Two Economies
I.
A comprehensive economy is best defined by the Kingdom of God, especially for Westerners. The Kingdom of God:
- Includes everything
- Is orderly
- Humans can never understand it completely
Even though we cannot understand inherent orderliness, there are severe penalties if we presume to violate it.
We need to have a little economy, inside the Kingdom of God, where things are manageable by the use of wits.
Humans can never create value. We can add value to natural things, but we can’t create the natural things.
Berry uses the example of topsoil to reinforce his points.
II. The industrial economy views resources as a fund that can be depleted and then abandoned. We try to control. but if we do not limit causes, there can be no controlling of effects. By living in opposition to nature, we can cause natural effects which are calamities that would not have otherwise happened.
If the economic ideal is maximum profit with minimum responsibility, why are we surprised to find corporations in court for fraud? Why are we surprised to find that medicine has become an exploitive industry …? In the Great Economy (the Kingdom of God economy), the ideal changes to maximum of well being with the minimum of consumption.