A Full Spectrum Economics
Old economic theories give hardly any visibility or value to the life-sustaining acitivities of households and of nature--the activities without which there would be no economy, no workforce, in fact, no people. This old economic system led to great human suffering and environmental degredation. Today we are moving from the industrial to the post-industrial knowledge-information economy, and old economic policies and practices are savaging our natural environment. This makes the need for a more accurate and realistic economic map more urgent than ever before.
Old Economic Map
Only includes market, government, and illegal economies
New Economic Map
Also includes unpaid community, household, and natural economies
In The Real Wealth of Nations: Creating a Caring Economics (Berrett-Koehler, 2008), Riane Eisler proposes an economic map that includes all six of the sectors that actually compose economic systems:
- the household economy
- the unpaid community economy
- the market economy
- the illegal economy
- the government economy
- the natural economy.
Once we recognize all these economic sectors, we can envision a new theoretical framework for economics. This theoretical framework will not come together all at once. There will be many subsets of theories. But as the demand for more caring structures and rules grows worldwide, we can begin to revision economics in ways that support positive changes in economic policies and practices.
For more information, go to The Full Spectrum of Economic Sectors
