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Commentary :: Economy
Economics on a Human Scale
"The present economic orders are in great disorder. A few women and men have the goal of leaping over all the rules of the past economic order and only acting arbitrarily. They misuse their property and illegitimately appropriate the property of others.."
ECONOMICS ON A HUMAN SCALE
By Karl Mueller
[This article published in: Zeit-Fragen Nr 23, 6/6/2005 is translated from the German on the World Wide Web, www.zeit-fragen.ch.]
The following ten thoughts may stimulate reflection on the goals of human labor and human economics. This is an attempt to gain distance from current political conflicts and “schools” of economics. This is also an invitation to reflect how we people in the future should relate with the great wealth of our natural environment and the great treasure of creative human power. These thoughts start from the basic conviction that our economic and social life is not predetermined as fate but is made by people. Another direction is possible if we have the will.
*
All people need goods for life and survival that only partly exist in nature. Many articles must be processed, produced and prepared by people for people. The raw materials of nature should be used carefully for human purposes in ways that reflect their great value and limited quantity. All people’s material needs should be served including coming generations.
People need immediate services of other persons including the most diverse array of activities from assistance at birth to care in old age, from shoe repair to transportation from place to place.
*
The person is a social being. Complete self-sufficiency of individuals is impossible even with frugal use of goods and services. Economics is a communal activity, an activity necessary for life and survival, enriching and fulfilling the personality of individuals while demanding and advancing humanity. The division of labor is imperative in this indispensable cooperation. Everyone should be active.
*
According to scientific research and practical experience, an economic order best contributes to the well-being of all when the economic freedom of individuals is promoted in an ordering framework or economic structure. An ethically-grounded attitude, a conscience oriented in fellow persons, is needed in economics so freedom is not misused and the order does not become sheer coercion.
*
Freedom in economic life means that the individual should decide freely how one develops knowledge, abilities and skills, how these abilities are used for one’s own well-being and the well-being of others and how one acts together with others to contribute to an economics for all.
*
Property is not a gift but usually the result of economic circumstances. Property is therefore the result of common work.
*
The economic order must be discussed democratically and defined democratically. Economics without an economic order is always in danger of ignoring the well-being of people.
An economic order should establish what rules are to be observed in economics and by what principles the commonly achieved assets should be distributed. The highest standard of every economic order should be the well-being and dignity of all persons.
Small-scale economic orders should be preferred since genuine democratic decisions are best made in manageable political communities. The private property of individuals should be bound to the economic order in which the individual lives because private property is entrusted property. The right to property should be tied to its use in the economic order.
*
The different political communities with their own economic orders are economically related with one another through trade to increase human well-being. People have the freedom and right to pass from one economic order to another. Their property should have a social obligation in the communal economic order.
*
Economics for people must be learned from an early age, in the family, kindergarten, school, vocational training and university. Education and training in economics includes knowledge about the foundations and connections of economics, occupational knowledge, abilities and skills and also an ethical education and training for conscientious conduct for human well-being.
*
Present economies are in great disorder. A few women and men have the goal of leaping over all the rules of the past economic order and only acting arbitrarily. They misuse their property and illegitimately appropriate the property of others. These women and men must be obligated to the rules of a collective economic order.
*
Most economic persons have honest intentions today. They think of the well-being of others, not only of their own advantage and well-being. However little is said about these people. They are hardly appreciated and their lives are even made difficult. These forces of the economy need encouragement. They should be a significant part of a public and democratic discussion about an economic order on a human scale.
[From another Zeit-Fragen article on Switzerland: The paper industry can buy forests cheaply to develop plantations with fast-growing monocultures and operate fully mechanized harvest machinery. In the long term Switzerland and its wood industry will bitterly regret falling for the false promises of these mammoth projects. The consequences of joining in such a predatory economy would be fatal for our forests and the indigenous forest industry.]
By Karl Mueller
[This article published in: Zeit-Fragen Nr 23, 6/6/2005 is translated from the German on the World Wide Web, www.zeit-fragen.ch.]
The following ten thoughts may stimulate reflection on the goals of human labor and human economics. This is an attempt to gain distance from current political conflicts and “schools” of economics. This is also an invitation to reflect how we people in the future should relate with the great wealth of our natural environment and the great treasure of creative human power. These thoughts start from the basic conviction that our economic and social life is not predetermined as fate but is made by people. Another direction is possible if we have the will.
*
All people need goods for life and survival that only partly exist in nature. Many articles must be processed, produced and prepared by people for people. The raw materials of nature should be used carefully for human purposes in ways that reflect their great value and limited quantity. All people’s material needs should be served including coming generations.
People need immediate services of other persons including the most diverse array of activities from assistance at birth to care in old age, from shoe repair to transportation from place to place.
*
The person is a social being. Complete self-sufficiency of individuals is impossible even with frugal use of goods and services. Economics is a communal activity, an activity necessary for life and survival, enriching and fulfilling the personality of individuals while demanding and advancing humanity. The division of labor is imperative in this indispensable cooperation. Everyone should be active.
*
According to scientific research and practical experience, an economic order best contributes to the well-being of all when the economic freedom of individuals is promoted in an ordering framework or economic structure. An ethically-grounded attitude, a conscience oriented in fellow persons, is needed in economics so freedom is not misused and the order does not become sheer coercion.
*
Freedom in economic life means that the individual should decide freely how one develops knowledge, abilities and skills, how these abilities are used for one’s own well-being and the well-being of others and how one acts together with others to contribute to an economics for all.
*
Property is not a gift but usually the result of economic circumstances. Property is therefore the result of common work.
*
The economic order must be discussed democratically and defined democratically. Economics without an economic order is always in danger of ignoring the well-being of people.
An economic order should establish what rules are to be observed in economics and by what principles the commonly achieved assets should be distributed. The highest standard of every economic order should be the well-being and dignity of all persons.
Small-scale economic orders should be preferred since genuine democratic decisions are best made in manageable political communities. The private property of individuals should be bound to the economic order in which the individual lives because private property is entrusted property. The right to property should be tied to its use in the economic order.
*
The different political communities with their own economic orders are economically related with one another through trade to increase human well-being. People have the freedom and right to pass from one economic order to another. Their property should have a social obligation in the communal economic order.
*
Economics for people must be learned from an early age, in the family, kindergarten, school, vocational training and university. Education and training in economics includes knowledge about the foundations and connections of economics, occupational knowledge, abilities and skills and also an ethical education and training for conscientious conduct for human well-being.
*
Present economies are in great disorder. A few women and men have the goal of leaping over all the rules of the past economic order and only acting arbitrarily. They misuse their property and illegitimately appropriate the property of others. These women and men must be obligated to the rules of a collective economic order.
*
Most economic persons have honest intentions today. They think of the well-being of others, not only of their own advantage and well-being. However little is said about these people. They are hardly appreciated and their lives are even made difficult. These forces of the economy need encouragement. They should be a significant part of a public and democratic discussion about an economic order on a human scale.
[From another Zeit-Fragen article on Switzerland: The paper industry can buy forests cheaply to develop plantations with fast-growing monocultures and operate fully mechanized harvest machinery. In the long term Switzerland and its wood industry will bitterly regret falling for the false promises of these mammoth projects. The consequences of joining in such a predatory economy would be fatal for our forests and the indigenous forest industry.]
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