This is for me the book of the year. Tomáš Sedláček is a Czech economy professor and advisor of former Czech Republic president Václav Havel. Tomas Sedlacek unveils the underlying myths in our economy, like the necessity of growth and the unavoidable accumulation of debt in western democracies. The author first discovers 'economy' in the great myths of mankind, like the Epos of Gilgamesh and the Old Testament. It becomes clear that economy is not about the optimisation of mathematical formulas maximising economic 'utility', economy is about man and his human condition, about the eternal choice between good and evil.
This book is instructive because of the myths themselves and because of the critical view on economy as an 'exact' science. For me the most interesting parts were: the Epos of Gilgamesh itself, the lack of arbitration in the scientific community (creators and arbiters of truth are basically the same), the axis of good and evil (ranking philosophical views according to their moral view on 'utility'), and the "sabbath economics".
The author points out that Hebrew society considered the observation of the Sabbath as an obligation, not as a permission. Moreover, every seven years, the soil had to be left to rest and debt slaves were freed. Every 49 years, debts were forgiven and the land ownership changed. There was a kind of systemic reset in the economy, to release the internal pressure and to reduce the ever growing injustice in society. Is it a coincidence that we have a huge economic crisis now that we have had almost 70 years of peace in Europe, without one single organised "system reset"? It is time to organise a jubilee year for our economy !
See also my blog about generosity.
