The economy is not abstract: it is a thing that measures how we produce and provide things. It has a big impact on our lives – we need to be conscious of this.
We often think of the economy as fixed / unchangeable – it’s not. It’s been created by humans and can be recreated to prioritise different things.
We often think of the economy as a ‘spreadsheet in the sky’. We’ve created the rules around flows of money and growth of these flows and are hope that it will improve people’s lives.
A Wellbeing Economy would make people’s lives the first consideration or goal of the economy. A spreadsheet counting flows of money may or may not be part of that.
The market was designed with a certain logic / algorithm. This needs to be regulated and maintained – it is a political project. By changing the goals of our policies, we can change the design of our economy.
Our three key messages to combat this idea that there is no alternative to the current economic system:
Thousands of alternatives exist
It’s in our power to design economies differently
Economies should have human & environmental wellbeing as their goal