Green Economics and Buddhist Economics

Abstract

Two decades ago we were fascinated by the chapter on “Buddhist Economics” which Fritz Schumacher included in his celebrated work, Small Is Beautiful: A Study of Economics As If People Mattered (Schumacher, 1974,44–51). We were also attracted by the broad thematic perspectives of the book. Yet within the spell of its general attraction, there were some lingering doubts as to whether it was a mere vision and whether there was any realism about it. Two decades later, we now realise both the tremendous foresight and the realism the work embodied. But amazingly, today the new economics movement geared to deal with the global environmental crisis, led by those like Paul Ekins, Manfred MaxNeef and Hazel Henderson, is moving on the path first laid down by Schumacher. The work Real-Life Economics edited by Ekins and Max-Neef, observes that, more than any other work, Schumacher’s “served as the principal source of inspiration for the contemporary alternative economics movement” (Lutz, 1992,101).