Minimum Requirements and Maximum Amenities for Life

Human needs are ever constant, though indeed include necessarily basic needs germane to contemporaneous life.  Through changes in time, place, and person, such basic necessities may fluctuate, while in a progressively evolving society, such amenities escalate, building upon prior amenities and often transcending them through subtler means.  PROUT endeavors towards participation, as well as production and distribution to escalate in optimal capacities and processes, and rational distribution in a rational manner, not to compromise any realm of society by any means in the evolution of such progress.  

Guaranteeing basic amenities of life are imperative for a society to prevail; prevention of such availability and growth of amenities are unconscionable, are crimes against humanity.  

Progressive Utilization promotes assuring the purchasing capacity for acquiring the basic necessities for all, a broader concept, disposition, and principle than state capitalism, stipend socialism, chasing the crumbs of trickle-down economics, or stealing, or anarchy.  At any moment, the correct approach within any country or community may not be exactly the same between one another, while exercising the principle will be the same.  

Principles in PROUT are of such a core nature that they have lasting import throughout the continuation of life and society, while what forms of implementing such core principles vary from time, place and person(s).  This also facilitates PROUT from accommodating dogma or superstition to become part of societal culture.

Today there may be a call for $15 or $20 an hour as a just and living wage, whereas such numbers may not be practical as time passes, thus, Progressive Utilization operates on the broader principle, to remain steady, that "everyone should be guaranteed the purchasing capacity for basic necessities of life", of which should always be in the increase for all, optimizing the felicities of life.  

Building anything on humanistic lines requires a foundation of real love and affection for humanity.  A truly benevolent society will never come into being under the leadership of those who are solely concerned with profit and loss.  Where love is paramount, the question of personal loss or gain does not arise.  The basic ingredient for building a healthy society is simply genuine love; how then is it possible to establish such a society through coercion or legal compulsion?
— P R Sarkar  

by P R Sarkar  Founder or PROUT

There are many attractions in society, and it is the nature of human beings to run after these attractions.  Communism exploited this human tendency by promising to give equal wealth to all.  But the mundane resources in the world are limited, so is it possible to provide equal wealth to all?  No, and the attempt to do so is nothing but a dazzling ostentation.  Now communism has met its end.  Communism was nothing but a “bogusism” – a mere ostentation of verbose language and nothing else. 

Rather than trying to give equal wealth to all, the proper approach is to ensure that everyone is guaranteed the minimum requirements of life.  As the income of people increases, the radius of their minimum requirements should also increase.  Just to bridge the gap between the more affluent people and the common people, we have to incease the minimum requirements of all.  In addition, the maximum amenities should be provided to meritorious persons to enable them to render greater service to society.  This should be done by setting aside some wealth for those with special qualities, but the provision of the maximum amenities should not go against the common interest.

However, something more can be added.  Besides increasing the maximum amenities of meritorious people, we also have to increase the maximum amenities available to common people.  Meritorious people will earn more than common people, and this earning will include their maximum amenities.  But the common people should not be deprived of maximum amenities, so there should be efforts to give them as much of the maximum amenities as possible.  There will still be a gap between the maximum amenities of the common people and the maximum amenities of the meritorious, but there should be constant efforts to reduce this gap.  Thus, the common people should also receive more and more amenities.  If maximum amenities are not provided to common people, no doubt there will be progress in society, but there will always remain the scope for imperfection in future.  What constitutes both the minimum requirements and the maximum amenities should be ever increasing.  This idea is a new appendix to PROUT.

If the maximum amenities of meritorious people become excessively high, then the minimum requirements of common people should be immediately increased.  For example, if a person with special qualities has a motor bike and an ordinary person has a bicycle, there is a balanced adjustment.  But if the person with special qualities has a car, then we should immediately try to provide the common people with motor bikes.

There is a proverb which refers to plain living and high thinking, but what is plain living?  Plain living eighty years ago was not the same as it is today, so plain living changes from age to age.  The standard of value also varies from age to age.  Thus, both the minimum requirements and the maximum amenities will vary from age to age, and both will be ever increasing.  If this were not so, there would be no economic progress in society.

So, our approach should be to provide the minimum requirements of the age to all, the maximum amenities of the age to those with special qualities according to the degree of their merit, and the maximum amenities to the common people as well.  The minimum requirements of the age as per their money value plus the maximum amenities of the age as per their money value are to be fixed and refixed, and fixed again and refixed again, and so on.  In this way you must elevate the standard of the people – you must go on elevating their standard of living.  

The Amenities of Life

The amenities of life are those things which make life easy.  The word “amenity” comes from the Old Latin word amenus which means “to fulfill the desire” or “to make the position easy”.  Amenities mean physical and psychic longings.  Whatever will satisfy the physical and psychic longings of the people will be the amenities of the age.  Common people should be favored with maximum amenities.  For example, previously people used to dig a well to get drinking water, and then they carried the drinking water to their houses.  Later water tanks were constructed, and now drinking water comes through pipes.  In this way the amenities of life have increased and life has become easier.  Though the aim is to get water, the system of getting it has become more effortless and more convenient.

Take another example.  Suppose school children receive the minimum requirements of life.  If they are provided with free snacks, this amenity will be over and above the minimum requirements.  Again, in most trains there are first and second class compartments.  First class passengers already get special facilities, but if free tea or coffee is given to the passengers in the second class compartments, it will be considered an amenity.

More and more amenities will have to be provided to the common people with the progress of society.  This process will generate the impetus to collect and utilize more and more resources, and the proper utilization of the collective resources will elevate the standard of living of both the common mass and the meritorious people.

As the need for the minimum requirements is fulfilled and the supply of the maximum amenities increases, the struggle for daily subsistence will gradually decrease and people's lives will become increasingly easy and enjoyable.  For this reason PROUT guarantees the minimum requirements and the maximum amenities to all.

The root vidh prefixed by su and suffixed by ac and t´a´ equals suvidha´ which means “the pabulum asked for”.  Kuvidha´ means “the pabulum not asked for”.  If you are travelling by train and you see someone take a snack of delicious food, you will have a natural urge or longing to enjoy the same delicacies.  This is a natural longing for physical pabulum.  Those things which your body wants are the natural amenities.  Natural amenities include all the longings of nature.  They include all natural physiological longings such as urination, defecation and eating when one is hungry.  Common people should be provided with more and more natural amenities to make their lives easy.

They should also be provided with more and more super-natural amenities.  Common people experience much stress and strain – they should be freed from this tension.  For example, the rural people of India always worry about their crops.  If the rains are late or if they fail, paddy production will suffer; if the climate is too cold or not cold enough, the winter crop will be adversely affected.  The common people should be freed from all these stresses and strains.  This can be achieved through the provision of super-natural amenities which can be developed artificially through science and technology.  For example, better agricultural techniques and the construction of small-scale dams to conserve water and improve irrigation can help relieve poor rural people of their stresses and strains.  Even simple techniques can increase crop yields.  For instance, if the smoke from burning wood chips is made to pass through a field of mustards seed, the flowers of the mustard seeds will bloom immediately and increase the production of the crop.

We should provide common people with both natural and super-natural amenities according to the physical capacity, the psychic capacity and the technical capacity of the state.  This approach will ensure that human beings get enough amenities so that their lives become satisfying and congenial.

The minimum requirements must be guaranteed to all human beings, and under the environmental conditions concerned – that is, the existing environmental conditions – there should be maximum amenities.  You should satisfy the thirst for physical and psychic longings – for physical and psychic pabula – under the concerning conditions.  So maximum amenities are to be guaranteed to all under the environmental conditions concerned, which means keeping in view such factors as the temporal, topographical, geographical, social and psychic conditions.

What is the difference among surroundings, atmosphere, and environment?  “Surrounding” means “everything physical, either directly physical or psycho-physical, that surrounds.”  “Atmosphere” means “the nature of different expressions in the surroundings, such as water, air, air pressure, temperature, etc.”  “Environment” means “that which controls the characteristic of inanimate and animate beings.”

One age will go and another will come, and human longings will also change.  In one age a particular type of breakfast is accepted as the standard, and in the next age it will be considered substandard.  Today people eat bread and butter, but according to the standard of the next age people may eat fried rice or sweet rice.  Thus, the maximum amenities of life should be guaranteed to each and every individual, and their standard should be continuously elevated.

The jurisdiction of maximum amenities will go on expanding with the progress of human beings.  Human beings are marching ahead, and their longing for different psycho-physical pabula is also increasing.  The minimum requirements of the age must be guaranteed, and the maximum amenities must also be guaranteed.  Maximum amenities must be provided in the existing environment.  

Can human thirst be fully quenched?  Can human hunger be fully satisfied?  Why is it that human thirst knows no limitations?  From PROUT we are moving to psycho-philosophy.  In the relative world human thirst cannot be satisfied.  Human beings are the progeny of the Supreme Progenitor, therefore human thirst is unlimited.  All the properties of the Supreme are ensconced in human existence, and not only in human existence, but in each and every entity of the expressed universe.  Can physical thirst, psychic thirst and spiritual thirst be quenched?  Only spiritual thirst can be quenched.  Unification of the unit with the Cosmic can quench the spiritual thirst.  The physical body has certain limitations.  It functions within very strict limitations.  The mind has a far bigger jurisdiction, but it is also limited.

Future Progress

Every system has its merits and demerits.  The demerit of this system is that as life becomes easier and easier, the physical capacity of human beings will gradually decrease. In ancient times people used to walk great distances with bare feet, carrying only a single cloth, but today people rarely move without footwear or without taking proper provisions. It is a fact that human strength will decrease in the future, but with the progress of society we have no alternative but to accept this situation.  A day will come when the eyes and the bones in the human body will become weak.  Almost all people will wear glasses and have false teeth.  In the future there will also be tremendous changes in the structure of human beings.  Human intellect will become sharper, the cranium will become larger and the nerve fibres will become more complex.  Not only will such changes occur in human beings, similar changes will occur in animals and plants too.

The African elephant has a large body and a small head and it cannot be easily domesticated.  In comparison the Indian elephant has a small body and a large head.  It is more intelligent and it can be easily domesticated.

As life becomes increasingly easy, there will be greater opportunities for intellectual pursuits.  A day will come when there will be hardly any need for human beings to work.  This may sound strange today and perhaps we might not like to hear such a thing, but that day will surely come.  Physicality will be transformed into more and more intellectuality, and intellectuality will be transformed into the culminating point of spirituality.  To move ahead from physicality to intellectuality is the Proutistic order.  It is the surest movement of human life – it is the surest movement of human destiny.

This type of movement to intellectuality will also take place in certain kinds of animals, such as dogs, monkeys and cows.  It may be that in 1,000 years monkeys will reach the stage of evolution that human beings have achieved at present.  At that time human beings will be making tremendous progress in the realms of intellectuality and intuition.  The human beings of that future age will be very sensitive.  The efferent nerves will be more active than the afferent nerves, and subtle experiences will be more common than they are now.  Today human beings seldom have subtle experiences, but in the future they will occur naturally and spontaneously.  The functional jurisdiction of the brain will also increase.  Similarly, many animals will become more sensitive and their vocabulary will increase.  With intellectual development vocabulary increases, and the number of words in a language also increases.  The functional jurisdiction of the brain of animals will increase too.

With the help of spiritual practices, the human beings of the future will increase the functional jurisdiction of their brains with accelerating speed.  People may think that they cannot make rapid spiritual progress unless the size of the brain, and hence the size of the cranium, is increased.  But this is not so because human beings can increase the jurisdiction of their thinking.

Today human beings are progressing in the realm of intellectuality.  To attain the culminating point of spirituality the human beings of today have to face less obstacles than the people of the past such as Mahars´i Vishvamitra, Mahars´i Agastya, etc.  The development of the glands and the amount of the hormone secretions is much greater than 100,000 years ago, and the glands will develop and increase their secretions by much more in the next 100,000 years.  In 100,000 years, human beings will conceive of things which are beyond the conception of the human beings of today.  These types of changes will occur within the social and economic jurisdiction of PROUT.

As human beings gradually move along the path of evolution, they will come to increasingly understand that humans are more psychic than physical.  In fact human beings are machines, but they are physico-psychic machines.  With psychic changes physical changes will also occur.  The human beings of the future will feel strange when they see the structure of the human beings of today.  Similarly, the humans of today would feel disturbed if they could see what the humans of the future will look like.

According to human psychology, people do not like to think much about the future.  Rather they prefer to dwell on the past.  The reason is that the future may or may not happen as human beings plan, so there is always a risk involved in speculating about the future.

One day the physical and psychic structure of human beings will become divine.  It may happen that human beings will not like this mundane world anymore.  They will then lose their fascination with the transitory world.  They will think that it is better to merge into Supreme Consciousness and leave the world forever.  This transformation in human psychology will come about through spiritual practices.  So I advise each human being that as long as you are alive, you should try to build yourself in a nice way, in a complete way.  But you should not only build yourselves, you should also build human society in the same way.  To achieve this you will have to take the help of PROUT.

The progressive availability of the maximum amenities of life will be guaranteed in PROUT, satisfying physical needs.  The satisfied physical needs will lessen the physical obstacles which inhibit human progress, and human beings will experience all-round development, especially in the intellectual stratum.  Human beings will get the opportunity to develop in the intellectual stratum without any hindrances.

The truth of humanity, the veracity of humanity, will go on increasing in different areas of expression.  That is why I say that there must be guaranteed minimum requirements and guaranteed maximum amenities for all human beings, and that these must go on increasing.  These amenities must be good for the physical and psychic development of human beings, or at least for one of the two.

NeoHumanistic Approach to Economics

As you know, physical pabulum is limited, so the mind continually runs from one thing to another.  This process goes on in a never ending order.  But in the realm of intuition the goal is infinite.  When aspirants come into this realm, their desires, their longings, are fully satisfied.  Thus the controlling point is the spiritual order.  Because the spiritual order is infinite, human beings have no control over it, but as the physical realm is finite, human beings can increase their sphere of activity in this realm.  The attempt to do this is a never ending process, and there are infinite permutations and combinations in this endeavor, but the latent hunger in human beings will never be satisfied in this realm.  The quest to satisfy this hunger can at best only lead to the threshold point of spirituality.

As human beings progress towards the realm of spirituality, they are helped on the one hand by PROUT, which guarantees minimum requirements and maximum amenities, and on the other hand by NeoHumanistic outlook, which removes disparities.  These two approaches help human beings in their progress and elevation.  Finally the existential faculty merges in the Supreme.

PROUT touches the threshold point of spirituality.  It also helps to lessen the obstacles in daily life.  For example, many daily commuters have to leave their homes at 6:00 a.m. and return at 10:00 p.m. to secure their minimum requirements.  But PROUT will guarantee the minimum requirements to all, so their daily burden will be lessened.

NeoHumanism also touches the threshold point of spirituality.  It helps the existential faculty reach the pinnacled state.  NeoHumanism will bring equality in the social sphere and remove all sorts of disparities, therefore human progress will be greatly accelerated.

When PROUT and NeoHumanism are established, the whole existence of human beings will become effulgent in the attainment of the Supreme.

The world is moving ahead with its merits and demerits.  The movement from imperfection to perfection is progress.  In the physical and psychic realms progress is never ending, but because everything in these realms is limited, the hunger of human beings remains unsatisfied.  In the spiritual realm, at the point of culmination, human hunger is fully satisfied.  To satisfy human hunger in the physical and psychic realms there is PROUT and NeoHumanism.  But how can human hunger be satisfied in the subtlest realm?  For this [Tantra Sadhana] philosophy and practice is there.  Movement beyond the threshold point of spirituality is beyond the scope of PROUT but within the realm of [Tantra Sadhana].  [Progressive Utilization] is a happy blending of rationality and spirituality.

The human requirements of every age must be guaranteed.  The minimum requirements must go on increasing according to the physical and psychic standard of human beings and according to the changes in climatic conditions, environment, etc.  Thus the range of minimum requirements will go on increasing according to the range of human social conditions.

At present human beings are thinking about their own minimum requirements more than about the minimum requirements of animals and plants.  A day is coming when some of the animals, if not all, will come within the realm of our social membership.  Today we say that each and every human being will get the minimum requirements.  Tomorrow we will say that the minimum requirements will also include the needs of dogs, cows, monkeys, etc.  To fulfill these requirements, there should be more and more production.

The earth is not only for human beings, it is for other living beings also.  So we will have to do something for them.  The minimum requirements and maximum amenities should also be given to animals.  Today cows, dogs and monkeys are developing; tomorrow more and more animals will be in this category.  Animals will also develop longings for different psycho-physical pabula, so they should be guaranteed minimum requirements and maximum amenities too.  We will have to do something for them also.  This is the demand of NeoHumanism, of NeoHumanistic ideas.  This demand should be fulfilled by PROUT.

According to the enlargement of human existential value and jurisdiction, psychic pabula will also increase.  There should be maximum amenities for one and all, with more longing for physico-psychic objects of enjoyment.  These amenities should be increased for the entire social order.  There cannot be any full stop, any comma or any semi-colon in this progress.

Progress is never ending.  Pabulum is also never ending.  We should understand this.  There cannot be any stop in the march of human progress.  And not only in human progress, but in the physical and psychic worlds also.  Geo-sentiment will die out; socio-sentiment will disappear; socio-economic sentiment will be eradicated.  Finally a day will come when sentient sentiment will dominate.  A day will come when human beings will get the maximum amenities, then human beings will reach the zenith.  But is the provision of maximum amenities the zenith of service?  It may be looked upon as the zenith; but because circumstances change, maximum amenities change.  The provision of maximum amenities should be treated as a relative zenith point and not the supreme zenith.

So maximum amenities of life under the conditions concerned should be guaranteed, and they should go on increasing.  We should communicate this idea to the masses and encourage them to help us in our noble mission.

Whenever we are thinking of implementing a theory we should feel that we are living in the present, then we should implement the theory.  The order of Shiva was to march ahead maintaining association with present reality.  This was the order of Shiva.  Marxism completely violated this fundamental principle, which is why Marxism has been broken into pieces under the impact of the present circumstances.

Bheunge geche mor svapner ghor,
Chinre geche mor viinar ta´r.
“The intoxicating effect of my dream has been lost,
The string of my lyre has been broken.”

Suppose there is a bright lamp.  Hundreds and thousands of insects will rush towards it and get burnt.  Similarly, communism was like a bright lamp.  Marxists built castles in the air.  They propagated many tall talks but they never thought about the practical application of their socio-economic approach.  They killed many innocent people and sent countless others to concentration camps in the name of so-called ideology.  Stalin killed hundreds of thousands of people instead of helping them by providing amenities for all.  In the name of doing good for the masses he killed so many people.  This is not humanism.  Today people have kicked communism out.  In China the people recently demanded “common human liberty”.  That was considered an offence, so they were crushed.  Do not people have every right to demand common human liberty?

Whatever is feasible and practical has been said in PROUT.  Marxism built castles in the air and encouraged the people to dream a meaningless dream.  PROUT has not done this nor will PROUT do it.  PROUT will do that which is feasible and practical.

If the common people and the meritorious people are treated as the same, the capable people will not be encouraged to develop their higher potentiality.  This is the reason why the brain drain is happening in India.  When talented people leave India, they leave it for good.  Providing special amenities for those with special capabilities will stop the brain drain.

PROUT’s approach is to guarantee the minimum requirements for all, guarantee maximum amenities for all and guarantee special amenities for people with special capabilities.  This approach will ensure ever increasing acceleration in the socio-economic sphere.  The question of retardation does not arise; even the question of maintaining speed does not arise.  There must be acceleration.  Acceleration is the spirit of life, the spirit of existence, the spirit of the existential faculty.  One may not be a genius, one may simply be a member of the ordinary public, and not properly accepted or respected by all, but even then one will get the minimum requirements and maximum amenities in an ever increasing manner according to the environmental conditions concerned, according to the demands of the day.

So what is the significance of this new approach?

1) Minimum requirements are to be guaranteed to all.

2) Special amenities are to be guaranteed to capable people. Special amenities are for people of special calibre as per the environmental condition of the particular age.

3) Maximum amenities are to be guaranteed to all, even to those who have no special qualities – to the common people of common calibre.  Maximum amenities are to be guaranteed to all as per environmental conditions.  These amenities are for those of ordinary calibre – the common people, the so-called downtrodden humanity.

4) All three above are never ending processes, and they will go on increasing according to the collective potentialities.

This appendix to our philosophy may be small, but it is of a progressive nature and a progressive character.  It has far-reaching implications for the future.  I hope you will realize its impact and all its potentialities.

13 October 1989, Calcutta
Published in:
Prout in a Nutshell Volume 4 Part 17
Proutist Economics

Political Democracy can and will be fortuitous when Economic Democracy is established.   Explore this and other articles covering alternative economics, ethical leadership, economic democracy, and a society without the weal and woe of social and economic vicissitudes HERE   How does PROUT compare or contrast with capitalism or communism?  Explore the answers HERE What are essential ingredients assuring progressive sustainability bereft of the vicissitudes of economic or political predation, privation or disparity?  Learn more HERE   http://gplus.to/ProgressiveSustainability

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Cooperative Ways to a Stronger Economy

Co-ops — just like people — can get more done together than anyone can do alone. They come in many forms, and are more common than you might imagine.  

Guest article

by Sarah van Gelder

Our little group of a dozen families was running out of time. After meeting every weekend for three years to plan our hoped-for cohousing community, and after investing much of our savings to acquire a few acres of land, it looked as though our dream would fail. We couldn’t find a bank that would finance a cooperative.  

It was our local credit union that saved us. “You’re owned by your members? What’s

so odd about that? We’re owned by our members,” the president of the Kitsap Credit Union mused.

With that financing, we were able to build 30 affordable homes and a common house, and to make space available for gardens, an orchard, a playfield, and a tiny urban forest. In 1992, we moved into Winslow Cohousing, the first member-developed cohousing community in the United States.

Co-ops—just like people—can get more done together than anyone can do alone. The good news is that co-ops come in many forms and are more common than you might imagine. They are owned by workers, residents, consumers, farmers, craftspeople, the community, or any combination. What they have in common is that they circulate the benefits back to their member-owners, and these benefits ripple out to the broader community. As Marjorie Kelly explains, cooperative forms of ownership allow the well-being of people, the planet, and future generations to take priority over profits for shareholders and executives.

This is an exciting moment for cooperatives. A growing disillusionment with big banks and corporations is sparking interest in economic alternatives, and new opportunities are opening up:

• The United Steelworkers and other unions are exploring worker-ownership as a means to assure stable, living-wage jobs that can’t be outsourced to low-wage regions.

• Communities seeking alternatives to profit-driven corporate health insurance are forming health care co-ops.

• Hundreds of thousands of people who “moved their money” from Wall Street banks to local banks and credit unions now have a say in how their money is used.

• Consumers are turning to co-ops like Equal Exchange for ethically produced goods, and Equal Exchange, in turn, supports co-ops made up of farmers and producers in some of the world’s poorest regions.  

These cooperatives can be powerful forces for change. Vancity, Canada’s largest credit union, targets its investments to local enter- prises that have positive impacts. It divested its holdings in Enbridge due to concerns about the proposed Northern Gateway pipeline. And it adopted a living wage policy that applies to its own employees and to service providers.

Cooperative structures can strengthen an economy. For example, Italy’s Emilia Romagna region, where about a third of the economy is cooperative and has far less inequality. Most people there can find living wage jobs, and quality of life is high.

Last year, Winslow Cohousing celebrated its 20th year, and the grown sons and daughters of the early members returned to share what it meant to them to grow up in a community, surrounded by love and support.

My hope? That many more children have the opportunity to grow up in cooperative spaces; that more adults get the respect and empowerment that comes from working in cooperatives and buying from co-ops; and that over time, diverse forms of democratic ownership displace predatory capitalism as the foundation for our economy.

This article first appeared here

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Sarah van Gelder wrote this article for How Cooperatives Are Driving the New Economy, the Spring 2013 issue of YES! Magazine. Sarah is executive editor of YES!

Political Democracy can and will be fortuitous when Economic Democracy is established.   Explore this and other articles covering alternative economics, ethical leadership, economic democracy, and a society without the weal and woe of social and economic vicissitudes HERE   How does PROUT compare or contrast with capitalism or communism?  Explore the answers HERE What are essential ingredients assuring progressive sustainability bereft of the vicissitudes of economic or political predation, privation or disparity?  Learn more HERE   http://gplus.to/ProgressiveSustainability

Cooperatives: Alternative Economic Structures and Business Enterprises

Cooperatives

Alternative Economic Structures and Business Enterprises

By Dieter Dambiec

The basic reason for having cooperatives as a form of economic enterprise in an economy is to help people work together and move forward in a collective way.  Cooperatives are considered to be the best form of economic enterprise because they are capable of seeking a balanced adjustment between collective spirit and individual rights.  Dieter Dambiec summarizes Prout's views on cooperatives.

Cooperation means getting things done with collective effort.  The benefit  of cooperatives is that they combine the wealth and resources of many  individuals and harness them in a united way.  To help achieve this,  however, cooperatives should be structured so that individual interest  does not dominate collective interests.  Individual dominance can  adversely effect the welfare of different social groups and the  environment.  

Essence of cooperatives

Cooperatives as a form of economic enterprise involve getting things done between free human beings with: 

(i) equal rights; 

(ii) equal human prestige (and mutual respect for each other); 

(iii) equal locus standi (eg, legal standing) so that everyone's welfare  is considered.  

This is called "coordinated cooperation" and is needed for equilibrium  and equipoise in social life.  A socio-economic system should be based on  coordinated cooperation not subordinated cooperation.  

"Subordinated cooperation" involves people doing something individually  or collectively, but at the same time keeping themselves under other  peoples' supervision or control.  This can degenerate the moral fabric of  an enterprise and should be avoided when structuring cooperative business enterprises.

More evolved than communes

A collective economic enterprise that lacks coordinated cooperation as  its primary mode of functioning is a commune or communist system.  It ends up being based on subordinated cooperation and the predominant  relationship is that of supervisor and supervised or master and servant.   According to Prout founder P.R.  Sarkar, these relationships are ultra  vires to the psychological needs of the human mind and retard progressive movement.  

Such systems force production down, not increase it.  This is because  workers do not feel oneness with their job, nor do they have freedom to  express all their potentialities.  Communes or collectives in communist  countries were not cooperatives.  They were simply production distribution mechanisms under a regimented system of control.  

The major distinctions between communes and cooperatives are: 

(i) Communes lack personal ownership; this is one reason for their  failure.  Without a sense of personal ownership people do not work hard or care for property.  Suppression of personal ownership sentiments results in sluggish production and psychic oppression.  In cooperatives, to  compare, there is personal ownership, subject to social limitations on  concentration of wealth but also part of a mechanism to ensure  progressive increase in everyone's living standards. 

(ii) Communes lack a proper incentive system, which discourages  individual initiative by talented people.  The result is that people do  not work hard.   

(iii) Organisational behaviour and outlook in communes tends to be  materialistic and the imposed leadership crude and unsophisticated.

More responsible than capitalism

Cooperative economic enterprises must also avoid becoming capitalist in  nature.  A key feature of capitalism is the import of raw materials from  other countries or regions in order to manufacture finished products.   Cooperatives must not encourage this form of economic imbalance.  An  economy based on cooperatives must develop its own raw materials through research so that cooperatives are not dependent on foreign raw materials.

For example, apple orchards (raw materials), sericulture, apple  processing, packaging, transportation and marketing should all be  regarded as part of the farming industry of a region and function as  cooperatives.  

However, in capitalism raw material producers like farmers, timber  growers, fishing fleets, etc.  have to sell their produce immediately  through large commodity exchanges or multinational companies in order to pay off loans for irrigation, seeds, labour, equipment, etc.  Because  capitalist enterprises control markets for these raw materials, producers  often sell at lower prices than they could get under other arrangements.   A good example of the squeeze on primary producers' income by capitalist enterprises can be seen in the steep decline in wool prices in Australia over recent years.  Commodity exchanges and multinational corporations act as or dominate raw materials markets to the detriment of their suppliers.

In a cooperative system, raw materials producers like farmers would not  be faced with the same financial pressures, and so not be forced to sell  produce immediately after harvesting at sub-market prices.  By advancing  money to individual farmers, cooperatives will allow farmers to better  control the conditions of sale and thus enjoy more financial security.

A properly conceived and structured cooperative should be capable of: 

(i) determining how much to sell;  

(ii) determining the most favourable time to sell in order to get the  best price; 

(iii) fixing the price of its own produce within certain price limits.   In this way cooperatives will get the profit which is presently taken by  middlemen and profiteers in the capitalist system.  

In a cooperative farmers sell their produce to the cooperative at a rate  fixed by the cooperative.  When the market price is reasonable the  cooperative sells the aggregate.  The farmers then receive their  percentage of the profit, which will be proportional to the amount of  their land shareholding in the cooperative.  At least this can be an  initial arrangement.  

Membership requirements

Cooperative members have to be local people who, by virtue of their  established residence, can make a commitment to the cooperative and the region it services.  Therefore the problems of a floating population and immigrant labour which may disturb the economy by increasing the  availability of labor will not occur in a cooperative system.  The  requirement of a worker's or shareholder's longer term commitment to the  cooperative means there is no scope for floating labourers to be  cooperative members.  Elimination of immigrant labour will also protect  the social life of the cooperative from possible adverse social  influences created by mobile populations.  

Anyone who wishes to be part of the socio-economic life of a region,  however, can settle there and become a member of local cooperatives.  

Unemployment

Sarkar further states that in the cooperative system unemployment will be solved.  This is because as production increases the need for more human resources and for the construction and operation of more facilities will also increase.  Educated people can be properly employed as skilled  workers.  There will also be a need for tractor drivers, labourers,  cultivators, etc.  who as cooperative members will naturally do this work.   In times of economic downturn everyone's labour will be proportionately  reduced so that no one suffers the stigma of being unemployed.  In this  way economic downturns will always be short and temporary.  

Sarkar is confident that cooperatives will solve the unemployment problem and states that in the cooperative system there should be no compulsory date for superannuation.  People should be free to work as long as they like providing their health permits.  This is in contrast to some government policies which encourage older people to retire in order to make room for younger people.  Following is a look at other aspects of  Sarkar's cooperative concept.  

Workforce composition

All groups in the cooperative workforce will benefit from the  cooperative's profits.  The members of a cooperative will be composed of: 

(i) shareholders - who receive salaries for their work plus a return on  their shares; 

(ii) non-shareholders or labourers - who enjoy stable employment and  favourable wages.

Non-shareholding labourers can be further categorized into those who are: 

(i) permanent labourers - who get bonuses and premiums (dividends) as  incentives besides their wages; and  

(ii) casual or contract labourers - who only get wages for their labour.  

Labourers or workers also include those who are engaged in cooperative  management.  They will be entitled to draw dividends and salaries on the  basis of their membership in and services they render to the cooperative.  

This structure allows cooperatives to develop a proper incentive system  so that individual initiative by talented people is encouraged.  An  incentive system should ensure that intelligent people are not forced to  do work which is unsuitable for them, or be paid the same wages as  ordinary workers.  If skilled workers get paid more than unskilled workers  there will be an incentive for all to become skilled and work harder.  In  this way the cooperative will encourage the educational and skill  upgrading of its members.  

In addition, workers who give the greatest service to the cooperative  should get the greatest bonuses.  Bonuses should be paid in proportion to  wage rates and should reflect both the skill and productivity of the  worker.

Shareholder composition

Members who purchase shares in a cooperative should have no power or  right to transfer their shares without the permission of the cooperative.   Such a pre-emptive right allows existing shareholders to determine the  basis of membership, and prevents capitalist entrepreneurs from  purchasing large numbers of shares in a cooperative and speculating in  the market.  Speculative activity can easily lead to a depression and this  will of course effect the cooperative.

Shares can however be inherited.  The shares of cooperative members  without descendants simply pass on to their legally authorised  successors, who become members of the cooperative if they are not already members.  Different countries have different systems of inheritance, so the right of inheritance should be decided according to the system in vogue.  In western common law countries if someone inherits shares in a business enterprise and does not want to become a member of that enterprise, existing shareholders simply buy that person out.  Presumably the same reasoning can be applied to cooperatives.  Following this arrangement will help cooperative members avoid litigation.  

Because cooperative members will be from the same vicinity they will all  know each other, so there should be no difficulty in deciding who should  be able to buy such shares due to ignorance about potential shareholders.

Disadvantaged persons can also benefit from the cooperative system.  A  widow, disabled worker or minor can all own shares and derive an income  based on the number of shares they own.  Therefore even if as cooperative members are unable to work, they will still be entitled to an income from cooperative profits.  Establishing such a structure on a large scale should be able to do away with the welfare state mentality prevalent in capitalist societies.

Dividend distribution
In a cooperative system there will be no preference shares.  Today  preference shares are used by some financial institutions as a substitute  for debt investments (ie., loans to businesses).  Preference shares really  mean that a lender in the guise of a shareholder has first grab at co-op  dividends and therefore co-op profits.  Such investors should become  ordinary shareholders like other co-op members and share proportionately  in the success (or perhaps otherwise) of the co-op.

Cooperative management

Cooperative members should elect a board of directors from amongst the  cooperative members.  The position of director should not be honorary.   Directors must be moralists.

The board decides the amount of profit to be divided amongst members,  ie., the dividend to be paid to each shareholder.  However, not all profit  should be distributed in the form of dividends.  Some should be kept or  used for: 

(i) reinvestment, purchasing capital items or repair and maintenance;  

(ii) increasing the authorised capital of existing shareholders; 

(iii) deposit into a reserve fund to be used to increase the value or  rate of dividends in years when production is low.  This also ensures that  shareholder capital is not adversely affected.

Farmer cooperatives

All people have the right to be guaranteed minimum requirements such as  food (including water), clothing, housing, education and medical care.   These basic requirements should be cooperatively produced because they are essential collective requirements.

The importance of food means there has to be maximum and safe utilisation of agricultural land.  The best way to achieve proper organisation of agriculture is on a cooperative basis, as will be seen.

Land is very important in the psychology of farmers so a proper  cooperative system has to be built up to give farmers a sense of  ownership of their land and permanent usufructuary rights to the land  while it is managed cooperatively.  This will also give a better outturn.   The cooperative system has to be psychological and subtle so that farmers do not feel adversely affected or insecure.  

This can be achieved by farmers pooling their land in cooperatives and  keeping records of their shares based on the size of their individual  land holdings.  In this way many small plots can be merged and boundaries for adjoining lands broken down, removing needless division of land into small individual holdings.  This allows for an increase in the area of land available for cultivation, benefiting farmers collectively.

Small plots are also detrimental because farmers have to lease their land  to someone who can cultivate it as an aggregate, as in the share cropping system.  This results in lower (if any) return to the farmer.

In the cooperative system there is also great scope for agricultural  research and development into new ways to better utilize and prolong the vitality of land.  The ill effects of chemical fertilizers, which are  common in individual farming and relatively unavoidable because of lack  of individual capital, could be minimized or eliminated.  

Phase-wise socialisation

Sarkar's theory also advocates the gradual socialisation of all  agricultural land according to a phase-wise plan.  Socialisation does not  mean nationalisation or loss of an ownership interest as in the commune  system.  

A main objective of socialisation is to ensure that everyone's economic  needs can be met (particularly by having enough purchasing power to get access to the basic necessities of life).  It also ensures that there is  maximum utilisation and rational distribution.  Another objective of  socialisation and the phase-wise process is to allow for individual  psychic expansion, with a consequent change in collective psychology, so as to create a more congenial social environment in which people learn to think for the collective welfare rather than for their own self-interest.  

Four Phases

In the first phase all uneconomic land holdings should be taken over by  cooperative management for the benefit of those who own the land.  

In the second phase all landowners should be requested to join the  cooperative system.  

In the third phase there should be rational distribution of land and  redetermination of ownership.  It appears that in this phase questions  such as the excessive concentration of wealth are to be fully addressed  after having instilled in people's minds the purpose and practice of  cooperatives.

In the fourth phase conflict over land ownership should disappear.   Therefore after land has been vested in the cooperative and ownership of shares determined (as well as a proper policy of distributions of  dividends to shareholders and wages to workers determined), conflicts  amongst landowners and landless rural workers will no longer exist.

Initial stages
In the initial stages (phases 1 and 2) agricultural cooperatives can be  formed by farmers consolidating their lands into a cooperative and having  shares in the consolidated holding in proportion to the amount of land  they put into the cooperative.  For example:  

Farmer	Hectares	Shareholding %
A	5	10
B	10	20
C	15	30
D	20	40
Total	50	100

Adjustments to this simple structure will be required where the number of  shares has to be allocated to take into account the productivity of the  land.  For example, if a farmer has 20 hectares of land of which 10  hectares are highly productive and 10 hectares are of low productivity,  the share allocation to that farmer should take into account the  differences in productivity accordingly.  

Profits from crop sales by the cooperative should be shared in proportion to: 

(i) the number of shares each shareholder has in the cooperative; and 

(ii) the labour rendered for crop production.   In this way farmers receive profits according to the number of their  shares in the cooperative and their labour.  

The system is flexible so that landowners who do not want to work in the  cooperative will still have their land included in the cooperative and be  considered cooperative members.  They will get shares based on the size  and productivity of their land but if they do not want to work they will  not be entitled to wages.

Producer cooperatives

Cooperatives which are strictly agricultural, in Sarkar's system, should  sell their produce to producer cooperatives, which in turn can  manufacture a wide variety of consumer goods.  

Raw materials which are of non-farming origin, such as limestone for the  production of cement, should also be processed by producer cooperatives.  

Thus, producer cooperatives need to be formed for agro industries, agrico industries and non-agricultural industries.  

The total profit of such cooperatives should be distributed amongst the  workers and members of the cooperative according to their individual  capital investment (shares) in the cooperative and the service (labour)  they render to the production and management of the cooperative.

Farmer-producer cooperatives

Farmers in agricultural cooperatives may also create producer  cooperatives to produce items for various industries.  Thus, some  cooperatives may function as both farmer and producer cooperatives.  

Farmer cooperatives which also function as producer cooperatives have the opportunity of increasing their profitability in various ways.  For  example, producer cooperatives functioning with agricultural cooperatives  could produce rice as well as oil from the husks.  

Consumer cooperatives

Consumer cooperatives will distribute consumer goods to members of the  public at reasonable rates.  These cooperatives should be formed by  persons having an interest in selling goods to the public (ie., not  hoarding), and will share profits according to the standard criteria of  individual labour and capital investment (shares).  

Consumer cooperatives will be supplied by both agricultural and producer  cooperatives.  For example, agricultural or producer cooperatives which  produce cotton or silk thread will sell the thread to weaver cooperatives, which can produce cloth using the appropriate or latest technology.  Weaver cooperatives will in turn supply consumer cooperatives that sell the cloth to the public.  

Commodities which do not go directly from agricultural cooperatives to  consumer cooperatives will be produced by producer cooperatives.  These  non-farming commodities should be compulsorily produced by producer  cooperatives.  

This arrangement will prevent artificial shortages or the non-supply or  unavailability of essential goods and commodities.  This can cause  suffering to ordinary people who have little means for circumventing  these problems.

This structure also ensures there is no accumulation of essential  commodities by capitalists for the purpose of maximizing profits, or  price inflation in essential commodities.  If the distribution of  essential commodities is done through consumer cooperatives linked with  producer cooperatives, middlemen and profiteers will be eliminated.  

Service cooperatives
These are special cooperatives which should be formed by people involved  in service-type industries, such as doctors.

Satellite cooperatives

PROUT advocates the formation of many small satellite cooperatives to  supply various items to large producer cooperatives.  For example  different parts of a motor car can be locally manufactured in small  cooperatives (and even carried out at home as cottage industries).  The  main function of the producer cooperative will be assembly.  This has two  benefits:  

(i) large cooperatives will not require many labourers, minimizing labour  unrest; and  

(ii) labour costs will be reduced, keeping the cost of commodities low.

Electronic commerce and digi-cash will make it easier to establish  cottage industries because links can be made electronically between  various satellite coops, avoiding many costs and delays potentially  arising from decentralized production.

The question of transportation of goods or parts still needs to be  addressed.

The state and cooperatives

Taxation

Taxes, levies, excise duties, etc.  should be paid collectively by the  cooperative, not individuals.  This frees individuals from financial  pressure and economic exploitation through personal taxation systems.  

The primary source of taxation revenue in a PROUT system would appear to be at the point of production.  This makes sense in that enterprises which make first use of resources have a social responsibility to ensure proper utilisation and rational distribution; taxation imposes some restraint to ensure this responsibility is carried out.

Trademark regulation
A useful device that can stop black-marketing or the sale of stolen goods  is trademark law.  Laws can be passed which prevent the sale of goods  without the producer co-op's trademark.  Thus, if black marketeers try to  sell any clothing without trademarks, they can be caught easily.   Trademarks specifying cooperative ownership will also help the public  support the cooperative movement.

Essential commodities

Commodities can be divided into three categories: 

(i) essential commodities, like rice, pulse, salt, clothing, etc.  People  are willing to borrow money to buy these; 

(ii) demi-essential commodities, like oil, antiseptic soap, shoes etc.;  and  

(iii) non-essential commodities, like luxury goods.  

The number of items of essential commodities should be continually and  progressively revised and expanded with changes in time, place and  preferences.  These revisions should be made by the government and not by the board of directors of a particular cooperative.  What is considered a demi-essential commodity today may be treated as an essential commodity tomorrow.  Demi-essential commodities which may be affected by artificial shortages, causing suffering to common people, should be produced by producer cooperatives.  The production of luxury goods can be left in the hands of the private sector.  Essential commodities or services of a non-farming nature which require large capital investment, like the railway system, should be government managed.  

During shortages of non-essential commodities ordinary people will thus  not be affected.  

Pressure groups
Farmers in agricultural cooperatives should be able to exert collective  pressure on local, state or federal governments for different benefits  and facilities.  For example, government assistance may be needed to  develop an irrigation infrastructure.

Scientific advancement

As science advances, cooperatives will develop and manufacture a great  variety of commodities from synthetic raw materials.

Socio-economic units lacking sufficient supply of raw materials will have  to manufacture synthetic raw materials.  Suppose a unit or region lacks an  adequate supply of fodder to feed its cattle, sheep, etc.  Will it import  fodder from another unit or region?  No, it should manufacture artificial  fodder instead.  Similarly, it takes a substantial volume of cotton to  produce one "dhoti" (the traditional garment worn by men in northern  India).  To transport large amounts of cotton also requires much energy,  and so if it is not readily available, synthetic fabric can be produced  instead.

Thus through the cooperative system human society will progress with  accelerating speed, ushering in a new revolution in science and causing  the intellectual capacity of human beings to increase.  Every nook and  corner of natural and human potential will be properly used.  In this way  progress and development can be maintained in every field of life.  

To encourage common factors and discourage all fissiparous factors in the  physical realm, human sweetness is required.  The best expression of human sweetness in the socio-economic world is the cooperative system.

Dieter Dambiec practices law in Australia and New Zealand.