An Economy where People Matter

by Letters Editor · Published July 30, 2015 · Updated July 23, 2015

From Antonio G Tonin, East London

Your editorial �An economic revolution?� (July 15) was very thought-provoking, and is asking for a radically serious and different form of economics from what prevails today.

“In blunt language Richard Layard says the human race has lost the plot” (CNS photo/Carlo Allegri, Reuters)

I think Pope Francis describes this very comprehensively and clearly in Laudato Si�, and he is echoing what the economist EF Schumacher said 50 years ago: that the study of economics should be as if people mattered.

At about the same time, the Club of Rome, under the leadership of its founder, Aurelio Peccei, was already promoting the thinking along similar lines of sharing the limited world resources more equitably across all nations.

This was again brought to the fore in 2007 by Richard Layard in his book on happiness, where he basically says people today are no happier now than they were 50 years ago, notwithstanding all the technological and scientific advances that have taken place.

In blunt language Layard says the human race has lost the plot. It has lost the reason for being on this earth, and it is time to look inward into one�s own soul to find the real reason. He suggests that the meditation practices of all the great religions of the world would be a good place to start.

One very salient point Layard also makes is that human beings are happiest when they are helping someone else.

He gives a constructive economic outline (edited here) of the way world economics could be managed in the most ethical and moral way:

We should monitor the development of happiness as closely as we monitor the development of income.
We should rethink our attitudes on many standard issues. On taxes, we should recognise the role they play in preserving the work-life balance. On performance-related pay, we should worry about its tendency to encourage the rat race. On mobility, we should consider its tendency to increase crime and weaken families and communities.
We should spend more time helping the poor, especially in the third world.
We should spend more on tackling mental illness. This is the greatest source of misery in the West. Psychiatry should be a top branch of medicine, not one of the least prestigious.
To improve family life, we should introduce more family-friendly practices at work: more flexible hours, more parental leave and easier access to childcare.
We should elevate the professions of teaching, nursing and policing, regarding them as the pillars of life support of the community and not just as an unfortunate necessary expense.
We should eliminate high unemployment.
To fight the constant escalation of wants, we should prohibit commercial advertising to children, as in Sweden. We should also cut tax allowances for pictorial advertising to adults by business.
Finally, and perhaps most importantly, we need better education, including moral education. We should teach the principles of morality as established truths essential for a meaningful life. We should teach the systematic practice of empathy, and the desire to serve others.

I hope this will initiate further discussion among all Catholics and others, for the purposes of adding increasing, influential weight to the message of Pope Francis.