From: David MOREY (us@divadeus.freeserve.co.uk)
Date: Fri Oct 10 2003 - 21:08:40 BST
Hi Wim
You are on a roll. Our entire society seems an afront
to human being to me. We offer people jobs where
we should ask them what they want to do. We value things
more than people. Politics present s a no-choice future concerned
only about wealth creation, where wealth has become a very reduced
term, meaning only material wealth. We allow all kinds of manipulation
of people's desires, we force a particular form of education on people,
the list goes on and on. And just how undemocratic can the workplace get?
Can we have a say in what our societies are working towards please.
Just look at how people value their families and how are working lives
are designed to destroy them.
Regards
David Morey
----- Original Message -----
From: "Wim Nusselder" <wim.nusselder@antenna.nl>
To: "MD" <moq_discuss@moq.org>
Sent: Tuesday, October 07, 2003 9:43 PM
Subject: MD economics of want and greed 5
> WHAT SHOULD THE ECONOMY BE, CONVENTIONAL VIEW
>
> This subject makes the difference between mere economic thinking (how DO
we
> organize the economy) and political economy. Politics being the way in
which
> we create (or at least influence) the future of a society as a whole.
>
> A conventional view of what the economy should be can be found on the
Human
> Development Report (HDR) Website of the United Nations Development Program
> (UNDP):
> 'Human development is about much more than the rise or fall of national
> incomes. It is about creating an environment in which people can develop
> their full potential and lead productive, creative lives in accord with
> their needs and interests. People are the real wealth of nations.
> Development is thus about expanding the choices people have to lead lives
> that they value. And it is thus about much more than economic growth,
which
> is only a means -if a very important one -of enlarging people 's choices.
>
> Fundamental to enlarging these choices is building human capabilities -the
> range of things that people can do or be in life. The most basic
> capabilities for human development are to lead long and healthy lives, to
be
> knowledgeable, to have access to the resources needed for a decent
standard
> of living and to be able to participate in the life of the community.
> Without these, many choices are simply not available, and many
opportunities
> in life remain inaccessible.
>
> This way of looking at development, often forgotten in the immediate
concern
> with accumulating commodities and financial wealth, is not new.
> Philosophers, economists and political leaders have long emphasized human
> wellbeing as the purpose, the end, of development. As Aristotle said in
> ancient Greece, "Wealth is evidently not the good we are seeking, for it
is
> merely useful for the sake of something else."
>
> In seeking that something else, human development shares a common vision
> with human rights. The goal is human freedom. And in pursuing capabilities
> and realizing rights, this freedom is vital. People must be free to
exercise
> their choices and to participate in decision-making that affects their
> lives. Human development and human rights are mutually reinforcing,
helping
> to secure the well-being and dignity of all people, building self-respect
> and the respect of others.'
>
> [End of quote]
>
> Enumerating and compiling statistics about all the things people can do or
> be in life and setting the highest (apparently) achievable limits as goals
> (like the UNDP HDR's do) is not really a way to describe what the economy
> should be. It tells us very little about how we should organize the
> realizing of those goals.
>
> Even making 'freedom' our goal in economics and seeking more capabilities
> and more rights as means to realize that goal, misses the point that
> 'freedom from' want will always elude human striving if the origin of want
> and wants is not recognized. Without wants we have no identity and our
> existence has no meaning without wanting things ever new things.
> 'Freedom to' choose and the right to create one's own life is pointless
> without wants or even without own wants, not copied from others.
>
> The analysis of the origin of want and wants and of our present economy
> suggests that:
> 1) Peoples' needs and interests should not be taken as given. They can be
> and are influenced by what others want and by what they want them to want.
> 2) Having more capabilities, more choices available to them and more
rights
> to exercise them, people often do not choose and act wisely. More often
than
> not they leave the choices to leaders of diverse kinds, who not only take
> into consideration the well-being of their followers but also -and often
> disproportionately- that of themselves.
> 3) More often than not people involuntary behave like everybody else,
> following 'normal' patterns of behaviour, because their sense of identity
> and ability to act independently is limited to a small part of their
lives.
>
> I know no conventional view of what the economy should be that takes this
> into account.
>
> [to be continued]
>
>
>
>
>
>
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