The Economy is the Root of Our Problems (but Not in the Way You Might Think)
The solution is a return to politics.
“Money is the root of all evil,” the old Biblical adage goes. Well, not quite — the full passage tells us that “The love of money is the root of all evil.” In this distinction lies a simple and powerful lesson about why the economy is the root of our global social and ecological mess.
When I say “the economy,” I don’t just mean this economy: this weird hybrid of hyper-extractive free-market capitalism with some social programs and political constraints. I mean the economy in general, as a philosophical concept.
An economy is a system by which a society manages its resources. The problem inherent in any economy is that it views the world as full of resources. The economic value of anything is defined by its usefulness to whoever has the power to use it. Economic thinking treats land as a resource, water as a resource, and people as a resource. We see countless discussions of the cost of injustices based on how they impact a society’s access to resources, including labor and productivity from people.
Economics, as a principle, does not ascribe personhood to anything. Everything and everyone are resources to be used. This kind of thinking is the root of both societal oppression and…
