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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An Alternative Economic And Spiritual Model For The Welfare Of All

  The Progressive Utilization Theory (PROUT): Alternative Economic And Spiritual Model For The Welfare Of All

By Acarya Maheshvarananda, Mariah Branch 

Introduction

To envision our future, it is vitally important to ask: what kind of world do we want?  Prout (the Progressive Utilization Theory) is a socioeconomic alternative model that promotes the welfare and development of every person, physically, mentally, and spiritually.  This article provides a brief introduction to some of the economic and social concepts of Prout, including guaranteeing minimum necessities to all, the right to jobs, a three-tiered economy, including small-scale private enterprises, cooperatives, and large-scale publicly owned key industries, food sovereignty, sustainable agriculture, proper utilization of natural and human resources, and economic democracy.  Prout promotes an ecological and spiritual perspective that is universal and nondogmatic.  Prout's holistic model provides an overarching framework to effectively measure and compare policies for the greater good of all people, as well as the planet.

“Another world is possible!” is the theme of the World Social Forum, which began in Brazil in 2001, and which has been growing exponentially ever since, with hundreds of thousands participating in global, regional, national, and local events that democratically educate people and rally to create social, political, and economic changes.  At these forums, it is common to proclaim that we are against the unjust global economy, based on profit, selfishness, and greed, which excludes more people than it benefits.  However, the Progressive Utilization Theory, Prout, offers the opportunity to champion what we are for and explore how we can achieve our goals.

When audiences are asked, “What kind of world do you want?” in the Philippines, Poland, the United States, Brazil, or the slums of Caracas, the answers are almost invariably the same: a world without war, hunger, or poverty, with human rights, democracy, environmental protection, etc.  The truth is we all want the same thing: peace and justice on earth!  There is tremendous power in this shared dream, and there are many people who are struggling to help create it.

We believe that the process of answering this question, envisioning what kind of society we want, is so fundamental to creating a better future that students should be asked it in every school from the first year to postgraduate level, plus the society as a whole.

Indian philosopher Prabhat Ranjan Sarkar (1921–1990), author, composer and spiritual master, devoted his life to exploring and answering this question in the most practical way possible.  He first formulated Prout in 1959, and formed an organization called Proutist Universal to work to implement it.  From 1971 to 1978, he was a political prisoner in India due to Prout's stand against corruption, the caste system, the exploitation of women, and political exploitation.

Prout promotes economic self-reliance, cooperatives, environmental balance, and universal spiritual values.  The essential characteristic of Prout is economic liberation, freeing human beings from mundane problems so that all will have increasing opportunities for intellectual and spiritual liberation.  Prout is not a rigid mold to be imposed on any society.  On the contrary, it is a holistic set of dynamic concepts that can be applied appropriately by citizens and leaders to help their region or country prosper and achieve self-reliance in an ecological way.

We provide a brief introduction to some of the economic and social concepts of Prout below, and explain the importance of its nondogmatic ecological and spiritual perspective. 

Minimum Necessities

People in all nations must have their minimum necessities met in order to be productive and develop their full potentials.  The five minimum necessities are: food (including pure drinking water), clothing, housing (including adequate sanitation, energy, communication, and information), medical care, and education.  These must be provided in a sustainable manner so that future generations can also meet their minimum necessities.  The Brazilian spiritual activist Frei Betto called attention to this need when he said, “The degree of justice in a society can be evaluated by the way food is distributed amongst all of the citizens” (F. Betto, letter to the author, Dada Maheshvarananda, 2002).

The right to meaningful employment with fair wages is also a fundamental human right, because it ensures an adequate income to purchase the above basic necessities.  Prout recommends using cooperatives to sustainably produce the minimum necessities as well as other goods and services. 

Physical Wealth

Prout's solution to economic inequality is based on the obvious truth that the world's physical resources are limited.  When certain individuals accumulate too much, there is not enough for everyone else.  We have to make decisions about how wealth is distributed, how our economy is organized, which resources we will use, and which resources we will leave for future generations.

If our goal is to create a fair society that meets everyone's minimum necessities both now and in the future, we need to develop distribution methods to achieve that goal.  Allowing one person or a small group of people to hoard resources, including wealth, is counterproductive.

National and state governments need to determine how much wealth one person can own and how much of that wealth can be passed from one generation to the next.  These laws should be evaluated and adjusted so that they foster a fair distribution and provide economic opportunities throughout society.

National governments should also promote self-supporting decentralized local economies and full employment, with transparent economic opportunities that discourage law breaking and encourage fair salary structures.

Sarkar proposed a three-tier system of enterprise management to create a healthy economy: privately owned small-scale enterprises, worker-owned cooperatives, and state-owned public utilities.

Small-scale private enterprises can produce nonessential or luxury goods and services.  They are a vital component of an economy, because they encourage creativity and personal initiative.  They allow individuals, families, and small partnerships to develop innovations, as well as identify and fulfill needs that benefit their communities and themselves.

Prout recommends that a ceiling be set on sales volume and number of employees for private enterprises, in order to prevent unlimited concentration of wealth in the hands of one person, which would be to the detriment of the community.  If a firm reaches one of those limits, it must then choose whether to transform itself into a cooperatively managed enterprise, to divide itself or to curtail further expansion.

Cooperatives form the second level of a Prout economy: industrial, agricultural, consumer, banks, and services co-ops.  It is a basic right of workers to own and manage their enterprises through collective management.  These cooperatives can produce the minimum necessities and most other products and services, forming the largest part of a Prout economy.  Cooperative banks can invest in local housing, farms, students, and businesses.  They can avoid much of the speculation that has contributed to the recent economic hardships felt around the world.

Large-scale key industries, such as transportation, energy, telecommunications and steel, form the third level of a Prout economy.  They require large capital investment and are difficult to decentralize.  Prout recommends that such key industries should be managed as public utilities, and should never be privatized.

Many economists have suggested that salaries within companies and cooperatives should be tied together to reduce the large wealth discrepancies that we see in many industrialized societies.  Economist John Kenneth Galbraith wrote, “The most forthright and effective way of enhancing equality within the firm would be to specify the maximum range between average and maximum compensation” (Gailbraith 1973).

While some cooperatives choose to evenly share profits among all their members, most choose to simply link their starting salary with their highest salary at a ratio of, for example, three to one.  Thus the people with the most seniority or most skilled jobs are paid a certain percentage more than the basic starting wage.  Thus salaries in a cooperative might range between $30,000 and $90,000 per year, depending on what the members agreed. 

Proper Utilization of Natural and Human Resources

Prout supports the maximum utilization of the planet's resources, which means to make the best use of them, with economic and mechanical efficiency, while still protecting the natural environment.  It is our conviction that everyone can experience a high quality of life if we use our resources wisely.  Mark Friedman quotes the American scientist and visionary R. Buckminster Fuller as saying, “We have enough technological know-how at our disposal to give everyone a decent life, and release humanity to do what it is supposed to be doing—that is, using our minds, accomplishing extraordinary things, not just coping with survival” (Friedman 2001).

The natural resources gifted by nature belong to everyone and are to be used for the welfare of all.  The economically developed nations of the world amassed their wealth by taking natural resources from other nations, first through colonization and later through very favorable trade policies and debt manipulation.  To counter this detrimental practice, local processing industries should be created nearby the sources of raw materials, ensuring full employment for all local people, who can then trade or sell the finished goods to other regions for the economic prosperity of the local people in both areas.

Prout also proposes the maximum utilization of all human resources, emphasizing the value of both individual and collective well-being.  According to Prout, there is no inevitable conflict between individual and collective interests.  Rather, their true interests are shared.  Healthy individuals create a healthy society, just as a healthy society fosters the development of healthy individuals.

In contrast, a materialistic consumer society pressures people to increase their own pleasures and comforts, indifferent to the needs of others.  The results of excessive individualism can be seen in the breakdown of the family and the selfish “me-first” attitude, which is sadly all too prevalent throughout the Western world.

This principle, however, does not support abandoning all individuality for the intended good of collective society.  Communist governments have amply demonstrated the danger of excessive collectivism.  Society needs to respect human diversity, and to allow people the freedom to think for themselves, to express their creativity, and to form diverse relationships.  An important goal of Prout is to encourage individuals to realize their full potential and achieve their dreams and goals.

Wastage of metaphysical or intellectual resources occurs when people lack education, or are denied opportunities to develop their different talents and contribute their ideas because of racial or sexual discrimination or economic exploitation.  How wonderful it will be when all the creativity of human beings is encouraged and channeled toward improving our world, instead of it being wasted or misdirected in advertising to convince us to purchase what we do not need. 

Economic Democracy

Prout promotes economic democracy, which shifts decision-making power away from a small minority of corporate shareholders and vests it with the local people.  It proposes a dynamic economy of the people, by the people, and for the people.  Through democratic cooperatives and decentralization, the people can meet all their basic needs with adequate purchasing power.  In addition, special amenities, facilities, and services should be provided to deserving individuals who contribute to society.  When each region and state, and, as much as possible, each community is self-reliant in food, then the people will not suffer from food shortages or inflated prices due to transportation breakdowns or a rise in oil prices.

Another requirement for economic democracy is that outsiders must be strictly prevented from interfering in the local economy or taking away profits.

In fact, effective political democracy with full political rights is not possible without economic democracy and corresponding economic rights, including the guaranteed minimum necessities.

One of neoliberalism's clever tricks was to put so-called “economic freedom,” which implies the freedom of persons and corporations to amass wealth beyond measure, on the same footing with fundamental human rights.  The idea of “economic freedom” contradicts the reality that the world's resources are limited and that the actions of individuals affect the opportunities others.  In law, we grant individual rights to the extent that they do not harm others.  Prout's concepts incorporate this idea into economics.  Sarkar further states that, “The entire wealth of the universe is the common patrimony of all” (Sarkar 1992). 

An Ecological and Spiritual Perspective 

Prout contains an ecological and spiritual perspective that many economic philosophies lack, but which is present in many traditional societies.  Indigenous spirituality throughout the Americas, Africa, Asia, and Australasia invariably revolved around nature.  Indigenous people did not believe that the land belonged to them; rather, they believed they belonged to the land.  Indigenous oral traditions and writing expressed intense pain at seeing miners ripping open the earth, loggers felling all the trees, the water being poisoned, the animals being slaughtered (Giblett 2004; Stevens 1997).  These traditional cultures were mostly cooperative by nature and treated most of the land as a common resource.

Black Elk, Oglala Sioux spiritual leader, said, “The first peace, which is the most important, is that which comes within the souls of people when they realize their relationship, their oneness, with the universe and all its powers, and when they realize that at the center of the universe dwells Wakan-Taka (the Great Spirit), and that this center is really everywhere, it is within each of us” (Neihardt 1932).

Today environmental sciences demonstrate that an interconnected web of living systems and organisms in dynamic balance exists throughout nature.  The interdependence and interrelation of all forms of life is astounding.  From the single-cell bacteria to the most complex animal, each creature inhabits its niche and plays its unique role.  The cycles of birth, life, death, and decay continue in a fluctuating state of balance.  In fact, one can view the environment as a factory that produces no waste at all—everything is recycled.

Prout includes the ecological perspective of traditional peoples that we all belong to the natural world.  Planet Earth, her wealth of resources, as well as the rest of the universe, are the common inheritance of all humanity.  Collectively, like brothers and sisters in a human family, we have a duty and a responsibility to utilize the earth in a sustainable manner and to fairly distribute the world's resources for the welfare of all.  As the elder sisters and brothers in a family, we also have a duty to protect our younger siblings, the animals and plants and Creation.

Prout's notion of ownership is based on this spiritual concept that Sarkar terms “cosmic inheritance” (Sarkar 1993).  He reasons that the Creator is not separate from the creation, but permeates and resonates in every particle of it.  There is a divine essence in each human being.  Prout encourages the protection of biodiversity, natural habitats, and reforestation, as well as aggressive control of air, water and soil pollution.  Efforts to reduce carbon emissions and greenhouse gases are supported.  Every living being has existential value in addition to utility value.  Humans do not have the right to destructively exploit plants, animals, or the Earth, without regard for their well-being.  The Creator invites us to use these with respect, but not to abuse them.

The spiritual potentialities of people, that which allows us to develop peace, harmony, wisdom, wholeness, and lasting happiness within, remain for the most part undiscovered in materialistic societies.  Yet throughout history, a few mystics of all cultures have dedicated their lives to practicing spiritual techniques to realize this inner treasure and share it with others.

A spiritual perspective then would include respect for all beings, gratitude for all beings, and eventually ever-expanding feelings of compassion, altruism and unconditional love for all beings.  This involves self-transcendence, wisdom, and connecting with the sacred, the infinite, to reach a state of perfect peace and infinite happiness.  The endeavor to attain this blissful state is the human quest known as spirituality.

“Neohumanism,” a term coined by Sarkar, is the process of expanding one's sentiment or allegiance from one of self-interest to one of empathy and identification with an ever-larger share of humanity.  It stands for the practice of love for all creation, including plants, animals, and the inanimate world ( Sarkar 1982).  Prout advocates that education should be based on this, incorporating a harmonious blending of oriental introversial philosophy and occidental extroversial science.  It seeks to redefine the human experience from one that is competitive, desiring to dominate and control, to one that is cooperative.  Neohumanist education unleashes infinite learning capacity into our lives by expanding our understanding of ourselves and our potential.  Spirituality, creativity, and love are at the center of this new force.  (Inayatullah, Bussey, and Milojevic 2006). 

What Spirituality is Not: Dogmatism 

This universal spirituality is different from religion, a particular faith tradition or doctrine.  It is also not about dogmas, which can be defined as any intellectual barrier beyond which one may not question.  Examples of religious dogmas include: the idea that we are the chosen people of God and others are not, that ours is the only way, that we are going to heaven and everyone else is going to hell, that only our holy book is the word of God, that men are spiritually superior to women.  All of these are terribly destructive, dividing humanity by creating a mentality of Us and Them, superiority and inferiority.  Dogmatic leaders have incited fanaticism, hatred, intolerance, and violence.

Unfortunately, fundamentalism and religious fanaticism are increasing in many parts of the world as a reaction to the economic injustice that many people are facing.  Unemployment, debt, insecurity, urbanization, and westernization are marginalizing millions.  When people feel they have no future, when they are alienated because they are not a part of the capitalist dream presented by beautiful, rich, happy American actors and models, they sometimes turn to dogmatic religion in order to reclaim their hope.  Religious institutions sometimes manifest structural violence, instilling fear, guilt, and inferiority.

Sarkar defended Karl Marx's condemnation of religious dogma as “the opiate of the people,” writing: “A group of exploiters loudly object to a remark that was made by the great Karl Marx concerning religion.  It should be remembered that Karl Marx never opposed spirituality, morality and proper conduct.  What he said was directed against the religion of his time, because he perceived, understood and realized that religion had paralyzed the people and reduced them to impotence by persuading them to surrender to a group of sinners” (Sarkar 1963).   

Evaluating Social Policies with Prout 

Sarkar's work is exciting because it allows policy makers and activists to effectively measure and compare policies for the greater good of all people, as well as the planet.  The goal is for all people to maintain themselves, to develop their potentialities, and to balance their individual expressions with collective interest, instead of allowing one group's interest to trump the needs of another interest.

Prout's holistic model provides an overarching framework that combines the strengths of many disciplines, including, for example, economics, political science, public health, environmental sciences, sociology, finance, administration, engineering, and law.  Below is a list of sample questions to consider:

• Are everyone's minimum needs being met in a sustainable way, both now and in the future?

• Do federal and state governments provide: Support for balanced regional economies?  A fair monetary and banking system?  Rational limits on the personal accumulation of wealth?  A coordinated national infrastructure and public health?  A fair judicial system based on restorative justice and transformation?

• Are communities able to provide full employment, fulfill their needs, determine their economic future, and process local resources in a sustainable manner?

• Do individuals have all the personal freedoms included in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights?  Are there continual efforts to expand these rights according to changes in consciousness?

• Is the structure flexible enough to change as needs change?

Policy evaluators, to accurately answer these questions, will need to draw on varied expertise.  For example, to determine if everyone's minimum necessities are being met, we need to consult social workers and nongovernmental organizations, evaluate indicators of health, poverty, and unemployment, study the pricing of essential goods and whether a person receiving a minimum wage could afford them, survey housing needs, explore issues of class, gender, race, age, and education, as well as check for environmental sustainability. 

Conclusion 

Prout proposes the maximum utilization and rational distribution of all natural and human resources, emphasizing the value of both individual and collective well-being.  It is a holistic model of economic, social and spiritual concepts that include guaranteeing minimum necessities to all, the right to jobs, a three-tiered economy, including small-scale private enterprises, cooperatives, and large-scale publicly owned key industries, food sovereignty, sustainable agriculture, and economic democracy.

Normally, a spiritual perspective is considered a personal affair.  However, Prout and neohumanism assert that an ecological and spiritual perspective that is universal and nondogmatic is essential to creating a truly just society.  To feel connected with everyone and everything, to feel compassion for all, to develop even love for all, suggests that our social and economic system cannot exclude anyone.

The authors suggest that an evaluative policy framework based on Prout be developed to effectively measure and compare policies for the greater good of all people as well as the planet.  This would allow both activists and policy makers to decide campaigns and raise awareness about key issues in the best way possible. 

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