4 Economics & Community & Ecology - Proutist Economic Development 

This presentation is about the close integration of an economy, with its people (the community) and with its environment (the ecosystem).

An economy cannot be abstracted from its community or its surrounding ecosystem. A serious defect of modern economics and the neo-liberal agenda is that it attempts to treat economics as an abstract system of principles divorced from people and environment. The result is a disaster for both people and the environment.  Current economics misses out completely the concept of 'people's economy', and also psycho-economy.

An economy, community and ecosystem also occur in some kind of 'hierarchy' or levels of existence. A community is more than its economy - for example, observe the tremendous efforts and resources that traditional communities put into their religious/spiritual observances or that people put into artistic and creative endeavours merely for aesthetic elevation. An economist would see no rational return on the investment in these practices. In addition, an ecosystem is much more than the communities embedded within it. 

There exists a hierarchy of living organisms. For example a human beings consists of various organs but those various organs are composed of tissues and the tissues are composed of cells. Each level has its own internal organisation and regulation of imports and exports.

In the same way, there is a hierarchy of communities and economies. On the largest scale, the global community occupies planet earth. One level down we may consider communities that occupy continents and sub-continents. Next level down is national communities, regional and then district communities and finally block and local communities.

Here are some definitions of community. The first three emphasize the idea of empathic sharing or giving between members of a community. Note that the idea of exchanging gifts is very different from the idea of buying and selling in a market. Commodity markets do not alone make a community. An important part of community is charity.  Sarkar's definition also adds in the dynamic or temporal component - that is it adds in the historical and futures component to a community. Primarily, this being the potential to become self-sufficient in their needs.

Here are some statements that show how proponents of the neo-liberal economic agenda approach the concept of community. Margaret Thatcher's statement is particularly significant, because if we do not recognise the validity of society, then there is no need for government spending on social welfare programs and businesses need have no social responsibility. Clearly this is impractical and imbalanced thinking.  The consequences of this neglect of community are manifesting in Britain today in the form of increasing violence, vandalism and drug related problems.

Communities are formed by the interaction of environmental, social, historical and economic factors. Note that communities must be large enough in order to be self-sustaining. Note also that religion is not accepted by Prout as the sole basis for a community.  Prout does not support any theocratic state system either.  Consider for example, the partition of India into East Pakistan and West Pakistan. This Pakistan later split into Pakistan and Bangladesh. Different language, different history, different ethnic identity split the previous nation of Pakistan despite common religion. 

The samaj (socio-economic unit) program is Prout's strategy to build healthy economic communities. The idea is to identify the smallest natural communities that have the potential to be economically self-sufficient. Sarkar calls these communities socio-economic units. 

Many of the nations in the world today could or can be effective socio-economic units. Some are not so.  Some African nations have boundaries established in colonial times that have nothing to do with the existing communities. This has created tremendous economic problems in Africa. By contrast, India can be viewed as a federation of many different 'countries' as diverse as those of Europe. Sarkar, born in India, has identified 44 socio-economic units in the Indian sub-continent. Each socio-economic unit would make its own economic plan that strives for self-sufficiency in the minimum necessities of life.

Prout divides a socio-economic unit into blocks. In Australia and probably many other countries, these correspond to the third or lowest tier of government, that is municipal or local government. Ideally, in a Proutist system, a block would consist of some 100,000 persons but in Australia the average local government jurisdiction ranges from 75,000 to 250,000 persons. A block is the smallest unit of economic planning in the Proutist system.

It is interesting to compare Australia and Venezuela from the point of view of their hierarchical structure. Since both countries have similar populations, both would have around 200 blocks or local government entities. The states (in both countries this is the second tier of government) would support such socio-economic units. Obviously the average block land area would be larger in Australia because it is a bigger country. But note that in both Australia and Venezuela, governmental units tend to occupy smaller land areas near the coast and larger land areas inland. Typically the more fertile coastal lands are more densely populated.

All living systems have certain basic properties. Structurally, living things such as cells, animals and plants are surrounded by a membrane or a skin. This separates the inside living system from the outside environment. In this sense, all living systems are structurally closed. But all living systems also input foods and output wastes. Thus they are structurally closed but energetically open. Another fundamental feature of living systems is that they maintain internal constant conditions, known as "homeostasis", despite an external fluctuating environment.   

An economy is like a living system. It has a skin or border consisting of border posts and custom offices. There is also an abstract border in the form of trade agreements and foreign exchange regulations. These regulate the flow of imports and exports. An economy also attempts to maintain internal constant conditions, such as a constant supply of essential goods and services at constant prices, despite an external fluctuating global economy. In the neo-liberal agenda, free trade and the deregulation of commerce have the same effect as stripping the skin off an animal. It bleeds to death.

The solution is 'people's economy' in which all aspects of the economic body and mind are strong.  A developed economy should consist of 4 parts:
people's economy;
psycho-economy;
commercial economy; & 
general economy. 

Each of these require further explanation, which will follow.