Economy or Economies?

When a Congressional candidate is worried about THE ECONOMY and has suggestions on how to fix "it", put your vote elsewhere. That person does not understand economies. That person likely believes that there is only a single, national economy. That is a false representation of how economies work.

Reality is that there are at least as many economies as there are people. The average economies of the people in a city or county will determine what people will call the city's economy, or the county's economy. Likewise the label "economy" might be applied to the state and national levels. But most important in this is to recognize that economies are between people... not between cities, counties, states, or even nations.

It is PEOPLE who buy things. People make things, people sell things. People buy your service — whether as a factory worker, teacher, doctor, or baker. Workers, teachers, doctors and bakers sell their services. Whatever means of barter the community uses. Let's just make up a new currency and we'll use the label "Dahlurz". So when I have finished selling my services as a baker and in exchange I receive some amount of Dahlurz, then I can go enter the doctors office and spend some of my Dahlurz for medical advice or services. That's two different economies that both involve me... me as the agent selling my services as a baker, and me as the customer buying the services of the doctor.

So in a town of one hundred people, all of whom are selling their services in one way or another, it is possible for each person to have ninety-nine distinct economies with each other person. That's nine-hundred-and-ninety economies just in one town of one hundred people. If family members of the one hundred workers are allowed to use their Dahlurz to purchase items and services then that number grows even greater; but just to keep things simple, we'll stick to the idea that economies exist between people providing services directly to each other.

Cashiers are selling their services to the store manager/owner. The products that a cashier is selling are the results of other people's service in planting and harvesting materials, combining ingredients, generating containers, filling them with finished products, and transporting them to the store. Each service might be provided by a different person, or in fact, by multiple different people... all selling their services.

So what happens to this notion of sharing and trading our services with each other if we impose a Socialistic economy over it. If I no longer attain compensation for my services, then my logical recourse is to stop providing the service. If my compensation does not vary with my skill or dedication to providing the service, then there is no motivation for excellence. If all services are compensated equally — regardless of how much effort, skill, or knowledge is required to perform them — then people will vacate the harder tasks and migrate toward the easier ones. If someone else dictates the service that each person provides, then there is no motivation to innovate or stretch the boundaries of possibilities. Creativity dies. Motivation dies. Cooperation dies. Humanity dies. Society dies.

When elitists attempt to pull economies into a centralized and singular model, they are in fact destroying the economies that occur naturally between people. Understand the reality of personal economies and you will destroy the myth of a "National Economy".