[Buddha-l] Thoughts on action in 2007

[Richard Hayes]

On Thursday 28 December 2006 08:20, Gregory Bungo wrote:

> In the graph with economic issues mapped horizontally, and social
> issues mapped vertically, capitalism is on the right, and individualism
> is on the bottom. 

As I understand the model, the economic scale represents a person's 
willingness to have a government-regulated economy. The left welcomes 
regulation and taxation, while the right resists it. Capitalism does not 
occur on the chart as such. One can be a capitalist (that is, one who invests 
in corporations) and still be far to the left (if, for example, one welcomes 
governmental regulation of the corporations in which one invests). A number 
of Buddhists I know are capitalists who welcome corporate regulation. I think 
David Loy espouses a kind of governmentally regulated capitalism, as does 
Peter Singer. (Loy is a Buddhist; Singer might as well be.)

> So they overlap in the lower right.  It's a simplistic 
> model, but there is some truth to it.

Yes, it is simplistic, but at least it is less oversimplified that the 
left-right and liberal-conservative false dichotomies. And it does seem to 
have room for Buddhists,albeit mostly in the crowded southwest quadrant.

-- 
Richard Hayes
Department of Philosophy
University of New Mexico