Greece sets me thinking! Can we have a perfect economic system? I don't think so; because our economic and political systems are closely linked to our human nature. If humans are perfect, most economic systems, as the social relations of institutions and people, would take on the attribute of flawlessness.
My thoughts on the economic crisis in Greece just buttressed the doubt I had in my early encounter with some theories of economics. I think economics is too obsessed with the creation of wealth. It is more about unlimited riches than scientific management of resources.
Economics always talk about finite productive resources but actually promotes an attitude of limitless production. In capitalist societies that practise market economy, the institutions and people behave in their relationship to productive resources as if wealth can be increased ad infinitum.
The attitude that the growth of wealth is unlimited is what makes me uncomfortable with economics as a social science. To me, the idea that production means or the market should be completely unregulated is a fodder for individualistic and selfish human nature. Our resources for now are limited to planet Earth, and we cannot borrow our way out of uncurtailed spending and misuse of resources!
To quote my friend Peg Dolan, 'It's only economists that can link limited resources and limitless wealth and make them look the same.'
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