The Miracle of Economic “Self-Care”
Democrats, and progressives more specifically, tend to like science. I like that about the party, and that movement. They say climate change is real, and accept the scientific consensus. Progressives are also good on science when it comes to coronavirus. It’s not a hoax. It has extracted an enormous human toll, especially in the US. They believe in the scientific research around mask wearing, helping people “keep their droplets to themselves.”
At many turns, progressives say “listen to the scientists” and “listen to the experts.” They tend not to understand people who willfully defy scientific consensus. Good. I like experts. And I like people who want to listen to facts, and to expert opinions.
But there’s a tendency for progressives to have a blind spot with “the dismal science” of economics. Elected Democrats broadly, for example Elizabeth Warren, are usually not guilty of this. Warren understands how economics works, she’s an academic in the field, and written books on the subject. Whether the public policies she puts out for political consumption are economically sound is a different discussion, but I take it on good faith she understands/accepts the fundamentals.
That does not seem to be the case with the progressive base. Economics is an established discipline with rigor and heft — based on decades of real world and academic study. It’s based on observable, measurable facts and data. That is why it has such influence on policy making.
But to be fair, there are central tenets of economics that are counter-intuitive/easily misunderstood — especially if you choose to misunderstand them. When people look after themselves, they benefit the community around them. And I’ll talk about this in terms of jobs since most people understand and appreciate jobs. Jobs empower people, give them dignity and financial independence.
While I may be community minded, and want to help people, I don’t do my job solely because I want to help other people — I do it in no small part because I get paid. But because I’m looking after myself in that respect, the company I work for gets the benefit of what I do — they would be worse off without me. My colleagues benefit from what I do — they need and want someone with my skills to work with. The consumers who buy my company’s services benefit — what I do helps them. The people I buy goods and services from with my salary benefit — I place value on what I spend my money on, and appreciate the people who make them available to me. There is a virtuous circle that comes from my taking care of myself that goes far beyond the benefits I personally enjoy.
I want to take a moment to revel in that, because it is a tiny miracle. That you can do good without intending to do good — simply by looking out for yourself. If you want to do additional good beyond that, good for you — go do it. But this is about the core economic principle of how an economy functions — not about the kind of person you are. It’s a discussion of observable reality, rather than “values” per se.
If I think about this in personal terms, people who take care of themselves tend to be better for the people around them. When I’m happy and healthy, my spouse is happier having me around, my friends are more likely to want to be around me, my colleagues like working with me better, customer service people want less to strangle and murder me. When I take care of myself, everyone around me tends to benefit. I don’t primarily look after myself to benefit other people — I do it because I want to be happy and healthy — but other people certainly benefit too.
It is that tiny miracle at the center of economic activity that I would like to put forward to progressives as a baseline of scientific, observable, provable fact. We can disagree about policy. But let’s be clear on what the facts are first.
Progressives rightly wonder why people deny facts — and they should hold themselves to the same standard. Just as we agree that climate change is happening, and we agree that Covid 19 is real, we should be able to agree that fundamental economic principles are active in the world around us.
Specifically that a fantastic amount of community good comes out of people simply being able to look after themselves. And that without the ability for people to look after themselves, a huge amount of community good would not exist.
None of this means people who look after themselves are selfish, or only interested in themselves. It doesn’t mean people are only motivated by what is good for them. People are complicated and can hold *seemingly* contradictory ideas in their head. This is not even that difficult to reconcile— most people need to be able to take care of themselves first, before they can effectively take care of other people.
