Celebrating economics as if people matter To celebrate the man and his contributions on the 106th anniversary of his birth, the Schumacher Center for Economics pointed to Schumacher's landmark 1966 essay, Buddhist Economics, the work that became the cornerstone of Small is Beautiful, Economics as if People Mattered. In an age of increasing income disparity, environmental degradation and erosion of human communities, his call for an economics of common good is more relevant now than ever before. Essay: Buddhist Economics