Inverting the Economic Order

[marmar]

from The Progressive:


Inverting the Economic Order
Wendell Berry in the September 2009 issue


My economic point of view is from ground level. It is a point of view sometimes described as “agrarian.” That means that in ordering the economy of a household or community or nation, I would put nature first, the economies of land use second, the manufacturing economy third, and the consumer economy fourth.

A properly ordered economy, putting nature first and consumption last, would start with the subsistence or household economy and proceed from that to the economy of markets. It would be the means by which people provide to themselves and to others the things necessary to support life: goods coming from nature and human work. It would distinguish between needs and mere wants, and it would grant a firm precedence to needs.

A proper economy, moreover, would designate certain things as priceless. This would not be, as now, the “pricelessness” of things that are extremely rare or expensive, but would refer to things of absolute value, beyond and above any price that could be set upon them by any market. The things of absolute value would be fertile land, clean water and air, ecological health, and the capacity of nature to renew itself in the economic landscapes. The cultural precedent for this assignment of absolute value that is nearest to us probably is biblical, as in Psalm 24 (“The Earth is the Lord’s, and the fullness thereof . . .”) and Leviticus 25:23 (“The land shall not be sold forever . . .”). But there are precedents in all societies and traditions that have understood the land or the world as sacred—or, speaking practically, as possessing a suprahuman value. The rule of pricelessness clearly imposes certain limits upon the idea of landownership. Owners would enjoy certain customary privileges, necessarily, as the land would be entrusted to their intelligence and responsibility. But they would be expected to use the land as its servants and on behalf of all the living.

The present and now-failing economy is just about exactly opposite to the economy I have just described. Over a long time, and by means of a set of handy prevarications, our economy has become an anti-economy, a financial system without a sound economic basis and without economic virtues. .............(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.progressive.org/mag/berry0909.html

[Braulio]

1. Priceless?

Nothing is priceless. The term itself is irrational. The complete piece falls apart if it fails to take into account simple market principles.

[mbperrin]

2. Nothing is priceless? Okay, you are in a spacecraft with other people, all

of you in suits with a 30 minute air supply each. The craft has just leaked all its own air into space and no more is to be had except for the bottle you have in your possession with a 6 hour supply of air for one person. Rescue craft will reach you no sooner than four hours.

What's the market price for your bottle of air? How much are you willing to sell it for?

Think carefully, but please respond.

[Demeter]

3. "The cynic knows the price of everything and the value of nothing."

-- Oscar Wilde

[Zoeisright]

6. Life is priceless.

And unregulated capitalism devalues life.

[Jim Sagle]

7. On the contrary, YOUR CRITIQUE falls apart because it didn't say anything.

[tama]

4. KR

[lostnfound]

5. Worth reading for the shift in perspective.

He makes some valid points.