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Rethinking Economics: Is it time to shift the paradigm?
“There’s something foul in the state of…” William Shakespeare’s Macbeth
Theoretically, I stink at economics. But it’s not because I’m stupid. Rather, I have always had trouble accepting the premises on which the current world economic order has been based.
It was the free lunches that got me.
I understood and agreed with the basic illustration of economic choices, their costs and benefits, using the classic guns versus plough shares analogy. Clearly, if you have limited reserves of metal, you can either make guns, plough shares or a variety of other things. The more guns you make, the less plough shares you can have. Everything has a cost was the lesson. I was fine with that. But then came the part about there being no free lunches. That’s where the econ professor lost me. Experience tells me the best things in life are free!
I grew up at a time when people shared generously and spontaneously. We were always on the brink of being broke because my mother lived by the motto that money is meant to be spent. She spent freely, preferably not on me or herself, but for good causes, like the scores of orphaned or burdened children she raised. But what my mother didn’t spend on me, I got from other sources. I have enjoyed more free lunches than I can count.
My experience is you can have free lunches, if somebody shares.
Was it Ghandi who said there’s more than enough in the world for every man’s need, but not enough in the universe for one man’s greed? Perhaps I misquote him. But you get the picture.
Modern economics is driven by competition. This has led to individualistic values and high achievements on the one hand, but the unpaid consequences are potentially grim.
In Social Work in a Sustainable World Nancy Mary (2008) summarizes the situation like this:
“Scientists tell us (and have been for years—I might add) that the human race is living beyond its means as we continue to use fuel, water and food beyond the carrying capacity of the planet. We continue to lose species every day, the earth is growing warmer, there is ongoing violence in the Middle East, and the gap is widening between the world’s richest and poorest people. The United States has initiated a war on terror and will have spent $450 billion this year on the military, while about one-thirtieth of that could seriously address the needs of the world’s poorest people (Sachs, 2005). The richest country in the world has no universal health care, and we rank second to last among developed countries in childhood poverty (Rifkin 2004).”
Mary concludes that she can’t offer a road map to recovery but suggests we each do three things: consider where we get our information, commit to some form of action towards sustainability, and thirdly (most importantly, I believe) have faith that we are “an evolving species capable of changing the world and preserving it for future generations.”
An encouraging example was mentioned in a National Geographic report once. Apparently, we managed to significantly reduce global lead emissions within a couple years through collective action and sanctions once it became clear our automobile fumes were poisoning us.
We have expensive monitoring systems that warn us when volcanoes are about to erupt. If you live in a risky region, how long do you wait before you evacuate? Funny, cows and other domestic and wild animals tend to spontaneously migrate when trouble’s coming. We humans insist on ignoring the warning signs. In fact, most of us seem blissfully unaware of them altogether.
What’s the use of gathering economic data, and spreading bad news if we don’t use the information to adjust our actions and plans? How long do we maintain the ostrich response of sticking our heads in the sand and waiting for the storm to blow over? And even if that strategy might work, have we considered enough alternatives? Will we panic when disaster strikes?
If this is impending disaster, how do we prepare our response? Can we coordinate the demise of the present economic system—as is obviously already occurring—to minimize casualties, even if it’s too late for gentle transitions?
At the moment, Internet is the virtual equivalent of the free lunch. Of course there are costs, mostly hidden and probably massive. But for now, many people have access to information at a comparatively low cost. What kind of information are we disseminating? To what end? What are our long-term goals as a species? How is our economic behavior helping us achieve them?
I don’t have my own website, though everyone claims one must. I have made a habit of sharing virtual space provided by others, for mutual benefit. I have never owned a car. I get everywhere I have to via public transport and with the help of relatives and friends. I love riding trains and buses. And walking takes me places; some of them drivers can’t conceive.
Mine is not the perfect model of ecological living, far from it, but I do what I can. I may soon set up a website, may soon need to buy, rent or lease a car. But I would choose an electromobile and run it on wind power from the windmill my husband made. And my website could be time-limited. I appreciate technology, progress etc. What we have achieved and are capable of is fantastic. But how can we take advantage of our developmental history and climb over the learning curve without slipping down the steep slope, or plummeting off the edge?
When do we collectively agree our debt has burst the ceiling, and it’s time to turn our behavior around?
Personally, I would forget the plow shares. I think it’s too late for that. I would invest in long-range rockets, the human carrier type, space vessels. I think it’s time to exit. And I’ve been looking for a ride as I prefer to run from trouble. Unfortunately, I don’t see anyone building that kind of public transport, yet. If I were a billionaire, that’s what I would do. But I’m not. And one thing I never dream of doing is telling anyone else how to spend their money. For years I have been going broke, spending my money and my self on what I think are good causes. So who can judge? The old saying about stones and glass houses comes to mind.
Maybe I need to join the trillionaire club, so I can have some say about spending on a massive scale. Or maybe I just need to get more vocal, encourage more people to make more conscious choices and convince others that my crazy understanding of economics may be quite…sane?
Marie Dixon Frisch is a consultant clown therapist and retired medical doctor pursuing a freelance writing career in addition to diverse other things.
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