The Way Life Is

   If you spend any time watching talking heads on T.V. you will hear much debate as to whether the economy is "improving" or how many jobs were created or lost this month and who is to be praised or blamed for these changes. The real issue is whether or not a "strong economy" is of any value to people's lives. Economic development or "improvement" does not create a higher quality of life, and more jobs do not equate to more productivity, only to more profit for corporations and a faster depletion of the Earth's natural resources.

   Take for example Ladakh, a mountainous region of India. If one were to describe Ladakh a decade ago compared to that of Ladakh today in terms of economic indicators alone, one would paint a very different picture than the reality of this culture's dramatic change due to economic development. Using only the facts of the economy Ladakh's story would go something like this:

   Before development the Ladakhies made very little trade with the outside world. Their economy was stagnant if not completely absent, since they had not yet developed a form of currency. The people had no money, forcing them to make all their own food, tools and dwellings. The only means of production was to work their fields by hand. After development, however people worked for wages which enabled them to trade and to buy. Many new jobs were created where people could produce for export, stimulating an influx of capital. Modern housing sites were constructed and people now had the money to afford them. Roads were built ("creating jobs") allowing goods and people to travel more freely between villages.

   If one looks at the human and environmental side of the story, however, one will see a very different picture. Before the introduction of modern technology, culture and economy, Ladakh was a harmonious, self-sufficient cooperative, in which every person contributed and was taken care of. The people of Ladakh lived long, happy lives without every having to worry about having enough to eat or clothes to wear or a place to live. Ladakhies did not have the modern time-saving machines of the 'civilized' world, but they didn't need them. They had plenty of free time to enjoy themselves with rich cultural activities like singing and dancing and partying, as well as religious ceremonies and strong inter-family, inter-personal connections. All food consumed and goods used in Ladakh were made in Ladakh, excess food was used to obtain a small amount of goods from neighboring communities and the larger towns, but travel time between them was lengthy and hazardous, so small communities were relatively isolated.

   The people of Ladakh lived healthy, happy lives for many generations by following the wisdom, principles, and traditions set forth in Buddhism and passed down from their ancestors. But new roads brought new notions of progress. "The whole value system is crumbling. It is very difficult for people to keep to the ancient ways." Said Tashi Rapkis, a Ladakhi poet and scholar ("Ancient Futures" video.) The roads brought a new economy based not on self-sufficiency but dependence. Tsering Dolkar, a Ladaki farmer stated that "Now everyone's going off looking for paid jobs, you can't get any help with plowing or harvesting without paying for it." ("Ancient Futures" video.) Not only does the new sense of competition expressed by Dolkar make cooperation and sharing dwindle, but with dependence on foreign markets comes risk and instability. The new economy encouraged people to leave farms and seek employment in the city, which lead to a reliance on imported food. People no longer had the security of guaranteed food supply nor the luxury of being able to work only three months a year. Many people had no jobs and almost everyone's standard of living was lowered drastically.

   Pollution from diesel trucks clogged the air causing numerous health problems that were previously unknown. An explosion of growth due to the abandonment of traditionally population control lead to over-crowed cities with no sanitary systems and water that is not fit to drink. Hepatitis became a serious problem when previously it had never been one.

   With the stockpiles of food they had previously enjoyed now depleted, a competition ensued, this competition leads to friction which creates unrest and unhappiness. "Relationships have become superficial," observed Tashi Rapkis, "when conflict arises we simply abandon our commitments instead of working through the problem to make stronger relationships." ("Ancient Futures" video.) This separation from the ties that traditionally kept families together is a direct result of competition with imported goods and the migration of labor from rural farming communities to the city, i.e. development.

   So what does Ladakh have to do with the United States and our domestic economic policies? The same drastic negative social changes that occurred in Ladakh have occurred here, we accept them as "the way life is" because no one living here can remember a time when life was any other way. This is not the way life is, it's the way modern capitalism is. A society based on the principal that Progress = Development = Strong Economy = Jobs = Capital = Better and happier lives, will never achieve the kind of tranquility and happiness recently lost by Ladakh and once shared by all humanity because it is based on an inhuman law that ignores fundamental needs of the people to produce capital for greedy corporations and CEO's.
   Economic development does not just "happen." The conditions of poverty and sorrow are not natural human states. The fate of Ladakh was brought about by the neo-liberal structural adjustment policies imposed on countries like India by the IMF and World Bank. India was pressured, if not forced, by these policies to open Ladakh up to development under the guise of "progress." And to what end? Large farms were able to import and sell lower priced crops to the people of Ladakh, forcing traditional farmers to give up their land and seek jobs in the city. Did the people have more food?   No, but they did have to work for more hours earning money for their employers, and the already large farms were able to make more profit and expand further into Ladakh.

   The effect of this development is to deprive the people of the spiritual and social connections that gave their lives meaning by forcing them to leave their traditional way of life and work for wages in the city. Now people didn't have ties with their family, or their own land, or much free time to enjoy life, but they had money. The same roads that carried the grain shipments also brought western corporations soliciting products to fill the void that left with their traditional lifestyle. Ladakies were led to believe that by buying these objects with their wages they could be happy, but they could never be as content as they were before development. The happiness, health, and lives of Ladakies were sacrificed for the profit of corporations and the IMF and World Bank. The meaningful, peaceful, cooperative existence of Ladakhi children, women and men was turned into a greedy, starving mass of consumers, toiling for the benefit of others and spending their meager compensation on over-prices goods that only lead to strengthen the hold western companies had on them. Their lives became an endless chain of work and consumption without making anyone's lives better. It is in this circle that we, as Americans, are also trapped. Doomed to live empty lives as products and consumers, our wants and desires dictated by advertising executives who are just as helpless as we are.

   In Ladakh, there was stability and harmony when each person worked to produce the food and goods needed by the community. As people left the fields and homes in search of wages to pay for imported goods, they lost the security and ease of mind that comes from having a constant surplus of food grown in a renewable, responsible manner. In America we import the majority of our food, and are exporting our natural resources at an alarming rate in return for useless vehicles of entertainment that serve no other purpose than requiring more resources and taking away our free time.

   Not to mention the time with family and the strong inter-personal bonds that once brought families together. What are the problems faced by most Americans? Not enough money. People have to get one, two, three jobs to pay for the necessities of life. To "get ahead" they go to school and learn skills thats only value to make money for someone else, in hopes that they can get a bigger cut. Psychologists, Sociologists, Religionists and most everyone else will tell you that the main cause of crime, immorality, depression and suicide is that families don't spend enough time together, nurturing the most important emotional element to the human psyche. Looking at the other primates, one can see how almost every minute is spent with the family unit, everything from foraging and hunting to grooming is done with the family, while Americans spend less and less time with their families in meaningless jobs making other people money and they wonder why they're so tired at the end of the day.

   Some would argue that it is necessary to create jobs for everyone, and for everyone to be working at their maximum capacity in order to provide our "privileged" lifestyle. It's sickening to contemplate the volume of unneeded, useless, junk that the majority of the population is employed in creating and consuming. Fast food, souvenirs, t-shirts, junk mail, Barbie™ dolls, and a nauseating array of other useless products that serve to make us unhealthy, clutter our lives, overflow our landfills or degrade our sense of self, all while wasting valuable non-renewable resources. Not to mention all the time spent getting people to think they need or even want any of these contrivances. Junk exists not for the purpose of bettering anyone's life (save perhaps the CEOs of the companies that sell them) they exist for the sole purpose of requiring people to make them, advertise them, sell them and buy them, our entire economy is based on the exchanging of useless junk.

   Consider the following. Everyone only works one hour a day, or one month a year. Products made are not those that corporations tell us to make, but those which are determined by the entire populous of well-educated voters to be needed by the people, or will serve to truly improve the mental, physical or intellectual health of the populace. Responsible consumption, manufacturing and recycling eliminate waste and preserve resources for future generations. People spend their vast free time enriching their lives with creative arts, music, and poetry, or share precious moments with loved ones strengthening family bonds and reaching out to others, making new ones. This "Utopian" society is not just a dream of an idealistic youth, it's a reality remembered by the people of isolated communities such as Ladakh, which have now fallen to the corruption of capitalist consumerism spread by our Land of the Free. It's not too late to realize the true nature of our common humanity, to enrich ourselves and free our minds to productive, creative pursuits, to bring a "Heaven" to Earth for all children, women and men to live for one another in harmony.