The Tragedy of Our Economic System

The Tragedy of Our Economic System
[Analysis] Humankind needs to change its unwise ways
Alfredo Ascanio (askain)
Published 2008-12-13 12:22 (KST)

Edited by Carlos Arturo Serrano

Economics is a social science studying the behavior of social groups to meet a variety of needs with limited means, according to Wesley Mitchell. The economy of a private business differs from that of a country. In this matter there are two different ideas. Employers have to fight to keep their business afloat. The economist wants the country to stay afloat.

Man does not study well what is too close. If, for example, John Smith already has his retirement insurance, then John would find any change that threatens the value of his annuity a socialist measure of confiscation, economically wrong, although the change may be socially desirable.

The search for culprits is one obstacle to understanding economic facts. Economy observes events as processes that affect each other, not isolated instances with specific causes. Most often an economic fact may have its roots in past decisions. In a world with millions of people living interconnected lives, disturbance at a site is sure to have an impact elsewhere, even though economic activities are divided among different sectors.

Our contemporary world is divided into three types of economic associations: capitalism, communism and a mixture of the two, as in British socialism. A truer ranking would be to classify countries as poor, intermediate and relatively developed. However, many economists do not measure wealth or poverty in terms of revenue only, because satisfaction is partly a subjective, individual matter.

Why are still there poor people in the world?

1. because man has harmed nature
2. because there are many corrupt and weak governments
3. because man spends only 15 percent of their hours of life in a lucrative activity
4. because man is subject to the hardships of the environment (earthquakes, erosion, bacteria)
5. because man can live with superstitions that make their work inefficient
6. because poverty prevents the growth of capital and a lack of capital leads to more poverty
7. because a good portion of people live in rural areas with inefficient technology or few suitable tools
8. because men still make violent decisions amid their conflicts of interest
9. because countries find it harder to raise the living standard of very large populations
10. because there is a vicious cycle of capitalism with its cycles of boom and recession
11. because in some countries men share what little they have with totemic gods and other sacred gods
12. because there is a lack of resources and the imprudent use of them.
13. because society has never produced enough for everyone, because we live in a world economically bizarre, poorly organized and inefficient.

In short: man always wants material wealth, but does little to achieve it and prefers to wage war and consume irresponsibly. Man abandons himself to the economic system without making the effort of managing it properly.

Alfredo Ascanio is a professor of economics at Simon Bolivar University in Caracas, Venezuela.