Government Enables Prosperity?
Orientation
Governments intervene to affect, directly or indirectly, what people and businesses choose to do as they work and create wealth. Politicians continually refer to the economy and people credit or blame the government for the state of it. But there is no «economy», there are only people pursuing wealth-creation (economic) activities, or not.
Governments have, or think they have, a responsibility to sustain or enable prosperity i.e. the generation of wealth. So the approaches can generate a Framework relevant to their proposals and interventions. Anyone can use this impartial Framework to judge for themselves. See the findings now.
«There is no such thing as an economy.» Why?
Order of Topics
This provides rather simple formulations aiming to clarify: wealth, money, prices, lending and competition. (Political issues are examined elsewhere.)
In using the approaches to , the frame of reference changes from «a person-interacting-with-others in society for their own benefit» to «a government-interacting-with-its-society to benefit economic activities».
The explain how governments alter the social environment within which wealth-creating activities are pursued. THEE principles are meta-economic rather than strictly or directly economic.
Government depends on commerce for prosperity and for its own funds. So it should value commerce highly. At the same time, interventions are required to handle inequalities and environmental damage which unregulated business generates.
The Framework is a hierarchical structure with a THEE-Tree specifying interrelated meta-economic responsibilities and influences. A full examination of itself is posted elsewhere
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Two Ticklish Issues
Do Governments Listen or Learn?
Key notions, well-recognized in public debate about the government and its handling of the economy, can certainly be seen to link with the seven fundamental approaches to . The value of this application is twofold:
- A common-sense framework modelling how governments function so as to enable (or disable) widespread prosperity.
- The possibility to appreciate and debate choices made by governments in a new way.
Unlike executives and management consultants, politicians and top officials are unlikely to take note, given the current state of politics. Politics is a separate THEE-Topic, recently investigated and now posted.
Because, in the final analysis, the people are responsible for their politicians, it remains important that you and I and everyone else should broadly understand how government could and should operate to enable a prosperous society.
Do Economists Listen or Learn?
Most economists are proud members of their discipline, i.e. they are cause-centred, which has certain implications:
- Economists are devout adherents and inevitably tend to look down on or ignore the contributions of other disciplines, and are generally dismissive of common sense.
- Some economists may develop a broader view and become —at which point their colleagues will lament their loss to the discipline, and the diminution in quality of their contributions.
- Economists are socialized to view all intervention from a rational perspective—and are therefore poor investment advisors or predictors of economic developments. People are not rational actors in the economic sense, and economies are powerfully driven by socio-emotional factors.
From a power-centred perspective, which is often the secondary mentality for people, academics are dependent on tenure or grants from government bodies. They become inextricably caught up in competitive scrambles for prestige, power and grant money. This leads to a largely unconscious tendency to distort realities or give in to political pressures, however impartial their presentations to colleagues may seem.
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Start with the background ideas. Or go straight to adjusting for the new frame of reference.
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If you wish, see the end result now.
TOP Note: This Framework-application is in a provisional state. Please provide examples, correct mistakes or inaccuracies, and help develop it further or apply it.
All posted material is part of a scientific project and should be regarded as provisional. Visitors are encouraged to think through the topics and propositions for themselves. Copyright © Warren Kinston 2009-2016.
All Rights Reserved.
