From: yy3wcTPb@36Pp.com   
      
   On economic decentralisation and cooperatisation ...   
      
   Cooperatives   
      
   As you know, human society is one and indivisible. A human being cannot live   
   alone. If a person wants to drink water from a well, he or she needs a rope   
   and a bucket, and to tie the rope one needs a hook. For all these things, the   
   help of the others is    
   indispensable. In society human beings have to work jointly with others so   
   that everybody can move forward collectively.   
      
   That is, society is the collective movement of a group of individuals who have   
   made a unanimous decision to move towards a common goal. If human beings move   
   closely together in all aspects of life, except for those few aspects, which   
   are very personal,    
   the better it will be for the welfare of society. Only those things that   
   cannot be done collectively should be done individually. So, it is always   
   better for people to work together as far as possible -- the more that human   
   beings work together, the    
   better it is. If this principle is not followed the spirit of society will be   
   broken, adversely affecting the very existence of human beings. People have to   
   eat food individually -- another person cannot eat your food for you --   
   however a meal can be    
   shared collectively. Where individuality dominates human life, the   
   environment, the welfare of different groups and even the continued existence   
   of humanity may be adversely affected.   
      
   ---   
      
   Cooperatives not communism and not capitalism   
      
   In communism the slogan is, "From each according to his capacity, to each   
   according to his necessity," but in the cooperative system the slogan is,   
   "Each will get according to his or her capacity." Due to this slogan, a person   
   will try to do more labour.    
   People will put all their talent and energy into a task and production will   
   increase.   
      
   In communism the leaders themselves try to avoid labor. They prefer to sit in   
   an office rather than work hard, thus there is sluggish production. In the   
   cooperative system, for example, people are issued shares in farming   
   cooperatives based on the amount    
   of land that they farm under cooperative management. Similar concepts apply to   
   producers and consumers cooperatives and all manner of industrial enterprise.   
   In the communist system, this type of participation is absent, so people do   
   not feel oneness with    
   their work. They are led to believe that their needs will be supplied by the   
   state, so they have no incentive or interest in the system.   
      
   ---   
      
   On decentralization   
      
   At the beginning of civilization, the desire to create arts and crafts arose   
   in the human mind. At that time artisans used to work at home, and arts and   
   crafts were produced in cottage industries. Men, women, boys and girls --   
   all participated in the creation of arts and crafts. Later people realized   
   that some arts and crafts could not be produced in every village; so a few   
   combined villages produced certain artifacts. If artisans had not combined   
   together, they would have    
   suffered losses in the market place, and their numbers would have been   
   significantly reduced. So gradually human beings started to go and work in   
   places where production was done collectively, or the first factories. At that   
   time the few industries that    
   existed were decentralized. In this connection one thing should be remembered   
   -- the more that arts and crafts are decentralized, the greater the benefits   
   for human society.   
      
   Decentralization does NOT diminish or dissipate economic potential. Rather,   
   decentralization removes regional disparity because wealth is distributed   
   almost equally everywhere. We do not find situations where people in some   
   places cry out in agony due to    
   scarcity and starvation, while people in other places become immoral due to   
   excessive affluence and over abundance. Such problems only arise from economic   
   centralisation (whether capitalist in the hands of few corporations or   
   communist in the hands of    
   party bureaucrats of the state). In fact, industrial centralization is   
   detrimental to a well-knit social order.   
      
   In a decentralized economy people do not have to leave their homes to work in   
   an industry or work is close at hand in the collective enterprise, and   
   consequently they are saved from the expenditure of maintaining two   
   establishments or travelling long    
   distances. Moreover, decentralization increases the possibility of saving   
   labour, because people can earn their livelihood while simultaneously taking   
   care of their household responsibilities. This arrangement is not possible   
   under capitalism. Capitalism    
   will never support decentralization, because capitalist production exists to   
   maximize profits. Centralization means industry for profit, while   
   decentralization means industry for consumption - for the benefit of the   
   consumer.   
      
   PROUT's approach, which will be supported by all rational people, is   
   production for consumption. PROUT's maxim is, "Production for consumption, not   
   production for profiteering."   
      
   Capitalists want to produce commodities at the lowest costs and sell them at   
   the highest prices. To produce commodities cheaply, there must be efficient   
   transportation, cheap raw materials, cheap labor, cheap energy, adequate water   
   supply, etc. No matter    
   what form capitalism takes -- individual capitalism, group capitalism or state   
   capitalism -- capitalists will always prefer centralized production. All these   
   forms of capitalism are essentially the same. Thousands of industries have   
   mushroomed around    
   major cities due to this capitalistic mentality. Remote places such on the   
   other hand have been neglected. They have gone to sleep, crying in cimmerian   
   darkness. Perhaps only a few people have even heard of these places. How could   
   they? The people living    
   there are extremely poor. They are incapable of purchasing a woollen wrapper   
   for winter, what to speak of expensive woollen clothing. Take an example. In   
   India regional disparity is increasing. Calcutta's per capita income is twenty   
   percent higher than    
   the rest of Bengal, while the Punjab's per capita income is higher than   
   Haryana's and Orissa's. The people of Delhi enjoy much greater liberty and   
   comfort than the villagers of Purulia district. Regional disparity is   
   detrimental to the cause of a healthy    
   social order. A progressive utilisation theory is the only panacea. There is   
   no other solution.   
      
      
   [continued in next message]   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)