- Apr 12, 2011
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Poeple like to say that the difference between human and non-human animals is that humans make things and animals tend not to. It seems to me that humans by their very nature are beings that produce, distribute, and consume goods and services. Asking what's the purpose of these basic human activities is like asking what's the purpose of the human race....Definition of an Economy... ...human activities concerned with the production, distribution, and consumption of goods and services...
I'm guessing that Douglas really wasn't concerned with the purpose of humankind, but was actually more interested in identifying priorities of economic policy. I'm also guessing that somehow these priorities favored people working in the labor markets over people in other markets such as capital, commodity, consumer, etc. The reason I'm guessing is because Douglas and his followers don't seem to have been clear enough in their thinking to actually say what they meant.