What is Sufficiency?
Sufficiency is a state of being, wherein a person has a sense of completeness or a sense that nothing can add or take away from s/he is. In essence it is a sense of our beingness, which is limitless and eternal.
Why is Sufficiency important?
Sufficiency is important because its realization gives us a sense of peace or well-being, which can be an important for all of our actions. The lack of sufficiency many feel in society today the primary cause of mankind’s self-destructive tendencies, including our on-going issues with consumption, addiction, violence and environmental degradation.
How is Sufficiency different from happiness?
Sufficiency is a state of being. Happiness is a state of mind and is often an outcome of sufficiency.
How do you become Sufficient?
You don’t become sufficient. You already are sufficient but must learn to discover your sufficiency. We have learned to become ignorant of this fact through the judgment of ourselves and others. You realize your sufficiency through observing your power to choose. More indirectly, you realize your sufficiency through expressing yourself or using your talents and abilities.
What is Sufficiency Economics?
Sufficiency economics is simply an exploration of economic behaviour as if the sufficiency was the goal of society.
What is the difference between Sufficiency Economics and modern economics?
The primary difference between sufficiency economics and modern economics is the goal of each. The goal of modern economics is the accumulation of money or things. The goal of sufficiency economics is the realization of sufficiency. Whichever economic system is used (free market, planned or mixed) to achieve sufficiency is not important since all systems can accommodate this goal. However, the free market system is perhaps a more consistent system with sufficiency development since it can allow for greater degrees of free choice, which is a foundation of sufficiency.
Can Capitalism and Sufficiency Economics Co-exist?
Yes and no. Yes, in the sense that the tools of the capitalist system (private property, prices, a market, money) are not contradictory to the realization of sufficiency. No in the sense that the goals of the two systems are quite different (see above). Sufficiency economics does not discourage wealth accumulation but its primary goal is the realization of sufficiency.
What would a Sufficiency Economy look like?
That depends. A free market sufficiency economy would look similar to to day’s economy in the sense that we would use many of the same institutions and mechanisms (private property, prices, a market, money) but the ultimate goal of the economy would not be consumption or production but sufficiency. We would still measure production and consumption rates to ensure basic survival rates are met but measures like happiness and generosity would be true indicators of success. There would probably be less inequity economically because because riches would be less important than creativity, happiness and generosity.
Isn’t a Sufficiency Economy a Utopia?
It is isn’t meant to be Utopian or prescriptive. Each person is meant to seek sufficiency in their own way and through their unique talents and abilities. It is meant to be practical in the sense of getting people to think about the importance of sufficiency and how we might realize it. We have struggled for centuries or perhaps millenia to be happy through the satisfaction of our physical desires (materialism) and we have built our economies around this and motivated it with greed and fear of scarcity. An economy built on greed or the fear of scarcity is inherently insatiable and destructive to the environment and to the human soul. An economy built on a sense of sufficiency or completeness is not.