Gloria Steinem: Economic Rationalization
on Wednesday, April 27, 2011Money Quote saying Economics is all smoke and mirrors, justifications and rationalizations based on what matters most at the time to the most powerful participants with minor concessions to reason. Gloria Steinem said:
“Economic systems are not value-free columns of numbers based on rules of reason, but ways of expressing what varying societies believe is important” — Gloria Steinem
Gloria Steinem is saying that economic systems are not neutral or objective structures based purely on logic and data-driven rules. Rather, they reflect the underlying values and priorities of the societies that create them.
The best interpretation is that the specific models a culture adopts for matters like production, distribution and consumption reveal what that culture considers most meaningful or worthwhile.
Steinem’s quote suggests economics is as much about social and philosophical choices as it is numbers – the systems that emerge are shaped by a community’s shared sense of what truly matters, not detached formulas.
In this view, different economic approaches can be understood as expressions of differing worldviews and definitions of “the good life” among various peoples.