Sufficient Economy
Sukhit Phaosavasdi MD*, Surasak Taneepanichskul MD*, Yuen Tannirandorn MD*, Boonchai Uerpairojkit MD* Chumsak Pruksapong MD**, Aurchart Kanjanapitak MD***
Affiliation : * Member of Thai Medical Association ** Director General of Instiute of Forensic Science *** Secretary General; Thai Medical Association, Member of the Royal College of ENT, Deputy Secretary General of Medical Council
Buddhism teaches us to live with nature. Its emphasis is about the development of our soul, not
material accumulation. Buddhist philosophy is based on the concept of life cycle, which explains that every
being has to go prosperity, privation, and death. When we die, we cannot take any material possesion with us.
Life is a cycle.
Some other religious teachings attempt to separate human from nature. They teach human to control
nature. It is similar to the concept of materialism. In economics, this is similar to the concept of capitalism
which relies on capital to solve all sorts of problems related to poverty. In Thailand, there are many projects that
give loans to recover the invested projects. This fund binds us to pay loan to financial experts and advisors to
these projects. The more we take out loans, the deeper trouble we are in. Why so?
For example, in the past three months, we had been negotiating business with a foreign company. This
famous company tried to convince the Medical Association of Thailand to publish the journal in collaboration
with their company. Finally, their offer costed us prohibitively much higher than what we used to pay in the
past to our Thai publishing company. This price was only for printing cost. If we would like to ask for more
services, we had to pay more. If we took this offer, we might have to sell our office and go bankrupt. This is one
reason for, we terminated our contact with this foreign company.
We almost overlook that the Thai publishing company has been working with us for almost 25 years.
They never break the contract and they never raise the printing costs. How can we abandon our friend who
have been working side by side?
This case might be a good example for an explanation of the word “Sufficient Economy”. This is a real
story which already happened and gave a better understanding of His Majesty King Bhumipol’s Excellency.
Keywords : Sufficient Economy
