Imperatives of an Economic Focus

■ Wealth Creation

From the Market-centred viewpoint, the minimal focus is to generally value commerce and to desire that everyone should work. This entails affirming the importance of ●enterprise, ●the business sector, ●private sector employment, ●investment, ●trade. The maximal focus is to value entrepreneurs and encourage entrepreneurial activities of all sorts via ●capital markets, ●innovation, ●new technology, ●new markets.

■ Capitalism

From the Cause-centred viewpoint, governments must believe in commercial principles in a way that suits their society. The fundamental economic requirement is promotion of capitalism (more or less as conceived by Adam Smith) but adapted appropriately to the culture to ensure acceptability.

■ Evaluation

From the Perspective-centred viewpoint, governments must collect and release relevant society-wide information to permit independent analyses and evaluations of economic performance, and the social impacts of events and policies of all sorts.

■ Regulatory Enforcement

From the Power-centred viewpoint markets are a common social good and need protection. Governments alone have the coercive power to confront powerful people and businesses that can damage a market or defraud individuals using the market. So the requirement here is to compel i.e. it is simply not enough to make laws and introduce regulators, there must be fair, consistent, and effective enforcement.

■ Intervention

From the Community-centred viewpoint, governments must adhere to their primary duties and accept their limited powers in regard to maintaining standards of living. Insofar as the populace demands action, governments must strive to intervene in a way that causes the least harm and the most good to most people. The requirement here is strategic intervention. Note: no other mode intervenes—the other modes guide or shape or support intervention that occurs here.

■ Protectiveness

From the Kinship-centred viewpoint, governments recognize that their interests flow from society’s interests, and that every society (nation) looks to its own before it cares about others. The requirement here is to be attentive and demonstrate care for society as a whole, and for every single one of its members, especially their work opportunities and activities. (Deciding that protection is required is an L4-intervention issue.)

■ Realism

From the Reality-centred viewpoint, governments become aware of their inability to control individuals en masse or economic forces. If they are wise, they will become aware of the effects of past decisions, and the flow of local and global changes affecting economic well-being.The requirement here is recognizing and facing economic realities. This helps ensure that interventions can be indeed strategic and not knee-jerk.