Keynes’ Prophecy And The Art Of Life
What is the good life? Philosophers have considered this question for thousands of years, so when the question arises, we often turn to that motley crew for an answer. It’s such an important question though. Perhaps we should seek a second opinion. Perhaps we should turn to a “lover of knowledge” with a more practical focus, to a thinker who has studied how we organize our lives, to an economist. Do we expect a wise and novel perspective from the profession that notoriously “knows the price of everything and the value of nothing?” If we do not, we may be surprised to find John Maynard Keynes had some deep thoughts on “The Art of Life.”
Keynes Ventures Into The Realm of Philosophy
One of the most influential economists in history, Keynes is most famous for his macro-economic theories on monetary policy and government’s role in controlling the business cycle and unemployment. But he also gave some careful thought to broader questions, questions that begin in the realm of behavioural economics and then transcend economic concerns entirely, more or less declaring economics obsolete in the future. He elaborates on this topic in an essay entitled “Economic Possibilities For Our Grandchildren”.
Economic Possibilities For Our Grandchildren
Keynes begins this philosophical inquiry by observing that we humans have always been creatures of need. We need food, water, shelter and clothing. Once we have these, we identify more things, both concrete and abstract, that we believe we need. We organize our individual lives, our social lives, and our governments and economies around the principle of meeting needs. This seems fundamental to our nature. And indeed, Keynes observes, the compulsion of need is central to the organization of all forms of life.
So fierce are we in pursuit of our needs, and so creative in inventing more, at first blush we might seem insatiable. But Keynes observes some needs are absolute — we feel them no matter what other people around us have — but other needs are relative — our feeling of need only arises when we compare our situation to that of another.
We have an absolute need for a certain amount of shelter, food, and clothing. Once that basic need is met, our perception of the adequacy of the quality and quantity of what we have depends on what others around us have. Because someone else can always have more, these needs are potentially insatiable.
Keynes was writing about “our grandchildren” in 1930. He mentioned a 100 year time horizon, so he was contemplating a future time we have now almost reached. We have not realized the future that he anticipated, but there are signs we are on the way. Keynes believed that we would be able to meet all of humanities absolute needs. He believed that all of our needs that are finite and satiable (and truly real needs) could be met, leaving only the relative (and hence potentially insatiable) needs unmet.
The Economic Problem Is Not The Permanent Problem
Keynes predicted that our economic systems and technology would allows us to meet all the absolute, true needs of humanity, if not today, in the next few years. Indeed, if we were to redistribute work and resources, perhaps we could achieve that with the resources we have today. Whether or not we are there yet, and whether we can ever reach that goal, let us consider the implications of success, just as a thought experiment.
Let us assume that in the future, we can meet all the absolute needs of humanity. This development, welcome relief though it might seem, may be a difficult shock for us.
Will Leisure Drive Us Mad?
For every life form, the struggle for subsistence has been the most pressing problem and hence the defining challenge of existence. Without this challenge, Keynes observes, “mankind will be deprived of its traditional purpose.”
Keynes, a man of his times, observed women who were too wealthy to need to do traditional women’s tasks were unhappy. He observed “To those who sweat for their daily bread leisure is a longed for sweet-until they get it.”
Once we are able to meet our absolute needs, we should not simply blindly follow any perceived relative needs. Instead, we should recognize that solving the economic problem has presented us with a new problem.
The New Problem — “How To Live Wisely And Agreeably And Well”
Once everyone’s basic needs are met, the new problem becomes deciding what else you want. Realizing that you do not truly need anything that is not already provided, you can be very selective about what you decide is meaningful for you.
People who can produce economic results will always be rewarded with economic power, but succeeding in a post scarcity world, for Keynes, is not about economic power. It is about discovering and choosing your own personal meaning of abundance, of living gracefully and harmoniously and joyfully.
For Keynes, the conventional life of the idle rich of his day represented a failure to reap the benefits of abundance. We infer that he rejected conventional, imitative, automatic compulsive materialism — relative need created to drive consumption habits to in turn demand production as compensation.
To live the good life, you must look within, and live your good life. To live anyone else’s good life is merely to fall into the trap of relative need and succumb to scarcity mentality habits of, shall we say, homo economicus, man in the age of economic struggle. Connect with your true self, choose your own path and become homo vitae, living man, no longer constrained by struggle, creating a vibrant and authentic life through engaged personal choice.
Work Still Gives Meaning
Part of the good life will always be feeling useful. In Keynes’ post scarcity world, people will share what scarce work technology leaves to humans so that everyone has a couple hours a day of useful tasks to do, satiating our old human habits, our need to express our vestigial desire for struggle. And indeed, so it is for retired people now. Having some tasks to do keeps elderly people connected, engaged, and mentally and physically healthy.
Morality Moves To The Present
A “purposive” outlook indicates we are concerned with remote future results our actions more than their quality or their immediate effect on others and our environment. The purposive outlook sits at the heart of economics in the form of present discounted value. With a purposive outlook, the ends may justify the means, as we look fearfully towards the future, struggling against possible scarcity. Keynes believes we can turn away from the future oriented, sometimes callous purposive perspective we have relied on for aeons and orient ourselves to the current moment.
In a post scarcity world, Keynes posits that:
“We shall once more…prefer the good to the useful. We shall honour those who can teach us how to pluck the hour and the day virtuously and well, the delightful people who are capable of taking direct enjoyment in things, the lilies of the field who toil not, neither do they spin.”
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