In my Sustainable Living textbook, I have a chapter on economics. Recently, I was looking at it and pondering on how many years I have been trying to get people to see that money and more ‘stuff’ does not make us happy over the long term. I went through my office library of economics texts, which I used as background for that work, and rediscovered the groundbreaking text, The Joyless Economy: The Psychology of Human Satisfaction (1976) by Tibor Scitovsky. Of course, most mainstream economists hate the book because it contradicted a central belief that more money equals more happiness. Since Scitovsky’s book, many similar thinking economists (e.g. Cobb, Cowling, Daly, and Doughthwaite – from the start of a long list) have tried to get mainstream economics thinkers to accept this simple yet fundamental flaw in their thinking. A flaw that is driving the Earth into a cascade of ecological and economic crashes because of how it drives modern human socio-cultural systems. What made Scitovsky’s work so unique is that he openly recognized that economics is not a hard science, but, as that original economic thinker Adam Smith back in the 1700s essentially stated back in the 1700s, was a social science. If economics was viewed through the lens of behaviorist psychology as it really should be, we would start to ask serious socio-cultural questions about our consumer behavior. Consumerism, instead of being the ‘natural’ result of dynamic ‘natural’ economic ‘laws’ would be seen as the consequences of manipulated behaviors by pathological leaders leading a charge of greed, competition, and materialism. It is this last part especially that marks the modern era of extreme environmental degradation.
We know very well what is wrong with our current economic system. There are plenty of modern economists (usually ecological economists) writing books telling us what is wrong and what we need to do. We are dominated by one small sect of economic thinkers who know they are promoting a trickle-down, free market capitalist economy. They also believe that trickle down is the myth given us to make us compliant with how we are being continually screwed by this system. Even the right-wing true believers of this free market philosophy know it is another myth and that all markets have rules. Think about all the trade agreements that are governments are continuously working on to make sure they have the best rules for the purposes of their corporate bosses and sponsors (just google ‘list of international trade agreements). The free market is like a religion in that the ruling high priests of commerce insist we never question their dogmas and doctrines.
Adam Smith made the mistake of talking about how market forces, like an invisible hand, would regulate the markets. What free market economists don’t admit is that he was actually saying was that the forces of morality and fairness between people would act like an invisible hand to regulate markets. That only works on a small scale when you live with the people doing the bartering. I have covered this in previous posts on this blog (Economics and Well-Being 1; Technology and Business; New Ways of Living Together 1 – What is Community?; Rebuilding Economic Community). Adam Smith talked about a thoughtful and morally motivated populace working within a transparent system, not the cabalistic psychopaths who currently control the economic system by masking it in their favor.
We still ponder what is going wrong, but we all know that the world’s economy is completely screwed up. We know it is unfair and creates an uncaring system where we fearfully struggle to maintain our ‘stuff.’ And we continue to use Newtonian thinking that place humans at the top of a pyramid with everything below as subservient to human needs in the quest to keep our Standard of Living (SOL). Our addiction to this SOL is driven in part by a craving for stimulation. Scitovsky concluded, “That people’s need for stimulation is so vital that it can lead to violence if not satisfied by novelty–whether in challenging work, art, fashion, gadgets, late-model cars, or scandal.” We recognize the greed and corruption of the economic elites but fail to recognize our own contribution in it all. While we may fear the system, we are complicit it maintaining it by not insisting on something better that creates a ‘kinder and gentler society,’ that works for everyone.
It takes courage to move forward from this point. The puppet masters will not readily yield the power they have had for literally millennia over us all. Many people fear making waves because they fear the very thing that imprisons them, the conditioning that this is the only way, will turn on them making them destitute. Yet even as I write this, the once prominent middle classes of most industrialized westernized countries are shrinking rapidly. Our economic system today is about debt. We are chained to an, “I Owe You” mentality and that currency has more value than anything else. In a wonderful scene from the film ‘Educating Rita’ the main character is describing being in a pub where everyone is singing along to some mundane pop song in a kind of mindless fashion. She states that just because they seem relaxed at that moment, that they are all surviving OK with their spirit intact. Rita looks at her mother, who is crying and saying, “there must be better songs to sing than this.” Do we just sing the song that is handed to us or do we decide to find a better song to sing? A song of life that allows us to express our true selves?
It all comes down to worldviews again. Einstein emphasized that we cannot solve problems using the mindset that created them. We have to see the world differently. It can no longer be simply a ‘dead’ material world with us as the masters using it. We are already far down that road and the economic, ecologic, and socio-cultural problems are starting to rage out of control. The thresholds are already passed and only a complete transformation will begin the healing of both humanity and the world we still call home. Extreme environmental activist, David Brower, in response to critics said, “We [activists] are not blindly opposed to progress,
but we are opposed to blind progress.” It is this blindness perpetuated by fear that leads humanity down the road to perdition.
“If the world is to be saved, it will not be by old minds with new programs, but by new minds with no programs at all. Programs are sticks planted in the mud to impede the flow of the river. But they can’t stop the flow. Programs never stop the things they’re launched to stop.” Daniel Quinn
So, what does a new economic system that works for everyone look like? To Be Continued……..
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