Ask a good question, you get a good answer. Right? Let’s start asking questions lots of good questions – like what would a happy world feel like? How would it work? What does a functioning democracy look like? What is economics anyway? The word builders, “eco” and “econ” originate in the Greek word “oikos,” meaning hearth. So ecology is the study of the hearth and economics is the same.
With that out of the way, think about this. Who decides how we talk about the exchange of goods and services? Could it be that: we all do! There is no “official” language of commerce or economics. It can be in our reach. Just because we hear few core words like efficiency that makes sense, doesn’t mean that its not a convoluted set of jargon. As jargon, just repeating it over and over, doesn’t mean its real or accurate. Repeating it for a couple centuries doesn’t make it correct, either.
Let’s bring our way of talking about economics up to date – just like we’ve brought up to date many of the instruments we can use to navigate from here to there geographically a very long time ago.
Economics newest games rely on computer-driven calculations and math-econ, which do not become “the real truth” only because the models eat numbers in a standard input-output model. Instead, let’s talk ecosystems, but not as a cute way to talk about computer integration tools. Let’s talk ecosystems, for real!
ceteris paribus is false and the emperor isn’t wearing any clothes.
Did you know that the olden day premise of markets with perfect information remains embedded in silly math geek models? Just because you make numbers go in a particular direction, doesn’t mean that the result is a wise solution or that any of it makes any sense.
We don’t have to keep talking about economics based on some crazy ideas out-of-touch early Industrialist England where bourgeois capital took hold with a mighty force. Downton Abbey anyone? For better or for worse, anyone? And, we definitely don’t need to elevate “making a killing” through lending as a good thing. What would be better? Would it take a paradigm shift?
Towards a New Economics
of Community Well-Being and
Ecosystem Stewardship
This website presents one path forward. Through the blog | Unite our Understanding, we will suggest a way forward. Many false concepts in economics will be explained. We’ll not present a textbook on economics, but it is helpful to establish a repository for naming aspects of economic activity. The old provide credibility will establish where we are at, why it doesn’t work and how the new fits in. We hope invited to attract guest contributors! There are many and they are braided together in ways that make the whole strong. Let’s do it!
We can “talk economics” in a range of more accurate and relevant terms – now with a new and more clear understanding of the consequences of the old words – now that most of the world is literate and can see the results of our current trajectory.
Economics for Peace Institute | epi | envisions a future based on a new economics: the economics of community well-being and ecosystem stewardship. In this new economics, local people have a voice in programs and projects that affect their quality of life as they see it. If we can all work together on locally-specific, locally-determined priorities unified by a clear and shared focus on our interwoven connections globally to each other and our landscapes – well then, we can ensure our better future.