The Economic Question — Part 1

1. The Origin and Role of Economics

When examining complex systems, the best approach is to break that system down into as many chunks which can best be described as simply as they can. There is probably no system more complex than the science of economics. In all my philosophical refutations and analyses regarding the faults of our society's stagnation (read: regression), there is no other concept I come back to more than economics. In order to facilitate a logical analysis and later theoretical discussion on the subject, I will first break down the origin and role of economics—in true Paine-ian style.

Every species that can be found on the planet, fits into very specific roles that serve to fuel the greater organism that is our ecosystem; mankind is no different. You are either a producer or consumer—the organism eating or the organism being eaten. Arguably, this is the most basic and instinctual of human, viz. animal behaviors. Philosophers and thinkers over the centuries have argued that we have evolved beyond the status of our genetic animal cousins, however I personally am not so wont to make such egocentric leaps. In every sense, we are still animals, even if we find ourselves removed, by order of magnitude, from nature.

I propose that "civilized society" is the only concept separating us significantly from our animal cousins, as a concept: our struggle to further move beyond such baser impulses rather than subject ourselves willingly to them. That is to say, can we provide for ourselves in ways that do not require the dedication of time and energy as they may have our Paleolithic ancestors? This struggle, and in many cases successes, over the centuries, has led to such developments, innovations and evolutions that help to more easily free the human body and mind from those base impulses. As we spend less time foraging and hunting for food, we can expend our energies towards such endeavors as art, philosophy and mathematics, creating technology or weaving tales of fiction. These are constructs which can only serve to further the intellectual evolution of a species; these are luxuries not afforded to creatures that must devote their lives to producing and consuming.

That is how our kind came upon the concept of economics: the production, distribution, and consumption of goods and services. In order to move beyond serving individual instincts, over time we developed a system where one or "a few" could produce such goods which would be distributed and consumed by "the many". In pulling resources—especially those which may be limited—a group can work to provide for each other more than they could ever hope to do so for themselves, individually. I argue that this social development is the root source behind the greater evolution of society. On that subject, Thomas Paine once wrote:

"[T]he strength of one man is so unequal to his wants, and his mind so unfitted for perpetual solitude, that he is soon obliged to seek assistance and relief of another, who in his turn requires the same.
"Four or five united would be able to raise a tolerable dwelling . . . but one man might labour out of the common period of life without accomplishing any thing; . . . [his impulses] in the mean time would urge him from his work, . . . [Disease or misfortune] would disable him from living, and reduce him to a state in which he might rather be said to perish than to die."

Just as hunting and gathering was necessary for life, society called for a new system, the economic system, in which amassed produce would be consumed by the people. As a society, individuals no longer need to hunt all day/every day in order to consume; now a collective of hunters can rotate the placement of responsibility. A society, however, must now address the question of who gets what; where one lone hunter responsible for him or herself can claim full ownership of their bounty, a system with every one hunter responsible to five others calls for a means of distributing that bounty—whether it be one dead animal or two. Therein lies the origin of economics.