FOUNDATIONS OF ECONOMIES
Before we continue, let’s confirm whether we share similar initial assumptions. If we don’t, the next steps leading to end conclusions may differ based on differing starting assumptions.
Here’s a list of starting assumptions:
The basis of economies are exchanges of value; for example I give you $1 for a good or service.
Exchanges of value are “valuable” in a societal sense because people can specialize and benefit from comparative advantages in producing more goods for less money, energy, attention, or time (”productivity”).
Exchanges of value (either money for labor or goods/services) are taxed by governments for treasury revenue in exchange for providing the service of governance and running the socioeconomic operating system.
Without exchanges of value, a single person would need to acquire clean water, grow their own food, create their own shelter, and so forth; with exchanges of value, they just hand over money, a “signifier of value,” that can be exchanged for other goods and services in the future.
Economies that have little to no exchanges of value function less well than economies with more exchanges of value.
Education is a predecessor to well-functioning economies by teaching an economic participant necessary skills and know-how to compete for goods and services, generally receiving money if they provide the “best for the least cost” (”free market competition for production of valued goods”).
If an individual societal member cannot earn more than they spend, amongst other uncontrollable causes, they may not have learned skills that are desired by the market as demonstrated by sustained exchanges of money (for their offered good) so that the member may subsist and “earn a living” (”market darwinianism” or “natural selection by capital survival”).
Today fiat governments are the only entities in the world, that do not have to follow the rule of nature to “earn more than you spend” to survive.
An efficient and equitable socioeconomic operating system, balanced as well as possible, creates an uncapped ceiling for measurable meritocratic achievement and a soft floor for society.
Though the last assumption begins to tread into politics juxtaposing the left and the right, if there were the possibility of a bipartisan best of all worlds, an uncompromising middle way, wouldn’t we want that?