I’m for stimulating the Economy

We must stimulate the economy.  Everyone’s saying so.  From Barack Obama to Angela Merkel, from Julia Gillard to Mario Draghi.

So I may as well add my voice.

Amongst all the rhetoric of politicians, business owners and financiers I hear others saying that these people “don’t know what they’re talking about”.  Now, I don’t want to be accused of that so I thought that before I talk about economy I’d better find out what economy is.

So I checked.

The online etymological dictionary tells me that economy came from the Greeks (οἰκονόμος) and is the “management of the household”.  Ah ha, I thought - I can devise a list of what may constitute the management of a household.  This is what I came up with:

• providing shelter and safety,
• maintaining health and well-being,
• ensuring sanitation and cleanliness,
• raising children and providing them with education and encouraging them to realise their potential,
• providing nutritious meals,
• tending the garden and surrounding land,
• making sure that communication is honest and transparent,
• keeping the peace,
• remembering to celebrate.

Source: koukiks damz, Creative Commons

When the Greeks coined the term οἰκονόμος a couple of millennia ago a household was probably not very large.  Since those times we have come to travel further and quicker.  Our communication has expanded enormously from talking in the streets and councils of Athens to being able to Skype from one side of the planet to the other instantaneously.  Today, then, it could be argued that our household is the whole planet and the people upon it.  With that idea in mind how do we manage this household, how do we stimulate this economy?

The list above gives some clues.  Thus, here is my programme for stimulating the economy:

• eliminate homelessness and provide adequate shelter for refugees,
• ensure access to clean water and sanitation for everyone,
• provide health care for all,
• give children everywhere access to free education,
• make sure that pollution is minimised and in most cases eliminated,
• distribute food so that no-one need go hungry,
• find ways to resolve conflict without recourse to violence and war,
• recognise our cultural differences and welcome diversity,
• open up channels of communication and allow for transparency in public decision-making,
• clean up our wasteful and dirty industries,
• celebrate life with festivals, carnivals, concerts and gatherings.

Quite a simple programme isn’t it?  You could almost call it economic in it’s simplicity.