Political Roots of Economic Crisis

Abstract

The roots of the current crisis in economics must be found in politics rather than economics. The world of economics is in fact divided according to political lines: Individualists v. Collectivists; Capitalists v. Socialist/Communists; believers in The Market v. believers in The Government. This divide is very old. It was created by John Locke’s pursuit of the justice of property rights. Socialists and Karl Marx insisted on the injustice of property rights.The brightest minds of many ages have been unable to resolve the crisis. Why hope in future solutions along these lines? This paper looks at what existed before John Locke, finds there the ancient but fertile field of economic justice, and with the help of Concordian economics completes the structure of economic justice by adding to it the plank of participative justice. The Theory of Economic Justice becomes very concrete by applying it to the four factors of (modern) production and recognizing, accordingly, four economic rights, which are indissolubly tied to four economic responsibilities. These four fields, going forward, give rise to four Concordian policies, namely fiscal policies, labor policies, monetary policies, and industrial policies. It is by implementing these four policies that the current crisis will be resolved. Accordingly, the world will be unified along the arc of Individualists, Collectivists, and Somists (men and women in the social context) as well as Capitalists, Socialists, and Concordians.