose of a modernist, adventurous people. During the period in which capitalism developed, people had begun to embark on new adventures of mind and meaning, as science broke free from religious authorities; and as this meaning exploration opened up, it was necessary to make capital available to innovative people and keep it available. Compared to feudalism or the mercantile economy (Adam Smith’s term for the economy prevalent in England in his time), in which the pursuit of meaning is highly limited and vast numbers of people are denied it, capitalism offered larger numbers of people the economic freedom and flexibility needed to pursue meaning in their lives. Hence capitalism was inevitable.

  Spiritual economics is inevitable for implementation because our society needs it, just as capitalism was once inevitable because the society of its time needed it. As our society moves beyond our competitive ego needs, as we heal the wounds created by materialism, as we begin to explore the benefits of cooperation en masse, the old competitive capitalist economics must give way to a new economics in which competition exists simultaneously with cooperation, each in its own sphere of influence.

  To understand this, we need to look at how any economics is really implemented: businesses, of course. It is how business is done that provides the drive for the change in economics. And vice versa: the change in economics helps businesses along. Each is essential to the other.

  So what will enable spiritual economics to replace capitalism? Ultimately, it is the need of the workplace, the businesses. And there, if you look, you will find ample evidence that business is already changing its ways. Yes, competition will continue to exist; without it there would be no market economy. But in the workplace, inside how a business is run, we increasingly find a different philosophy and a different aspect of the human being at work. In many of our businesses, we have discovered the value of creativity, leisure, love, cooperation, and happiness.

  The modernism of Adam Smith’s time has given way to postmodernism and trans-modernism. The old-fashioned exploration and expansion found in the material world are practically over in the face of finite resources and the challenges of environmental pollution. But while the old frontier is gone, there is a new frontier on the horizon, one that belongs to the subtle dimensions of the human being—and one that requires a subtler, spiritual economics.

  NOTES

  CHAPTER 3

  1. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_GDP_(PPP)_per_capita. For the International Monetary Fund (IMF) estimate, see: www.​imf.​org/​external/​pubs/​ft/​weo/​2008/​02/​weodata/​weoreptc.​aspx?​sy=​2006​&​ey=​2013​&​scsm=​1​&​ssd=​1​&​sort=​country​&​ds=​.&​br=​1&pr1​.x=38​&pr1.​y=12​&​c=001​&s=PPPGDP​&​grp=1​&a=1 (accessed April 23, 2011). For the World Bank estimate see: http://​search.​worldbank.​org/​quickview?​name=​%3Cem%​3EGDP%​3C%​2Fem%​3E%​2C+​PPP+​%28current+​international+​%24%​29​&​id=​NY.​GDP.​MKTP.​PP.​CD​&​type=​Indicators​&​cube​_no​=​2​&​qterm=​gdp (accessed April 23, 2011). For the CIA estimate see: https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/xx.html (accessed April 23, 2011). For the definition of “purchasing power parity” see: http://data.worldbank.org/indicator/NY.GNP.MKTP.PP.CD. For world population see the U.S. Census Bureau’s World Population Clock at: www.census.gov/main/www/popclock.html (accessed April 23, 2011).

  2. See Global Footprint Network, www.​footprintnetwork.​org/​en/​index.​php/​GFN/​page/​world_​footprint (accessed April 23, 2011).

  3. See Adam Parsons, “World Bank Poverty Figures: What Do They Mean?” at www.​stwr.​org/​globalization/​world-​bank-​poverty-​figures-​what-​do-​they-​mean.​html. The complete World Bank report summarized in the article can be found here: http://​siteresources.​worldbank.​org/​JAPANINJAPANESEEXT/​Resources/​515497-​1201490097949/​080827_​The_​Developing_​World_​is_​Poorer_​than_​we_​Thought.​pdf; another copy can be found at: http://​citeseerx.​ist.​psu.​edu/​viewdoc/​download?doi=​10.1.1.168.949​&​rep=​rep1​&​type=​pdf (accessed April 23, 2011).

  4. Quoted in Simon Robinson, “The Farm Fight,” Time, November 20, 2005, available online at www.time.com/time/printout/0,8816,1132867,00.html (accessed April 23, 2011).

  5. See Martin Ravallion, Shaohua Chen, and Prem Sangraula, Dollar a Day Revisited (World Bank Developmeant Research Group, 2008): 3; available online at: www-​wds.​worldbank.​org/​external/​default/​WDSContentServer/​IW3P/​IB/​2008/​09/​02/​000158349_​20080902095754/​R
endered/​PDF/​wps4620.​pdf (accessed April 23, 2011).

  CHAPTER 6

  1. Barbara Alice Mann, Iroquoian Women: The Gantowisas (New York: Lang, 2000): 204–37. For more on the League, see eds. Bruce Elliott Johansen and Barbara Alice Mann, Encyclopedia of the Haudenosaunee (Iroquois League) (Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 2000).

  2. ShanShan Du, “Chopsticks Only Work in Paris”: Gender Unity and Gender Equality among the Lahu of Southwest China (New York: Columbia University, 2002), especially 97–106.

  3. Makilam, The Magical Life of Berber Women in Kabylia (New York: Lang, 2007), especially 47–76.

  4. Peggy Reeves Sanday, Women at the Center: Life in a Modern Matriarchy (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 2002), especially 79–86.