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

Economy of Permanence
is controlled by fashions called for by outsiders-the court, the aristocracy or
the business interests.
Producer made fashions
For a while the fashion will be to eat soup out of a soup plate with a rim round
the bowl, with a large eliptical spoon. A few years later the fashion will
change. A soup bowl without a rim will now be used and a spoon more or less
circular in shape will be the proper style. These frequent changes are
productive of snobbery and are good for business. The poor cannot afford to
scrap their crockery and silver off and on to adopt new ways, and so are easily
eliminated from the 'County Set'. From the business point of view, if the same
kind of things are to be handed down from, father to son, the capacity of the
market will be limited, while if such changes in the material modes of living are
effected, the artificially created demand will widen the scope for more
business.
People who follow such senseless and baseless fashions are the innocent
victims, or social climbers or eterprising business houses who, by their skilful
advertisements and high pressure salesmanship, push their goods where there
are no natural markets. Such ignorant victims of propaganda and fashions, in
time generate in themselves a kind of inferiority complex, lose confidence in
themselves, and fail to give free play to their own creative faculty, rendering
life monotonous.
If one visits a few flats in Bombay, one will soon get to know what to expect in
every other house. The same modern laminated wood furniture with glass tops
to tables and all that will go with these are to be met with house after house.
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