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E.F. Schumacher's essay, Buddhist Economics, compares the thinking of a Buddhist economist versus a modern Western economist. He uses the Buddhist teaching of the Noble Eightfold Path to make his case.
The essay starts by comparing how the modern economist views labor as a meaningless item that can be replaced by the more modern systems of automation. The Buddhist economist on the other hand sees labor as a way to develop one's abilities and to share these abilities with other to promote products and services.
Schumacher addresses how modern economists strive for successful mechanization of goods and services, which, as he puts it "turns the work of a man over to a mechanical slave, leaving a man in a position of having to serve the slave" (182). Which translates to making fewer and fewer workers work harder and longer to produce more goods more quickly. The modern economist's criteria for success are measured only by the total production of what is produced. Instead of......

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Approximate Word Count: 922
Approximate Pages: 4 (250 words per double-spaced page)

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