We'll look at a hypothetical mini-economy to clarify how work, trade, and money make human society possible. T. By Alan
This is part 1 of a series of discussions about money and political economy. This first segment is called “Question Authority: Critical Thinking About What Political Economy Is.” It isn't an official Occupy Tacoma statement. It reflects my particular point of view. The majority of Occupy activists, unlike me, are not socialists. --AOS QUESTION AUTHORITY: CRITICAL THINKING ABOUT WHAT POLITICAL ECONOMY IS
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famous 19th-century Irish playwright, Oscar Wilde, once famously said: When I was young I thought that money was the most important thing in life; now that I am old I know that it is.
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ell then, just what is the most important thing in life? What are the most important things we need as human beings, the things we absolutely cannot live without? Aren't they food, water, air, and a safe and healthy shelter? So how do we humans, and how does human society itself, acquire these essentials? How do we earn our living? We dig raw materials out of the earth, and we grow raw materials on the earth. Then, we apply our brain and muscle to these raw materials to create our food, our shelter, everything that satisfies our survival needs, our very culture itself. Political economy studies that process. It studies how we organize our society to earn our living. It studies how we organize human labor, together with tool use, and how we distribute the resultant goods and services. Does the way we organize our economy help or endanger our survival as a species? Does it help maintain or endanger our environment? Does our economic culture poison our mother the earth? Does our economic system help us quench our thirst for justice, or rather does it, by its very nature, foster injustice? These, and other related concerns, are what political economy studies. In this series of discussions, we'll try to speak to this, and to do this, we'll need to explain a few very simple concepts.
By Alan OldStudent,
Page 1 of 3 pages
2013
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he most basic economic question that all political economy studies is how do we do the following 3 things: 1. Obtain necessary resources, such as land, water, food, energy, and other materials, 2. Process those resources into a usable form, into goods and services such as food, housing, clothes, that enables us to live. 3. Distribute those necessities of life to the people, the consumers, the members of the human community.
All economic systems must deal with this, and to the extent they do so effectively, they work. This is the main underlying thread of the study of political economy. One of the important questions that modern political economy considers is this: What is money? There are many ways political economists explain and analyze money. If you put 10 political economists in a room, you'll probably get 20 different theories. So how can we Occupy Activists glean the necessary and useful information from the study of political economy to reform society and to achieve economic justice from this variety of explanations?
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ifferent economic theories exist partly because different economists see things from different points of view, have different insights. Class or social standing may color or influence the economist's outlook. Political economy is not an unambiguous and exact science and is much more partisan and controversial than, say, algebra or calculus are. So consider what various political economists say critically and separate out that which seems valid to you from the invalid. Be skeptical of economic explanations too technical for you to follow. Unclear theories might quite accurate. But how can you know that if you can't follow along? Don't just assume you're not bright enough to understand. Maybe the analysis itself lacks focus. Or maybe the economic pundit is trying to dazzle you big words, impress you with her brilliance. Maybe, quite frankly, it's a snow job. Don't just accept some economic explanation unless it makes sense to you after you have understood it and considered it rationally. Engage in critical thinking. As we used to say in the 1960s, “Question Authority.”
By Alan OldStudent,
Page 2 of 3 pages
2013
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n view of the foregoing warnings, here's a bit of fair disclosure about me: I happen to have been a socialist for well over half a century, as the title of this series implies. I'm not a trained academic economist, but I've been thinking about and reading about political economy for a good many decades. So bear that in mind as you evaluate what I say. Ask yourself if my words make sense to you. If so, well and good. If not, please respond on the website. Maybe I can learn something interesting, valuable, and new from you. I'd really like that! After all, none of us are infallible, are we. God's not whispering economic revelations into anyone's ears, least of all mine. Political economy is not divinely revealed truth, it's not holy scripture, and none of us has the whole truth anyhow. Our duty as Occupy activists is to learn, to analyze, to think clearly, to speak understandably to each other, and to listen to each other as well as the rest of the 99%.
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o sum up what we covered in this first discussion of this series, we talked about what the study of political economy covers, as well as a bit about critical and independent thinking. In the next piece of this series, we'll explain why money is not wealth. We'll look at a hypothetical mini-economy to clarify how work, trade, and money make human society possible.
By Alan OldStudent,
Page 3 of 3 pages
2013
