Economics: A self serving system

“Money often costs too much.”

Ralph Waldo Emerson

I find it interesting that, that which I know least about seems to me to be of the biggest concern. I must confess I find it hard to get my mind around money and economics. Everyone tells me it is absolutely essential, does that mean that like water, life cannot exist without it or does it mean that one cannot survive in the human society we have created without it or perhaps something else? If I take a step back, I see a population of people living in a world of finite resources, who have created a system to attribute value to activities, in order to afford greater or lesser access to those resources, based on a collective judgement of what is worthwhile and which is evidenced by the allocation of printed paper or stamped metal. In such a system, having money grants access to both essential and non-essential resources which makes it essential to life. My question is; is this truly the best system to encourage mankind to behave responsibily both towards each other and more importantly in the World as a whole? Even if it is, who decides what is truly worthwhile or not?

Who are today’s beneficiaries of the global economic system. I read somewhere that the 100 most wealthy Americans have assets worth more than the annual income of half the world’s population. Since these people have little or no assets, the consequent assumption suggests that these one hundred people are more worthwhile than the sum of over 3 billion others, this I cannot accept. One pragmatic view of this, in the context of the over population of the world, would be to say that if those 3 billion people didn’t exist, the remaining population would be better of and the impact on the earth would be less severe. However, it must be remembered that it is the less well off who actually do the majority of the productive work that generates the money or goods for the rest. Yes, we need to reduce the global population over time but more immediately, we must reduce consumption and it is the people in the developed world who currently account for the vast majority of it. In the developed world there are also massive social inequalities, with over 90% of the wealth in the hands of 10% of people. The real issue is not the 10% but the 90% of us who aspire to being like them, constantly wanting more, this then fans out across the even less fortunate in the world and we end up with a species bent on an insatiable desire to consume. Wealth does not equate to happiness but an inability to meet basic needs leads to misery. I can’t help but feel that once our basic needs are met there are much more abundant sources of happiness than material gain.

Whilst I am heartened by the increasing amount of dialogue and discourse about climate change and environmental issues, I am also struck by the inherent attachment to the notion that any change must not impede economic growth. It seems to me that we are totally blindsided to the possibly that the economic system we have created is not only a fundamental cause of, but also a barrier to, any radical solution to the crisis’s which are facing the world today. I recognise that this may be a very poorly informed opinion but I believe money affects almost everything we do at every level. If we are to fundamentally change our culture, both our attitude toward and use of money must change radically.