Description

The controlling myth of our time in the Western world is conviction that economics plays the central role in human affairs and is the source of our worth. We are economic beings--homo economicus. The bottom line is ----profit. Money makes the world go round. Money gives us freedom, power and happiness. The golden rule of our time is: “Those who have the gold make the rules.” The myth of capitalism promises that advancing technology, economic markets and globalization will bring prosperity to the “underdeveloped” countries and eliminate poverty. Corporations are the agents of progress, markets the dispensers of benediction, the mall the new temple, the consumer the hero of the new age.

Origin

In the beginning the word “economics” meant “the art of managing a household. In pre-modern societies people grew and produced, or bartered for the commodities they needed. Life was centered on the household and the village. With the industrial revolution came large scale manufacturing, cities and suburbs and the destruction of village life. Small scale home economics was replaced by mass production, distribution and consumption of commodities. Men became workers who were absent from the home and community and found their meaning and identity in their work.

Impact

Clearly, the economic view of the world is rapidly spreading throughout the world. Most people in the wealthier countries have become addicted to work and accumulation or money. With prosperity comes a faster pace of life, stress and the loss of leisure. As both men and women entered the job market, children and communal needs were increasingly neglected.

Our current economic system creates wealth that is not necessarily well distributed and encourages a philosophy of selfishness. “Look out for number one.” It fails to promote values necessary to maintain community---compassion, justice, honesty, loyalty, sacrifice. In a culture that worships efficiency, speed, profit and consumption where do we get the mandate to love one another, to have compassion toward those who sick, unemployed, homeless, ie."useless" people?