Humanity is in the process of slowly destroying itself and the very planet that it depends upon for its survival. The primary reason for this situation, I believe has to do with how we see ourselves and the world around us. We see ourselves and our environment as insufficient or as lacking, which leads us to see ourselves and our environment as incomplete. Economics supports this perspective with its fixation on scarcity, which imbues all facets of economic theory and the economy, including money, with fear. Our survival and evolution depends on us shifting our focus away from the scarcity or insufficiency perspective to a new perspective, a sufficiency perspective, which has us seeing ourselves as sufficient and and the world as abundant. Economics can support this shift by recognizing sufficiency as a key indicator and goal of human well-being, measuring it as best it can, and exploring ways to foster it and integrate it into public policy.  Fostering a sense of human sufficiency will build not only a less fearful society which is more creative and happy but also a more productive, innovative, generous and environmentally sustainable society.

Self-destruction

Human society is at a point in its history where it is facing serious calamity. The planet is populated with 6.7 billion people and is expected to accommodate another 2.3 billion by 2050. Water, air and soil resources are seriously degraded around the world and expected to get worse, species are dying off at an increasing rate, poverty and disease are widespread in much of the planet, while a lucky few have unparalleled wealth and health. At the same time, we continue to develop ever more powerful weapons to annihilate ourselves and disperse them around the planet. Moreover, the climate is changing due in part to human pollution and becoming more unpredictable and lethal, exacerbating an already vulnerable situation in many regions of the world. Despite these conditions many economists, politicians and business leaders tell us that if we just make more money, consume more, apply better technology, increase our productivity, invest more or tinker slightly with the markets or interest rates, the world will be a better place. But we know this isn’t true. We know that our current system is broken and is leading us into oblivion and that significant change is necessary. We know the roller coaster we are riding on is going to crash if we don’t slow it down and change its path but we’re not quite sure how to do this. We are all so busy working and paying the bills that we don’t have time or energy to think, let alone make major changes in our lives.

However preoccupied or scared we are to change we must do it and we must do it soon, otherwise change will be forced on us through crisis. The question is where to begin?  And the answer, in my opinion, lies in the fundamental question: “how do we see ourselves and the world?”

An Insufficiency Perspective

At present most of us see ourselves as largely insufficient; meaning we perceive ourselves as incomplete or lacking something. We long for something to complete us but haven’t quite found the fix. Most of us immerse ourselves in material consumption to fill the perceived void but beyond basic levels of consumption, materialism does not leave us feeling better or wreaks havoc on the environment.  If anything it leaves us feeling depressed, frustrated and fearful, because we are told by all of the advertising around us that it should.  Consumption alone doesn’t feed the mental, emotional or spiritual aspects of human nature.  Indeed, it is this pervasive sense of insufficiency or fear of scarcity that drives much of the widespread human greed, anger, fear, corruption, violence and environmental degradation that we see today, which in turn fosters even more insufficiency.

Economics of Insufficiency

Nowhere is our current world view of insufficiency more supported than in the field of economics and the modern market economy. We are told that the world is full of unlimited wants but limited (scarce) resources and therefore we must allocate these resources efficiently, to their highest and best use. To do so we employ money as a means of measuring the highest and best use value of things. If something is traded in the market place we assign a monetary value to it and it is deemed to have economic value. If it is not traded in the marketplace, it is not deemed to have any economic value and by extension little importance.

This perspective would be fine  except for the fact that money, or the economic value it represents, has become the arbiter of all value in society today, which necessarily excludes many other human values like a happy family life, a sense of community, leisure time, environmental health, emotional or mental health or spiritual well-being.  These benefits have no economic value at all but are very important to human society.

Moreover, the economic value that money represents is largely built on the fear of lack or the fear of scarcity, which simply reinforces our insufficiency perspective. Something is said to be “of value” primarily based on its scarcity not on its use value or the cost of its inputs. The more scarce something is, the more valuable it is. The irony is that we are said to be wealthy, the more money we have, yet the money by which wealth is represented in society is really based on scarcity.

We know that money or the stuff it buys can fulfill some of our basic physical needs but it doesn’t make us feel sufficient.  Indeed, after our basic comforts and freedoms are met, the accumulation of money or stuff has marginal benefit.  Our well-being is rooted in our sense of sufficiency, our sense that we alright, that we are have the capacity inside us to cope with whatever challenges come our way. If this perspective is at the root of our happiness, then its development should be a primary goal of society and, for that matter, economics.