Standards of Living Essay -- Economics Essays

Standards of Living In "Stone Age Economics" Marshall Sahlins contrasts the economic strategy of industrial societies to hunter-gatherer societies. In doing so he dispels former ideas that hunter-gatherer societies are poor, unhappy and hungry. He explains this by asserting a number of relevant points. First, in an industrial society, a person’s wants are extremely high, while his/her means are limited. Industrial products are created to close this gap between wants and means. In a hunter-gatherer society (the Zen road to affluence as Sahlins describes it), a person’s wants are low, while the technical means to satisfy these wants are adequate. In this case the standard of living is low compared to industrial societies but the people are satisfied when it comes to material objects. In their eyes they have plenty (Sahlins, 1972:2). Prior to the 1970's many believed that hunter-gatherer societies were poor and unhappy. Westerners believed that these groups lived inadequately with scarce resources. However, Sahlins states that it is modern capitalist societies that are dealing with scarcity as they have placed such an emphasis on material goods. Consumption in this case has lead to inadequacy and eventually deprivation in industrial societies (Sahlins, 1972:4). In Sahlins’ example " every purchase of something is a foregoing of something else" (Sahlins, 1972:4). However, in a hunter-gatherer society, there is no such thing as material wealth, and therefore no deprivation, or unhappiness. "Hunters are in business for their health. . . bow and arrow are adequate to that end" (Sahlins, 1972:5). In hunter-gatherer societies, material wealth has become a burden as it suppresses their highly mobile lifestyle. In this... ... and alcohol. All of these factors have altered their mobile, reciprocal way of life and has brought on many conflicts as well as a stationery life. The results of these changes emphasize how the Ju (and other hunter-gatherer groups) have maintained a successful lifestyle by mobility and foraging. Their standard of living has dropped with the onset of western ideas and technologies. Many of them remember the old way of life, but how will they return to that? I feel that it is important to learn from the Ju and other hunter-gatherer groups. Not everyone can live as we, in the technological, highly industrial, capitalistic society, can. My question is, as different parts of the world are influenced by capitalism can governments support hunter-gatherers in a capitalistic society and will there ever be a return to this way of life by people like the Ju/’hoansi?