The economics of life - Part 1

It is a strange world, & stranger are the ways of human mind. I have almost always been baffled with what human mind is capable of. As I wrote in one of my earlier posts, at one extreme the human mind is capable of some of the most profound things, & at the other extreme we see in our day to day life how degraded the human mind becomes. The idea of this post is not to deal with the mind, but something associated with the mind. The overall intention of this & the subsequent posts which are likely to follow this topic is to address the issue of the economics of life. Introspecting on the topic of life, I have to admit that without borrowing from philosophy life is never complete. Directly or indirectly, whether with awareness or without it, we all are dependent on philosophy. The very fact that science recognizes the importance of mind & has several areas of studying its way, functions, etc., is testimony enough to this fact. Indian philosophy has, in no uncertain means, dealt with this topic & at every available opportunity the importance of maintaining a healthy mind has been stressed. Multiple means of how the mind's health has to be maintained has been taught to us in our philosophy.

Central to this topic of the economics of life is also the mind. First things first. Of all the things, why economics of life? Does it make sense to define economics of life? And, when most decisions related to economics are made by Governments, Central Banks, mega corporations, stock markets, planning commissions, and such other bodies, how can we individuals define the economics of life? Especially when it seems as if we are only mere pawns at the hands of Government or its bodies, being at the receiving end of its policies (right or wrong) by having to pay huge costs to lead day-to-day life, despite paying taxes, how do we the individuals define the economics of our life?

In the next few posts I'll try to explore how best we can manage the economics of life by addressing some of the fundamental requirements in our lives and the state of mind required to better handle life's economics. In my opinion, this is especially necessary in the current age because of the huge disparities in our socio-economic structure. The disparities in our socio-economic structure is one of the chief contributors to the stress in our society, leading to disillusionment and unrest among our people. In such a scenario, it becomes extremely important to destress our socio-economic structure thru' good policies and program implementation so that in the long term we attain self sufficiency.

During the course of this topic, I'll touch upon the most basic requirements of our lives, namely - food, clothing, housing, power, sanitation, water, education, healthcare, and justice. In addition, I'll also touch upon topics such as technology, banking & financial systems, and infrastructure, and how access to it at the grassroots will lead to self sufficiency.