Only half a century ago people were living in conditions of shortage of essential goods, but today the material and technical base of the planet has become so developed that the level of production already exceeded the level of possible consumption.
It would seem that people can now relax and live happily and peacefully, devoting most of the time to self-development, creativity, family and relatives.
Scientists have calculated that in order to maintain the standard of living that we are in now, it is enough for a person to work one or two hours a day, that is, one day a week, provided that things are not produced in a way to quickly become obsolete. But in order to maintain a high rate of sales and production of goods, their quality and shelf life today are deliberately reduced.
Technologies already twenty years ago reached the level that cars, computers, telephones, all household appliances can be made so that they worked for decades without breaking. In 1946 in the Soviet Union cars «Pobeda» («Victory») were produced, which worked for 50-60 years. A quarter of a century ago, the company «Volkswagen» released cars with a mileage guarantee of a million kilometers, but quickly withdrew them from production, since buying them, people did not have to buy a new car for a long time. Therefore, the resource of cars' engines, produced today around the world, is artificially reduced to 200,000 thousand kilometers. The level of technology, science has long made it possible to make cars so that they work without breakdowns for 100 years or more! But they are deliberately made today so that in six years they would begin to break down and in 15 years they were in a dump. The same situation is in all spheres of goods produced today.
I recently gave lectures in Germany. The Germans who moved there from the USSR said that some of them still use washing machines and refrigerators that they brought with them in 1991, whereas those refrigerators that are being sold now operate exactly five years and break down right away when their warranty ends. The organizer of my seminars told that his friend works in a company that produces parts for Siemens and Bosh, and they order such parts that will work exactly five years, although they can make the same details so that they work not five, but 50 years or more.
A woman, working as a technologist in a very well-known company that produces stockings and tights, said that a few years ago the director of the company had instructed them to start making these products so that their quality would outwardly remain the same, but their shelf life would be reduced. Older women are well aware that years before tights could be worn for half a year or more; now they begin to break after a week.
Twenty years ago, «Timberland», «Reebok» and «Nike» were at least four times more reliable and durable than today. I've been wearing one pair of sneakers «Reebok» very intensely for a few years every day all summer and autumn. Now they only last for one season. Lighting devices can also be made almost eternally working, and this is not a secret for anyone. But this year I replaced a few bulbs just in the one kitchen. Kettles and household appliances, all electronic equipment today are made in such a way that in two years they go out of order, so that people have to continuously buy new kitchen combines, computers, telephones, cars, etc., spending all their energy earning money for them.
The artificial increase in sales (that is, the artificial overproduction of goods) is also associated with the creation of «fashion trends», the stimulation of greed in people, unhealthy ambitions and a «sense of prestige.» People are forced to buy more and more things instead of old, which are «not prestigious», «unfashionable».
No need to say what kind of load this all put on Nature. In fact, mankind can now be compared to a huge combine-harvester that moves over the planet and recycles the natural resources, which were accumulated for millions of years, and turns them into garbage now. The modern economy is garbage economy, which produces garbage.
Why all this is happening?
- Because the states have so far remained focused on GDP growth (Gross Domestic Product), in the old fashion way, as well as in times of shortage of goods, treating GDP growth as a singlevalued benefit. In reality, at the moment when the level of production of goods reached an evolutionary peak, covering all the main needs of people, the evaluation criterion had to be changed. GDP, supporting the coverage of all people's needs, with the continuation of technology's development, had to start declining.
There was to be a reorientation of the economy to a new evolutionary path of social development. But since the leaders of the countries have not done this yet, the economy of the planet instead of its evolution has gone on the path of devolution: instead of reducing GDP while maintaining the satisfaction of all the needs of the population through improving the quality and extending the life of manufactured goods, enterprises began to reduce the quality and the period of validity of the goods produced in order to maintain and increase the GDP. But this is a dead end path for the development of society, and humanity can not go on it for a long time, because the Earth's resources are limited.
The garbage devolutionary economy is an obsolete demonic economy based on the opposition of the interests of one group of people to the interests of others. Whereas the spiritual (evolutionary) economy is based on the care of every member of society about the well-being of others.
The progress of humanity should lead not to an increase, but TO A DECREASE IN THE PRODUCTION OF SUBSTANDARD AND SHORT-LIVED GOODS(!!!) Sales volumes of all nonfood products should decrease, but not grow!!! And the countries need to be evaluated not by the number of produced plastic or iron goods, not by the high level of the gross domestic product (GDP), but by the quality of the relations between people in this country!!!
It is reflected in the discoveries of modern scientists. The longest scientific research in modern history has been the 75-year study of Harvard University where scientists aimed to understand: what influences life, health, and happiness of people most of all? After 75 years of research it became very clear that people become happier and healthier not because of money or quantity of things, but namely when having good relationships!
Scientists have found that people who have a strong connection with family and friends, with society as a whole, are happier, healthier physically and live longer. And the most decisive factor is not the number of connections, but the quality of relations between people. Good relationships protect not only our body, they protect our brain. Good relationships, in which people can really rely on each other in hard times, keep a good memory longer. Studies have shown that during all 75 years, those people lived better life who relied on relationships.
The result of the largest scientific research in modern history is:
«A good life is built on good relations!»
Therefore, if the rulers really care about the well-being of people, they should pay the greatest attention to improving the relations between them. According to all religions existing on the planet, the material world is an educational system in which we are taught sublime relations with each other. Those who have learned them get the opportunity to enter the kingdom of God.
Heads of states in this educational system play the role of school principals who have a responsibility to the Almighty for their academic performance in schools. The orientation of society towards the progress of consumption is similar to the orientation of pupils in schools not to the educational process but to the constant interest to an increasingly new type of school clothing, school bags, exercise books, gadgets.
Assessing the welfare of the state in terms of GDP is the same as assessing the school by its technical equipment, and not by children's studying. Any team, any state depend on the relationship between people, on their worldview and values more than anything else. Because when people enjoy their living for others, their effectiveness is intensified many times. All world experience shows that only those countries are economically and socially stable whose citizens are oriented to the well-being of others.
A consumer attitude towards life leads to a drop in productivity in the workplace. Practical experience shows that wages are not the best motivators. Concentrating on oneself makes a person lazy. Concentration on the well-being of others fills the person with enthusiasm, energy, creativity. All the most fruitful people are those who live for the welfare of others. When a person is oriented towards the welfare of others, he experiences greater joy than when he works out of selfish goals only for his own sake.
Oriented on the spiritual life throughout its foreseeable history, India is the only country on the planet that has never committed any predatory wars. Five hundred years ago, India was the richest country on the planet with such a high culture that a traveler, having entered any house, could eat for free; there were no poors in the country, and in the temples there were huge golden sculptures with eyes made of precious stones. For your reference: the biggest diamond in Russia's diamond fund is the diamond «Orlov», which was once the eye of the sculpture of the creator of the material cosmos Brahma, stolen from a Hindu temple by a French soldier. The well-being of every person and society as a whole depends on the right relations between people.
The principle of spiritual nature is such that the strong one takes care of the weak one. This natural principle of service steps in when we focus on personal relationships with others. But if we focus on material things, the relationship becomes impersonal and the strong one begins to exploit the weaker, the clever one exploits the less educated; those who occupy a high position exploit those who are below; those who have done more good deeds in the past exploit those whose fate (karma) is worse instead of helping them.
The electoral campaigns of all political parties today are based on promises to solve all problems through economic or social reforms. And they promise everything to everybody, all what different people wanted to hear: lower taxes, salary raises, improvement of living conditions, work, etc. But to improve the economy at once in all areas is impossible: if you add in one place there will be less in another. But if you improve your relationships, there will become better everywhere with time.
Therefore, leaders should make the greatest efforts to improve the value systems in society, to improve public relations. The education system and the media need to focus on improving relationships between people, since the system of human values is more important than our knowledge. Even if a person does not have much knowledge but very high values, he will use all his knowledge for the benefit of people. Therefore, in all ancient cultures, the development of sublime qualities in children was considered the primary task of the education system and the main condition for them to acquire any knowledge.
Because if a person does not think sublime, the knowledge that he possesses will harm others. And the more knowledge a person has who does not possess good qualities - the more dangerous it is for the world. Many IGIL terrorists are people with higher education, which they received in Cambridge, Oxford, etc.. And thanks to this acquired knowledge, terrorists are capable of creating poisonous substances and weapons of mass destruction in artisanal conditions.
The higher the knowledge, the more dangerous when they are in the hands of egoists. Knowledge is dangerous without instilling in children of the sublime qualities. Therefore, the higher the development of technology, the more attention should be paid to the humanitarian sciences in the education system, the instilling of high aspirations and values in children, the development of high moral qualities in them.
Today in Europe, 30% of all food products are destroyed in order not to allow prices to fall and to reduce the profits of wholesale dealers. While in Africa, two-thirds of people are starving.
Spiritual progress is a concern for the welfare of others. And the concern for the welfare of others is the production of quality durable goods, healthy food. If a businessman for the sake of his personal gain to bring more money to the family intentionally lowers the quality of the produced goods or food, if he counterposes the interests of his family to the well-being and health of others, he can not develop spiritually, because he is against the interests of the Almighty and then he just destroys himself spiritually.
For those who are spiritually developed, it is quite obvious: caring for the well-being of others improves the quality of our entire life!
Therefore, if we are really reasonable adults, and even more so, if we are claiming the title of spiritual beings, we should use the growth of technologies to increase the quality of the produced goods (and not to reduce it), to reduce the amount of production that in dozens and hundreds of times will reduce the burden on the energy consumption. Because now 90% of the fuel is spent simply on moving people to their work places and back home, and for the transportation of raw materials and various goods and their disposal.
Therefore, the leading economists of the planet are raising more often the issue of reducing the working day and of monthly unconditional income for citizens, instead of occupying them with the production and disposal of garbage. Mankind is already ready to accept the evolutionary, ecological type of the economy, when the technologies will work for the benefit of the planet by producing quality, durable goods, which will free people's time and enable them to turn this world into a marvelous garden.
The example of Vedic India shows that the orientation of society to spiritual progress with the liberation of people's time from the struggle for existence gives a powerful impetus to the development of culture, art, morality, and the ecological direction of science. In South India, where people did not have to work hard to support themselves and protect themselves from the cold, they reached extraordinary heights in music, architecture, dance and theater. There were born the yoga and the science of the preservation of health - ayurveda, the science of creating harmonious spaces - Vastu. Vedic mathematics, astronomy still amaze modern scientists with their depth. But most important is that the society consisted of generous, happy people.
With the production of quality items, the need for large cities will simply disappear. Technology allows you to live on the land with all the amenities. This will stop all the wars currently being fought for resources and for commodity markets. And this will let us keep safe for future generations (who knows, maybe for ourselves too) nature and planet's depths that are capable of giving us an eternally healthy and safe life.
(A FRAGMENT FROM THE BOOK OF ALEXANDER USANIN «MOTHER EARTH. VEDICAL SOLUTIONS OF ECOLOGICAL PROBLEM» WE HIGHLY RECOMMEND YOU TO READ IT IN WHOLE!)