Economic ethics

Economic ethics covers a wide range of issues: types of work or business practices, the approach to work in general and entrepreneurship in particular, the use to which income is put, attitudes to wealth, the distribution of wealth, critiques of politico-economic systems such as capitalism and Communism, and the offering of alternatives to these in both theory and practice. In a Buddhist context, it also entails a consideration of such issues in relation to lay citizens, governments, and the Sangha.

The Buddha included advice to the laity on how best to generate and use their income, the various aspects of which are well encapsulated. how wealth is made, it is praiseworthy to do so in a moral way without violence, and blameworthy to do the opposite. Using the product of one’s work, it is praiseworthy to use it.

Give ease and pleasure to oneself. Share it with others, and to use it for generous, karmically fruitful action. Correspondingly, it is blameworthy to be miserly with oneself or with others. The ‘right livelihood’ factor of the Eightfold Path entails that one’s means of livelihood should not be dishonest.  The support of monasticism by both lay people and monastics themselves has been, and generally remains, an important part of economics in Buddhist lands. Buddhism’s emphasis is on a moral framework for economic activity, and the importance of generosity, especially in support of monastics, who help set the moral tone of society. Asian Buddhist lands have been affected by the twin politico-economic ideologies of Communism and capitalism.
Among Buddhist lands, excluding Communist ones in which Buddhism has had minimal opportunities to affect modern society, Theravada lands are spread around the mid-point of the spectrum running from traditional, low-income societies to high-tech rich ones, while Mahayana ones are, in the case of Northern Buddhism, for example Bhutan, generally at the former end or, in the case of Eastern Buddhism, generally at the latter end. At either end of the spectrum, Buddhists have not been at the forefront of those embracing modernity and its economics, but elements of Buddhism have been important in resisting or moderating its unethical aspects, or in helping to spread its genuine benefits. They have also contributed to an approach to work which values it as an arena for character building, rather than simply as a way of gaining an income.