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    Poverty & Ethics
    Poverty & Ethics
    Poverty & Ethics
    Ebook56 pages46 minutes

    Poverty & Ethics

    By Ratan Lal Basu

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    Absolute poverty in the LDCs has in recent decades assumed a serious dimension in sheer physical terms and has posed a threat to the lives of millions of people residing in these countries. On the other hand, relative poverty as well as absolute poverty (even if in purely psychological sense) has been the basic source of social tensions in many a developed country. In the global context, poverty among nations has been widening nullifying all the predictions of meticulously constructed growth models emphasizing ‘convergence theories’. So far as the LDCs are concerned, low per capita income combined with extreme income inequality have forced these nations to the precipice of disaster.
    The development of productive power and knowledge to have command over Nature through agricultural practices changed the situation that existed in the very primitive societies and clan lives. In course of time productive forces, through man’s increasing command over Nature, went on snowballing and at present material production has assumed a spectacular dimension by means of the trinity of science, technology and industrial innovation. Unfortunately human society is still being pestered with the nagging problem of poverty, haply in a more intensified form as compared to the malady as existed in the pre-capitalist societies. Both opulence and poverty have been marching steadily onwards with the latter taking the leading role.
    The problem of poverty and private property emerged in this world as perfect twins. Prior to emergence of private property, poverty had very little association with social injustice. Poverty arose simply because of lack of material means of sustenance and it was equally applicable for all the members of primitive communities or clans. But with the advancement of methods of production and emergence of surplus value, it was no longer ‘poverty for all’ but poverty for the property less majority and riches for the property owning minority living on surplus values generated by the poor majority – poverty thus got associated with social injustice. Paucity of material means was no longer the basic cause of poverty but the cause lied deep in human psychosis – insatiable greed and resultant leanings of the propertied minority to perpetrate exploitation of the property less majority. Ownership or non-ownership of property also sprang from a basic vice, the cunning and unethical maneuver of the minority to grab all means of production.
    Karl Marx could, to some extent, recognize this basic cause but erroneously fell into the same trap – sought the solution of the problem through material advancement alone. He failed to recognize that class division, inequality, exploitation and the resultant poverty spring from a deeper cause, the baser and unethical leanings in human nature (which exist side by side with nobler aspects in all human beings baring a few exceptions).
    Long before the emergence of Marxian concepts, Adam Smith could identify the basic psychic nature of human beings that are responsible for poverty amidst plenty. But he could not suggest any meaningful way out of the vicious circle – the intricately interwoven forces of baser human sentiments strengthening one another to give the unethical entity perpetuity.
    As regards the basis of human nature, most scientific analysis is to be found in Sankhya, one of the six major philosophies that sprang from Vedic world outlook. But it is questionable how far it is practicable to translate the Sankhya based process into reality to bring about an exploitation-free, poverty-free world.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherRatan Lal Basu
    Release dateMar 17, 2017
    ISBN9781370378210
    Poverty & Ethics
    Author

    Ratan Lal Basu

    ADDRESS: KOLKATAPh. D. in EconomicsProfession: Retired from 1st January, 2009 from the post of Reader in Economics and Teacher-in-Charge, Bhairab Ganguly College, Kolkata, India

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      Book preview

      Poverty & Ethics - Ratan Lal Basu

      Poverty & Ethics

      By Ratan Lal Basu

      Copyright 2017 Ratan Lal Basu

      Smashwords Edition

      Smashwords Edition License Notes

      Thank you for downloading this free e-book. Although this is a free book, it remains the copyrighted property of the author, and may not be reproduced, copied and distributed for commercial or non- commercial purposes. If you have enjoyed this book, please encourage your friends to download their own copy at Smashwords.com, where they can also discover other works by this author. Thank you for your support.

      Contents

      I Introduction

      II. Conventional Poverty Concepts

      III. Marx and Genesis of Poverty

      IV. Adam Smith and Moral Sentiments

      V. Sankhya Concepts

      VI. Sen-Haq-Drèze Approach

      VII. Conclusion

      References

      The Author

      I. Introduction

      Any observant visitor venturing through the congested cosmopolis of Kolkata cannot but be bewildered by the striking contrast in the juxtaposition of dazzling riches and loathsome poverty, posh dwelling houses and stinking slums, and the fine blending of gorgeously attired patricians and bare bodied, semi-naked or shabbily dressed commoners in the unending stream of commuters. A thoughtful person would immediately visualize a perfect replica, a miniature model of the global scenario checkered with scintillating opulence and suffocating indigence. He might even be overwhelmed by the sudden zooming in of the ghastly reality (as if in a Hitchcock horror film), the inner story of our glorious civilization, the haunting shadows of poverty , deprivation and oppression lurking behind the hallmarks of human civilization – the lofty Pyramids, the invincible Chinese Wall, the exquisite Taj Mahal, the magnificent architectures and technological marvels.

      The strange revelation may turn a conscientious economist irrational – in a momentary lapse, he may slip out of his well protected intellectual confines and inadvertently step into the forbidden arena of emotion and ethical paradigms which cannot be taken care of by theories and analytical tools he has been brought up with. Why irrational? Suppose we reverse the premises of our reasoning so that what seems rational in the conventional sense turns out irrational and the other way round! What if we put forward the queer proposition that poverty is out and out an ethical question? No doubt this would directly land us amidst the conflict between the positivist and ethical (may be loosely termed normative) approach to the analysis of poverty.

      Both ethical values and so called facts discovered in pure sciences have the same source, human perceptive faculty. Thus, there is very little justification for shelving aside the ethical approach towards analysis of poverty on the ground of relativism and concentrate only on the materialistic aspects of poverty.

      Now it is high time we try a meaningful definition of the all important term ‘poverty’.

      The term poverty may be interpreted in both absolute and relative sense. In the narrow sense, absolute poverty refers to the lack of basic amenities for sustenance of life without any reference to the relative economic position of the person concerned vis-à-vis other persons in the society he resides in. Relative poverty, on the other hand, is concerned with inequality of income distribution and refers to the relative position of the person in comparison to richer counterparts.

      These two concepts, in this narrow sense, may or may not be interdependent. In a very primitive economy, absolute poverty may exist without any existence of income inequality, e.g., in the ‘primitive communism’ referred to by Marx and Engels. On the other hand, in a highly developed country, high income inequality may exist without the existence of absolute poverty in its narrow interpretation. We use the term ‘narrow’ because the very definition of absolute poverty may itself change with rising income in a society. This is so because the concept of ‘minimum subsistence’ is likely to change with increasing opulence of a society. No wonder, an income level

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