Vedic Perspectives
Economics of Atheism vs. Economics of Eden
By Narasimha das
Economics of Atheism
Modern economic theories are based almost entirely on the principles of what I call “the economics of atheism”. This economic theory has evolved from a concocted pseudo-science that defies common sense logic and many natural laws. It teaches that a healthy economy requires constant growth. The slowing of economic growth is seen as a dangerous sign of a coming “recession” or “depression”. A recession or depression, they believe, will bring poverty and severe challenges for workers and businessmen alike. Therefore, mainstream economists generally believe that the first goal for a nation or society is steady economic growth by any and every means possible—despite the risks of war and environmental catastrophe.
True believers in the “economics of atheism” promote the political idea that elite humans have the right to exploit the planet’s resources, including all animals and people, for their business enterprises– even if such enterprises are proven to contaminate or pollute people, air, sky, water, and land. Business and political leaders who always prioritize money and power pursue goals of constant economic growth even when it is proven that such growth is detrimental to the environment and people in general.
The promoters of exploitive modern economies believe management of environmental problems created by heavy industries is not the real problem. We can somehow compensate for or adjust to the damage. Leaders of the economic elite believe, as many have often stated, that the real problem in the world is the people—way too many people. Too many people drive alone to work in gas-guzzling 4-ton pickup trucks. Too many people are living in the suburbs, watering lawns, and running air conditioning or heaters 24/7. Too many people demand goods and cuisine that need to be shipped and trucked in from far away distant lands. Too many people are choking the airports to fly to Hawaii or Mexico or Florida for a 3-day holiday, or across the continent for a 2-hour business conference.
Sociopaths thrive in and become leaders of harmful economic systems. Such people sincerely believe they are entitled to exploit everyone and everything for their own pleasure and profit. Gross materialists never admit that the lifestyle they are pursuing is misdirected and dangerous for themselves and others. Instead, they start to imagine ways to reduce the population of Earth through promoting easy abortions, contraception, biowarfare, conventional wars, mass sterilization, vaccine mandates, and genocide. Some governments seek to penalize or criminalize parents who have more than two children. Because such atheists don’t believe in God or the laws of karma, they will stop at nothing to achieve their economic goals. They have no concern for the long-term health of society, the nation, or even the planet itself. They have many elaborate plans to avoid all dangers and difficulties with their illicit money and power.
Modern people have been misled by the ruling elite and their cohorts in media to believe that children must first attend public schools for 12 years to determine if they are fit for college. Those who prove themselves academically fit (and can afford extreme expenses) then need to study for another 4 to 8 years to get college degrees. After finally buying or winning their college degrees, they are tasked with finding a job. Some PhDs end up driving a truck for a living. Many college grads have a hard time finding a decent job—even after going to school for almost 20 years and spending a fortune on college. Rather than learning something that can help them live comfortably, many college students become indoctrinated or radicalized and driven out into the left field with nothing substantial from their expensive education to help them. And they are burdened to start their lives with a huge debt to the colleges that misled them away from practical, useful knowledge.
The whole modern civilization lives in constant fear of food shortages because the supply chain to bring food to stores is a long and convoluted one. The supply chains are so complex that the whole enterprise could collapse at any moment due to any number of causes and the resultant domino effect. His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, the founder and spiritual master of the Hare Krishna mission in the West, repeatedly urged people to grow their own food locally. He explained this was the only way to avoid severe future famines. Unfortunately, most food today is grown by large corporations. Such farming operations require heavy machinery, harsh chemical fertilizers, and many types of dangerous herbicides, pesticides, and GMO organisms. The growth-at-all-cost promoters encourage a type of farming that is destructive to the land and dangerous for humans and animals.
Economics of Eden—The Vrindavan Lifestyle
A Vedic economy is not based on an ignorant and Godless socio-political system that denies the rights of creatures and objects of the natural world. It is another type of economics entirely. It is not based on a concocted economic pseudo-science but is very practical and genuine. When Lord Krishna appeared on Earth 5,000 years ago, He taught and practiced a way of life that is sublime and beneficial for all. As a child, He lived in the sacred village of Vrindavan. In this village, the economy was based on protecting cows and bulls. The cows provided milk, and from their milk, the villagers would create yogurt, cheese, butter, sweets, and dozens of other valuable milk products. They used bulls to grow grains and work the land with chisel plows, harrows, and rakes. Bulls were also used to pull carts and to draw water.
The Vrindavan lifestyle requires a lot of manual labor. Most Vedic householders aspired to have many children, and most were engaged in protecting valuable domestic animals and the land itself. There was never a question of having too many people. Even small children happily helped maintain the households, the animals, and the village society. Children were not seen as useless burden–to be aborted or murdered. Nor were they exploited in harsh labor factories. Nor were they a burden on governments that needed to pay their single mothers for child support. Children and young people in the prime of life did not need to attend school for 12 years and college for another 4 to 8 years to figure out how to earn a living.
The Vrindavan lifestyle, never requires polluting industries, poisons, unnatural hard labor, or the burning of coal and oil and nuclear materials. It did not require advanced techno science to function or survive. It was self-sustaining and beneficial for all people and the whole environment. No power shortages threatened to cripple the economy, which was based on cow protection and growing food locally and naturally. The byproducts of cows and bulls, such as dung, are highly valuable for the land. Nothing is wasted in the Vrindavan lifestyle.
In the 1970s researchers discovered some amazing information about the efficient use of energy. They found that the most efficient use of energy for large transport is via sea vessels. The next most efficient means of transport are trains, which are many times less efficient than sea vessels in their energy use. Trains, however, though far less efficient than big ships, are still around 100 times more efficient than trucks. Unfortunately, trains are being used less these days and truck traffic is skyrocketing. As the truckers’ union bumper sticker declares: “If you bought it, a truck brought it!” And nowadays, the whole trucking industry is even more wasteful because UPS, USPS, FedEx, and other carriers send box vans to rural homes and suburbs often to deliver just one small package.
The same researchers mentioned above found that animal power is at least a hundred times more efficient than trains in energy use. And anyone who knows anything about animal power knows that bulls are ten times more efficient than horses for plowing and pulling. The most efficient of all energy users, however, are humans. Hand labor is thus the most efficient of all in energy use.
With this knowledge they did experiments using only hand labor to grow intensive organic gardens. They found that production per acre for many types of vegetables was up to 100 times greater than conventional farming using big machines. For instance, they grew 80 tons of potatoes on one acre, and similar amounts of carrots. Grains would yield up to ten tons or more by intensive natural farming, whereas the most productive all of grain lands rarely produce more than 4 tons per acres via conventional farming.
Conventional farming requires expensive, massive chemical inputs, and large equipment that sometimes costs more than a Lear Jet. All this chemical input and heavy equipment harms the land and reduces its value. Natural farming, on the other hand, continuously increases soil fertility and improves the value of the land and the overall environment. On just one 10-acre plot, many dozens of people can be employed in intensive organic farming. There is no question of unemployment or “overpopulation” in a society that promotes wide-scale natural farming.
A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada has succinctly described the Economics of Eden, the Vrindavan lifestyle: “Each is to work in cooperation for the total benefit of all society, which includes not only animate objects but also inanimate objects like hills and land. The vaisya (farmer or businessman) community is specifically responsible for the economic improvement of the society by producing grains, by giving protection to the cows, by transporting food when needed, and by banking and finance.” (Krishna Book, Chapter 24, page 171)