Economics as if Values Really Mattered

  


 

A Progressive Living Essay

"It is a very powerful experience to realize that there are choices—and that we can make them. It means that things do not have to continue along their current path; they can and may, but they do not have to. And, really, the choice is ours. But to choose in accord with our values, we must have good information."

—Susan Meeker-Lowry
    Economics as if the Earth Really Mattered

"This is the partnership we have with life. All possibilities, all opportunity are contained within it. We can accept the gift of life and meaning—and the responsibility that comes with it—or we can deny its existence and ignore it. The choice is up to each of us, each moment of our lives."

—Susan Meeker-Lowry
    Economics as if the Earth Really Mattered

A
Progressive
Living
Essay

We've entitled this short essay "Economics as if Values Really Mattered" in remembrance of Susan Meeker-Lowry's landmark book "Economics as if the Earth Really Mattered" (1988). There Meeker tried to spell out a way to make one's economic decisions consistent with progressive values.

Because there is scarcely any serious problem the world faces today that can't be traced to the corporation, especially the multinational corporation, the path she blazed is more relevant today than ever, and the strategies she detailed remain among the most effective any individual interested in social reform can follow.

After little more than a decade, this approach is already making its bite felt to such a degree as to attract increasingly bitter, alarmist, and inaccurate conservative and corporate propaganda, including ample Internet disinformation—a sure sign of effectiveness. (Just to be sure this point is clear: we don't receive any form of compensation whatsoever from any enterprise mentioned here or elsewhere at this site, nor do we earn anything from this site itself—rather the reverse. If readers become aware of any sort of deception in connection with anything commended here we want to know about it.)

In EERM, Meeker-Lowry focused on the following strategies for bringing about social reforms through personal economic decisions:

  • Consumer boycotts
  • Socially responsible consuming (SRC)
  • Divestment
  • Shareholder initiatives
  • Socially responsible investing (SCI)
  • Community economics

In the Economics Field Guide (link below) we'll explain what each of these is, and what each entails, and provide resources for their implementation.

Meeker didn't speak to socially responsible employment, except to mention employee-owned business ventures, but we also address that topic briefly in the field guide, and also in our essay on the Progressive/Humanistic lifestyle.
 
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