Wealth and Liberation
From the Buddhist point of view, this is standing the truth on its head by considering goods as more important than people and consumption as more important than creative activity. It means shifting the emphasis from the worker to the product of work, that is, from the human to the subhuman, a surrender to the forces of evil...
While the materialist is mainly interested in goods, the Buddhist is mainly interested in liberation...
It is not wealth that stands in the way of liberation but the attachment to wealth; not the enjoyment of pleasurable things but the craving for them...
Since consumption is merely a means to human well-being, the aim should be to obtain the maximum of well-being with the minimum of consumption.
-E. F. Schumacher
Small is Beautiful
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