Gandhi and Crisis in America

Gandhi and Crisis in America
A look at six famous quotes by Mahatma Gandhi
Alfredo Ascanio (askain)
Published 2008-10-03 10:00 (KST)


America is going through an economic, political, environmental and social crisis.

America is a society that can solve their problems by their strength and because it is capable of designing major policies.

"The difference between what we do and what we are capable of doing would suffice to solve most of the world's problems," said Mahatma Gandhi.

The leaders have to rely on their own decisions and not give in.

"As human beings, our greatness lays not so much in being able to remake the world that is the myth of the atomic age as in being able to remake ourselves," said Mahatma Gandhi.

All Americans must understand that the crisis is real and it has to be understood in order to avoid intolerance.

"Anger and intolerance are the enemies of correct understanding," said Mahatma Gandhi.

US leaders say NO to the package of measures. The result was a new improved package for the benefit of the people.

"A 'No' uttered from deepest conviction is better and greater than a 'Yes' merely uttered to please, or what is worse, to avoid trouble," said Mahatma Gandhi.

America: the seven sins of a civilized life become altered over this year.

"Seven sins of life: Politics without principle. Commerce without morality. Wealth without work. Education without character. Science without humanity. Pleasure without conscience. Worship without sacrifice," said Mahatma Gandhi.

The policy of the economic rescue plan has already been changed and now it is necessary to maintain it with the same zeal that remains something valuable.

"A policy is a temporary creed liable to be changed, but while it holds good it has got to be pursued with apostolic zeal," said Mahatma Gandhi.

The Indian people should be very proud that the reflections of their historic leader, considered to be the father of his country, was in line with the decisions of the American politicians who have been working very hard to salvage its reputation as a major nation.

The satisfaction of some of our personal needs, as well as the vast accumulations of capital, which sustain modern business operations, depend upon the "raising" of money, or "financing". Therefore a very important role is played in the economy by the financial mechanism, which has grown up during the centuries, to facilitate the lending and borrowing of money.

Governmental activity, and that of local authorities, also depends on the raising of large sums, either through taxation or through borrowing.

As well as organizing the varied activities of the public sector, modern governments have gradually assumed responsibility for overriding control of the general state of the national economy.

The weapons which governments possess, two are particularly important; one is monetary policy, the other fiscal policy (as may be required in times of depression).

From 1918 onwards the regular pattern of disturbances, began to re-emerge. An immediate post war boom gave way quickly to slump conditions. Here was an improvement to 1929; but after that, following the Wall Street crash of the same year, the whole world economy dipped into the deepest and most prolonged depression ever observed. In Britain in 1934 some million people, or no less than 22 percent of the labour force, were out of work.

The period of the slump saw the publication in 1936 of J. M. Keynes's General Theory of Employment, Interest and Money, which not only set out a sophisticated "macroeconomic" theory, but also pleaded the case for conscious management of the economy in order to avoid the evils of unemployment.

The man always learns from history and the most famous leaders.

Alfredo Ascanio is a professor of economics at Simon Bolivar University in Caracas, Venezuela.
©2008 OhmyNews