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

Economy of Permanence
temptation and pledging her future savings instals a dish washing machine! She
can now dispense with the service of the neighbour, an old woman perhaps,
who came in to help wash the dishes for half an hour daily, thus perhaps saving
two shillings a week, but she has now to 'attend' to the machine herself. If the
vacuum cleaner or this dish washing machine needs attention, the company will
send its visiting mechanic to set it right and, of course, make a small charge for
his time. In this manner both the labour and the money saved by dispensing
with human labour is quickly absorbed by the manufacturers, while the simple
gardener's wife sloggers on like a donkey having displaced the help of other
human beings. She has to put in extra work attending on those-her mechanical
servants. The leisure promised to her proves illusory and whatever she saves up
goes towards the purchase of some other 'labour-saving-device'. She is no better
off in the end. If anything she has to work harder, all by herself driving her
machines. The human labour that has been driven out of employment here will
ultimately turn up at the factory gates of the manufacturers for work and
wages. The story of these we shall trace later.
Has the standard of living of the gardener's wife changed so as to allow her
opportunities for the free play of her higher faculties? Has this complex
standard given her more time for thought and reflection? On the other hand, as
she has to attend to everything single-handed she may have no time even to
look into a magazine. She drudges from morn till night. All this for what? Her
time is filled up with work that brings little of real life. Is this 'living' in the
proper sense of the word? It is worse than mere existence.
The simple life, on the other hand, can be 'high' and present all that is finest in
human life, perhaps, even better than a complex life which later kills
personality as it follows ways set by others.
Taking the occasion of dining, whether the meal is taken in Western style or in
Indian style there a little difference nutritively. The Indian method of eating
has advantages of cheapness combined with cleanliness and affords free scope
for one's ideas of art in serving. What is more colourful than a meal served on a
green fresh leaf? The cream rice or chapatties with yellow dhal, white dahi, red
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