The Three Poisons, Institutionalized by David Loy According to Buddhism the three roots of evil are lobha greed, dosa ill will, and moha delusion. Traditionally these are personal problems, but today they must also be understood more structurally, as institutionalized. Our economic system promotes and requires greed in at least two ways: desire for profit is necessary to fuel the engine of economic growth, and consumers must be insatiable in order to maintain markets for what can be produced. Although justified as raising standards of living worldwide, economic globalization seems rather to be increasing inequality, unemployment, and environmental degradation. The United Nations Development Report of 1997 pointed out that 1.3 billion people now live on less than one dollar a day, and estimated that there are ninety-three countries having a per capita income below what they had a few decades ago. Long after the end of the Cold War, the U. S. federal government continues to devote the largest percentage of its resources to maintaining an enormously expensive war machine. Most other countries continue to spend more on arms than social services. There is no sign that the military-industrial complex, or the lucrative international market in sales, will be diverted into plowshares anytime in the forseeable future. The media that might inform us about these problems distract us with `infotainment' and sports spectacles in order to promote their real function, advertizing. One would expect universities to be encouraging and developing the critical thinking necessary to reflect on these developments, but in the midst of the greatest economic expansion in history we are told that the budget cutbacks are necessary because there is less money available for education. Increasingly, the need to become more market oriented is diverting academia into corporate research and advanced job training for those eager to join and benefit from a morally questionable world order. In short, our global economy institutionalizes greed: the military -industrial complex at the heart of most developed nation-states institutionalizes aggression; our media and even our universities institutionalize ignorance of what is actually happening. David Loy A Buddhist History of the West/2002