Time to Rethink Modern Economics
Can Modern Economics and Humanity Become Friends?
Photo: Simon Cunningham / Flickr
Modern Economics has undermined Civility, Trust, Community and Humanity
With surveys after surveys, studies after studies, noting that economists by and large are among the least trusted and valued professionals ever anywhere in the world, is this not the time for a good dose of humility, repentance, seeking forgiveness from those that the mainstream economists have left behind and caused them so much pain, namely, the 99%?
Economics, Values, Virtues and Humanity? Below see what economists think that might be!! Lord Kalms’ letter to the Times (08/03/2011) says it all:
‘Sir, Around 1991 I offered the London School of Economics a grant of £1 million to set up a Chair in Business Ethics. John Ashworth, at that time the Director of the LSE, encouraged the idea but had to write to me to say, regretfully, that the faculty had rejected the offer as it saw no correlation between ethics and economics. Quite.’- Lord Kalms, House of Lords, London
Cultivating and Reclaiming Trust, Moral Sentiments, Ethics, Simplicity, Beauty, Wisdom, Civility, and Spiritual Courage for Modern Economics and Economists
Economics in the Service of Humanity and Economists taking Action in the interest of the Common Good
However, before I proceed further, I would like to invite my fellow academic economists to deeply reflect on some of the wisest words ever said about education and teaching. Hopefully, then, they will see why they have lost all credibility, respect and trust:
‘Some say that my teaching is nonsense
Others call it lofty but impractical.
But to those who have looked inside themselves,
this nonsense makes perfect sense.
And to those who put it into practice,
this loftiness has roots that go deep.
I have just three things to teach:
simplicity, patience, compassion.
These three are your greatest treasures.
Simple in actions and in thoughts,
you return to the source of being.
Patient with both friends and enemies,
you accord with the way things are.
Compassionate toward yourself,
you reconcile all beings in the world.’- Lao Tzu
Illustration by Jon Berkerly
If this chaotic world does not make us rethink our idea of the good society, rewarding life, economy and economics whatever will?
What has gone Wrong with Economics that was once a Subject of Beauty, Wisdom and Elegance?
And how this falling house of cards may once again become good and relevant?
Back to Basics
Economists' Moral and Spiritual Calling:
Debunking the Myths and Illusions of Modern Economics
Economics today: Teaching wisdom or a tool of exploitation and propaganda?
Chief Aim of Education is to ‘Save Man from the Morass of Propaganda.’- Martin Luther King Jr. (His words resonate today as they did in 1947.)
The pertinent question of our time: ‘if no one seriously accepts that there is ‘one truth’ in relation to how the polity should be organised, why then do we witness the imposition of ‘one truth’ in how the economy should be organised? Asks John Barry, Professor of Green Political Economy at Queen's University Belfast
‘Clearly we need a new relationship with economics, one that is more equal, more open, more questioning, less deferential. We should be able to challenge economic orthodoxies, especially those … which function to reshape our notions of value and morality.’- Jonathan Aldred, author of Licence to be Bad: How Economics Corrupted Us (Penguin, 2020)
Mainstream macroeconomic theory is wrong, and it has pernicious consequences when used as the basis for economic policy.’- John E. King
‘What is wrong with modern economics? The clear answer is that it is mostly simply irrelevant. It has been becoming increasingly so for about seventy to eighty years now. Its formulations, in the main, are patently and repeatedly unrealistic, and so able to provide little or no explanatory insight or understanding of the world in which we live.’- Tony Lawson
‘Modern economics is sick. Economics has increasingly become an intellectual game played for its own sake and not for its practical consequences for understanding the economic world. Economists have converted the subject into a sort of social mathematics in which analytical rigour is everything and practical relevance is nothing.’- Mark Blaug
Neoclassical Economics — better known as the ‘Vulgar’ Economics Betrays our Students and Devalues their Humanity
'It matters because the way economics is taught has consequences far beyond university walls: it shapes the minds of the next generation of policymakers, voters, and citizens.'-Tim Thornton
What is Economics Education and What Makes Us Truly Human?
A jargon-free, non-mathematical, heart-to-heart dialogue with my fellow-academic colleagues on what makes us human, who we are, why we are and what is the purpose of this journey we call life?
N.B. First and foremost, this Blog is an Invitation to my fellow academic economists to reclaim economics, as once again, a subject of beauty, wisdom, elegance, moral sentiments, empathy, whilst respecting all aspects of the web of life. We must become instruments of peace, hope, flourishing, thriving, and prosperity for all.
…‘Economic rationality is powerful, and in its thoroughgoing solipsism it drives out other virtues: if we must only care about ourselves, how can we possibly care about others? When we reduce our interpersonal relations to calculations of cost and benefit, disciplined by competition and mediated by the manifold devices of economics in the world – the same discipline that we must focus upon ourselves – then we run the risk of losing something far more precious: our humanity.’--Philip Roscoe, author of A Richer Life (Penguin, 2015)
‘Over the past fifty years, the way we value what is 'good' and 'right' has changed dramatically. Behaviour that to our grandparents' generation might have seemed stupid, harmful or simply wicked now seems rational, natural, woven into the very logic of things… And, it's economics that's to blame.’- Jonathan Aldred, author of Licence to be Bad: How Economics Corrupted Us (Penguin, 2020)
My Fellow Academic colleagues
Begin a Journey in the interest of humanity: Move away From Neoclassical Economics to Common Good Economics
‘Economics is itself one of the biggest problems we face today.’
Now is the Time to Open Our Hearts
What is the Purpose of this Journey We Call Life?
You be the judge: Do you think this typical mainstream economist can have anything to say about ‘What is the Purpose of this Journey We Call Life?’
…’Perhaps to be an economist is a state of intention, attention, and connection.
The moment we glimpse the big picture, wholeness, harmony,
The moment we think holistically and systemically,
The moment we appreciate the contributions of all beings to our flourishing,
The moment we sense into the condition of our home managing, the qualities, the emergent properties.
When we feel the suffering, the joy, the dis-ease, and the hope coming through the tugs in the web of life.
To be an economist is to respond each, in our own way, with our gifts, our shadows, and our histories,
To live for a locus beyond oneself,
To act on behalf of the living whole for the flourishing of all beings.
To be an abundance manager,
An eco-sattva,
A life protector,
A life-enabler,
And above all, a humble member in the co-creation of our shared journey in this moment of this universe.’-
Who is the Economist? A poem by DELLA DUNCAN
Why Modern Economic Orthodoxy is a Dangerous and Destructive Ideology Devoid of Humanity and Moral Sentiments
In a world where, in the wise words of philosopher Michael Sandel, we have drifted from having a market economy to being a market society, when success in the marketplace is only about money and profit, what my dream economics and economy might look like and be all about?
Rediscovering beauty, wisdom, trust, elegance, imagination, hope and healing in Economics
‘The hope that the pursuit of goodness and virtue can be postponed until we have attained universal prosperity and that by the single-minded pursuit of wealth, without bothering our heads about spiritual and moral questions, we could establish peace on earth, is an unrealistic, unscientific, and irrational hope…
‘To the extent that economic thinking is based on the market, it takes the sacredness out of life, because there can be nothing sacred in something that has a price. Not surprisingly, therefore, if economic thinking pervades the whole of society, even simple non-economic values like beauty, health, or cleanliness can survive only if they prove to be economic…’-E. F. Schumacher in Small is Beautiful (The man and the book that changed the course of my life)
Modern Economic Orthodoxy has Devalued and
John Maynard Keynes, who in 1938 had noted that, “Economics is essentially a moral science.” and Adam Smith, best known for his first classic book, The Theory of Moral Sentiments (1759) would have recognised the monsters of modern economics:
‘Sir, Around 1991 I offered the London School of Economics a grant of £1 million to set up a Chair in Business Ethics. John Ashworth, at that time the Director of the LSE, encouraged the idea but had to write to me to say, regretfully, that the faculty had rejected the offer as it saw no correlation between ethics and economics. Quite! Lord Kalms’ letter to the Times (08/03/2011)
A Personal Note from the Author
Legend has it that, on October 31, 1517, the priest and scholar Martin Luther approached the door of the Castle Church in Wittenberg, Germany, and nailed a piece of paper to it containing the 95 revolutionary opinions that would begin the Protestant Reformation. He argued that the Church was internally consistent but absurd doctrines had pickled into a dogmatic structure of untruth.
Around the early 1990s, I, too, felt the same as Luther did in 1517, but my quarrels were not with religious dogma or the church, but with the new religion and its fundamentalist and dogmatic priests, masquerading as neoliberal economics and economists, the ideology and the ideologists at the roots of our destruction.
I had started to study economics as a mature, married student, who knew a thing or two, about life and the real world and very soon realised that what I was being taught had nothing to do with life or the real world. It was nothing but ‘ absurd doctrines pickled into a dogmatic structure of untruth.’
To this day I do not know why I did not change course and do something else, something more relevant and real. I persisted, did my BA, MA and PhD, all in Economics! Then, I became an economic lecturer, teaching the same absurd doctrines and dogmatic structure of untruth to my own students.
By the early 1990s, the guilt of teaching a load of Mumbo Jumbo to these young and innocent souls who had come to me for truth and inspiration got too much for me. I was feeling guilty and depressed. I wanted to be good economist, not a voodoo scientist!
To save myself from damnation, I became a full time academic activist and campaigner, a fully-fledged critic of mainstream economics and economic education as it is currently taught at universities the world over.
It has been a very challenging, difficult and at times very painful journey for me. Similar to Luther who became a target of the Catholic Church, branding him a heretic and the Holy Roman Empire that condemned him as an outlaw, I also have felt the painful weight of the vested interest.
Based on available and unrefuted evidence on the destructive ways of mainstream economics and economists, I know I was right to begin what I am doing and who I have become.
To those who have pained me, in the words of one of my spiritual teachers, Rumi, I say:
‘Out beyond ideas of wrongdoing and rightdoing,
there is a field. I’ll meet you there.’
Economics and Me: How to be Human in an Economistic World
‘If I ruled the world, I would rewrite the economics textbooks. This may seem a small ambition, unworthy of my sovereign office. But it would actually be a big step toward a better civic life. Today, we often confuse market reasoning for moral reasoning. We fall into thinking that economic efficiency—getting goods to those with the greatest willingness and ability to pay for them—defines the common good. But this is a mistake… The economistic view of the world is corrosive of democratic life. It makes for an impoverished public discourse, and a managerial, technocratic politics…So here is how I would revise the textbooks: I would abandon the claim that economics is a free-standing, value-neutral science, and would reconnect it with its origins in moral and political philosophy. The classical political economists of the 18th and 19th centuries—from Adam Smith to Karl Marx to John Stuart Mill—rightly conceived economics as a subfield of moral and political philosophy. In the 20th century, economics departed from this tradition, defined itself as an autonomous discipline, and aspired to the rigour of the natural sciences…’- Michael Sandel, author of "What Money Can't Buy: The Moral Limits of Markets"
Foreword
Virtues and the Common Good or Mammon? Extreme and destructive Competition or Constructive Cooperation?
Serving humanity or serving greed, selfishness and individualism? Loving and Caring for the World or Disregard for our Mother Earth?
Economics is a failing discipline doing great harm – so let's rethink it
Debunking the Greatest Heist and Con Artistry of All Times
The Mandate For Change: Worsening Economic Conditions, Global Environmental Crises and Savage Inequalities
Rethinking Economics for a Better World: Economics as If Values Mattered
Economics and Us: We Need a New Social, Moral and Spiritual Contract Shaping a New World by acknowledging the importance of a Common Good that transcends individual interests.
Modern-day economists may prefer to be value neutral, but many critics find fault in the relationship between economics and virtue, which has separated economic life from a life that is virtuous and well lived.
Photo via CareetRide
Capitalism, value-free, market-economy need rethinking, renewal and transformation. Our current political economic framework is fixated on economic growth, GDP figures, individual achievement, and short-term profit, all the while heightening barriers and obstacles to widespread prosperity for all. Faced with the challenges of mounting climate crises, abject poverty, inequality, mistrust, corruption, despair, ill-health, migration and systemic discrimination, to name but a few, we must reimagine ways to ensure ethical, spiritual, moral and economic flourishing for all. To achieve this, economics and economic education must change accordingly.
We are running out of time. If economics does not change, if the revolution in thinking that many critics have called for does not happen, if we do not revisit the rich and fertile soil in which economics was born, that being moral philosophy amid the broader questions of human existence, meaning, and ecology, then not only will we (the economists) have retreated from the chance to play a constructive role in solving these crises, we will inherit well deserved scorn and contempt. The opportunity is upon us. Let us seize it. Carpe Diem!
A look at economics and economists and their moral, spiritual and social contract with entire web of life
We need a better economics to build a better world
What is Education? What is Economics? What is Knowledge? What is Wisdom? What is Beauty? What is Justice? What is Love? What is Philosophy? What is Psychology? What is Humanity? What is a Good Life? What is Nature? What is Art? What is Culture? What is the World? What is a University? What is a School? What is Literature? What is Poetry? What is Life? What is Teaching? What is Work? What is Vocation? What is Money? What is Greed? What is Enoughness? What is for the Common Good? What is Kindness? What is Empathy? What is Humility? What is the Meaning of this Journey we call Life?...What is the Connection between Economics and Humanity?
Modern Economics and the Purpose of Existence?
Modern economics has monetised all aspects of our lives by placing money values on all we do and believe, totally neglecting the natural, spiritual, philosophical and divine facets of our lives that underpins our humanity, who and what we are.
Making the Dismal Science Humane, A Subject of Beauty and Elegance that it Once Was
“Practical men, who believe themselves to be quite exempt from any intellectual influence, are usually the slaves of some defunct economist.”- John Maynard Keynes
The economic ideas and the false, inhumane ideology that have since the 1970s with the rise of Thatcherism and Reaganism, dominated politics and economics are now rapidly losing legitimacy in the face of multiple crises, beginning with the Global Financial Crisis of 2007/08. At the same time, the idea of economics as a ‘value free’ science is starting to fade. So, there is no doubt that we need an economic transformation.
IDEOLOGY MASQUERADING AS SCIENCE and Religion
The ideology masquerading as science and religion, which is the best I can describe what economics has become, must change and be transformed. Economics must become humanised, once and for all.
By connecting Economics and humanity we put the entire web of life first in all we do and recommend. By humanising economics, I mean, to bridge the divide that has falsely and wrongly been created between modern economics and philosophy, theology, anthropology, sociology, literature, poetry, history, music, arts and culture, to name but a few.
Humanities, interdisciplinary studies and economics together can more realistically shed light on the central questions of values, ideals and relevance of economics by bringing the study of economics back to its rightful place in the human conversation, as it once was in the yesteryears.
Moreover, untill such time, when the modern-day economists leave their cotton-wool wrapped, ivory towers, separated from reality and practical matters, acknowledge and admit past mistakes and ensure that modern economics and humanity become friends again,then, modern economics can only remain a tool of deceit and destruction, as it has now become.
Photo: Quakers in Britain
A Reflection on How Mumbo-Jumbo Conquered the World and How We May Free Ourselves from its Path of Deceit and Destruction
Let’s rekindle the spirit of humanity that Economics once had.
Rediscovering the Moral, Ethical and Spiritual Foundations of Economics
What does it mean to be a human and a transformative, inspirational economic educator?
Can dismal science ever become humanised?
"Today's neoclassical economist is an emperor with no clothes who has fooled us all long."
Economics Today: A Clandestine Religion Masquerading as a ‘Bastard Science’
For photo credit see: Remaking Economics
Ruskin explaining the bastard science
First and foremost
‘Economics teaching and the real world’: A Perspective from Students
‘It is not only the world economy that is in crisis. The teaching of economics is in crisis too, and this crisis has consequences far beyond the university walls. What is taught shapes the minds of the next generation of policymakers, and therefore shapes the societies we live in. We, over 65 associations of economics students from over 30 different countries, believe it is time to reconsider the way economics is taught. We are dissatisfied with the dramatic narrowing of the curriculum that has taken place over the last couple of decades. This lack of intellectual diversity does not only restrain education and research. It limits our ability to contend with the multidimensional challenges of the 21st century - from financial stability, to food security and climate change. The real world should be brought back into the classroom, as well as debate and a pluralism of theories and methods. Such change will help renew the discipline and ultimately create a space in which solutions to society’s problems can be generated.
United across borders, we call for a change of course. We do not claim to have the perfect answer, but we have no doubt that economics students will profit from exposure to different perspectives and ideas. Pluralism will not only help to enrich teaching and research and reinvigorate the discipline. More than this, pluralism carries the promise of bringing economics back into the service of society. Three forms of pluralism must be at the core of curricula: theoretical, methodological and interdisciplinary…
Change will be difficult - it always is. But it is already happening. Students across the world have already started creating change step by step. We have founded university groups and built networks both nationally and internationally. Change must come from many places. So now we invite students, economists and non-economists to join us and create the critical mass needed for change…’
To read the full manifesto and learn more about the real world economics see the links below:
GCGI supports the International Student Initiative for Pluralism in Economics
In Praise of the Economic Students at the Sorbonne: The Class of 2000
Modern Economics: A pseudoscientific mumbo-jumbo
A mumbo-jumbo economist is the one who thinks he knows it all!
Promises everything and delivers nothing!
The so-called voodoo scientists that never agree on anything!
Dishing out the same old soup
Photo credit: Real-World Economics Review
Have economists turned economics into mumbo jumbo that makes no sense and they only pretend they understand it?
“Economics is extremely useful as a form of employment by economists.” I mean these guys throw everything at you and have even developed their own obtuse terminology. To wit, diminishing marginal utility or, as they say in the country, ”too many cooks in the kitchen spoil the pot.”-John Kenneth Galbraith
Sophisticated mathematical formulas, incomprehensive jargon and mumbo jumbo alone are not enough — economics needs values, virtues, beauty and goodness to tell us who we are and direct us towards a better world.
The GCGI view on the crisis in economics and economic education: better economists need better standards and more human values
Nota bene
I very much wish to begin this Blog by travelling back in time and recall a few related Blogs I had written in the last few years, between 2012 and 2019:
Rediscovering the Moral Foundations of Economics
A Call to Recover our Moral and Spiritual Compass: 3rd CGDC Annual Meeting-Vienna
Economists Stop teaching 'The World's Dumbest Idea'!
My Economics and Business Educators’ Oath: My Promise to My Students
Calling all academic economists: What are you teaching your students
Nothing short of a sea change in education and teaching values can save the world
Pearls of Wisdom: The Transformative Power of a Values-led Economics and Economic Education
Photo via Medium
The World would be a Better Place if Economists had Read This Book
Stop the Seeds of Destruction: Toward teaching economics of the real world
Calling all academic economists: What are you teaching your students?
Small is Beautiful: The Wisdom of E.F. Schumacher
Economics and Economists Engulfed By Crises: What Do We Tell the Students?
Quakerism and Economics of the Common Good
My Economics and Business Educators’ Oath: My Promise to My Students
Wisdom and the Well-Rounded Life: What Is a University?
Humanity (the missing value in modern, neoliberal economics) is the cradle of our civilisation and civility. It is the true source, defining who and why we are.
Throughout history, education has shaped and defined humanity. But now, given the many failures of the so-called modern education system, humanity is at a precipice.
HUMAN VALUES – Cultivating Humanity – Transforming Education and Teaching, Lives and Communities
Conscious of the extent of the global crises, human and environmental degradation, destruction and suffering, GCGI is calling for a New Economic Paradigm, values-led economic education, teaching and learning, designed, empowered and enabled by our humanity and our human values, unleashing our collective potential to act in the interest of humanity.
“Education is the leading of human souls to what is best, and making what is best out of them”. John Ruskin
“More than anything else, the intensity of these times challenges us to deepen our own orientation to the Real – and to our intelligent appreciation of future evolutionary possibilities that are being worked out in our lives and through our lives. And that is why the Wisdom Teachings are so important right now. We are being called to really think – and to explore what it means to think for ourselves…"- Steve Nation
‘We become teachers for the reasons of the heart.
But many of us lose heart as time goes by.
How can we take heart, alone and together,
So we can give heart to our students and our world,
Which is what good teachers do?'-THE HEART OF A TEACHER
Let us come together and set the scene on this reflective blog, by asking this pertinent and timely question, question of meaning and values:
Can modern economists ever become a true friend of my friend, my inspirational teacher, Lao Tzu, who many many centuries ago spoke of these beautiful and everlasting words on education and teaching:
Some say that my teaching is nonsense
Others call it lofty but impractical.
But to those who have looked inside themselves,
this nonsense makes perfect sense.
And to those who put it into practice,
this loftiness has roots that go deep.
I have just three things to teach:
simplicity, patience, compassion.
These three are your greatest treasures.
Simple in actions and in thoughts,
you return to the source of being.
Patient with both friends and enemies,
you accord with the way things are.
Compassionate toward yourself,
you reconcile all beings in the world.
To my fellow-economists the world over: If I transformed myself, so can you!
My Economic Journey of Transformation: It was all about what it means to be human. I suppose it all started when I became a bit older and I hope wiser, asking fundamental questions of myself about what type of economics I was taught and indeed, what was it that I was teaching my students. Questions of values and substance. Questions surrounding the relationship between economics and ethics, spirituality, love, hope, kindness, empathy, wellbeing, happiness, mother nature, consciousness, and suchlike.
Although, these questions began my journey of transformation, which with the hindsight I am grateful for, but, nonetheless, at the beginning of the journey caused my great deal of pain and heartache. Let me explain a bit more, by formulating my story into a thank you note to the academic economists who made sure of my successful change and transformation!!! It is because of them that I am who I am now!!
After being awarded my PhD in economics at Birmingham University, I embarked on my academic career in 1986. I started off as a development economist, (indeed the title of my PhD thesis was: Development Planning in Iran: From Monarchy to Islamic Republic) doing work on poverty, inequality, and equality, trade and development, mainly focusing on poor people in poor places and through some surveys I was doing, I fell into the economics of happiness and wellbeing, as well as the degradation of environment and its consequences on the Third World, amongst others.
I also realised that what I had been taught in economics and what I was teaching my own students, were really fake, false and irrelevant to what was happening on the ground in the real world and the real people.
I so much wanted my economics teaching to have a positive impact on my students’ wellbeing, their happiness and their hope for a better future. I wanted to change what was being taught at universities, and more so on how it was taught and communicated to students. Looking back, I must have been so naive believing I could do that!
Many mainstream economists at the time believed that I was totally a nutcase, to be avoided at all cost! They told this to my face! They told me the kind of economics I wanted to teach had no place in how economics must be taught at a modern university in the era of Thatcherism, revolutionising everything we knew about economics and the economy! They told me, if I want to be so kind, caring and valuing the needs of the weak, vulnerable and disadvantaged, then, I should consider changing my profession! They told me I am more suited to become a social worker or perhaps a priest!
Well, well, well! Looking back at my life, who I was, who I am now, and what I do, I say, thank you to all those fellow-economists that all those years ago encouraged me to jump their sinking and discredited ship!! For that, I cannot be more grateful!
PS: The Thatcherite economists carried on teaching the Great Leader’s values and principles. And then, hells bells see what happened!
Neoliberalism destroys human potential and devastates values-led education
Bastard Economics of Greedy Neoliberalism and the Killings of the Innocents in London Tower
Britain Has Become a Sinking Ship of Systemic Corruption, Cronyism and Chumocracy
Have We lost the Art of Knowing What it Means to Be Human?
Is Neoliberal Economics and Economists 'The Biggest Fraud Ever Perpetrated on the World?'
Economics and Economists Engulfed By Crises: What Do We Tell the Students?
From Psychology to Economics, Searching and Questioning, Despair and Transformation — The Exhilaration of Discovery of What it Means to be Human: The Gift of Hope- A Pick from our archive
On the Beginnings of my Journey of Transformation
Excerpts from my online letter to the editor of Financial Times on 12 November 2013:
…‘I began to ask fundamental questions of myself. Why did I never talk to my students about compassion, dignity, comradeship, solidarity, happiness, spirituality – about the meaning of life? We never debated the biggest questions. Who are we? Where have we come from? Where are we going?
‘I told them to create wealth, but I did not tell them for what reason. I told them about scarcity and competition, but not about abundance and co-operation. I told them about free trade, but not about fair trade; about GNP – Gross National Product – but not about GNH – Gross National Happiness. I told them about profit maximisation and cost minimisation, about the highest returns to the shareholders, but not about social consciousness, accountability to the community, sustainability and respect for creation and the creator. I did not tell them that, without humanity, economics is a house of cards built on shifting sands.
‘These conflicts caused me much frustration and alienation, leading to heartache and despair. I needed to rediscover myself and real-life economics. After a proud twenty-year or so academic career, I became a student all over again. I would study theology, philosophy and ethics, disciplines nobody had taught me when I was a student of economics and I did not teach my own students when I became a teacher of economics.
‘It was at this difficult time that I came to understand that I needed to bring spirituality, compassion, ethics and morality back into economics itself, to make this dismal science once again relevant to and concerned with the common good.’
I then went on to found the Globalisation for the Common Good Initiative to work towards this…’- Continue to read
The Destruction of our World and the lies of Milton Friedman
Sustainable Development Goals: Where is the Common Good?
Economic Growth: The Index of Misery
Economics, Globalisation and the Common Good: A Lecture at LondonSchool of Economics
What is the Value of MBA and Business Education?
GCGI supports the International Student Initiative for Pluralism in Economics
Small is Beautiful: The Wisdom of E.F. Schumacher
What might an Economy for the Common Good look like?
Reimagining Leadership: A Human Centered Approach to Finance, Banking and Business
Ubuntu Education: Nelson Mandela’s Lasting Legacy
What if Universities Taught KINDNESS?
Education of My Dream: Education to Make us Human
We can all imagine the world we want to build; now's the time to start its construction and the path is education, education and education
Photo: Via the BBC
One who dreams is called a prophet
'The world belongs to the dreamer and doer
That lives within you and me
We build a better future when we are willing
To let our best ideas roam free
Today, the world is calling upon us
To activate our power
To dream differently.’- The World Dream Day
Yes, it is true: “Education is what makes us fully human”
Education ‘to transfigure the ego - to liberate the soul’
Where is the life we have lost in living?
Where is the wisdom we have lost in knowledge?
Where is the knowledge we have lost in information?-T.S. Eliot
"Educating the mind without educating the heart is no education at all."- Aristotle
“The object of education is to teach us to love what is beautiful.”— Plato
"You must teach your children that the ground beneath their feet is the ashes of our grandfathers. So that they will respect the land, tell your children that the earth is rich with the lives of our kin.
"Teach your children what we have taught our children -- that the earth is our mother. Whatever befalls the earth, befalls the sons of the earth. If men spit upon the ground, they spit upon themselves.
"This we know. The earth does not belong to man; man belongs to the earth. This we know. All things are connected like the blood which unites one family. All things are connected.
"Whatever befalls the earth befalls the sons of the earth. Man did not weave the web of life; he is merely a strand in it. Whatever he does to the web, he does to himself ..."- Chief Seattle
GCGI is our journey of hope and the sweet fruit of a labour of love. It is free to access, and it is ad-free too. We spend hundreds of hours, volunteering our labour and time, spreading the word about what is good and what matters most. If you think that's a worthy mission, as we do—one with powerful leverage to make the world a better place—then, please consider offering your moral and spiritual support by joining our circle of friends, spreading the word about the GCGI and forwarding the website to all those who may be interested.
The Values of the GCGI which we hold very dearly
'We value caring and kindness
We value passion and positive energy
We value service and volunteerism
We value simplicity and humility
We value trust, openness, and transparency
We value values-led education
We value harmony with nature
We value non-violent conflict resolution
We value interfaith, inter-civilisational and intergenerational dialogue
We value teamwork and collaboration
We value challenge and excellence
We value fun and play
We value curiosity and innovation
We value health and wellbeing
We value a sense of adventure
We value people, communities and cultures
We value friendship, cooperation and responsibility'
Economics of MY Dream
A Selection of Books to Understand my Dream Economics and Economy
Photo via CreativelyUnitedCommunity
In a world where, in the wise words of philosopher Michael Sandel, we have drifted from having a market economy to being a market society, when success in the marketplace is only about money and profit, what my dream economics and economy might be all about?
It will be about meeting people’s basic economic needs and also satisfying their aspirations and providing a positive spiritual and emotional experience. The key, that for me, unlocks the door to success, is an in-depth and holistic understanding of people as if they mattered and are valued, as well as our respect for the wellbeing of the entire web of life. The books noted below address all these and more in abundance.
Economics of Good and Evil
The Quest for Economic Meaning from Gilgamesh to Wall Street
'Tomas Sedlacek has shaken the study of economics as few ever have. Named one of the "Young Guns" and one of the "five hot minds in economics" by the Yale Economic Review, he serves on the National Economic Council in Prague, where his provocative writing has achieved bestseller status. How has he done it? By arguing a simple, almost heretical proposition: economics is ultimately about good and evil.
In The Economics of Good and Evil, Sedlacek radically rethinks his field, challenging our assumptions about the world. Economics is touted as a science, a value-free mathematical inquiry, he writes, but it's actually a cultural phenomenon, a product of our civilization. It began within philosophy—Adam Smith himself not only wrote The Wealth of Nations, but also The Theory of Moral Sentiments—and economics, as Sedlacek shows, is woven out of history, myth, religion, and ethics. "Even the most sophisticated mathematical model," Sedlacek writes, "is, de facto, a story, a parable, our effort to (rationally) grasp the world around us." Economics not only describes the world, but establishes normative standards, identifying ideal conditions. Science, he claims, is a system of beliefs to which we are committed. To grasp the beliefs underlying economics, he breaks out of the field's confines with a tour de force exploration of economic thinking, broadly defined, over the millennia. He ranges from the epic of Gilgamesh and the Old Testament to the emergence of Christianity, from Descartes and Adam Smith to the consumerism in Fight Club. Throughout, he asks searching meta-economic questions: What is the meaning and the point of economics? Can we do ethically all that we can do technically? Does it pay to be good?
Placing the wisdom of philosophers and poets over strict mathematical models of human behavior, Sedlacek's groundbreaking work promises to change the way we calculate economic value.'- See more and purchase this book HERE
'A passionate and informed critique of mainstream economics from one of the leading economic thinkers of our time
This insightful book looks at how mainstream economics’ quest for scientific certainty has led to a narrowing of vision and a convergence on an orthodoxy that is unhealthy for the field, not to mention the societies which base policy decisions on the advice of flawed economic models. Noted economic thinker Robert Skidelsky explains the circumstances that have brought about this constriction and proposes an approach to economics which includes philosophy, history, sociology, and politics.
Skidelsky’s clearly written and compelling critique takes aim at the way that economics is taught in today’s universities, where a focus on modelling leaves students ill-equipped to grapple with what is important and true about human life. He argues for a return to the ideal set out by John Maynard Keynes that the economist must be a “mathematician, historian, statesman, [and] philosopher” in equal measure.'- See more and purchase this book HERE
'A radical reassessment of neoclassical economics, authored by a collection of experts in the field, united in their call for change. From the 1960s onward, neoclassical economists have increasingly managed to block the employment of non-neoclassical economists, narrow the economics curriculum offered by universities to students and make their theories increasingly irrelevant to understanding economic reality. Now they are even banishing economic history and the history of economic thought from the curriculum. Why has this tragedy happened? At a time of accelerating momentum for radical change in the study of economics, A Guide to What's Wrong with Economics comprehensively re-examines the shortcomings of neoclassical economics and considers a number of alternative formulations. In it, a distinguished list of non-neoclassical economists provide a study of some of the many worldly and logical gaps in neoclassical economics, its hidden ideological agendas, disregard for the environment, habitual misuse of mathematics and statistics, inability to address the major issues of economic globalization, its ethical cynicism concerning poverty, racism and sexism, and its misrepresentation of economic history. In clear and engaging prose, A Guide to What's Wrong with Economics shows how interesting, relevant and exciting economics can be when it is pursued not as a defence of an antiquated and close-minded system of belief, but as a no-holds-barred inquiry looking for real-world truths. This book is a must-read for all economists and advanced students of economics, as well as for the general reader.'- See more and purchase this book HERE
'In 1517, Martin Luther nailed his 95 theses to the wall of Wittenberg church. He argued that the Church’s internally consistent but absurd doctrines had pickled into a dogmatic structure of untruth. It was time for a Reformation.
Half a millennium later, Steve Keen argues that economics needs its own Reformation. In Debunking Economics, he eviscerated an intellectual church – neoclassical economics – that systematically ignores its own empirical untruths and logical fallacies, and yet is still mysteriously worshipped by its scholarly high priests. In this book, he presents his Reformation: a New Economics, which tackles serious issues that today's economic priesthood ignores, such as money, energy and ecological sustainability. It gives us hope that we can save our economies from collapse and the planet from ecological catastrophe.
Performing this task with his usual panache and wit, Steve Keen’s new book is unmissable to anyone who has noticed that the economics Emperor is naked and would like him to put on some clothes.'- See more and purchase this book HERE
What’s the Use of Economics? Teaching the Dismal Science after the Crisis
'With the financial crisis continuing after five years, people are questioning why economics failed either to send an adequate early warning ahead of the crisis or to resolve it quickly. The gap between important real-world problems and the workhorse mathematical model-based economics being taught to students has become a chasm. Students continue to be taught as if not much has changed since the crisis, as there is no consensus about how to change the curriculum. Meanwhile, employer discontent with the knowledge and skills of their graduate economist recruits has been growing.
This book examines what economists need to bring to their jobs, and the way in which education in universities could be improved to fit graduates better for the real world. It is based on an international conference in February 2012, sponsored by the UK Government Economic Service and the Bank of England, which brought employers and academics together. Three themes emerged: the narrow range of skills and knowledge demonstrated by graduates; the need for reform of the content of the courses they are taught; and the barriers to curriculum reform.
While some issues remain unresolved, there was strong agreement on such key issues as the strengthening of economic history, the teaching of inductive as well as deductive reasoning, critical evaluation and communication skills, and a better alignment of lecturers’ incentives with the needs of their students.'- See more and purchase this book HERE
'Released in 1984, Steven E. Rhoads' classic was considered by many to be among the best introductions to the economic way of thinking and its applications. This anniversary edition has been updated to account for political and economic developments - from the greater interest in redistributing income and the ascendancy of behaviorism to the Trump presidency. Rhoads explores opportunity cost, marginalism, and economic incentives and explains why mainstream economists - even those well to the left - still value free markets. He critiques economics for its unbalanced emphasis on narrow self-interest as controlling motive and route to happiness, highlighting philosophers and positive psychologists' findings that happiness is far more dependent on friends and family than on income or wealth. This thought-provoking tour of the economist's mind is a must read for our times, providing a clear, lively, non-technical insight into how economists think and why they shouldn't be ignored.'- See more and purchase this book HERE
'Over the past fifty years, the way we value what is 'good' and 'right' has changed dramatically. Behaviour that to our grandparents' generation might have seemed stupid, harmful or simply wicked now seems rational, natural, woven into the very logic of things. And, asserts Jonathan Aldred in this revelatory new book, it's economics that's to blame. Licence to be Bad tells the story of how a group of economics theorists changed our world, and how a handful of key ideas, from free-riding to Nudge, seeped into our decision-making and, indeed, almost all aspects of our lives. Aldred reveals the extraordinary hold of economics on our morals and values. Economics has corrupted us. But if this hidden transformation is so recent, it can be reversed. Licence to be Bad shows us where to begin.'- See more and purchase this book HERE
'Is a promotion at work worth more than time with family? Does the price of cheap socks compensate for their being made by children? Might a new lover be better than the one you have? How do we choose when what we want is bad for someone else? In fact, in a world as complicated as ours, how do we choose at all? Over the course of the 20th century economics has become our most trusted science of decision-making. From government policies to personal decisions - such as buying a house, educating our children, caring for our sick or even meeting a spouse - economic principles govern both our range of choices and how we choose between them. But economics is not a perfect science. It is political and far from impartial, and yet its values - ownership, efficiency, cost benefit and self-interest - now threaten to usurp all others. At a time when the most urgent problems require collective action, economics is perhaps our greatest obstacle to change. Written with humour, wisdom and compassion, and investigating the worlds of work, shopping, healthcare, house-buying, online dating, politics and daily life, this brilliant and timely book exposes the true cost of economic thinking, points the way to some compelling alternatives - co-operatives, local currencies, non-Western finance, community - and draws attention to some other, timeless values that few of us have yet forgotten. A Richer Life: How Economics Can Change the Way We Think and Feel was originally published in hardback as I Spend, Therefore I Am.'- See more and purchase this book HERE
'In the face of political, financial, and environmental upheaval, it's difficult to slow down and build lives of mindfulness and joy. These things are within reach, but how can we go about creating a new world, using common-sense economics? In An Economy of Well-being, author Mark Anielski presents a practical guide for building a new economy of well-being to help communities and nations become more flourishing and happier places to live. In this follow-up to his best-selling The Economics of Happiness, Anielski addresses key questions including:
- How can our personal and family assets be strengthened for a more fulfilling life of meaning and purpose?
- How can neighborhoods and cities become flourishing economies of well-being by making the best of abundant community assets?
- how can organizations, communities and financial institutions measure, manage and finance assets to achieve high levels of well-being?
An Economy of Well-being responds to a common yearning for common-sense tools to orient our lives, our businesses, and our communities towards well-being. This is ideal reading for anyone who wishes to contribute to building happier, more mindful communities, and ultimately lives of joy and meaning.'- See more and purchase this book HERE
'Should we financially reward children for good marks? Is it ethical to pay people to donate organs? What about hiring mercenaries to fight our wars, outsourcing inmates to for-profit prisons or selling citizenship?
In recent decades, market values have impinged on almost every aspect of life - medicine, education, government, law, even family life. We have drifted from having a market economy to being a market society. In What Money Can't Buy Michael Sandel asks: Isn't there something wrong with a world in which everything is for sale? And how do we protect the things that really matter?- See more and purchase this book HERE
…’Herman observed that mainstream economics, which focuses on the circular flow of money between households and businesses, completely omits the natural world. In reality, the economy is not an isolated system, as it is treated in mainstream economics, but a subsystem of the biosphere. All of the resources used by the economy come from the environment, and all of the wastes produced by it return to the environment. To represent this fact, Herman drew a diagram showing a square representing the economy, contained within a circle representing the biosphere, with flows of matter and energy connecting them.
Mainstream economics is primarily concerned with the goal of efficient allocation, arguing that environmental problems can be solved by “getting the prices right”. In one of his most-cited articles, Herman argued that the focus on efficient allocation was failing to solve environmental problems because these are the result of the scale of economic activity exceeding ecosystem limits, not of poor pricing within markets. Increasing the prices of certain goods relative to others can reduce the use of bad products relative to better ones, but it cannot address absolute scarcity. Ultimately, there are limits on the resources that nature can provide and the pollutants that it can absorb.
Herman was critical of GDP because it does not distinguish between good and bad economic activity. He argued that growth could become “uneconomic” if its costs exceeded its benefits. To assess whether this was happening, he helped develop the Index of Sustainable Economic Welfare (also called the Genuine Progress Indicator), which adds the value of beneficial activity that is not counted in GDP (such as household and volunteer work), and subtracts the cost of harmful activity that we would prefer to avoid (such as crime, pollution, and the depletion of natural capital). The difference between the two indicators is striking: while global GDP has increased more than threefold since 1950, the Genuine Progress Indicator has flat-lined since the late 1970s…’- Read more
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'The definitive big picture on the financial crisis, from the man behind the Oscar-winning documentary that exposed the workings of the new economic elite
Based on explosive interviews, court documents and corporate archives, Inside Job traces in gripping detail how decades of deregulation gave birth to a predator nation, with power players cycling through positions in government, academia and Wall Street – and continuing to do so even in the wake of the global financial crisis. With stunning clarity, Charles Ferguson delivers an uncompromising accounting of how a new economic oligarchy has wrested control of our politics and the prospects for real recovery.'- See more and purchase this book HERE
'Our federal and state tax dollars are going to fund higher education. If corporations kick in a little more, should they be able to dictate the research or own the discoveries? During the past two decades, commercial forces have quietly transformed virtually every aspect of academic life. Corporate funding of universities is growing and the money comes with strings attached. In return for this funding, universities and professors are acting more and more like for-profit patent factories: university funds are shifting from the humanities and the less profitable science departments into research labs, and the skill of teaching is valued less and less. Slowly but surely, universities are abandoning their traditional role as disinterested sources of education, alternative perspectives, and wisdom. This growing influence of corporations over universities affects more than just today’s college students (and their parents); it compromises the future of all those whose careers depend on a university education, and all those who will be employed, governed, or taught by the products of American universities.'- See more and purchase this book HERE
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Human Goods, Economic Evils: A Moral Approach to the Dismal Science (Culture of Enterprise)
‘Much of modern economic theory is based on a rather unflattering view of human nature, one that is essentially selfish and materialistic. Not surprisingly, this incomplete version of human anthropology makes for some rather incomplete economic theory, argues Edward Hadas in Human Goods & Economic Evils. Instead of simply being utility maximizers, Hadas argues human beings also seek to maximize morality in their everyday economic lives. For Hadas, ‘economic man’ is a moral man, who always strives for the good according to his nature. While the weakness of human nature ensures that the good is never fully achieved, economic activity is nevertheless best understood as part of the great moral enterprise of humanity. Human Goods & Economic Evils does not claim that the basic economic activities of laboring and consuming are the most important things in life, but they are literally vital, and as such deserve to be studied and understood through a more morally sympathetic view of human nature. With this in mind, Human Goods & Economic Evils provides both lay readers and policymakers the intellectual tools necessary to judge what is right and what is wrong about the modern economy, and returns the study of economics to its proper, more humanistic sphere.’- See more and purchase this book HERE
The Dismal Science: How Thinking Like an Economist Undermines Community
‘Economists celebrate the market as a device for regulating human interaction without acknowledging that their enthusiasm depends on a set of half-truths: that individuals are autonomous, self-interested, and rational calculators with unlimited wants and that the only community that matters is the nation-state. However, as Stephen Marglin argues, market relationships erode community. In the past, for example, when a farm family experienced a setback--say the barn burned down--neighbors pitched in. Now a farmer whose barn burns down turns, not to his neighbors, but to his insurance company. Insurance may be a more efficient way to organize resources than a community barn raising, but the deep social and human ties that are constitutive of community are weakened by the shift from reciprocity to market relations.
Marglin dissects the ways in which the foundational assumptions of economics justify a world in which individuals are isolated from one another and social connections are impoverished as people define themselves in terms of how much they can afford to consume. Over the last four centuries, this economic ideology has become the dominant ideology in much of the world. Marglin presents an account of how this happened and an argument for righting the imbalance in our lives that this ideology has fostered.’- See more and purchase this book HERE
Cents and Sensibility: What Economics Can Learn from the Humanities
‘Economists often act as if their methods explain all human behavior. But in Cents and Sensibility, an eminent literary critic and a leading economist make the case that the humanities, especially the study of literature, offer economists ways to make their models more realistic, their predictions more accurate, and their policies more effective and just.
Gary Saul Morson and Morton Schapiro trace the connection between Adam Smith's great classic, The Wealth of Nations, and his less celebrated book on The Theory of Moral Sentiments, and contend that a few decades later Jane Austen invented her groundbreaking method of novelistic narration in order to give life to the empathy that Smith believed essential to humanity.
Morson and Schapiro argue that Smith's heirs include Austen, Anton Chekhov, and Leo Tolstoy as well as John Maynard Keynes and Milton Friedman. Economists need a richer appreciation of behavior, ethics, culture, and narrative―all of which the great writers teach better than anyone.
Cents and Sensibility demonstrates the benefits of a freewheeling dialogue between economics and the humanities by addressing a wide range of problems drawn from the economics of higher education, the economics of the family, and the development of poor nations. It offers new insights about everything from the manipulation of college rankings to why some countries grow faster than others. At the same time, the book shows how looking at real-world problems can revitalize the study of literature itself.’- See more and purchase this book HERE
God and the Evil of Scarcity: Moral Foundations of Economic Agency
‘In his celebrated Essay on Population, Thomas Malthus raised the puzzle of why a benevolent Creator would permit material scarcity in human existence. Albino Barrera revisits this question using Thomas Aquinas’s metaphysics of participation and Sacred Scripture’s invitation to covenant fidelity and kingdom discipleship as analytical lenses with which to examine the seeming incongruity of scarcity in God’s providence. Barrera concludes that scarcity turns out to be a signal opportunity for economic agency to receive, internalize, and communicate God’s goodness and righteousness within the human community.
Written for theologians, philosophers, social scientists, and policymakers interested in the theological and philosophical foundations of economics, this study argues that precarious, subsistence living is not an immutable law of nature. Rather, such a chronic, dismal condition reflects personal and collective moral failure. In this carefully researched study, Barrera argues that scarcity serves as an occasion for God to provide for us through each other and that there are strong metaphysical and scriptural warrants for enacting progressive social policies for a better sharing of the goods of the earth.’- See more and purchase this book HERE
Economics for the Common Good
‘When Jean Tirole won the Nobel Prize in Economics, he suddenly found himself being stopped in the street by strangers and asked to comment on current events far from his own research. His transformation from academic economist to public intellectual prompted him to reflect more deeply on the role economists and their discipline play in society. The result is Economics for the Common Good, a passionate manifesto for a world in which economics can help us improve the shared lot of societies and humanity as a whole. To show how, Tirole shares his insights on a broad range of questions affecting our everyday lives and the future of our society, including global warming, unemployment, the post-2008 global financial order, the euro crisis, the digital revolution, innovation, and the proper balance between the free market and regulation. Compelling and accessible, Economics for the Common Good sets a new agenda for the role of economics in society.’- See more and purchase this book HERE
Promoting the Common Good
Bringing Economics and Theology Together Again
‘Modern economics has deliberately divorced itself from all moral and ethical considerations in the belief that it needs to be a value-free science. In schools and universities students are taught that what matters is maximising profits and cutting costs – any other considerations are irrelevant to them as economists. This is the philosophy which guides multinationals, governments and international institutions like the World Bank and the IMF. It is a matter of hard choices. Relief of poverty is charitable, a noble ideal, but has nothing to do with economics. Economics and Theology do not belong together.
In the year in which the campaign to Make Poverty History was launched, and in which Tony Blair and Gordon Brown were trying persuade the G7 to reduce the debt burden on developing countries, an economist, Dr Kamran Mofid, and a theologian, Rev Marcus Braybrooke, joined in a dialogue to consider how economics and theology could be brought together again – for they have not always been divorced. Dr Mofid points out that before Adam Smith, who is generally regarded as the ‘father’ of modern economics, had written his famous book The Wealth of Nations, he had been professor of Moral Philosophy at Glasgow University and had written The Theory of Moral Sentiments. Before that, St Thomas Aquinas, Aristotle and Plato considered social issues in a moral context.
Marcus Braybrooke recognises that ‘the thought of religion interfering with economic and political life’ will concern those ‘afraid of the influence of extremists in the world of Islam or of conservative evangelicals in the USA’. But he points out that ‘if there is no concept of truth, business agreements become impossible’ – the presence of lawyers at every negotiation shows how trust has been undermined.
Together they call for the evolution of a global ethic that respects cultural diversity, the environment and economic reality. Though they bring experience and expertise to the dialogue, the book is intended for a general readership – the future of the world affects everyone. It is too important to leave to experts. In a clear, engaging style the authors show how economic issues can be understood by us all – it is important we do, so that we can help build a world that is just, free and prosperous.’- See more and purchase this book HERE
'In Value(s), one of the great economic thinkers of our time examines how economic value and social values became blurred, how we went from living in a market economy to a market society, and how to rethink and rebuild before it’s too late. The book will help arm the best in business, finance and government, and disarm the worst.
During his time as a G7 central banker and seven years spent as Governor of the Bank of England, Mark Carney witnessed the collapse of public trust in elites, globalisation, and technology; the challenges of the 4th Industrial Revolution and the existential threat of the growing climate emergency. Drawing on a truly international perspective to our greatest problems, this book sets out a framework for the change needed for an economic and social renaissance in a post-Covid world. Embedding the values of sustainability, solidarity and responsibility into all decision-making is integral to his argument for how we can channel the dynamism of the market to turn intractable problems into enormous opportunities. His deeply researched and forward-looking manifesto goes to the heart of what we’ve got wrong in the past and offers action plans to set it right for individuals, businesses, investors and governments.
In short, Value(s) sets out how we can build a better world for all. It is a book that offers achievable solutions to global problems, building a future fit for our children, grandchildren and generations to come. ‘The ten pages where he takes down routine market fables are worth the price of the book alone.’ writes Will Hutton.'- See more and purchase this book HERE
''This New York Times bestselling "Eco Bible" (Time magazine) teaches us that economic growth must be responsibly balanced with the needs of communities and the environment.
"Embracing what Schumacher stood for--above all the idea of sensible scale--is the task for our time. Small is Beautiful could not be more relevant. It was first published in 1973, but it was written for our time." -- Bill McKibben, from the Foreword
Small Is Beautiful is Oxford-trained economist E. F. Schumacher's classic call for the end of excessive consumption. Schumacher inspired such movements as "Buy Locally" and "Fair Trade," while voicing strong opposition to "casino capitalism" and wasteful corporate behemoths. Named one of the Times Literary Supplement's 100 Most Influential Books Since World War II, Small Is Beautiful presents eminently logical arguments for building our economies around the needs of communities, not corporations.'- See more and purchase this book HERE
The Theory of Moral Sentiments
‘Smith’s Theory of Moral Sentiments laid the foundation on which The Wealth of Nations was later to be built and proposed the theory which would be repeated in the later work: that self-seeking men are often “led by an invisible hand… without knowing it, without intending it, to advance the interests of the society.” “The fruit of his Glasgow years… The Theory of Moral Sentiments would be enough to assure the author a respected place among Scottish moral philosophers, and Smith himself ranked it above the Wealth of Nations…. Its central idea is the concept, closely related to conscience, of the impartial spectator who helps man to distinguish right from wrong. For the same purpose, Immanuel Kant invented the categorical imperative and Sigmund Freud the superego” (Niehans, 62). With Moral Sentiments and Wealth of Nations Smith created “not merely a treatise on moral philosophy and a treatise on economics, but a complete moral and political philosophy, in which the two elements of history and theory were to be closely conjoined” (Palgrave III, 412-13). To Smith when man pursues “his own private interests, the original and selfish sentiments of Theory of Moral Sentiments, he will, in the economic realm, choose those endeavors which will best serve society. Herein lies the connection between the two great works which make them the work of a single and largely consistent theorist” (Paul, “Adam Smith,” 293).
In his Theory of Moral Sentiments, Smith develops an ethics based on a “unifying principle—in this case, of sympathy—which would shed light on the harmonious and beneficial order of the moral world...'- Continue to read
Education, Economy & Society
‘Education, Economy and Society is a compelling and comprehensive antidote to the misconstrued nature of the relationship between education and society. It provides a constructive critique of conventional discourses but also alternative approaches to understand the connections between education and the triple scourge of unemployment, inequality and poverty.
Against a tendency to reduce the skills discourse to narrow economic ends, the contributors passionately argue that education finds its value and purpose in a focus on social justice, transformation and democratic citizenship. The joy of education is to capture human imaginations and unleash their creativity towards a more humane and compassionate society.
Here is a rich resource for educators, policy developers, trade unionists, and trainers to explore possibilities for a new pedagogy in post-school education and training through empirical research on skills, technology and issues of employment on the shop floor, critical analysis of the youth wage subsidy and workers’ education. The book will appeal to a wide audience including students and academics in the fields of industrial sociology; economics; adult education; further education and training; and those in youth development.'- See more and purchase this book HERE
'In 1998, Jacob Lief, a 21-year-old American university student, met school teacher Malizole "Banks" Gwaxula in a township tavern in Port Elizabeth, South Africa. After bonding over beers and a shared passion for education, Gwaxula invited Lief to live with him in the township. Inspired by their fortuitous meeting-which brought together two men separated by race, nationality, and age-and by the spirit of ubuntu, roughly translated as "I am because you are"-the two men embarked on an unexpectedly profound journey. Their vision? To provide vulnerable children in the townships with what every child deserves-everything. Today, their organization, Ubuntu Education Fund, is upending conventional wisdom about how to break the cycle of poverty. Shunning traditional development models, Ubuntu has redefined the concept of scale, focusing on how deeply it can impact each child's life rather than how many it can reach. Ubuntu provides everything a child needs and deserves, from prenatal care for pregnant mothers to support through university-essentially, from cradle to career. Their child-centered approach reminds us that one's birthplace should not determine one's future. I Am Because You Are sets forth an unflinching portrayal of the unique rewards and challenges of the nonprofit world while offering a bold vision for a new model of development.'- See more and purchase this book HERE
The Economics of Kindness: Moving from a Selfish Economy to a Cooperative Economy
‘Our world needs more kindness. People need more kindness. Nature needs more kindness. But we need it deep within our economies, where so many of our troubles begin.
We have been told a thousand times that the capitalist free-market economy is the best and indeed the only kind of economy that works, but for so many people, it’s no longer working. Surely, there must be a better way. Our economies have been built on the primacy of selfishness and greed. What is the alternative? The economics of kindness – and it’s not just an idea. It’s a very real thing. Before we begin, however, we must answer the question that’s being asked by so many people around the world: “Why is our world in such a mess?”-See more and purchase this book HERE
The Closing of the American Mind: How Higher Education has Failed Democracy and Impoverished the Soul’s of Today’s Students
'In 1987, eminent political philosopher Allan Bloom published The Closing of the American Mind, an appraisal of contemporary America that hits with the approximate force and effect of electroshock therapy (The New York Times) and has not only been vindicated, but has also become more urgent today. In clear, spirited prose, Bloom argues that the social and political crises of contemporary America are part of a larger intellectual crisis: the result of a dangerous narrowing of curiosity and exploration by the university elites.
Now, in this twenty-fifth anniversary edition, acclaimed author and journalist Andrew Ferguson contributes a new essay that describes why Blooms argument caused such a furor at publication and why our culture so deeply resists its truths today.'- See more and purchase this book HERE