NEEDED: AN ECONOMICS VISION ROOTED IN HUMAN RIGHTS

We often treat and view “the economy” as a force that operates under its own laws and as a “mechanism” to which all of creation must pay obeisance. Failure to pay the economy its “proper respect”—by interfering with its “laws of operation,” for instance— inevitably eventuates in such punishments as unemployment and inflation. The “sins” that brought about such punishments must identified and, once that’s done, the only way we can get back into right relationship with “the economy” is by paying for our infractions. We have to offer up “sacrifices.” As in tightening “our” collective belt by reducing, if not eliminating, the federal deficit. As in further whittling down the size of government and ensuring that it—government— keeps it mitts off “the market.” As in “incentivizing” people to accept whatever jobs may be available, no matter how miserable the pay. As in making deep cuts in social insurance programs and refusing to “subsidize” lifestyle choices of the lazy. As in bowing down before the altar of austerity.

“The economy” has a status that’s damn near divine, and its tight grip on the public imagination severely constrains our ability to envision—and take seriously— an alternative to that which already exist. Our national genuflecting before “the economy” has so twisted our tongues that many of us can only speak of matters economic using a language that prioritizes such values as choice, competition, and efficiency to the complete exclusion of such values as dignity, solidarity, justice, and protection of the planet.

More generally, there’s a widespread inclination to see the economy as an end, not as a means. It’s not surprising, then, that we often fail to ask—and seriously engage— such important questions as, “What’s the purpose of the economy?” and “Who or what does the ‘the economy’ serve?” As one recent report notes: “The economy is so taken for granted as an invisible force that shapes our lives that we don’t often stop to ask this basic question.”

Yet, it is as important as ever to critically interrogate the tendency to treat “the economy” as an all-powerful “invisible force” to whose powers we must submit. It is as important to raise —and seek to answer— questions regarding the purpose or telos the economy.

It’s important because, among other things, recent events— the financial collapse of 2008 and the COVID-19 related recession that jumped off in 2020— reveal that millions remain particularly vulnerable to economic downturns, with certain communities being hit especially hard.

It’s important because, among other things, the long-term rise in wealth and income inequality has been nothing short of staggering. For instance, the Federal Reserve of St. Louis recently used the Gini Ratio— a commonly used metric employed by social scientists — to track long-run changes in inequality of wealth and income. The Gini Ratio ranges between zero and 1, with values closer to unity indicating greater inequality in the distribution of wealth or income. The Fed finds that between 1967 and 2022, the income Gini Ratio climbed from 0.397 to 0.488. And study after study demonstrates that wealth is much more unequally distributed than income.

It’s important because, among other things, tens of millions are consistently below the official poverty line. According to the Census Bureau, for instance, almost 40 million persons (37.9 mil) are below the official poverty line. In fact, even when the economy is booming, tens of millions are struggling to eke out a living beneath the poverty line: Since 1969, for example, the number of people in poverty has never dropped beneath 22 million persons

It’s important because, among other things, racial, gender, and class-based gaps in such metrics as unemployment, poverty, income, wealth, incarceration, and health, remains large and an ever present feature of the socio-political landscape.

.In short, “the economy”— even when it’s booming— leaves millions struggling to keep their heads above water, with certain groups being particularly vulnerable to falling into pits of economic misery.

ECONOMIC VISION GROUNDED IN THE SECURING OF HUMAN RIGHTS

The continued presence of millions mired in the economic quicksand of joblessness, poverty, and inadequate wages is prima facie evidence that that thing that we call “the economy” is not enabling any meaningful sense of human flourishing. Persons and communities can’t flourish when large numbers of them are struggling to put food on the table, coming up with the rent, lacking comprehensive health care, living in poverty and unable to secure a job that doesn’t leave them with more month than money.

This is a moral outrage—especially in rich countries like the United States— and it’s all to the good that a number of economists and social justice advocates are calling for what is variously being dubbed as human rights economics (HRE) or a Rights-Based Economy (RBE) draws upon the notion that there are certain rights—economic, as well as civil and political— that are central to persons being able to live dignified lives. In order to flourish, people must be able to claim these rights and the government is under a moral obligation to promote and protect said rights.

HRE or RBE draws upon the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR), along with the treaties, declarations, and reports that followed it. Article 25.1 of the UDHR states:

"Everyone has the right to a standard of living adequate for the health and well-being of himself and of his family, including food, clothing, housing and medical care and necessary social services, and the right to security in the event of unemployment, sickness, disability, widowhood, old age or other lack of livelihood in circumstances beyond his control."

Almost two decades later, the International Covenant on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights (ICESCR) re-affirmed and elaborated upon the importance of economic rights to promoting and protecting human dignity. Article 11 of the Covenant states:

"The States Parties to the present Covenant recognize the right of everyone to an adequate standard of living for himself and his family, including adequate food, clothing and housing, and to the continuous improvement of living conditions."

Long and short of it, HRE or RBE has an explicit telos or goal: It envisions and shoots for a future where all are able to thrive— a future where all are able to access the rights central to sustaining persons living dignified lives that respect the planet and seek to preserve its beauty for all those yet to come.

Materially, this means an economy that, among other things, seeks to eradicate the fear of falling into a pit of economic misery. It means that we take seriously the notion that the economy is meant to serve the well-being of people and the planet, not the other way around. It means being dead serious that “the economy” is not some divine entity to whose rhythm to which we must. As Caroline Dommen so aptly puts it:

"The way that the economy is commonly portrayed perpetuates the impression that it is separate from other activities and systems that are equally essential to people’s lives. It conceals the fact that caring for children, neighbours or the elderly, providing health services or nurturing the natural environment which sustains lives are also part of the economy. Human Rights Economics would join others in emphasising that the economy is a social construct, a highly complex, multi-level system that must be studied as such, and a means to an end, a tool for a better life, rather than an end in itself. Borrowing from David Korten’s expression of the false dichotomy, it would position the “economy is sacred” story in contrast to the “life is sacred”story to demonstrate how necessary it is to change the narrative."

CHANGING THE DISCOURSE AND MEASURING WHAT MATTERS

Human rights economics, in short, encourages us to rethink how we “do economics,” the purpose of the economy, who the economy serves and, most importantly, the likely impact that proposed economic policies will impose upon people and the planetary ecosystem within which we live.

Most importantly, HRE ought to remind us of something that’s far too easy to forget: “The economy” is meant to serve us, not the other way around. We ought not be about the business of merely trying to discern where the economic winds are blowing and then trying to mold ourselves to fit in.

No, if HRE does anything, it ought to bring to the fore the fact that, as moral agents deserving of a life of dignity, we can struggle to create an economy that seeks to wipe out unnecessary suffering, respects the sacredness of the planet, and ensures that all are guaranteed a standard of living that permits human flourishing.

There’s nothing divine or inevitable about the economy. If it’s a social construct—and it is— then it can be deconstructed and, upon its ashes, birth to something new can take place.

We can create an economy that serves people and the planet, not the other way around. They’ll push back, of course. Powerful forces and people are more than satisfied with not having to seriously take people and the planet into account when proposing economic policies. Powerful forces and people are more than willing to envision and tolerate an economy where, even in good times, millions of people lack such goods as jobs, livable wages, and health care. Powerful forces and people, in fact, are openly hostile to the very notion of economic rights and, quite frankly, are willing to use their resources and influence to perpetuate the status quo. They’re more than willing to fight to preserve that which exist.

And if that’s the case, well…that’s a fight worth having.