[Posted March 7, 2007]
Self-sufficiency
closer to the ideal civilization
A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami
 
Der
Spiegel
- March 6, 2007 - NILS KLAWITTER Economic Cure or Fool's Gold? ...The
system works like this. Pietsch uses Urstromtaler to pay for her
purchases at, say, the health food shop. Its owners then use the same
bills to pay the local cheese-makers, who pass those same bills along
to the carpenter who repaired their goat stable. The ideal scenario is
that a closed loop develops, boosting the regional economy and
preventing money from being drained from the area.
...Regional currencies prevent money from being drained from the area
where the currency is in use and transfered to booming regions like
China or India, says Margrit Kennedy, the author of several books on
alternative currencies. "Regional money is like a homeopathic cure for
the chaos and suffering international financial markets cause in the
world," Kennedy says.
Gerhard Rösl, a political economist at Regensburg Technical
College, is not convinced. "Social romanticism on the part of people
who don't think in a structured way" is how he characterizes this way
of thinking. Rösl has carried out a study on regional currencies
for Germany's central bank. The basic thrust of his study is that
regional money may be an entertaining gimmick for tourists, but it's
largely nonsense from an economic point of view.
Regional currencies are only helpful in the context of a generalized
deflation, when shrinking liquidity needs to be compensated for,
Rösl says. That was the case in the Austrian town of Wörgl in
1932, for example, when the township successfully issued a local
currency or scrip. Admittedly it's also the case today in the region
where the Urstromtaler is circulating, where people are gradually
running out of euros. go to story
conversation
with disciples, Vrindaban, September 16, 1976
Village
Economy
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Socio-Economic
Reformation
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New
World Order: On the Basis of Spiritual Understanding A.C.
Bhaktivedanta Swami
1st
point, that any civilization devoid of God consciousness or Krishna
Consciousness, is no civilization at all. It is simply a polished type
of animal society. This is the first point. So at the present moment,
the modern civilization on the basis of so-called scientific knowledge
and economic development is trying to avoid God consciousness, or
Krishna Consciousness—that is the defect of the modern civilization. more
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Prabhupada: We have seen in our childhood
how happy people were. They were. Simple. If one has five rupees income
per month he's happy. I've seen it. Husband, wife, a small family. If
he has got five rupees income, they can maintain very nicely, happily.
Why not? Suppose he has got five rupees income. The rice was selling at
four rupees. So two person, say 1/4 kilogramme, 1/4 share each. A
gentleman cannot eat more than that. So means half a share. And the
whole month, fifteen share. It is about one rupee eight annas. And
further, one rupee eight annas add for vegetables and other things.
With three rupees they can maintain, the husband and wife. And two
rupees still there. He can spend for other purposes. I have seen it.
Fresh vegetables, rice, this and... Just like with banana leaf. The
pots were of earthen, the wife is cooking and she's utilizing dry
foliage as fuel, a little temperature, everything is cooked. The
husband takes one banana leaf and spreads, and the wife gives
sufficient rice, vegetables. And things were so cheap. I have seen it.
And fresh.
Hansadutta Yes, everything,
Srila Prabhupada.
Prabhupada: Anything fresh.
Any cultivator, he has got little land surrounding his house and he's
growing vegetables like squash, chilis, and some spinach?
Hansadutta Spinach, shaka.
Prabhupada: Yes. And...
Hansadutta Eggplant.
Prabhupada: Eggplant. And
this banana. So whatever he's grown he takes in a basket, goes to the
market, immediately sold. And they're all fresh. Collected in the
morning, and it is sold by eight o'clock. All fresh vegetables. There
was no export, there was no facility of transport. These rascals
introduced transport. Big scale transport, this railway. There was no
railway. So transport means this villager, instead of selling locally
or one mile away, he will dispatch in Calcutta. The Calcutta people,
they are sitting on table and smoking and printing paper money and
exploit.
Hansadutta We had this
experience when we were traveling with our bus from Calcutta to
Vrindavana. We would want to buy watermelon from people who were
growing right on the bank of the river, and he would have huge piles.
And he would say, "No, I'm not selling. I'm transporting these to
Delhi, where one cannot get watermelon." He's getting five times the
price he would get in his local...
Prabhupada: And from
Vrindavana, we have seen, they are exporting that drumbeats? Vrindavana?
Hari-sauri: Drumsticks.
Prabhupada: Huh? Drumstick.
So the transport is a dangerous thing.
Hansadutta Yes, this is a
scheme.
Prabhupada: A local man
cannot get. He's starving. And the man in big cities, he's doing
nothing, he simply has got paper to sign and paper money he's
attracting. All production. And they are starving. This is modern
civilization. Everything, milk, vegetables, fish, everything, this chana.
Otherwise, within the village you can get everything. Village economy.
Everything very cheap. And as soon as they got these transport
facilities, the local men, they could not eat, and these lazy rascals,
they are getting everything. Big, big cities like Calcutta, Bombay,
they have millions of population. They are not producing anything. The
producer is different man. They are simply artificially cheating them
by paper money and they take. This is modern civilization.
Hansadutta And on the basis
of this transporting of food, other industries grow. Like for instance
packing. Sometimes the package costs more than the item which is being
packaged.
Prabhupada: Especially in
your country. Packing is more important than the... They sent me some
presentation in a huge package.
Hansadutta Consequently those
persons who are farmers, they become discouraged.
Prabhupada: Now it has become
a problem how to throw these packings.
Hansadutta Yes, this is
another problem.
Hari-sauri: Yes. Plastic they
can't dispose of, glass.
Prabhupada: Simply creating
problems. Lavana haila ithe gatila jagya.[?] This modern
civilization, they could not make any profit. They have created some
problems, that's all. Very dangerous civilization.
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