If you don’t believe me, watch how people in this country drive their cars. How many of them are watching for you? That, my friends, is human instinct at work. It takes a very deep, concentrated effort to overcome those responses, an effort most people aren’t willing to make. If you want to see how fragile the idea of caring economics really is, shut down the electricity grid in this country for a couple of days. Men and women alike will be at each other's throats in no time.
The effort to reverse our primitive wiring is comparable to digging Mt. McKinley to ground level one teaspoon at a time. For now, compassionate economics will be limited to companies willing to share profits with workers in myriad ways, and in the micro-loan industry that has helped poverty-stricken families find a path towards self-sufficiency.
The unfortunate fact is humans haven’t evolved very much in the last 50,000 years. We’re only about three hairs away from our distant ancestors, and I don’t see us evolving very much in the near future. Unless Eisler can figure out a way to make mankind less ignorant and lazy, I’m afraid the utopia she writes of in The Real Wealth of Nations will remain a dream.
Article comments
1 - Nick J
Hi Larry, nice piece and good read. But too many books on wealth making stuff are out there. Most of them are not really original at all. These authors seem to lack a more global view anyway. One great book on the subject is this: China and the new world order: how entrepreneurship, globalization and borderless business are reshaping China and the world, written by a Chinese journalist named George Zhibin Gu. It is really eye-opening on current global business, economic and political affairs.
2 - Gomer Phelps
Hey Larry : I don't know why your so sure that peoples lousy driving proves were hard-wired for selfishness and inhumanity. I think much of this so called "evolutionary" hard-wiring is more like barbwiring and something that is promoted by the ruling classes to help them sleep better at night.
3 - Larry A. Sakin
Gomer,
For me, it isn't so much that it's 'lousy driving' as it is the competetive nature of some drivers. The rules don't apply to them, and they tend to be extremely impatient and woefully unaware of the rest of the drivers on the road. I think this is less the result of something promoted by the ruling classes and more the result of pure selfishness which seems to be the rule of the day. Until we can get past the American obsession with self, its unlikely the changes Eisler suggests will have much effect.