What is economics and its role in civilization?

Answer 1

Just because one thinks that more economic growth is good does not imply that it is theonlygood. The charge that socialism retards economic growth pales in comparison with the mass murders and abridgments of freedom imposed by all too many socialist regimes. Nevertheless, economic growth remains undervalued, especially for the non-economic goods that it makes possible.

As mentioned earlier, there has always been a strain within socialism that rebels against the very idea of economic growth. To take just one example, socialist philosopher Herbert Marcuse calls for a revolution to implement "a total technical reorganization of the concrete world of human life" :

When I say technical reorganization I again speak with reference to the capitalist countries which are most highly developed, where such a restructuring would mean the abolition of the terrors of capitalist industrialization and commercialization, the total reconstruction of the cities and the restoration of nature after the horrors of capitalist industrialization have been done away with.

Realize that Marcuse is writing in the late 1960's, not the 1860's, and he is talking about the advanced Western nations, not the Third World. And he looks at the malls and stores and businesses, like many socialists in the Utopian tradition have done, and sees "terrors" and "horrors"!

The best that can be said here is that this view is profoundly detached from common sense. Designer jeans and coffee makers may not be the most important things in the world, but they do make many people happy. And the wonder of it all is that however many products strike one particular person as junk, there are almost always other fruits of the capitalist system that they do enjoy. For the remaining minority of strict ascetics, there is the simple option ofnot buyingwhat they don't want.

But there is a more fundamental critique of the Utopian position: In reality, the route towards the truly human society that they dream of can be made possible only by the ceaseless economic progress that they deplore. In a pre-industrial society, the most that people can hope for is to toil to eke out enough to support themselves for another day. Every human being is tied helplessly to his minimum physical needs. The desperate struggle for survival occupies so much time and thought that even the cost of sketching a distinct personality is prohibitive. Forget about developing one's mind, or finding true love.Thisis the state that should inspire "terror" and "Horror," not modern capitalist society.

The crucial point is that though the highest values are non-material, they still cost something: our time. A person can't slave sixteen hours a day in the field and then come home to read philosophy, contemplate great art -- or seek out a soulmate. The greatest blessing of economic growth is precisely that it makes it possible to take care of people's merely physical needs with less and less effort, thereby giving us thetimewe need to strive after something higher. The greatest product of the capitalist system is not any good or service, but the gradual extension of civilization to the whole human race. What I mean here is not "civilization" in the sense of any particular culture, but rather the liberation of people from their brute physical needs, giving them the opportunity to develop their individuality, their minds, and the quality of their lives.

In this sense, economic growth spreads civilization along many dimensions. When the human lifespan was a mere 35 years, everyone had to spend over half of their lives just getting acquainted with themselves. Would it really be possible to fully develop one's individuality knowing that (by the time the issue occurred at all) there were only fifteen more years to live? But the benefit is even greater. A longer lifespan means not just more time for oneself; as social animals, we also enjoy the blessing of seeing spouses, friends, and children live out their extended lives alongside us.

Perhaps the oddest feature of the Utopian socialist critique is its attack upon the "alienated" labor of modern capitalist nations, to which they contrast the fulfilling activities their new society will give us. Odd, because it is precisely the constantly expanding capitalist economy which has liberated mankind from physical toil and created a vast menu of interesting and fulfilling kinds of work. This historical anomaly is made possible by economic growth, but again it is not essentially an economic achievement. It is yet another way in which human beings can fulfill their creative identities and explore their full potential.