It is an odd thing that I have chosen economics as one of my passions in adult life. As a kid, I was horrible at mathematics. The majority of my childhood tears were shed over math problems that I just could not understand. Even in college, I had to take algebra twice in order to get a passing grade, and I think that the C- I was given my second time around was a gift from a teacher who liked me and wanted to end my suffering.
However, there was another class in college I took called Finite Mathematics. It focused more on logic-based problems than numbers, and I easily got an A. My interest in economics at this point isn’t so much concerned with the limitations of mathematics, but more the logical development of economic streams that will more greatly allow us to send energy to where we want to see growth, and cease spending on things that do not work in our best interest.
Ultimately, I wish to see an actual working economic democracy. We have hints of it in our current system, but because it is largely steeped in republican exclusionism, the direction of our economic energy is decided upon by very small and financially wealthy percentage of the population while a good majority of the population goes with unmet needs. Although there are many who fear the concept of democracy as mob rule, we have never before had the technology to actually create a true democracy, and since I have heard so much about it while growing up in this republic and seeing examples of democratic activity every two years or so, I, for one, am curious as to whether a true democracy guided by the will of the entirety of the populace could work more efficiently and effectively than the continued reliance upon a small, financially-obsessed group.
During my lifetime, the decisions of how the money taken from citizens is spent by the government have been made by a very small portion of the population. And although they are theoretically selected to perform this task of properly allocating funds in order to achieve greater societal stability, I can’t recall a single time when they have ever actually earned their keep and balanced the budget. It may very well be that I was no good at mathematics as a kid, and I often rely on calculators to this day, but I think that we will ultimately fare much better by including a greater portion of the population in the decision-making process of how we develop this country we all share than relying on so-called professionals who have never fulfilled their professional duties.
Given our current technological capabilities, citizens can be empowered to select what is most important to them and what services they need from the government. It’s going to take quite a bit of development, and the concept allows for agility and adaptation throughout the evolution of the program. But considering the exponential development of artificial intelligence, renewable energy, and communicative capabilities, I believe that we can have a smooth transition toward an actual democratic economic system as we phase out the republican economic system we have been using for almost two and a half centuries.
Ultimately, I think our economy needs an upgrade. I think that we have the capacity to create something much more powerful than that which we have clung to for so long. That’s why I’ve felt so driven to develop the idea of ABC2 Economics as a means for people to be the Artists of their lives by empowering their Business, encouraging good Citizenry, and supporting their Community.
Fortunately, it’s not about mathematics. It’s about logic. It’s about common sense. It’s about wisdom and the revolution it can help us incite.
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