The Metaphysics of Economics - I
The
incident of the changing tide of the ocean in the previous post is analogous to
our current economic situation. The tide
of our economy is changing and we are required to adapt to it. We must learn to form a
"partnership" with it.
Furthermore,
history has taught us that, in the case of economies, when the tide settles,
the "ocean never returns to its previous state. Humans started in a hunter-gatherer
economy. That was transformed into an
agricultural economy, which was then transformed into a merchant economy. Then came the industrial economy. Now we are in what we call the postindustrial
economy.
Each of these economic
transformations produced major ad long lasting social changes. Hunter gathers required tribes. Agriculture led to settled villages. Merchants required city-states; and
industrialization led to nations. Notice
that each transformation contained the seeds for the next, which, thus far,
have been irreversible. Each of these
transformations has also impacted on the life and role of individuals. This is one example of the principle of
connection in the lives of individual people.
What is our current
transformation? We have already named
it, the global economy. The great technological
advances in communication and transportation have changed the nature of the connection
among people. The craftsman does not
have to live in the same city. The
manufacturer no longer needs to be in the same country. The strength of distant connections has
increased. Now we must adapt to those
forces that impact on us. First, we must
recognize that we cannot "swim back to the same spot on the beach"
and succeed. We must accept that we will
end up in a new and different reality and prepare ourselves for it. We
must align our self (From
now on, I will use the word "self" instead of "inner world".)
with a new reality.
Let
us look at that new reality. After World
War II, the United States was the only significant industrial nation. There was huge demand for manufactured goods
and only the US had the capacity to respond.
With the help of the Marshall Plan, the US became the leading
manufacturer, and the richest nation, in the world. This also was the time when the power and
value of labor increased.
Over
time, the other nations began to catch up.
The major cost in manufacturing is labor. The advantage began to shift to those nations
that had manufacturing capacity and low labor costs. The balancing forces of supply and demand
kicked in. Over the past forty years,
the world has been remaking itself. A
current example is found in the following quote: "In just five years, China
has surpassed the United States as a trading partner for much of the world,
including U.S. allies such as South Korea and Australia, according to an
Associated Press analysis of trade data." (AP 12/2/2012).
In
this emerging world, the rich nations must learn to provide high value labor
that is not available elsewhere. An
example of this is the company that used to produce computer-based design and
support for special manufacturing equipment, and then manufactured the
equipment. After a while, they found
that their overseas customers were using their designs to build the equipment
cheaper than they could. The company
fell into serious trouble, and was planning to shut down. Then they came up with an adaptive
solution. They would shut down
manufacturing and sell their design and support services under an exclusive
proprietary contract to those overseas companies that manufactured their equipment. They thrived.
You
might ask, what happened to those who did the manufacturing? I am not sure. But, as someone who is experienced in the
application of Statistical Process Control, I do know that the people who do
the manufacturing are best equipped to recommend what is needed for performance
and process improvement. Some of them
could have been retrained, at little expense, and incorporated as advisors to the
design and support teams.
Thus, the metaphysical
principles of connection and balance apply to economic pragmatism. In Part II we will examine how these
principles may apply to the individual.
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