Beyond Economics

Kenneth Boulding wrote that economics like any science has a pure and empirical part. Economic models often throw light on the "...workings of the intolerable complex of social relationships...".

Max Weber wrote that the relationship between the protestant ethic and the spirit of capitalism was palpable.

Milton Friedman wrote that while the relationship between economic and political freedom is complex, it is real.

Galbraith broke the bonds between Adam Smith and economic theory, bonds which were strained by Keynesianism.

Now we are faced with a global economic crisis of unknown dimensions. yet we are still using analytical tools and databases more suited to the conditions of Adam Smith's time than our own.

When we begin to recognize that the same methods which physicists have developed to probe the mysterious activity in the nucleus of the atom are available to probe the mysteries of the global economy, we will be on the road to sustainability.

Then we will begin to incorporate population levels and demographics, resource levels and placements, quality as well as quantity of consumption, capital as well as income, and mind as well as body.

When an Obama official testifies that a $ trillion will matter in the long term health of the nation's economy, we will listen because it will be backed up with detail on the flow of funds through the global economy and impacts on employment, welfare, and output. It will be shown to be actuarially sound, probabilistically tested, temporally developed, and layperson coherent (transparent).

We can make the world better, safer, cleaner and happier.

Yes we can.

Lee