High level objective for economy?
October 13th, 2009 | Published in Economics idea | 2 Comments
I think I have been getting bogged down in the details for a while. I want to take a moment to articulate a very high level objective for an economy.
What I want, and I believe most people want, is the ability to manipulate my surroundings. I want to be able to engage the world I live in and to have an impact on it. I want to be an active, rather than a passive, player.
Most animals want this sort of freedom. Animals in a zoo that have a guaranteed supply of food and quality veterinary care often dislike their surroundings. There is nothing for them to do.They’d rather take their chances pitting their skills and abilities against the world than to have what they need handed to them in a controlled environment.
The goal of economics isn’t simply to meet people’s needs. The goal of economics is to create an environment that we can actively and meaningfully engage. Unlike a caged bird that need only be set free to find a suitable stand of trees to make its home, people can only thrive in man made environments. I don’t think the answer is to return to the forest. The answer is to create an economic system that people can easily engage.
In more concrete terms, I want an economic system to more closely connect the desire for something like a hamburger to steps that need to be done to get one. It’s seemingly simple now. To get a hamburger you need money. To get money you need a job. Therefore the way to get a hamburger is to find a job.
The catch is that jobs can be hard to find. Your desire for a hamburger doesn’t create a job for you. In hard economic times, you may be unable to do anything to move closer to your objective of eating that hamburger.
For most desires you have, there should be only two outcomes: The desire is unattainable, or there are clear steps to take to achieve it. If you want a 747 jet of your own, forget it. It takes the effort of thousands of people to build one. A 747 is unattainable. If you want a hamburger, on the other hand, there should be something you can do today to get one.
October 15th, 2009 at 12:41 am (#)
I’m thinking about the “how to get a hamburger” idea, and I keep coming back to a barter concept. If I want a hamburger, I’d say I need to find someone with a hamburger and convince him to trade the hamburger for something I can give him. Actually, alternate ways would be to forcibly take the hamburger or cook one myself, which means I’d need to get the ingredients.
Is it fair to say that money is just a tool to make trades easier? If so, I’d say that the way to get a hamburger is to create something of value that you can give to someone with a hamburger. The easiest and best way in our society to do that is to get a job so you have money.
I think I would re-phrase the problem you’re getting at to be not that there aren’t enough jobs for everyone, but that it can be challenging for people to find ways to create enough value and translate that value into trade-able commodities.
On the one hand, if someone can’t create anything of value to others, I would say it’s tough luck for them. On the other hand, our society does impose constraints on what people can do and does require specialization, so it may be reasonable to help those affected by these constraints.
Eric
October 18th, 2009 at 6:13 pm (#)
Eric.
One of my main concerns is that large scale production is almost always more productive than small scale production. For example, a large corporation can build a million cars at an affordable cost per car while it is prohibitively expensive to build them individually as one-offs. This is true from agriculture to retail to manufacturing.
Individuals can’t produce value on their own. They have to join an organization. If organizations aren’t hiring, there isn’t much an individual can do.
If a person can’t find a job because they are truly useless and can add no value, perhaps it is just tough luck for them as you say. However, in most cases people could be productive. They just need an opportunity. I think it is an economic failure when job opportunities can’t be found.