A Loving Economy

“With the Amish, economy is not merely a function of community; the community and the economy are virtually the same.  We might, indeed, call an Amish community a loving economy, for it is based on the love of neighbors, of creatures, and of places.” (Wendell Berry, Home Economics)  This is from the book I finished before my current one; I had written down some blog ideas and never got around to writing them down.

So, what does a loving economy look like if it’s based on the love of neighbors, of creatures, and of places?  Would it look like any country’s economy as it stands now?  Of course not, at least not in my opinion.  This type of economy has to be smaller by definition.  To truly love someone means you must be in some type of proximity to that person.  A loving economy, therefore, requires a community that is place-based, in other words a neighborhood or farming community where people stay for a long while.

It is difficult to start new relationships whether they be romantic or friendships.  Either one takes time to build that type of capacity to truly love the other person.  Most of Steffani and I’s dating relationship and subsequent engagement took place across continents.  It was tough to be sure, but it gives us a little more gratitude now that we’re in the same place and really able to try and make something of ourselves so to speak.

How would an economy based on love work differently than an economy based on greed, as people often claim our current economy is?  Perhaps it would borrow language from the Bible about putting others’ needs ahead of our own.  Or maybe you don’t have to overthrow the entire system but learn how to use the current system in place to serve other people out of love.  There’s a new book out I’ve heard of called People Over Profits and I’d be curious to see if it explores the same type of idea.

Economies and economic systems aren’t evil things in and of themselves, but I believe they’re rather immoral.  Calling one system more evil than another misses the opportunity of that system to address people’s real needs.  It’s similar to money and personal finance.  Money makes a great slave and a terrible master.  If we can use our current economic models to love people why would we not do that?