I don’t have much of a background in economics, having only taken a few survey courses in grad school, but it always seemed apparent to me that the discipline as a whole makes dubious fundamental and unexamined assumptions about human life, and that policy makers all too eagerly set policy based on these assumptions. Thankfully, over the last few decades a number of much more credible, well-versed critics have made the same observation, and a movement has even emerged. Next week I’ll explore their critiques in greater depth with a look at For the Common Good: Redirecting the Economy toward Community, the Environment, and a Sustainable Future, co-written by a prominent economist (Herman E. Daly) and a philosopher-theologian (John B. Cobb Jr.).

But for the time being, I’d like to call attention to what I’ve seen as the curious absence of discussion in the national discourse of the fundamental question: Is our present economic system maximizing our societal well-being, and if not, how might we rethink it?

Talk about the economy has certainly dominated the news the last few weeks, but it has revolved around the various emergency stopgap measures being proposed to prop the present system up. Given how “transformative” Barack Obama seems to be in many regards, I’m a little surprised I’ve never seen him say anything as far reaching as the remarks below by Robert F. Kennedy and Al Gore. (Granted, neither was in the heat of a presidential election–RFK was a year away and Gore was writing three years later. Perhaps that accounts for it).
Certainly Republicans bear more of the blame for the last two decades of blind-faith deregulatory madness and free market fundamentalism. But Democratics, led by the the Clintons, and the Democratic Leadership Council, and media figures like Thomas Freidman, have recently been just as willing to conflate fully the interests of international corporations with those of all citizens. They have been willing to conflate fully economic growth with, in RFK’s succint phrase, “that which makes life worthwhile.” If we’re finally at a point where we’re ready to reevaluate this mindset (and how can we not be!), we do have examples to follow:
Robert F. Kennedy, speaking in Detroit, May 5th, 1967:
“Let us be clear at the outset that we will find neither national purpose nor personal satisfaction in a mere continuation of economic progress, in an endless amassing of worldly goods. We cannot measure national spirit by the Dow Jones Average, nor national achievement by the gross national product.
“For the gross national product includes air pollution, and ambulances to clear our highways from carnage. It counts special locks for our doors and jails for the people who break them. The gross national product includes the destruction of the redwoods and the death of Lake Superior. It grows with the production of napalm and missiles and nuclear warheads, and even includes research on the improved dissemination of the bubonic plague. The gross national product swells with equipment for the police to put down riots in our cities; and though it is not diminished by the damage these riots do, still it goes up as slums are rebuilt on their ashes. It includes Whitman’s rifle and Speck’s knife, and the broadcasting of television programs which glorify violence to sell goods to our children.
“And if the gross national product includes all this, there is much that it does not comprehend. It does not allow for the health of our families, the quality of their education, or the joy of their play. It is indifferent to the decency of our factories and the safety of our streets alike. It does not include the beauty of our poetry, or the strength of our marriages, the intelligence of our public debate or the integrity of our public officials. It allows neither for the justice in our courts, nor for the justness of our dealings with each other.
“The gross national product measures neither our wit nor our courage, neither our wisdom nor our learning, neither our compassion nor our devotion to our country. It measures everything, in short, except that which makes life worthwhile, and it can tell us everything about America—except whether we are proud to be Americans.” (quoted in RFK: A Memoir, by Jack Newfield)
Al Gore, in Joined at the Heart (2003):
“Psychologist Abraham Maslow observed that if a hammer is the only tool you have, every problem looks like a nail. If money is the only tool you have for measuring value, then those things that cannot easily be monetized begin to look as if they have no value. Some classic examples are clean air and water and the beauty of a sunset or mountain clearly visible in the distance. The strength and health of American families should be added to that list. A quarterly report of a corporation can never capture or reflect the immense value these things add—nor can it account for the immeasurable loss we would suffer without them.”
Has Obama made remarks along these lines that I’ve missed?