Economy is the master. But it should be the servant. | the economic letters
The economy is the master, permeating the whole of society with its values and principles. If we want to transform societies profoundly, we must make the economy our servant.
At the beginning of commercialization, there was a simple shift: the obligation to pay taxes in money. Where once you could pay your taxes with goods, you now have to participate in the money circle. This forces people into trade, into what we call the economy.1
This simple shift started a development prioritizing the economy above all other aspects of communities and societies. Without the economy, there’s no way to earn money (which we need to pay taxes); without money, there’s no social participation. If the economy doesn’t work, the whole system falls apart. The economy is the master, not the servant. This is by design, not by default. It is based on a simple social construction that can be changed.
The ancient economies where taxes and money were invented are different from our current economies. Other paradigms and techniques emerged, leading to the crucial situation we are in:
a) access to cheap energy, which is the basis of industrialization and technology
b) consume as part of the global culture and a main driver of the economy with the underlying story of scarcity and incompleteness
c) the paradigm of unlimited economic growth.
There’s a fourth, a decisive one: Our economy and economic growth are based on exclusion. Slaves, women, the suppressed, and the marginalized are the source of cheap labor and, therefore, a central ingredient of our current economy. They are an ingredient but not a participant. Their social and political rights are minimalized as far as possible and made invisible.
Beyond this, nature has no say. In all its beauty and with its enormous ecological systems, animals, plants, rivers, and seas, it is, above all, one thing: a commodity. We use nature as a resource and do not see it as what it is: the greatest part of our livelihood, the basis for our pure existence.
The economy is the master. It defines and shapes our whole society, from how we understand and organize our private lives and families to the priorities of our political organizations. Everything we do follows the necessities and principles of the economy. It defines what has value and what is just a simple supply: paid work vs. all the recreational work still mostly done by women; economic success vs. inner growth and integrity, and so on.
The economy should be a servant, not a master. Its task is to support communities and individuals holistically, including nature in all its dimensions: providing food and shelter, creating meaning and sense, and allowing us to live in harmony with nature, both our own and the natural world overall.
But the economy is the master, and the show must go on whatever happens. That’s where we must start if we want to transform our societies profoundly.
Norberg, M.B. & Deutsch, L. (2023) The Soybean Through World History: Lessons for Sustainable Agrofood Systems. London.