The Economy of Permanence: A Quest for a Social Order Based on Non-violence (स्थायी अर्थतन्त्र)

Economy of Permanence
When we reject centralisation we do not object to the use of machinery. What
we desire is that man should not become the slave of the machine. When man
loses control over the machine, we have violence manifesting itself.
Violence and Peace : In text-books on Economics we read so much about the
laws of supply and demand, but in the actual world we do not find anything like
that especially in a competitive regime. A machine must be worked to its
economic productive capacity. To take a concrete example, suppose there is a
shoe- making factory. There is a demand for 300 pairs of shoes but the
economic productivity of the factory is 500 pairs of shoes. This means that the
cost of production to be the lowest, 500 pairs of shoes must be produced
whether there is a demand for them or not. Because the factory owner is
concerned with profits, he will not care for anything else but to see that the
cost of production is the lowest per pair of shoes. He will ignore the demand
side and produce 500 pairs because the cost of production would be reduced to
the minimum and then he will try to find a market outside. Thus man is
governed by the speed of the machine and not by the demand. Wars are thus
started for capturing markets, creating customers for the surplus products.
Production takes place first and demand is then created at the point of the
bayonet. It is, therefore, evident that centralised industry is the root cause of
wars. It is necessary, therefore, to put a rational limit on the use of centralised
industries.
In certain industries like tanning there are some processes which require large-
scale methods to be employed. In such cases by all means we may use them,
but not under private management. If chrome tanning is necessary it must be
done under multipurpose co-operative societies on the basis of supplying
leather at cost price to the shoemaker.
In the same way there may be so many functions which can be undertaken on
individualistic or small-scale basis. For instance, kiln with 16,000 heat cannot
be had without much capital and electric power-a centralised process. We may
use electric power and all other methods functionally, but not for profit. Let it
not be a handle to exploit society.
www.mkgandhi.org Page 141