Appearing in the Online magazine Resilience, (link here) former Greenpeace director Rex Weyler summarizes the brutal shortcomings of our present day economics.
The economic system creates the conditions which undermine peace.
Neo-classical economic theory works just fine but only if one ignores the human and ecological costs: poverty, squalor, homelessness, migrations, biodiversity loss, global heating, disappearing forests, toxic land and water, and rising, acidic oceans. Capitalism is designed to benefit those who have capital, the wealthy. For most of humanity, modern neo-classical economics erodes well being. For the ecosystem at large, neo-classical economics serves as a rationalisation for plunder.
Weyler cites economist Steve Keen:
“By ignoring biological and physical patterns of nature, …. economics has become “inconsistent, unscientific and empirically unsupported.” “Neoclassical economics is a degenerative research program, not generating new knowledge but growing a belt of protective auxiliary hypotheses to shield its core beliefs from critique.”
To invest in peace we need to invest in a new economic system and a new theory of economics.
Stephen Hinton Consulting 