SUFFiciENcy EcONOMy ANd GRASSROOtS DEvElOPMENt

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162 The Meaning of Sufficiency Economy International Conference The Sufficiency Economy offers a way to avoid mindless growth through application of a set of principles which can seem disarmingly simple, but which are rooted in observation of the real world, and underwritten by humanist theory. The appeal of the approach is that the principles are easy to grasp, but the daunting fact is that the application demands high standards of commitment and integrity. But then, if development were easy.... 5 Implementation of this philosophy is the challenge. As has been amply demonstrated here in Thailand in a rural context, with access to arable land, an individual, a family, or even a community can agree together to adopt this philosophy and implement it into their lives with relative ease. In a different setting, for example in an urban setting, the challenge increases. Holding to moderation and reasonableness are achievable for an urban individual. Establishing a self-immunity system would seem to present a challenge. In living moderately, one can save financial resources but in a severe economic downturn or in the case of a crisis or natural disaster, it is not nearly so clear that one would be protected. Having a social network to help support each other is one way to address the safety net but requires an infrastructure to support building a community from a group of strangers where everyone comes from families far removed from the urban area. Having an education that provides a person with ownership of skills that can produce a livelihood is also important. This however also requires access to capital to enable formation of a business. Ultimately, the critical piece of the puzzle is individual understanding of moderation, reasonableness, and the personal traits of honesty, integrity, perseverance, harmlessness, and generosity. The current economic culture is not particularly supportive of many of those things. Corporate mentality tends to look at labor as a commodity. The stated goal is to maximize profit which is often accomplished by building artificial need and encouraging immoderation, taking from the environment with total disregard to sustainability, and discarding wastes into the environment with no regard to the damage caused. Rights and wrong take a back seat to maximization of profits. The encouragement of consumerism has resulted in the encouragement of over-extended credit as opposed to the encouragement of savings for both businesses and individuals. Sufficiency economy outside of Thailand The talk to this point has been centered on Thailand. Being American and living in Thailand as I studied the Sufficiency Economy philosophy, one of my concerns was how do the concepts apply in the the US where in 2000, over 79% of 5 Ibid
The Meaning of Sufficiency Economy International Conference 163 all Americans lived in urban areas. In May 2011 the consumer debt in the US was $793 billion 6 or $2,583 per capita, man, woman, and child while total household debt rose to $13.4 trillion in 2011 ($43,647 per capita). 7 How does one find moderation from this extreme? I would like to propose that the path to this involves scaling back and rebuilding supportive community where, one person at a time, we rediscover healthy values. As background, in 2008 there were 29.6 million businesses in the US and 99.9% of those businesses are SMEs. 8 About 55% of all jobs in the private sector are in SMEs. 9 Over the last decade small business have generated between 60 and 80% of net new jobs annually. 10 In 2009 I studied eight businesses in the Denver, CO area and the business network that all but one are members of. All of these businesses qualified as SMEs (less than 500 employees). They ranged in size from no employees to approximately 350 employees. They were a mixture of manufacturing, service, retail, and education businesses. They were from brand new businesses to established businesses, the oldest of which was 18 years old. Save one, all were members of local networks affiliated with the Business Alliance for Local Living Economies (BALLE). BALLE is a national network of networks that support locally owned businesses (mainly SMEs) that are socially and environmentally responsible. These businesses all started with 1-3 owners. All of the businesses are driven by commitment to community both within the businesses and in the geography in which they were located. All of the businesses were guided by “making a living” rather than “making a killing.” Already we seen an appreciation of moderation. The organizational structure of these businesses was very flat as opposed to the more typical hierarchical structure. Not one of the business owners talked about employees; they talked about “associates” or “the people that work with me”. All of the people in the business contributed to the development of the business and the day-to-day operations. In the cases where the businesses are not employee owned, the knowledge, skills and opinions of the employees is actively sought and valued. In these cases, the ultimate decisions on company operations still fall to the owners who have financial interest in the company. However, the interest of the company is put ahead of and egoist ownership stance. The oldest of the businesses is an 6 CreditCards.com, http://www.creditcards.com/credit-card-news/credit-card-industry-factspersonal-debt-statistics-1276.php, 11 September, 2011 7 The Wall Street Journal, http://online.wsj.com/article/SB100014240527487 04823004576192602754071800.html, 11 March 2011, 11 September 2011 8 The US Small Business Administration, http://www.sba.gov/advocacy/7495/8425, 11 September, 2011 9 National Federation of Independent Business, http://w.411sbfacts.com/speeches.html, 11 September, 2011 10 Ibid
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SUFFiciENcy EcONOMy ANd GRASSROOtS DEvElOPMENt

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