[The Typing Baker] Our 'Connectivity' Overlooked by Mainstream Economics

ㅡThere is a Western proverb that says, "The devil eats the last place first." In the modern era, the deaths of the weak due to deadly famines and epidemics created an environment more favorable to the strong in terms of resource allocation and labor reproduction.

The logic that "starving to death is the fault of lazy and irresponsible individuals" was created, and religion justified this as divine providence. The perception of a "balanced stability of survival of the fittest" became a strong foundation of mainstream economics.

Mainstream economics prioritizes "economic freedom" above all else. All burdens (debts) are resolved as long as money is paid. It is merely a market exchange relationship, with no obligations or responsibilities toward others. At this point, power manages human "death" and neglects "useless" deaths. Everything is justified by monetary gain and economic exchange.

Won Yongchan, Emeritus Professor of Economics at Jeonbuk National University, in his new book Future Economics, points out the errors and limitations of mainstream economics, which has grown dominant over centuries, and shows the philosophical direction economics should take going forward. To this end, the book is accompanied by Karl Polanyi, who provided the theoretical background for social economy, and philosopher Spinoza, who emphasized the inevitable causal relationships among God, nature, and humans.

Karl Polanyi focused on humans as social beings rather than merely economic beings. Some may dismiss this connection by joking about "Nukalhyeop" (Who threatened with a knife?), but we can never be irresponsible for each other's actions. We live interdependently, imposing burdens on one another in some way. Even unintentionally, someone’s choices and actions affect other people and society. Consider famous sports brands filling their pockets through multinational exploitation, cheap coffee consumption that mixes Colombian soil with pesticides, or meat consumption that destroys the Amazon forest and accelerates the global climate crisis with greenhouse gases. Young workers at subcontractors still die frequently at industrial sites where accidents can happen anytime.

In such a real economy, "social freedom," driven by reciprocity, is more effective than economic freedom. Through practices aimed at reducing the sense of debt owed to society and others, we become truly freer.

Spinoza advocated pantheism, the idea that "God is nature." All beings in the world are causally connected to others. Here, God is not the traditional personal deity but closer to "the system of all things," like nature itself or the universe. Like the saying, "Even if the world ends tomorrow, I will plant an apple tree today," instead of being trapped by fear and despair in the face of apocalypse, one can find true "freedom" through selective action.

In the society Spinoza proposes, "free humans" live according to virtue and reason. No one can unilaterally dominate another. This community accepts external differences. It opens hearts even to people with different skin colors, values, and tastes.

Ultimately, the author emphasizes becoming beings who find a new meaningful order of the world beyond greed and money and obtain true joy.

"I have never made my own clothes, shoes, or desk. We study, wear, use, and move around with someone’s help. Of course, all of this can be bought with money. But let’s erase and separate money from our sight and look beyond the market. There are subcontractors’ irregular workers and foreign laborers, and animals being culled at coal power plants, subways, pig farms, and squid processing factories."

Future Economics | Written by Won Yongchan | Dangdae | 410 pages | 25,000 KRW