The pertinent question is: Can we formulate a semi-quantitative unit of suffering for evaluative purposes?

Ten years have passed since R. G. H. Siu, in pursuing the above question,devised the dukkha scale as a provisional means to measure suffering. The field of Panetics is based upon this scale, but comparatively little has been done to explore the dukkha in detail, or to apply it in calculations. The following discussion presents an attempt in these directions by examining possible relationships between dukkhas and wealth. It is obvious that poverty can cause suffering and, wealth can alleviate it. Might the dukkha offer a way of expressing this axiom in some quantitative way?

Figure 1 shows the approach to the problem adopted in the present study. Across the abscissa at the bottom of the chart is the dukkha scale, including the 26 words and nine numbers upon which the field of Panetics is based. On the vertical scale shows the qualitative distinction between rich and poor. The gray area sloping down to the left is a graphical expression of the idea that poverty inflicts suffering and that wealth alleviates it.

The present discussion obviously is confined to a narrow slice of the broad Panetic spectrum; namely to suffering inflicted by shortage of income. We are concerned here only with income-inflicted dukkhas (IID's).

Within the gray area of Figure 1 there must lie a path which shows how the dukkhas inflicted on a family by money shortages increase from a low value at the rich end of the scale to acute and desperate suffering at the extreme poverty level. The discussion which follows proposes a basis for determining this path. Once established, this path becomes a "dukkha-to-dollar" conversion scale which can be used to calculate dukkha values for any social situation for which dollar statistics are available. The results of several such sample calculations are presented.

Establishment of the Dukkha-to-Dollar Relationship

We are seeking to identify a curve lying somewhere within the broad shaded area of Figure 1 which would establish a definite value for each level of income. The most convenient and simple curve possible would be a straight line, and as a first approximation this will be sought. Since a straight line is defined by two points, our problem can be reduced to picking out two points within the gray area, each of which can be accepted as correct in itself. All intermediate points would then be determined by using the line for interpolation.

To approach this problem we pose two questions:

1. At what level of annual income would a family find life "unbearable", causing members "to want to die"? The level D = 9 on the abscissa would be assigned to the income selected in answer to this, and the first point on the line, at the lower right end, would be determined.

We then face the second question:

2. At what level of annual income would a family find problems due to shortage of money "barely noticeable"? Such a value of income would be plotted against the abscissa value D = 1. With two points thus determined the straight line can be drawn, and a dukkha-dollar relationship established for testing and evaluation..

How Defensible Is The Straight Line?

While the straight line might seem suspiciously simplistic, reasons can be advanced in its defense. If the income values on the ordinate axis are plotted on a logarithmic scale, the straight line would make the relationship of dollars to dukkhas conform to Fechner's Law. Arguments in support of application of this Law to the scale of suffering have been presented before.3 The remainder of this paper is therefore based upon the selection of two points in conformity with questions 1 and 2 above, and using a logarithmic scale ordinate (dollar) axis to define points between the two selected ones. Figure 2 shows an actual curve that results from this approach. It will be noted that the answers to Questions 1 and 2 in this case have been selected to be $10,000/year and $100,000/year respectively. An attempt to evaluate this dukkha-to-dollar scale as a tool for studying actual societal problems has been made as described below.

Test of Figure 2 Against The Real World

Figure 3 presents the economic status of 68,500,000 American families in 1993, as published by the US Census Bureau's "Statistical Abstract of the US". The data show the number of families receiving income in seven different brackets.

The related Panetic question would be, how much suffering is inflicted on each family by the income it receives, and what is the gross national burden of such income-inflicted dukkhas? Figure 2 provides a tool for answering this question, since it enables a definite suffering level in dukkhas to be calculated for each of the income brackets used by the Census Bureau. Multiplying the dukkha level for each income by the number of families in that income range yields the total income-inflicted suffering endured in 1993 by those families. Summing these values for all the brackets gives the gross IID's for 1993.

The results of the calculation described are shown in Figure 4. The darker bars show the gross income by classes as in Figure 3, and provide a basis for comparison of this figure with the related ones which follow. The white bars present panetic information in the form of total dukkhas inflicted by income on each economic class, using the curve of Figure 2 for the income-to-dukkha relation.

Discussion

Good things and bad things can be said about Figure 4. If it could be taken seriously, it would add panetic statistics to economic statistics in a simple and straightforward way, illustrate a practical and easy way to conduct panetic analyses in the vast area of economics and open new avenues for incorporating dukkhas into discussions and calculations of public policy issues. New comparisons could be made. The exercise includes calculation of the national total of IID's (1.3 gigadukkhas per day = 465 gigadukkhas per year). Values for these subjects, if ever verifiable and accepted, could be important in the future.

There are also many faults to find in Figure 4 and its implications. Its validity depends entirely upon the soundness of Figure 2, with its semi-logarithmic dukkha-to-dollar transformation curve. Are the two questions used to determine the upper and lower points of the curve legitimate? Was the choice of $100,000 per year to correspond to D = 1 a reasonable one? How about $10,000 for D = 9? There is also an overall judgment to be made; namely, do the lighter (dukkah) bars in Figure 4 present a view that is reasonable and acceptable to paneticists? Could they merit and win acceptance among the broader community whose support will be essential if Panetics is to achieve what is hoped for it?

The confesses to grave doubts about all the above questions and suggests that the value, if any, of the effort represented by Figure 4 is that it may shed some illumination on the dukkha and its definition. The subject contains more difficulties than can be discussed here, but Figures 5 and 6 reveal some of the questions involved. In these figures, the "wealthy point" corresponding to D=1 is set at $1,0000,000/year and $30,000/year respectively. With each would go a modified Form of Figure 2, the line being steeper in the former case and less steep in the latter. Both probably will and should be regarded as absurd by sane Paneticists, but the aim here is to test the dukkha by using it in experiments ("thought experiments") and finding out how well it washes. In the opinion of the present author, the dukkha does not wash very well in this attempt to relate it to economics. It is disappointing that this paper has not provided an answer to the "pertinent question" quoted at its beginning. This is also somewhat disturbing.

After all, what would Panetics be without the dukkha?

1. .

2. Siu, R. G. H. Panetics: The Study of the infliction of suffering. Journal of Humanistic Psychology 28(3),

6-22. 1988.

3. Langmuir, David B. Dukkha addition for a single individual. Panetics 4(2), 1-9. 1995.