Enough !

Post date: Oct 27, 2014 9:17:21 PM

I started reading Small is Beautiful: Economics as if people mattered by E F Schumacher. I may not agree to everything that is in the book (still on chapter 1.3, so I shouldn't comment about the book) but I already liked few lines. One of it was -

Gandhi used to talk disparagingly of 'dreaming of systems so perfect that no-one will need to be good'.

and another paragraph about 'enough' reminded me of movie wallstreet when Bud asks "How much is enough?"and Gordon Gekko replies "It's not a question of enough, pal. It's a zero sum game, somebody wins, somebody loses. Money itself isn't lost or made, it's simply transferred from one perception to another."

Here is what Schumacher wrote about Enoughness-

Is there enough to go round? Immediately we encounter a serious difficulty: What is 'enough'? Who can tell us? Certainly not the economist who pursues 'economic growth' as the highest of all values and therefore has no concept of 'enough.' There are poor societies which have too little; but where is the rich society that says: 'Halt! We have enough?' There is none.

..in a different context I wrote once.. there is no such thing as enough !